Touch up paint for the entry? The deposit will cover it. Tub needs new caulking? The deposit will cover it. The carpet is 7 years old and it's looking terrible from all that daily wear and tear. It's going to need to be replaced... the deposit... Hmm. The unit is sitting empty for 10 days, 20 days, 30 days. The deposit?

It has not been that long ago that conventional wisdom said that turnover was not a bad thing. In fact, it was a good thing because more often than not, the unit could be re-rented for a higher monthly rate.  It's time to take a closer look at that "old wives' tale" and examine the facts, and not just because the economy has been challenging. It's time to take a closer look because often, I believe, our industry may not be looking at the whole picture when it comes to true turnover costs.

The other day, I was on my own to set up our trade show booth at the New Jersey Apartment Association conference. Our trade show gear consists of a giant rolling trade show booth carrier and an oversized rolling suitcase. Any normal human being would have taken two trips to bring everything in, but since it was physically possible to roll both at the same time, you know I didn't take that option.

What amazed me was how smoothly everything went. Every time I reached a door, someone was magically there to open it for me. By the time I pulled the booth frame out of its case, Doug Berger magically appeared to help me out. I was grateful, and we had everything set up in record time. Then, when someone came up to me looking for tape, I was happy to share mine and continue the virtuous cycle of giving.

I was overburdened and the universe conspired in my favor, which it always seems to do. It's truly reassuring when people reach out to help when they see you are struggling.

Somehow, kindness doesn't flow as consistently on a day-to-day basis. It seems as though we're all too busy to look around and see the small things around us. But the reality is that the bulk of relationship building with residents, business associates, colleagues, and loved ones happens on the uneventful days when nothing is happening.

The world would be a better place if we took the same time it takes to make one Twitter and Facebook post to do something nice for someone in the physical world. So why not take the 7-Day Social Networking Challenge? For 7 days, try to find an opportunity during your physical interactions with others to do something nice for someone that takes three minutes or less. There are plenty of opportunities to help if you look for them—even just saying something nice to someone counts.

Building relationships using online social networking tools is fun and potentially profitable, but it’s important that we don't get so plugged into the virtual world that we forget the real world around us.

Apartment community living has long been viewed as the ugly stepchild when it comes to a choice for a home.  And it really shouldn’t come as a surprise as we have been on the losing end of one of the most effective, widespread “marketing” campaigns ever:  The American Dream.  Home ownership has always symbolized financial success and freedom, even being the requirement to vote in many societies!  Home ownership is also directly subsidized by our government through tax write-offs for mortgage interest – how are we to compete?

To a large extent, the multifamily industry has basically accepted its second tier status, even congratulating our residents when they choose to buy a home!  We can’t change (without some magic lobbying) the role the government plays in this, but my competitive spirit is driven crazy by this attitude that we can’t at least try to fight back!  But even in our own industry, I sense that people have no idea how we could possibly change the perception of apartment home living.  But there are actually countless examples of industries that you would never categorize as cool or chic that modify the public perception of them.  Answer this:  What is the other white meat?  I bet you know!  And the “Got Milk?” campaign has been one of the most successful ever.  Even recently, Toyota somehow made the minivan cool with their Swagger Wagon video:

Apparently, pork, milk, and minivans aren’t so horrible, after all!

                           AND ANOTHER THING could be the segue way to a new practice, an explanation of a customer benefit or service.....

Recently I opened a business account in a new bank; a month later the bank was purchased by another banking company..

It was all-too apparent that Bank A and Bank B had very different policies and practices. For example, Bank A offerred on-line registration for business banking on-line services. You just get on the site and sign up, create a password, you know the routine.

Bank B required that  a notorized request (on their form) be mailed to them to request the service, (in snail mail) and in order to clear you for on-line banking privelages. They  sent the password back in snail mail. The whole process took two(2) weeks.

My first reaction was; "I better find another bank, Bank B must be in the dark ages if you cannot do all of these things on line in ten or twenty minutes." There were a lot of other things that just did not sit right with me; generally there was a lot of confusion about banking procedures and I was asked to "Come Back" or  "Call Back" another day when representatives could not answer simple questions; (who has time to come back or call back --they have to be kidding)

I decided to go speak to the Regional Manager of Bank B, to express my concerns about their practices and let him know that I was thinking of closing my account.

When I did this, the whole situation turned around. I learned the benefits to their security arrangements, how I could set up low interest accounts, and a boat load of other practices and real benefits were explained to me. I also found out that 35% of the bank was owned by the employees and that everyone really cared about customer service as they had a vested interest. They assigned me a personal business advisor, helped me set up some of my own financial business practices, all at no cost!

