Chrissy Surprenant's Blog

How many of us "think owner" on a daily basis?  Recently, I was sitting in my best friend's living room debating one of the many issues that are plaguing our current times and the subject turned to just this, "thinking owner".  Now, I should mention that in this living room sat my best friend who is an accountant and a partner in her father's accounting firm as well as a partner in her husband's construction business.  Also, in this room was an co-owner of a successful family run auto care business.  As I listened to them, both of them touched on a topic that I think so many in this business overlook and that is when we go to work every day we represent, not just ourselves or our company, but the name that stands behind your company, the owner.  

Even though my friends  are not in property management, the same business philosophies applies to our industry.  In this business, we are taught to retain residents (of course!), keep vacancies down (of course!), and to stay on budget (of course!) but has anyone really sat down and told us to "think owner"?  A few months back someone had started a discussion on Multifamily Insiders discussing second chance renters who found themselves in foreclosure and laid off due to the economical turmoil.  The person who began the discussion felt that their management company was treating these people unfairly and they deserved a second chance to prove themselves as they were just a victim of the current economical downturn despite the fact that they did not meet the property's current rental criteria.  After that discussion, I planned on blogging about this topic but it took my friends talking about it to remind me of why it is so important. 

On a daily basis, we make several decisions that affect the economical success of our properties.  We chose who to rent to, who to work with, and where to spend money.  If you are doing your job correctly, the overwhelming majority of those decisions prove to be a positive outcome.  When we make poor decisions it can result in termination of an employee, a skip-out, an eviction, or poor vacancy rate.  When we begin to "think owner" your success rate will sky rocket.  

What does it mean to "think owner"?  Simply stated it means to act as though your decisions will affect your livelihood.   Asking questions such as "is the best interest of the owner and not just the tenant?"  Purchasing responsibly and hiring responsibly.  Following the guidelines of the property and supporting the decisions of the owner.  By retaining residents by giving great customer service and leasing to only qualified individuals that meet the property's rental criteria.  It also means putting your name behind the service you guarantee and taking responsibility for the decisions you have made for the owner.  It means becoming accountable and not just the middle man. 

"Thinking owner" means every spending decision is a wise spending decision.  Is the purchase the best interest of the property or can you budget it in for a later time?  Think of the property's money as your own.  When you go to the grocery store and you budgeted $200.00 that week for food and you spend $250.00 you know that you need to take that $50.00 from somewhere else in your household budget.  If that $50.00 is your electric bill and you are on the your last notice before shut off you know that you will not be as careless at the store and only purchase the necessities.  This should be the same philosophy we bring to our property's spending.  If we began thinking this way during our buying procedures for our property we will save money and stay closer to budget.  You must know your property's budget and even help with producing one.  Should you not be a part of the budgeting for your property, take initiative and ask to be a part of it so that you can be proactive of meeting the goals of your property.

"Thinking owner" also applies to who we rent to as well.  I cannot count how many times I have heard a property  manager or a leasing consultant go to bat for a total stranger.  Still to this day it totally baffles me.  If I had a quarter for every time I heard the words, "they are good people that fell on hard times", I would have my bungalow in the Caribbean!  "Think owner"... if you feel so confident in this person than feel free to sign on the dotted line and become their guarantor.  If you believe they are worthy of  second chance then put your livelihood on the line, would you still sign?  To stay consistent with leasing, you must develop a rental criteria and stick to it.  This should be something that is already developed within your company and if it is outdated or does not exist you should speak immediately to your supervisor to have one developed or updated.  It can protect your company from discrimination lawsuits as well as making the line very clear on who to rent to and who not to rent to.  By providing a Rental Criteria it removes the gray areas and you spend less time weighing the pros and cons of leasing.  Keep in mind, we should be no different than credit card companies or banks providing loans for home ownership, if the applicant does not meet the criteria they aren't approved.  They are confident in their criteria and they know with every denial they will have someone qualified apply.  For every unqualified resident you lease to that is one less qualified person you could have rented to!

I have spoken to Resident Managers who have denied people for housing and were so guilt stricken they could not sleep.  I can honestly say I have never lost sleep over saying no to a prospective resident but I could be the minority.  As I have told those managers, I will tell you... it is not our jobs to feel sorry for them or feel obligated to do anything.  Our job is to "think owner" and those prospects will find housing elsewhere.  Allow your competitors to take a chance on them and you sit back and rent that apartment to someone qualified.  

