After many conversations revolving around multifamily management I have heard a recurring theme around the "costs" associated with marketing. The value of renewing more of the leases that expire and the possible gains of more strategic marketing investments appears to be a very important focus in the current economic environment.
Last night, while at a great presentation at the UCF School of Real Estate in Orlando, a not so pretty picture of the market was shown. The theme of the presentation was; Repositioning Real Estate, Political & Economic Trends, it was very interesting and gave a good sense of the challenges as well as opportunities. What I heard is that, while these are challenging times, it is making for better business practices, sharper companies and will result in greater performance for those that keep looking ahead.
The thought of repositioning is as much strategic as it is emotional. It is strategic in the sense that we have to do the math to warrant new investments or reallocations, and emotional in the sense that because when writing a check it really needs to be viewed as an investment. Cutting to cut can often prove to be actually detrimental in the long haul. In the course of conversations I often hear that budgets have to be managed aggressively and I believe this always should be true. Many have accumulated some legacy expenses that do warrant a hard look. So here are my questions to you: