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When a resident is dissatisfied with an answer you provide them that you know is in alignment with how your company would want that situation handled whether it be a lease break option you don't typically offer, a rent concession for an inconvenience the resident had to endure, or something else...

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Guest Insider I’ll give them my bosses (regionals) email if I simply can not handle it but I always try to. She’s typically going to say the same thing I do.

Laura Jordan I always offer my regional's email, and let them know they are welcome to email them. if rhey are mad enough sometimes they find the corporate phone number themselves and leave a message, which is then passed down to my regional to deal with. They basically always agree with me, and back me up.

Laura Jordan Alex Mann I guess I'm lucky because most of the time, when a resident has a complaint that they want higher up input, it's usually when they are in the wrong and not me, so my regional doesn't have to do much but reiterate what I said, they just want to hear it from someone above me so they don't think I'm just making shit uo

Alex Mann Laura Ambre Jordan a few years ago I had a resident insist on regional contact info over a broken elevator. We gave it to him. From there he proceeded to CC the regional on all correspondences for the rest of his residency with the team - especially if something happened like he couldn’t find a package….. gotta love those.

Laura Jordan Alex Mann luckily my residents aren't that petty to include regional in anything after the original event, but if they did, mine would probably just ask me if everything was OK, and if I needed help, would offer it, but otherwise, allow me to handle

Shelly Griggs My CM’s give my contact but if they contact me, I send it back to my CM’s to handle. They also tell them “here’s her info but she’s just going to send it back to me to handle”.

Guest Insider Shelly Griggs that is exactly how it should happen. You have to have their backs. Now if they breaking policy still do it, but educate staff. That is what makes a team.

Katie Rigsby It depends on how your company wants it handled. You should refer to your company's communication structure and core values. I would personally say something like, "Our company expects the onsite management team to act in accordance to company policy and inline with our core values, and in this situation that is exactly what we have done. I can assure you that my supervisor will agree. While I am nit authorized to give.you their direct number, I will be happy to forward them your information along with the details of lease and the circumstances we have discussed, and ask them to give you a call. What is the best number to reach you at?"Then I would email everything to my supervisor and let them know the resident would like to speak to them.

Guest Insider Hand over my Bosses corporate phone number

Penny King I give them the number and warn my boss. He tells them exactly what I said and refers them back to me! But not before telling them I'm the best, and they should listen to me!

Brandon Payton Penny King this! I give regional all the info, including emails or screen shots so they are fully prepared to do their job.

Guest Insider We have a resident hotline. When I was onsite, I would email the corporate office to give the history of the call so they would be expecting. Now that I’m in a supervisor role, I call the CM to get the details.

Guest Insider At my place. I'm it. No Regional. No one else. Just the boss who is pretty much MIA. On vacation in Florida. I think he just has faith that I'm doing my job, which I am!

Guest Insider I used to tell them I'd be happy to give them the Regionals number.....as they will be happy to hear I'm doing my job. Of course after 37 years in the industry, I'm happily retired.

Karen Mallinger I'm happy to discuss this with my RM and give him your contact information. You are also welcome to contact Resident Services, however, both of those contacts will refer you back to the community to resolve the issue. Unfortunately, the answer will most likely be the same.

Guest Insider I always provide the information, looks sketchy if we don't, but I ensure them that the answer from my supervisor will be the same. My supervisor then refers them back to me to have the situation handled.

Guest Insider Don't do the company thing. ALWAYS DO THE RIGHT THING.

Guest Insider I’m glad our company isn’t afraid to be contacted. Higher ups should return calls, even if it’s just to say, “the PM is absolutely correct, blah blah”

ARLENE SMADJA As the supervisor, I get the details from my manager and then get on a 3-way call with the resident and the manager. This way, the resident can’t bs me about the facts. I reiterate our policy and have my manager’s back, but at the same time make sure the resident feels heard.

John Eilts Arlene Chasen Smadja I like this method, Best I've heard of and shows really good team work and synergy with the resident! Good practice!!

