Sports has its Olympic Games, Super Bowls and World Series. The nation’s top apartment maintenance professionals show their prowess in Maintenance Mania, a skills contest won this year by Lannon Quintana at the National Apartment Association’s annual convention.
Quintana, who works in the Denver office of Chicago-based property management firm Waterton Residential, prevailed over 19 other finalists who advanced from a pool of thousands in the trade group’s annual competition. Participants had to tackle several maintenance challenges that tested their skills and knowledge.
This is the second national championship won by Quintana, who took home nearly $20,000 in prize money courtesy of conference sponsors. Quintana bested second-place finisher Justin Heenan of Mayroad in Wichita, Kansas, and third-place finisher Jacob Paff of Village Green in Cincinnati. Paff won Maintenance Mania at the 2022 NAA show in San Diego.
Quintana earned the title of world’s fastest maintenance technician at Apartmentalize, the NAA's national gathering, held this year in Atlanta. Contestants competed in multiple timed installation challenges involving water heaters, refrigerator icemakers, door locks, drains and carbon monoxide detectors, and they raced repair carts.
“Maintenance professionals are the unsung heroes of the rental housing industry,” NAA CEO Bob Pinnegar said in a statement. “These are the people who keep apartment buildings running.”