Andrew Fink's Blog

Last week the Arizona group of Multifamily Insiders got together at a local casino and enjoyed their buffet, a speaker who gave us some great insight on the local market and most importantly, we got to meet other Insiders on this site in person.  We had over thirty people attend and got some good feedback.

Take the lead in your state and make some great connections!  Here are the simple steps to organizing an event to get lots of your states' MFI members together;

1. Join your state's MFI group.  Log into this site (www.MultiFamilyInsiders.com) and click on the GROUPS tab along the top.  Then click on SELECT YOUR STATE in the drop down box.  Find your state and click the flashing >>Join this group<< link.

2. Now that you are a member of this subgroup, contact the group leader listed on your state's group page.  Suggest a meeting and give yourself enough time to promote your event.

3.  Pick a date and time.  Thursdays are generally good, but check with your local associations to make sure you do not conflict with their events as many people may go to the established groups' event.  Allow 90-minutes for the event and let them know you will start on time.  11:30 - 1:00 is usually a good time for lunch events.

4. Pick a location.  This is important to make sure you have a place that can get people to attend.  Most restaurants will accept private party reservations.  Keep in touch with them to make sure they know how many will attend.  This will help you to have proper staffing and the restaurant will know how many to plan for.  We chose a local casino buffet as there is something for everyone, a bar if anyone wants a drink afterward and gambling for those who came from out of town for the day.  Do not pick a sushi place or a specialty restaurant.  Keep it something that everyone will be able to eat something.  Be considerate of dieters and people who don't eat meat.

5. Get a speaker.  Make it someone who can talk to both vendors and leasing professionals to keep them equally interested.  Buy them lunch as part of the cost for your sponsoring the event.

6. Find a sponsor or sponsor it yourself if you are a vendor.  Have a $50 gift card for a drawing prize.  This will entice people to come as well.

7. Make an agenda and stick to it.  Many times we get talking and do not pay attention to the quick 90-minutes we have together.  I suggest starting with a 6-minute welcome and introductions of the sponsors and go over the agenda.  Then allow each sponsor 5-minutes to tell you about their service or product.  Then have an Icebreaker Game to get people talking and meeting each other.  Allow 30-minutes for this as it is actually more important than what the speaker has to say.  People need of meet each other face-to-face and this game will help everyone to get around and meet others in their industry.  A game like "Two Truths & a Lie" or "Icebreaker Bingo" are great way to get everyone involved.  Have a small prize like a pocket organizer / calendar book for a drawing of all people who participate.  Do not give it to the person who wins the game as people will compete to win and not meet others - they will just do what it  takes to win the game.  Then have your meal served or allow time for people to load up their plates at the buffet.  After 15-minutes or so, announce your speaker and have them talk for 15 - 30-minutes.  Any leftover time is for networking.

8. Promote, promote, promote!  Contact Brent Williams to have him send out an E-mail announcing your event to everyone in your state.  E-mail everyone you know in your state to get them to join your state's MFI group and ask them to RSVP to you directly if they will attend.  Blog about it on the MFI site, FaceBook and LinkedIn.  (note: Our AZ group had 21 members until Terri Euchner worked her magic and talked up the event.  We had over 30 people attend and have almost doubled our numbers.)  Get the word out to everyone!

9. At the event, have name badges with your state's logo on them and assign one person to check people in and to give them their agenda,  raffle ticket and name tag.  Have another person assigned to greet and make introductions.  Don't just let the event happen, manage it!  Have a bowl to collect business cards so you know who attended.

10. Take lots of pictures and share them with Brent Williams and on your FaceBook page.  This sill help to attract people for your next event.

11. Follow-up the event by E-mailing everyone who attended a thank you message.  Not many people do that anymore and it will leave them with a good feeling about the event and they will be more likely to attend next time.

That's about it.  Get fired up and show your leadership abilities.  If you are a vendor, it is an inexpensive way to get some recognition for your service or product.  These days we all Tweet, post on FaceBook and MFI and other sites but may not get a chance to meet these people in person.  This is an opportunity you are creating to help forward business relationships and friendships between multifamily professionals.
Most people may think that this is a lot of work, but in reality it is very simple.  I have planned over 5000 events in the past 12 years and on a scale of one to ten with one being easiest and ten being extremely hard, a MFI Luncheon would only be a three.  You can do it and it will take all of an hour to organize and a couple hours to promote.  GOOD LUCK!

All of you MFI professionals in the great state of Arizona, be sure to come to the Talking Stick Resort in Scottsdale on Thursday, November 17th from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.  We will meet at The Wandering Horse Buffet and enjoy lunch for just $13.95 +tax ( pay at the register).

We will have a mixer to get to meet others in our industry and introductions as well.  There will be a speaker to let us in on some of the latest numbers in the multifamily industry.  This is our first AZ MFI group meeting and we have had a good response so far.  It would be nice to do this quarterly so that we can meet those we meet on the Multifamily Insiders website, in person!

Bring some co-workers and E-mail Terri Euchner from Euchner Performance at Terri@euchnerperformance.com to RSVP.

Are you having a summer party this year or pool party?  If you are looking for some games to add to keep it lively and interesting, you don't have to reinvent the wheel.  Have you seen the NBC game show "Minute To Win It"?  Contestants compete for prizes completing challenges made from household or office materials such as plastic cups, ping pong balls, reams of paper, etc.  In one game called NOODLING AROUND the contestant has to put a piece of uncooked spaghetti between their lips and use it to pick up six uncooked penne pasta noodles placed on the table without dropping any of them.  It is harder than it sounds and with everyone gathering around cheering, it can be fun.  I like having people compete to see who does it faster, but you can do this by timer and it needs to be done under a minute.  Call it the APARTMENT OLYMPICS or something and have fun with it!  Here is the link:  http://www.nbc.com/minute-to-win-it/how-to/episode-234/noodling-around/ where you will find a list of 150+ games on the right.  You can watch a description of the games after a short commercial or just get the rules, items list and game description.  Make it a competition and have prizes for the winners...