Guest Insider Little known law in Texas just in case you're located there and didn't know. There is a legal requirement to provide owner info at request. Most owners have a CT Corp account or similar set up where mail can be directed. Also, IMO, a great boss would want you to pass them on so they could back you up and reaffirm the answer. Or on rare occasion make exception if it was a good business decision.

Alex Mann Melody - I'm in CA but I've had residents say the same thing about ownership. Exactly what info do you have to give out in TX about ownership if its requested?

Guest Insider Alex Mann in Texas, you have to provide a name and address if requested. And no, address is not usually in the lease contract (I'm sure some may include somewhere, but i would say that's not typical). Legal entity name should be the landlord on lease, so yes, name is already provided.

Guest Insider Alex Mann an address where "owner" can receive mail. I suppose the answer to your question depends on ownership structure. The tenant has a right to send written communication directly to the owner (or as I mentioned, many times an institutional type owner will have a registered agent service , "CT corp" to receive correspondence). You just can't withhold that info if requested.

Guest Insider We are owner operated so we have a customer service email and phone number for residents. There's a few situations where we've needed to use this. Sometimes it helps to diffuse the situation to have them speak with another person.

Guest Insider That’s what the manager is for! If you need to go above, then write a letter. You will get a written response within 48 hours. The owners will only respond in writing.

Alex Mann I like this. You mean a written letter to corporate office? I like that!

Guest Insider Alex Mann …yes! It works great!!!

Guest Insider I tell them the policy. If they want to speak with the regional to plead their case, it’s ok with me. I let the regional know they are going to call and what the situation is. By the time my regional is done with them, they wish they had never called. I love my regional.

Guest Insider I’m not a fan of denying their request to be heard, even if it is ridiculous. They will likely find the information on their own and be more angry for their trouble. We are still very much in a service industry, I prefer to try to deescalate than aggravate. Once the complaint is made, the Regional should back the team for upholding policy. This may help prevent future unnecessary calls from that resident.

Laura Scales I always let them know our corporate contact information is located on our management website, should they want to obtain it. Usually if they had to find it for themselves, we never heard from them again.

Guest Insider I give it to them and shoot a quick heads up to the regional. Depending on the situation, I *may* let then know the call/email will be routed back to me anyway...

Guest Insider I appreciate this post so much! This industry needs more managers and on site staff like you. As in so many other things, many have become soft. No one wants to be the bad guy. So instead of reiterating policy, the corporate number is given out too often. Stand your ground. Tell them you are sorry that they don't agree. Give them a copy of their lease and send them on their way.

Guest Insider What I would do in that type of situation:You do provide the RM email info and corp number, it should be on Google anyways. Secondly, I would let them know that it is your job to make sure they feel valued, therefore, I would explain to them that you’d do everything in your power to make sure the situation gets resolved. (Not the “issue” but the situation) Show them that you truly care and you’re genuinely concerned for them. Then, speak to your supervisor and find a way to make it right.If it’s something they did wrong, explain it to them privately. Before they leave your office offer them to do something for their apt, a WO that would be helpful such as, change the air filter, weather strip replacement, replace their trash can, something that’s simple to do, follow up with them by email to ensure they feel appreciated. “In my opinion” if a RM knows that you don’t have this type of issues often… she/he should be supportive and offer to help you handle the issue together! That’s what... Show more

What I would do in that type of situation:You do provide the RM email info and corp number, it should be on Google anyways. Secondly, I would let them know that it is your job to make sure they feel valued, therefore, I would explain to them that you’d do everything in your power to make sure the situation gets resolved. (Not the “issue” but the situation) Show them that you truly care and you’re genuinely concerned for them. Then, speak to your supervisor and find a way to make it right.If it’s something they did wrong, explain it to them privately. Before they leave your office offer them to do something for their apt, a WO that would be helpful such as, change the air filter, weather strip replacement, replace their trash can, something that’s simple to do, follow up with them by email to ensure they feel appreciated. “In my opinion” if a RM knows that you don’t have this type of issues often… she/he should be supportive and offer to help you handle the issue together! That’s what they are for! That’s just my opinion

Guest Insider That's definitely a no-go at my company. We can relay the resident's request, frustration, etc upwards and then get back to them with corporate office's response. But we don't just hand out our supervisor's contact info. If we gave every resident's her contact info, she wouldn't be able to do her job. We do have a resident support email (goes to corporate) we give out, when warranted, if the situation truly does need to be escalated. But we don't give out our supervisor's direct contact information.

