Brian Kirkley recalled when the carbon monoxide detector in his apartment began beeping continuously through the night. His realtor, Paul Smith, inserted his hearing aids and answered Kirkley’s phone call at the ungodly hour.

“They said they would come replace the detector first thing in the morning,” said Kirkley, senior in Business. “(Smith) asked me if I wanted to come sleep over at his apartment until it was fixed.”

Leasing season began in October and typically ends around the last few days of December or early January. A quality most students search for in an apartment is a good landlord. For more than 50 years, Paul Smith of Smith Apartments has been in the real-estate business and his family says he knows how to treat his tenants well.

“I’m going to show apartments until I die,” Smith said with a smile.

He already has planned for his daughter Christine Gunther to take over, if that ever happens.

One would imagine that being one of the first realtors in the Champaign area, plus building 12 apartments, would make Smith known throughout the community.

On the contrary, said Esther Patt of the tenant union office. Most students seem to think the bigger real-estate agencies, such as Campus Property Management, Bankier and University Group are superior because their names are advertised more frequently.

“I hate to see a realtor who’s small sell their property to someone who’s bad just because they’re big,” Patt said.

Smith began remodeling apartments in 1958 and saw almost every single real-estate agency open their doors for business. Patt said she believes these new real-estate agencies provide more housing options for students, but aren’t necessarily better than the smaller agencies.

“Many students seem to believe bigger real estate agencies are more organized and put together,” Patt said. “I can think of so many examples of why that is not true.”

Patt said what students look most for in an apartment is the location and she urges them to be cautious in signing a lease. If a student signs for an apartment with a bad landlord, there is a 99.8 percent chance they can’t get out of the lease, she said.

“Some of the landlords are rotten people and won’t come fix something for three months,” Patt said.

Kirkley works for the tenant union as well and said he met Smith through his job and had only good interactions with him before signing.

“For some of these bigger real-estate agencies, it seems like you’re a low priority,” Kirkley said. “With Smith Apartments it’s like you’re the only person they deal with, but with others it’s like you’re just another tenant.”

Each student who leases Smith’s Apartments is subject to him stopping by for occasional visits.

“Paul is a very social person; he loves being with people,” Smith’s wife Ruth said.

Smith enjoys walking from his office in Urbana to various lessees’ apartments. Even at the age of 87, Smith fixes laundry machines, ovens, toilets, you name it.

“Sometimes I have to pay $160-170 to clean the student apartments. They’re kids and they all drink too much,” Smith said jokingly, adding that he used to do the same when he was their age.

Smith said he was not worried about other realtors taking his business and that his buildings aren’t going to go anywhere. The fact that almost all of his apartments are leased every year gives Smith room to gloat.

“If you have what the people want, they take it,” Smith said. “I’m more interested in the people than the money, and I treat people fairly. I think that’s what a lot of these other realtors are missing.”

Smith admits that the wants and needs of students living in the Champaign-Urbana area have changed a lot over time and a lot of the newer realtors know how to cater well to their desires. However, he feels confident that his business will continue to thrive.

“I remodeled my first apartment before most of these realtors were born,” Smith said with a laugh.