Kurstie Butcher has been in the property management industry since 2013. She originally started her career in College Station, Texas after moving away from her hometown of Haughton, Louisiana. In College Station she managed multiple student housing communities and later a multifamily community in the greater Houston, Texas area. In 2018, Kurstie moved to Illinois and was hired as a property manager for Draper and Kramer in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago.
She quickly obtained her Illinois Brokers license in 2019 and then became a member of Chicago IREM chapter in 2020. Despite 2020 being a challenging year due to the COVID-19 pandemic Kurstie obtained her ARM virtually, in addition to being consistently in line with the property budget. She was able to maintain high occupancy averaging 96% for the year and a 55% renewal percentage.
During 2020 Draper and Kramer created an internal Diversity and Inclusion program for the employees. Kurstie quickly became one of the few founding members and has brought many ideas to the table on ways that Draper and Kramer can show support for the very diverse range of employees that they have.
Kurstie is also part of the internal DK Elevate team. She was nominated by her department head and selected by the company’s executive team to be one of the 9 members this year. DK Elevate is a program designed for high performing employees who demonstrate leadership attributes consistent with the values of the company. Ultimately, as a participant, Kurstie will conclude the program within 12- 18 months with a greater understanding of her strengths, how to leverage them, and how to impact team culture and a stronger internal Network at Draper and Kramer.
As part of DK Elevate, Kurstie was given the opportunity to express her thoughts and desires in her future career goals. From that conversation she was able to assist in developing a new role within Draper and Kramer that she was later hired for in early 2021. She now has the role of floating property manager. In this role, she will be a resource for the site level employees with support tickets, she will train new and old site staff, and as needed, she will act as a “floating” manager when the onsite managers cannot be on site due to leave of absence, vacation, etc.