Guest Insider Alex Mann our company has a customer service email address and phone number we can give to residents. If I know what's up ahead of time I like to shoot them an email so they are aware of the situation.

Guest Insider Give it to them!

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Apartment market conditions continued to weaken in the National Multifamily Housing Council's (NMHC's) Quarterly Survey of Apartment Market Conditions for April 2024. With the exception of Sales Volume (52), which turned positive this quarter, the Market Tightness (41), Equity Financing (49), and Debt Financing (44) indexes all came in below the breakeven level (50)."Inflation has come in hotter than expected over the past few months – as the she ...

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The advent of adaptive reuse multifamily developments is now. But what is adaptive reuse—and why is it suddenly popular? Adaptive reuse is redevelopment that takes an existing structure and adapts it for another use. In multifamily developments, this can look like a partially remodeled historic hospital converted into a mid-rise apartment community. (The project also employed new ground-up development.) Adaptive reuse has become more popula ...

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Should a regional manager be put in charge of the property from which they were promoted? Should the staff report to the property manager or should they continue to report to the old manager that is now the regional manager? The staff has been instructed to call the regional manager and ignore the manager if the staff doesn't like an answer that they get from the manager. The regional schedules meetings and work on property and purposely leaves... Show more

Guest Insider No a Regional who over sees there property that they were promoted from should find there new role and what the means. Due to a new property manager coming the staff need to show respect and understand the chain of command.
While it is easy to get/report directly to the regional, they should not. As a property manager you cannot build a bond/trust with your staff in-site and regional unless regional promotes the chain of command.
While the regional can be a friend, it should keep that relationship to be personal and not on a professional level.
Don’t give up, if you like the company and just keep doing your job and if it keep persisting contact hr dept. for potential guidance.

Guest Insider Micromanager at it’s best. Truthfully, those are not ready to be promoted.

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Does anyone have a good recommendation as a Regional for an app to help keep track of multiple properties when visiting. Inspections, notes, lists, etc.

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Leah Love Evernote

Chad Christian Side Audit Pro

Christina Parks Site Audit Pro for the win!

Shelly Griggs I use Site Audit Pro

Guest Insider Zinspector

Guest Insider Site Audit Pro! I have used it for years!

Kimberly Smith Trello is free.

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Are There Resident Bullying/Harassment Best Practices?It's simply a part of any property; your residents aren't always going to agree. This makes conflict inevitable, but the key turning point is when it turns into bullying and harassment. To be clear, the Fair Housing Act states that resident bullying and harassment cannot be tolerated. Are you sure that your property, as a whole, has the best practices in place when it comes to resident b ...

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With the help of the National Apartment Association (NAA), we're is following these key issues for apartment maintenance teams.EPA's 'Impossible' Lead Hazard StandardsRental properties could be deemed a hazard with an almost zero lead level.The Environment Protection Agency (EPA) recently published a proposed rule that would dramatically alter the way lead dust hazards are classified. The agency has proposed that any detectable amount of lea ...

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Industry Resources

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If you're trying to make a name for yourself and your target audience lives in multifamily communities, you need to use powerful branding strategies for multifamily properties. Establishing a strong brand can give your property an edge over competitors, gain the trust of potential renters, and improve the likelihood of successfully leasing the rental property. In this guide, we'll go over some effective multifamily marketing strategies that work. ...

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Please see photo for question…originally posted to incorrect account.

Brooke Frederickson We allow wreaths, but we also have a policy that 'holiday decorations may be displayed 30 days prior to a holiday and must be removed within one week after the holiday.'