If that doesn't change your mind allow me to show you some personal results.  After the initial question was posted on Multifamily Insiders I followed up with 5 people I turned away for housing.  I referred 11 people total to a local community in our area that accepted prospects with fewer criterions than my property.  Eight out of the 11 applied for housing at the other community and they approved 6 of them.  Out of the six only five actually moved in.  Out of the five only 2 still reside there as the others resulted in either evictions or skip outs.  Out of the two remaining, one is being considered for possible eviction due to lease violation/ noise.  Our rental criteria worked in this situation as they gambled on six and only one has been a well-paying resident.  My competitor spent thousands of dollars to remove these residents from their property and if they would have just "thought owner" it would have saved them time and money.

For those of you who live in the colder climates, as I do, you are more than ready for spring to be here! If we are ready so are your prospective residents and your current residents. Here are some great ways to brighten your community for spring and retain residents as well as appeal to new prospects:

1. Brighten up your curb appeal. Think outside the box and get creative. Curb appeal is so important and what is better than bright vibrant colors to attract new buyers as well as giving a shiny hello to your current residents! It may be too early to plant flowers but you can always brighten up things with new signs, flags, and pinwheels. Welcome Home America has great spring ideas!
2. Brighten up your office.  There is nothing more welcoming then entering a room with fresh cut flowers!  At a minimal cost you can put spring right in your office with simple bouquets purchased at your local grocery store or flower shop.  Some local flower shops will give you discounts or free flowers if you promise to advertise their flower shop in your community newsletter or if you allow them to put promotional material in your office.  A win for everyone!
3. Dress in bright colors.  As property managers we tend to dress in more neutral colors, or at least the majority of the ones I know do, so update your closet with some great colors for spring.    Add light pinks, blues, greens, and my favorite lilac!  Men especially could always use a little color; there is nothing more appealing than seeing a guy dressed nicely with a splash of color in his tie!
4. Change your phone greeting and voicemail message to give your callers a little spring in their step.  Answer your phone with a nice short limerick such as “thank you for calling ABC Properties where specials are always in bloom; this is Chrissy how may I help you?”  How can that not make your prospect smile?  You can also use the same limerick in all print advertising!
5. Update your community’s Facebook status to something cheery.  Remind your residents that it is spring and find a great article that allows them to take advantage of the beautiful weather and post the link to your community’s Facebook page.
6. Update your model for spring.  Put a pair of flip flops next to the door or an umbrella and rain jacket by the hall tree.  Replace the blankets on the beds with lighter linens as well put away throws.  Update your throw pillows to a quiet pastel to match the theme.  Put aside the coffee machine and serve lemonade on the patio or balcony.  Replace those fake flower arrangements with fresh fruit from the market!  If you have an aromatic plug-in change the scent to something light and fruity!
7. Update your giveaways.  Print out floor plans on bright vibrant paper.  Purchase seed packets and print out your specials on colorful paper to give to prospects with your favorite spring limerick, like the one above “ABC Properties where specials are always in bloom”.  Buy flip flop note pads to give away or flip flop key chains, both can be purchased relatively cheap at Oriental Trading.
8. And finally… Don’t forget to share the spring fever with your maintenance personnel and other employees.  Purchase new shirts for them as well as plan an employee appreciation event for them to let them know they are appreciated.  Nothing puts a spring in their step or a smile on someone’s face better than letting them know they are appreciated.

“Area Rents Up, Vacancies Down” can be heard across the land as the new census statistics come out. Vacancies are down and rents are on the rise HOORAY! For a moment the excitement is heard across our industry as the communities that have suffered immensely from the recession see a light at the end of their long journey. Suffice it to say, rents are up and vacancies are probably down, but what have we all sacrificed in the past few years to get us through the dark days. During this time of struggle our industry strengthened a trend that we were hoping to make extinct which were the rent concessions, the lavish giveaways, and in some cases lower rents. Our industry as a whole has opened a door that cannot be easily shut. Due to the fear of high vacancies we have allowed the prospective residents to take control of an industry that was once controlled by quality apartments, great curb appeal, and luxurious amenities and turned it upside down to an industry that thinks it needs to survive by "outgiving" other communities.

We have all seen the enticing ads in the newspapers, Craigslist, or Apartment Guide, “First Month Free Rent” or “Rent today and receive a $100.00 off your rent”. The oversaturation of these deals has changed the way prospective renters think about leasing. Five years ago, it was highly uncommon for a prospect to call an apartment community and ask for something free but today it is the norm. Five years ago, the prospect came in to your office to swoon you so that you would rent to them and now that we have made it so easy for prospective residents to have control we are willing to give them everything just to bring our vacancy percentage down. The consequences of our fears are going to take a larger toll on our industry then many of us could predict.

