Team Spotlight: Kevin Kelly
At Howzer, our success is built on the dedication and talent of our incredible team. In this special feature, we're putting the spotlight on one of our outstanding team members—diving into their journey, skills, and the unique contributions they bring to our company. From their professional expertise to what inspires them every day, this is your chance to get a behind-the-scenes look at the people who make Howzer extraordinary. This month, the spotlight is on Kevin Kelly, our Director of Operations.
From Valued Client to Essential Team Member: The Journey to Howzer
As a South Shore native, Kevin grew up in Hanson, MA and graduated from Massachusetts Maritime Academy in 2017, majoring in Facilities Engineering. Kevin spent his first year out of college in upstate NY working in operations at a nuclear power plant. After a year away, Kevin returned back home where he continued his engineering career in Boston as a Commissioning and Energy Engineer.
During that time, Kevin took an interest in the real estate industry, obtained his real estate license, and bought his first investment property in 2019 in Charleston, SC followed by a local investment here on the South Shore in 2020.
“Although I enjoyed my engineering career at the time, I wanted to build wealth outside of my W2 job and traditional retirement routes, with the ultimate goal of obtaining financial freedom through real estate. Almost every wealthy person I knew owned real estate so I knew I needed to take action and get in the game”.
Kevin spent several years outside of his engineering job building up his network in the real estate industry and worked with some of the largest investors on the south shore. Between analyzing deals, renting out investor units, and helping his circle of friends purchase investment properties, he had a firm grasp on the south shore market.
What he didn’t have interest in at the time, was managing his own properties. During his research of property management companies on the South Shore, he came across Casey Howe and Howzer Property Management.
“I wanted to treat my investment properties as a business from day one, and not buy myself into another job. The goal was to be as passive as possible. I interviewed several property management companies and found Howzer Property Management to stand out from the rest. Casey and his team were quick with their responses and allowed flexibility to tailor the client experience to what I wanted. I could also tell Casey was extremely enthusiastic about growing his company, so I was looking forward to growing my investment portfolio alongside his company”.
In 2021, an opportunity came up for Kevin to transition out of the engineering field and into real estate full time at which point he joined an owner-operated investment company as a property manager for a newly acquired portfolio on the south shore.
“Like any big career move, I was nervous for the change, especially leaving the field I went to college for. But I knew my passion was in the real estate industry”.
Over the next two years, Casey and Kevin kept in touch and collaborated on how things were going with each of their roles at their respective companies. As Howzer Property Management grew, an opportunity came up within the company which naturally led towards Kevin joining Howzer in November of 2022.
“The dialog started as just casual conversations between the two of us, which then progressed into outlooks of where we wanted our careers to go. Casey had a strong background in leadership and sales which was what he wanted to put his energy into while my background focused heavily on operations. So it seemed like the perfect fit for me to come on board and run the operations while Casey could focus on growth of the company and building the team".
The Evolution of Kevin’s Role
As Howzer continued to grow throughout 2022-2023, Kevin worked on further improving our leasing and maintenance processes to better fit our client’s needs while overseeing the day to day operations.
In 2023-2024, Howzer made two significant moves within the company. First was the decision to bring maintenance in-house.
“As labor costs skyrocketed over the past few years, we wanted more control over both maintenance costs to our clients and the quality of work being done. We saw this as a win-win as our clients got a better overall service and we got another source of revenue within the company. Our maintenance technicians have become the face of our company in the field. Each member plays a pivotal role within our company’s operations. I’m proud of the team we’ve built so far and am excited to continue to expand on our services to better service our clients”.
Second was the hiring of Howzer’s Director of Leasing and Compliance, Amanda Lauzon who joined the team in 2024 with 15+ years of property management experience. Amanda took over management of the leasing, legal, and compliance sectors of the company while Kevin’s responsibilities shifted towards growing and managing the operations team.
“The addition of Amanda has played a major part in our ability to grow as a company over the past year. She’s brought industry knowledge that’s been imperative to the success of that growth. We continuously bounce ideas off of each other and compliment each other’s strengths and weaknesses well, giving us the ability to handle just about anything thrown at us in the property management space. We make a great team.”
Bringing the Client Perspective
Since joining our team over two years ago, Kevin’s transformed many aspects of the company with his unique perspective as being both a client / real estate investor himself, and an employee of the company.
"Being on both sides gives me a unique perspective," Kevin explains. “With being a client well before becoming an employee, I know what I’m looking for from a property management company, both from a more active role and from a passive role. So bringing that thought process to our company and reverse engineering our operations to fit those needs has been helpful to our client’s success”.
Beyond the Office
Outside of the office, Kevin enjoys staying active. Some of his hobbies include golfing, hiking, getting a good workout in, traveling to new places, and being around his friends and family as much as possible. He’s also always out looking for his next real estate investment!
Quick Facts
- Position: Director of Operations
- Joined Howzer: November 2022
- Background: 8+ years in Property / Facilities Management
- Favorite Part of the Job: Improving client’s P&Ls
- Hidden Talent: Competed in 4H growing up, and spent a lot of my childhood on a farm.