The Jacobs Group is comprised of a small team of very experienced Property Management Software professionals all willing to go the extra mile for our clients. When you need real estate consulting services, we are there to assist you. Contact us today to learn more about our comprehensive list of services.
Our Team
Leadership
Meet Our Property Management Software Professionals
President
Chris Jacobs
Beginning his journey back in 1987, Chris only spent a year working for a short-term vacation company in San Diego before being promoted to Reservation Manager. In 1990, Chris moved to Vancouver and worked for a property management company that specializes in government-managed housing and condos. Four years later, he was promoted to management–overseeing the department and five other condo property managers. It was during this time that he was first introduced to Yardi.
Working for one of the first companies to use Yardi for Windows (vs. DOS), and dealing with Mr. Yardi himself during the implementation process, Chris quickly found a love for the system. In 1997, he moved to Toronto before being hired by Yardi to be one of their implementation specialists in their new Canadian office in 1998. This was a dream job for him as he loved computers, software, and the property management industry. A year later, while working on a big Yardi project with a co-worker from the head office in Santa Barbara, Chris decided he wanted to be where the action was and found himself California bound.
Chris was familiar with the core Yardi accounting and property management program and all of the modules used by Canadian clients, but not the US affordable housing module. Wanting to enhance his knowledge, he jumped into learning this module. It paid off for him in many ways, especially by providing him with the opportunity to travel the country and work with many amazing clients that provided homes to those less fortunate.
In 2003, because of his excellent client relationship and project management skills, Chris was promoted to the position of Project Coordinator. This allowed him to work with the implementation specialists, trainers, professional services teams, account managers, and others at Yardi to ensure successful projects for his clients.
Throughout his time with Yardi, Chris was the “go-to” guy who Yardi would send on-site when a client was having a lot of difficulties, really upset, or ready to cancel their relationship with Yardi. About 90% of the time, Chris was successful in figuring out the issues and getting things resolved.
In 2004, Chris made the difficult decision to leave Yardi to start his own consulting firm. Yardi was the best company he had ever worked for, but he knew that he had to branch out on his own.
Director of Client Services
Todd Bowers
With more than 35 years of experience in the property management industry, Todd is an excellent addition to the Jacobs Groups. He started his career as an IT professional with one of the largest affordable property management, construction, and development organizations in the Midwest–eventually working his way up to a VP position.
During his tenure as vice president of information management, he worked to maximize the use of technology in all areas of the organization. He did this by implementing and managing multiple different software platforms including, but not limited to: Yardi, RealPage, MRI, and iCam.
Todd also worked as a senior member of the team responsible for creating and implementing the compliance department to ensure adherence to policies, procedures, and regulatory compliance for LIHTC, HUD, and rural housing programs. After his time there, Yardi Voyager and its associated modules served as the primary software platform for the construction, property management, development, and asset management groups.
Todd then turned his attention to becoming an independent Yardi consultant to re-implement a previously failed conversion from Timberline/iCam to Yardi. As part of this engagement, he performed a complete process review, which resulted in using Yardi as a “single source” solution to ensure compliance and adherence to affordable and fair housing regulations.
Upon completion of the Yardi implementation engagement, Todd joined the organization as director of operations. During this time, he not only oversaw Yardi’s software but all aspects of the company’s organization. He held the position until joining the Jacobs Group in 2019.
Senior Software Consultant
Kristina Bowers
Starting her property management career in 2010 as a community manager for a large company in Columbus, OH, Kris was able to gain an invaluable working knowledge of rural development, market rate, tax credit, and Section 8 property management.
After being promoted to guide and train new associates, she was asked to join the compliance department, where she assisted in the implementation of Yardi Energy Solutions (YES), Utility Billing System, and Yardi Voyager LIHTC Compliance Functions. She also helped with loading the TICS and setting up and maintaining income limits, maximum allowable rents, and utility allowances.
The next step in Kris’ career took her to become an independent compliance and Yardi consultant. This allowed her to assist clients with Yardi software conversions and implementations. She also acted as a compliance officer by training associates on regulatory issues and Yardi processes.
After two years as an independent consultant, Kris joined the Jacobs Group in 2018. She has been an enormous asset for our multifamily clients, and one of her primary responsibilities is working with the housing authority on their PBRA-RAD conversions, including the interaction between Yardi and TRACS and HAP vouchering.
Director of Custom Solutions
Steve Thompson
With more than 30 years of software development experience, Steve has managed and worked through all phases of the software development life–including analyzing data, providing solutions for data migration, and custom report writing for Yardi projects. Some of the different projects he has worked on throughout the years include:
- Identifying and resolving Yardi-related issues for public housing, affordable housing, and Section 8 housing.
- Providing banking integration guidance and system-level documentation.
- Developing several custom reports to validate PBV-related information between section 8 and rent collection properties in Yardi.
- Creating custom reports in Yardi Script, Yardi Scripting Reporting (YSR), Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS), Yardi Launch Excel, and Crystal Reports
- Written absorption reports, custom check formatting, lease statements, work orders, custom property lists, user monitor reports, vendor reports, loan reports, financial reports, accounts payable reports, and investment/owner reports.
- Designed, created, and managed a team to build a data warehouse to consolidate several Yardi databases along with a Timberline database. This project required building a data structure to support the combined data as well as a mechanism to move the data from the originating source to the consolidated database. New tools were created to map the chart of accounts from all incoming sources. This helped him gain a deep understanding of the Yardi database schema.