One of the largest mistakes we have made is to make the last resort the first resort. By saying that I mean lowering rents and adding concessions without first taking a look at why we aren’t leasing. Have you done the proper walk through of your property making sure that you have excellent curb appeal? Is the trash picked up daily? Is your customer service at a quality that deserves renewals? Are maintenance orders being done in a timely manner? Are your apartments comparable if not better than your competition? As a supervisor are you employing people that have the best interest of the property at heart? Are they making wise decision and being proactive to lease apartments? Are they present, not just in the office, but putting forth the best image for your property? If you have answered all of those questions and have positive answers than I can see why we have resorted to lowering rents and giving concession but the question still remains has it been worth it.

Recently, I had the privilege of being asked to shop my sister’s property’s local comps.  I was extremely excited because I am always interested in borrowing new ideas and seeing how others do their job which in the end can improve mine.  Unfortunately, this was not the case; I was sourly disappointed with my findings and somewhat shocked.  I thought it would be a great idea to share my findings with all of you to see how many of you are guilty of these findings (hopefully none of you) and to show how important it is for owner’s or management companies to stay focused on getting their own apartments shopped every year.

The phone calls:  I called 10 different comps in the area to set up appointments, my findings:

·         Out of the 10 called only 3 answered my call.

During this time of year I am able to get out of the office and help maintenance turn units.  Now granted my responsibilities include taking orders from them (which they seem to like) and clean bathrooms and kitchens.  Both of which I hate, but since I am a “team player” I do it with very little whining, although they may say differently!   This last time, I was thrown in the trenches of cleaning a relatively clean bathroom I noticed that the residents did their best with attempting to clean the soap scum off their tub surround but it still remained.  Their soap scum has now become my soap scum and I don’t like that too much, hence the very little whining that I do!  I actually found myself calmly saying to myself, “if only they used Magic Erasers this would have came right off and they would not have spent all that time scrubbing with no results”.  Then I had an epiphany of sorts… the light bulb clicked in my head and threw off my rubber gloves and ran to my phone.   I began texting my supervisor as though I have came across the holy grail of ideas… life as we know it will never be the same.  Although, he probably did not feel my excitement as I sent a one line text that read, “we should do move out baskets”.

I ran to tell maintenance of this new exciting idea, this idea that will change the world as we know it.  They thought it was a good idea but they didn’t throw me up on their shoulders and parade me around like I imagined in my head.  Then I got the return text, a sarcastic funny one at that, “what chemicals are you using?  You might need to take a break!”  My supervisor has learned that I appreciate good sarcasm but this was not the time for such nonsense!  I was 100% serious!  So I began descriptively telling him what I meant and his sarcasm turned into an approving, “hmmm hmmm”.

In this basket of treats for our residents there will be a great treasure of cleaning options for them.  They will have the oh so trusted and highly approved of Magic Eraser that will have directions attached that will read, “this works perfectly on tub surrounds or for crayon on walls”.  You will have a small bottle of dish soap that works great on everything with a small note advising them how well this works with hot water to wash down walls.  I have learned recently, while trying to raise a defiant child, that as parents we have a tendency to just expect our children to know what to do instead of explaining to them the right way to do it and I think this boils down into how we are as property managers as well.  I think we expect our residents to know that they need to wash down the walls or clean the toilet or change out broken blinds.  Now, I can already see you shaking your head and saying, “we give them a move out sheet that tells them what they need to do before moving out and it says in the Lease that they need to leave the apartment in good standing”.  Well, yes so do we, but how many apartments are left in the condition per that single piece of paper that you gave them?  Less than 50%?

Recently, I had the pleasure of meeting up with some old friends from high school. As I watched my friends talk and laugh, I looked over at their spouses (my husband was smart enough to sit this one out, he's already been tortured enough with impromptu reunions) and began listening into their conversation.  Two of the four were maintenance men for large apartment communities which immediately drew my attention.  Within twenty minutes, I found myself sitting at the table with those two men talking about work.  I am one of those property managers that don't just speak it but believe that, "Maintenance and I are a partnership; if one of us fails we all will fail, so let’s succeed as a whole".  Speaking to those two men made me look at my partnership I have with my maintenance in a whole new light.  At the bar, I was Switzerland, I was neutral.  I wasn’t their enemy or their boss but I did represent a backboard to bounce off questions and problems that they have with the everyday property manager.

