With three kids ranging in age from 4 to 8 years old, and a seemingly never-ending struggle to juggle home and work, Brianne Schmidke recently stepped away from the corporate world to establish a new business which she says is designed to “share my desire to push the ‘pause’ button and enjoy more meaningful time.”
The result is her creation of Properti Home Concierge. Her new enterprise offers non-rental home management with a focus on Home Watch and Lifestyle Concierge services for vacation homeowners in Southwest Michigan and Northwest Indiana. Because we are not a broker, however, they do not find tenants or handle leasing arrangements.
Brianne’s husband, Joshua Schmidke owns and operates Schmidke Construction and Contracting, which is a growing business enterprise in its own right. Striving to find more ways for family time, about a year and a half ago the couple invested in a lake cottage just east of Kalamazoo to make memories and spend family time there. However, she says, “The cottage ‘chores’ and errands filled up our weekends!” That, in turn, spurred an idea for what she now calls Properti Home Concierge.
Looking at her service lineup, prospective clients will tend to wonder, where does Home Watch end and Concierge service begin? She says, “Home Watch is defined as a visual inspection of a home or property, looking for obvious issues, and it’s very common in vacation areas like the Florida panhandle and in other coastal regions. Home Watch covers routine visits with a set checklist for homeowners who are away.” Those who are interested in delivery of a consistent high level of care and upkeep can then add-on Concierge services, which fall into these categories:
- Subcontractor Coordination
- Seasonal Preparation
- Ongoing Maintenance
- Emergency Liaison
- Experience Management
- Personal Assistance
Properti serves second home clients (such as vacation homes and family estates) and primary residences for snow birds.
Brianne says that what sets her team apart from those offering similar services are three things:
- While others may focus on renters, we are obsessed with the homeowner and giving them back meaningful time…
- Unique combination of hospitality and custom home building experience between me and Joshua plus the team at Schmidke Construction and Contracting…
- Established base of knowledge and experience with reputable service providers and subcontractors based in this area…
Brianne grew up in Michigan’s Great Southwest and graduated from St Joseph High School in 1998. Following high school, she moved to Grand Rapids where she lived, went to college, and worked for ten years.
After graduating from Grand Valley State University with a bachelor’s degree in hospitality and tourism management, she worked in sales and marketing for hotels in Grand Rapids from limited service to luxury properties including being on the opening team for the JW Marriott as sales manager in 2007. She moved back home to the area in 2010 just before she and Joshua got married.
Joshua also grew up here and they’ve known one another their entire lives but never dated until much later in life. He graduated from Lakeshore in 1998. Their fathers were buddies in high school and then became each other’s best man when they each got married. Even their grandfathers were friends because of the kids’ friendship and often hunted and fished together.
Once back home in Southwest Michigan Brianne was able to put her hospitality and sales & marketing backgrounds to use with Whirlpool, and both The Golf Club and Inn at Harbor Shores. She played key roles in activating sponsorships of food and wine festivals across the country and launching the sponsorship of the first Senior PGA Championships presented by Kitchenaid and then hosting golfers, chefs and visitors here in the region.
She says, “My family was young and growing so when the opportunity came to continue to use my marketing background but enter a new industry with more set hours and less travel, I jumped, and grew with United Federal Credit Union leading the marketing team through its exciting new branch openings and mergers/acquisitions across six states over the last three years.
Her husband began Schmidke Construction and Contracting in 2001 and specializes in building custom homes along the Lake Michigan shoreline. Together, they now own Properti Home Concierge and Brianne manages the business as Chief Experience Officer.
You can learn more about her new enterprise by clicking this link: http://PropertiHC.com