The moral of the story (according to the Regional Manager of Bank B). "A lot of our banking associates on the front line just aren't communicating these banking benefits  to customers.
They came from Bank A and are having difficulty adjusting to Bank B."

He explained to me that they would devote more time to training the tellers and customer service reps about the new company and thanked me for taking the time to seek him out.
(I suggested a simple, well written pamphlet outlining some of the different benefits of Bank B as they were explained to me. I suggested that this could be introduced at the point of contact by the teller when a customer comes to make a deposit or withdrawal.) I also offerred to create the pamphlet for them, (but that is another story).

Use whatever method you want to help educate your customer about your service.
If you find your self being managed by a new company, there may be some new practices that the customers should know about. Often at the point of contact, when you deal with a customer face to face on any issue, this could be the best time for you to tell them "another thing" about the new practices and services that will benefit them.

This could be one way to avoid confusion and keep residents from leaving you to lease at another community.

Did I give the Regional Manager good advice?  What do you think? What else could have been done or said? Has anyone else ever had an experience like this?

I think their is a huge opportunity to help out other local businesses and partner with them for a summer theme.  What are you doing to take advantage of that?

As seen @ MarkJuleen.com

This is a follow up to our survey of almost 3,000 reviews of property management companies on Yelp and Yahoo Local.

Why is it that management companies seem to get such a bad rap in online reviews? It would be easy to dismiss these review sites as being platforms for libel by disgruntled people with an axe to grind, but the reality is rating sites are a useful tool that are widely used by consumers.

61% of people rely on user reviews for product information or research before a buying decision is made. (Razorfish, 2008)

Portland's overall occupancy rate for apartments was at 94.8 percent as of March, looking good by national standards. Furthermore, the metro displayed strong momentum in recent months, with occupancy improving by nearly 2 percentage points just during the initial quarter of 2010. Most of Portland's individual properties, in fact, now are performing even better than those overall stats would suggest. Roughly two-thirds of Portland's individual properties that MPF Research surveyed in 1st quarter posted occupancy of at least 95 percent, and about two of every five individual projects were no more than 3 percent vacant.

The metro's average occupancy in early 2010 was being held down a little by the rates seen in a pretty sizable block of recent completions still moving through the initial lease-up process.

Portland added properties totaling about 2,200 units during calendar 2009 and the first three months of 2010. While most of these individual communities are leasing reasonably well, taken as a group, they registered occupancy of just 69 percent as of March.

Houston apartment demand came in at about 1,400 apartments during 2010's initial quarter. That's not a bad result for a metro that suffered more than 8,000 net move-outs during calendar 2009, but Houston certainly didn't display the demand momentum seen elsewhere in Texas during the first few months of the year. Quarterly absorption proved more than four times stronger in comparably-sized Dallas/Fort Worth. And the much smaller Austin and San Antonio markets registered quarterly demand about a third better than Houston's performance.

Part of the explanation for Houston's lesser demand momentum probably lies in the state of the local economy. While figures currently available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) show very similar shifts in the job change patterns across the major markets in Texas (with all of them beginning to register job formation on a month-to-month basis), it's likely that the BLS is either overstating Houston's upturn or understating the rise in Dallas/Fort Worth, Austin and San Antonio. Particularly suggesting that pattern, Houston is not yet showing any demand for middle-tier apartment product, whereas the other Texas markets are. (All of these metros displayed considerable demand for top-tier properties even when they were losing jobs. None of them yet show much progress at the very bottom end of the market.)

Also likely influencing Houston's early 2010 apartment demand figures, operators proved surprisingly reluctant to cut rents further. While same-store effective rents fell by a notable 4.5 percent during the year-ending March in Houston, only 0.2 percent of that backtracking occurred specifically during 1st quarter.

I spoke to my mom a few weeks ago on a Sunday, and even though my mom has never been the sort to bargain hunt, she had to tell me about a great deal they just got. A steak place in their small town had some bandit signs out front that said “15% DISCOUNT WITH YOUR CHURCH PROGRAM!” So my parents made a concerted effort to bring the program to the restaurant, and they did indeed get the discount. My first response to her was that I was a firm believer in the separation of church and steak.

But my next response was, what a great idea! Now of course we can’t do this exact idea in multifamily because of fair housing issues and the intricacies of discounting over a lease term, but it definitely got me thinking about other creative ways to tie-in one business to another, to get a community’s name and image in front of people in another way.

I have always been a big believer in this concept. Even though I got started in the apartment industry by publishing my own print guides in West Texas, I have never thought it was healthy for the industry, or the ad budget, to solely rely on advertising as a means of promotion. As we have seen over the past few years with the emergence of social networking, the world seems to agree with that idea. But instead of just transitioning your effort from print to online, why not think about your own creative idea? Why not “steak” a claim?