The conversation quickly turned to a lot of “Why do you guys….” questions, as though all property managers are the same.  The more they spoke the more I realized perhaps we are more cookie cutter than I thought.  It’s not our fault really, it’s due to years and years of continual training to say the appropriate thing, even if it is not what they wanted to hear or just plain generic.  A few of my favorite questions were: “Why do you guys try to explain a work order instead of just saying, a toilet isn’t flushing in 1B?”
“Why do you guys ask our opinion on things when you are only going to do what you want?  Don’t ask me if I think a new ceiling fan would look better.  If I said, ‘No’ would I still be replacing it...? Yes”
“Why do you guys always blame home office?”

I think we all get the point to where our conversation was heading.  I decided it was time to defend us property managers and turn the table on them a little.  Since I was already feeling like the backboard from the NBA Slam Dunk Competition, I figured it couldn’t hurt.  I explained my job to them, my responsibilities, what I did on a day to day basis (yes, I even threw in a few complaints about corporate to make it feel like we are on an even playing field).  They seemed relatively surprised, but at the same time defiant to believe we have it so hard.  Perhaps it was two guys just having a little bit of fun and being overly dramatic but I realized they only see a small part of what we do (in some cases only what we don’t do) they perceive many of us as… Middle aged women who sit in their air conditioned (or heated) office in front of their computer all day barking out commands and due dates.

Once again, I turned the table and asked them what they would do differently if they were the manager?  And you would swear those two men turned into 10 year old boys and it was all of a sudden Christmas morning!  Their eyes lit up with possibility as though property managers have much say in what they would change.  Both men agreed that they would give themselves raises, hire two maintenance men per every one, give positive reinforcement instead of always pointing out the negative, giving maintenance more decision making and allowing them to replace instead of repair when it seems appropriate, and giving their maintenance staff the benefit of the doubt.  In my honest opinion, most of these are pretty reasonable requests once I heard their reasons.

Ugh... the dreaded Market Surveys!  Am I the only one that feels this way?  Our company’s policy is to do a minimum of two each year, although I have read that in some markets it is recommended to do it on a monthly basis.  Don't get me wrong, I know the market is continually changing on a day to day basis, and I do see the need for Market Surveys but it still does not make me enjoy doing them nonetheless. Thank goodness for the internet which saves me a lot of time to accomplish these daunting Market Surveys... but you can't find the real answers until you actually make contact with the other properties.  You know the questions I'm referring to, "what's your occupancy?", "Running any specials?", "How's your traffic been?”  You know the questions that rarely come with an honest response.  If I didn’t have a sense of humor, this could become very frustrating. 

During my several years of apartment management I have classified the four types of answers that I receive when doing my, oh so important Market Survey.  Now, please use caution there is excessive use of sarcasm to come.

The first one entitled and never convincing, "Oh... we are fully occupied... 100%" gets me every time.  In fact if I had a quarter for every time one of my competitors told me that they are 100% occupied I would never have to do a market survey again because I would be sitting on the beach with a Mojito in my hand!  In fact, no matter what time of year there are always a few properties that will claim they are 100% occupied even though we know for a fact they are not.  So, if this is you, please note you really aren’t fooling anyone.

Then you have the "blame it on my home office policy".  I know you are familiar with this one…where the leasing consultant claims that they cannot give out that information per their home office.  Would you not assume in this economy that their home office would want them to be forthcoming with this information?  What could honestly happen if their manager answered a few simple questions, perhaps something good could come out of it, perhaps rentals through referrals?  Has that home office never heard of the old stand-by, "I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine?" Perhaps they should, as a manager of a property that does not have two bedroom units but does receive A LOT of calls for them, I could always use one more property to refer them to. 

Then you have my favorite one, "Oh wow... you know I'm really busy right now... much too busy to answer those three simple questions that you have, in fact I probably could have just answered them in less time then what is taking me to say this long drawn out sentence but I really just don't want to tell you because if I sound like I'm busy you may perceive it as me actually being busy".  If this is you, then I don’t know if there is hope for you… maybe you should request an assistant from home office if you are THAT busy and do not foresee yourself not being busy within the next 365 days for a call back.

And of course my least favorite one, “the way too honest property manager”, we all know this one.  The one that a five minute phone call turns into a therapy session discussing everything from the economy to their inability to retain residents.  As you stay on the line, comforting the unknown person on the other line in hopes that you talk them down from the ledge that you feel almost responsible for pushing them towards, you begin to realize you are not qualified for this added responsibility and begin to agree with everything they say in the mere hope that someone will walk into their office and finally rent.