While games are fun, I suggest some Ice Breakers.  An important thing is to incorporate an introduction into the game.  Have people introduce themselves every time they go up to a new person.  That is what is going to get people socializing and meeting new friends, more so than music, games, food, etc.  There are lots of books and online resources to find some fun Ice Breakers, but make sure they last at least 20 minutes so people get a chance to meet others.  Statistics show that the more friends people make in their community, the more likely they are to renew their lease.

As for prizes, check out the daily deals websites like LivingSocial.com for half price gift certificates to local restaurants, adventures and such.

While visiting a good friend in San Diego the past couple weeks, I have been helping him find a new apartment to live in.  He has lived in a studio apartment for ten years and it was time for him to upgrade.  He makes good money and should live in a nice place.

He needed a 2BR/2BA place in a nice community, somewhere in San Diego.  My first choice, based on what he was looking for would have been a slam dunk.  However, we went there at 10:00 on a Saturday morning to take a look and the place, all the parking spots were taken and there is no street parking.  What made him mad was that a person had parked taking up two spaces and the doors were open and two maintenance people were laughing it up with someone around the car.  Not conducive to welcoming new residents. The following Thursday he cooled off and decided to take a look at the property and give them another chance before his final decision.  We drove there and walked up to the leasing office and it was locked.  There was no note on the door (back in 5, our to lunch, etc.) so we left.  We took a second look at a place that was further inland than he wanted, but the leasing consultant and the place seemed like it was the best choice.  He will decide this week.

I E-mailed the property that had a locked leasing office and the parking problem to let them know so that they would see that they had some work to do to be more accessible to potential tenants.  I was amazed by the response.  DO NOT RESPOND LIKE THIS...
The first two paragraphs were a standard form response thanking me for my interest and the latest specials.  Then she wrote,

On Friday I realized that I had been doing "busy work" but not getting anything accomplished.  I have a lot of great ideas that I need to move forward on, but wasn't allotting time to work on them.

I logged onto the MFI website to look for some inspiration and found it in a blog by Terri Euchner about being an innovator.  Sure, it wasn't going on FaceBook or Twitter to sift through the"social" stuff.  It wasn't calling a colleague to get their opinion as everyone is busy with their own career.  Rather it was calling on a reliable source to draw some inspiration and give me a pep talk.

I thought about what she had wrote and thought about it.  Her words struck a chord in me and I started to chart out the ideas and innovations that I wanted to work on.  Then I hit the keyboard to put down in writing what my ideas were.  Three hours later I looked at the clock and realized that I had done more for the advancement of my company in that short time than I did in the past week!

Wanting to give kudos to the person who inspired me, I went to her blog again, viewed her profile and then sent her a message through the site.  I told her how useful and inspiring her blog  post was and that it had helped me more than she would know and that I appreciate her insight.  Terri replied back within 30-minutes telling me that I had made her day too with the e-mail.

Coincidentally, she works in the same city and may turn out to be a good contact for what I am doing.  That was nice but even if she was clear across the country, it was great to get the inspiration.

So, when you are looking to networking for ideas, business or contacts, don't overlook the blogs on MFI as there are more blogs here than most people have contacts or friends on MFI.  They can be a valuable resource without having to have someone else correspond to you directly to steer you in the right direction.

Having been on MFI for two years now, I feel that there is a need for another perspective that most Insiders do not see.  Most everyone here has been on the leasing end so long that the feelings and needs of the tenants is more theoretical as opposed to someone who has lived in apartments most of their life.

The word COMMUNITY is misused frequently here as it is not meant to be a grouping of people with a common thread (they all live at the same complex), but community to me is human interaction and exchange of ideas amongst residents of a community they call home.

Ask yourself, "What have we done to promote COMMUNITY and distinguish our property from the rest?"  If the answer is a great pool, playground, fitness center or clubhouse, you are missing the meaning of community.  A better question may be, "What have we done to build relationships with our tenants and improve their social interactions?"  WHile a small percentage of people want to be shut-ins and not talk with anyone, I have found that most people want to meet others that they have something in common with.  Where they live is a great first thing to have in common.

Interactions with tenants should not start off, "Yes?" or "Can I help you?" but should be, "Hi!  How are you doing today? Dis you see the new shrubbery we put along the fencing last week?"  Create a friendly environment for them to talk freely and work WITH you when they come to state their problem, concern or other ideas.

Interactions with other tenants take a little planning.  Tenant events are a great way to do that.  Unfortunately, most tenant events just go through the motion and say "Coffee and donuts on Sunday... drop by and get some"  Instead of, "Your presence is requested to meet your fellow residents at our monthly Coffee Clatch, this Sunday from 10 to noon in the clubhouse.  We will be serving Starbuck's coffee along with teas, donuts and fresh fruit for you to enjoy.  This is a great chance to meet some of the great people we have living here at XYZ apartments.  Hope you can make it!"

Besides events, anytime a staff member is interacting with a tenant and another tenant that they know comes by, by all means make the introduction.  You never know what one introduction can lead to.

The more people your tenants are friends with, the less likely they are to move!

That's it for this blog, but I promise to blog more in the near future.  I intend to do most of my blogs from the tenants point of view as there are far more qualified professionals here than myself.

-AF