Warren Blackmore’s family has lived in Miami since the 1920s when his grandfather moved with his family from St. Louis MO. Warrens grandfather started a real estate business by building three shopping plazas in the early 1940s. Those shopping plazas are still operational today, having seen major renovations and upgrades.
Warren’s father inherited the business from his father in 1983 after Warren’s grandfather died. Warren’s dad quickly expanded the business to include two medical arts buildings and five additional shopping plazas throughout Miami-Dade and Broward counties. When Warren’s dad became incapacitated with Parkinson’s disease in the late 1990’s Warren and his younger brother Mark took control of the business. Up until that time, the Blackmore family real estate business, Blackmore Properties, Inc., was solely involved in commercial real estate. To say that Blackmore Properties was successful is a mild understatement. Under Warren’s leadership, the first ten years of the 2000’s saw major expansions in Blackmore Properties when they bought and developed at 10-acre plot of land anchored by Publix Supermarkets. This Plaza became the crown jewel of Blackmore Properties.
During the economic downturn in early 2010, Warren saw an opportunity to expand the family business into residential real estate and he steadily bought over forty homes between Miami-Dade and Broward counties. These homes were bought at a bargain since they were all under foreclosure and he got them at below market prices. Warren and his brother renovated the homes and made them ready for the rental market. With this new business venture, the brothers decided to reorganize their real estate business and created a new holding company, Blackmore Holdings, Inc., under which Blackmore Properties and the newly formed Blackmore Residences, LLC would operate. Blackmore Properties was now the commercial arm of Blackmore Holdings and Blackmore Residences, the residential arm. The current average market value of the forty-two homes owned by Blackmore Residences ranges from $650,000 to over $2.5 million. Combined, all forty-two homes have a market value of more than $55 million. Blackmore Residences employs an Operations Manager, and two property managers who report to the Operations Manager. The Operations Manager overseas the entire operations of Blackmore Residences, while the property managers oversee the maintenance and upkeep of all forty-two properties.
Recently, Mark Blackmore came up with the idea of converting some of the residential units into short term rental units to take advantage of what he determined to be a huge demand for prime residences in the Airbnb and VRBO short term rental space. Warren was intrigued, and the brothers hired a short-term rental consultant to help them navigate the possibility of converting some of the properties into Airbnb and VRBO properties. The consultant identified twenty-four of their properties all of which were within 15 to 30 minutes of downtown Miami, Miami Beach and the Las Olas strip in Broward County. These, she said, were prime vacation properties because of their proximity to desirable vacation attractions and the beaches. She further anticipated that these properties would conservatively triple current monthly revenue being generated through long term rental. However, there was a downside. There would be increased operating costs including licensing, upkeep and personnel. The brothers decided to do a proof-of-concept and tested six of the properties on both Airbnb and VRBO in the slower months between August and November. They found that their properties were constantly in demand and generated monthly revenues 2½ times more than what those units generated as long term rentals. This market test proved to the brothers that short term rentals could be a strong revenue generator.
Warren and Mark have since completed the process of converting twenty-four of their residential units into short term vacation units. They are fully furnished, have all the necessary licensing, and are ready to be listed. A new company was formed to manage these short-term rental units, Blackmore Vacation Hosting, LLC. Within the next three months the brothers will need to hire staff for this new venture. (Blackmore Residences will keep their current staff to manage the remaining residential units)
This company will operate twenty-four properties and will be managed by Mark. To help ramp this operation up to scale quickly, the brothers decided to hire a human resource consulting firm to help them with staffing, including determining the kind of staff to hire, how many, their job descriptions, and pay structures. They have settled on your company to help them through this process, and your task Is to create and hire the necessary positions to make Blackmore Vacation Hosting a premier customer-friendly vacation business that uses the Airbnb and VRBO platforms, and to ensure all of their properties are maintained at the highest standards to represent five-star quality Blackmore Vacation Hosting is positioned to become.
Assignment Instructions:
Mark Blackmore will be the CEO and you are responsible for hiring property managers, maintenance staff, booking agents/hosts and any other positions you believe will help the company achieve its market objectives. You are to fill a staff roster while ensuring that total compensation, benefits and incentives where necessary, worker’s compensation, and payroll taxes all fit within the budget for personnel the brothers have set aside.
Based on market analysis and expected demand, Blackmore Vacation Hosting projects average occupancy to be 220 to 250 days per year, per unit, and total revenue generated by the initial twenty-four properties at $3,215,000 annually. The Blackmores expect to spend no more than thirty-five percent of annual revenues on personnel cost.
For each job, use the following template for your deliverable.
Job Name
Job Purpose
Job Specification
Job Description
Key Compensable Factors
Salary Range
Job Category (Exempt/Non-Exempt)
Number of Positions
Eligible Benefits
Your final report will include the templates for each job, a table listing the total compensation for each job, expected cost of benefits, payroll taxes, worker’s compensation, unemployment insurance, etc., and total personnel cost overall. Include in your report the sourcing for your templates and a narrative describing the process that led you to your recommendation to the Blackmore brothers.