Guest Insider well that could prove problematic in regards to religion

Guest Insider Depends. Prob. Not worth the trouble, honestly.

Cassie Nech I would think that asking someone to remove religious holiday decor could be seen as discriminatory. I could be wrong though

Guest Insider it could definitely bring about some questions

Guest Insider Honestly? So many are struggling right now, if they want to prolong Christmas all year it's not hurting anyone.

Kim Halstead I agree…the reason for the question is that I’ve gotten some complaints from other residents and staff…just trying to figure out what everyone else is doing

Brooke Frederickson I had a neighbor who once had a giant blow up santa in his yard into March. I am all about the idea of winter lights, but the blow up santa was a little much. Is the wreath closer to winter lights or blow up santa? I think that's a reasonable question to ask here.

Kim Halstead haha it’s just a simple wreath that says merry Christmas

Brooke Frederickson I could get on board with a simple evergreen wreath but I think the 'merry christmas' sign takes it into 'please take it down' territory. Admittedly this is one of the reasons we have a lot of policies regarding this sort of thing.

Guest Insider honestly? I would just tell my residents it’s not hurting them so let the other resident live their best life and worry about themselves. Sheesh. The blow up Santa I get but it’s a wreath. Half the world wants that Christmas spirit year round and at this point needs it.

Kaylyn Tidwell Seasonal decor is allowed during that season and then should be removed. They can keep Christmas decor up inside if they so choose.

Guest Insider I have a resident who is alt and decorates his entire apartment in Halloween decor year round…he has what could be considered a Halloween door hanger up, but until someone complains I don’t mind…it makes him happy.

Guest Insider Yes remove it! I always send out reminders that when the season is over all seasonal decor should be removed.

Guest Insider 30 days after the holiday

Guest Insider I recently tempted at a property that had in Community Policies that they had 2 weeks after each Holiday to remove all decorations. But non Holiday wreaths were fine.

Guest Insider Honestly when you try to enforce it people do not like being told what to do, so it causes so much more unpleasantness and bickering. 100% not worth it!

Guest Insider I had a resident who kept her Christmas decor up until her son came home from an overseas deployment. Sometimes there might be a reason for the decor staying up. We still have people with holiday lights up.

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Good morning everyone! On the hunt for a new Procurement and accounting software! We use yardi voyager 7s(soon yardi8). We currently use Avid Exchange for Accounting and recently ended Yardi Marketplace. Any leads you can offer would be amazing!

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Guest Insider Appfolio is a great completely integrated platform worth investigating!

Guest Insider Absolutely AppFolio! It’s the easiest out of all of them to learn and has everything for leasing rolled into one. Text functioning, direct emailing, etc. They’re reporting isn’t quite as in depth as Yardi, but still has everything you need.

Guest Insider We use Coupa. Personally I really love it, plus vendors have the Coupa Supplier Portal where they can go to manage their own invoices so it can cut back a lot on your work, and it really is very simple to use.

Guest Insider Rent Ready has automated scheduling and a quality controlled vendor network - you can also bring your own vendors.
Their integration is free and as soon as you put a unit on notice vendors are scheduled right away. Billing is easy and most of the support staff came from property management so they are easy to work with.

Katie Roncadori So are you not using any of Yardi’s accounting functions or additional products like P2P (payables and invoice management as well as bill payment), AR manager, Payments Manager?

Joy Arsham Anzalone Isnt avid exchange for payables ? You’re saying you’re using it for accounting? Isn’t it just payables ?

Felisha Miller Can I ask why you stopped Marketplace? I'm looking at this now.

Jami Blenner there is not a mobile app which caused a rift in buyin from the users up front. You cannot make custom purchase lists on a mobile browser, which caused some frustration beings that our maintenance professionals were the ones who would have benefited the most because of it. The price comparables for the catalogs that we had were higher than your typical Amazon listing which ended up having the guys order outside of marketplace. Home Depot and other vendors required you to get a credit card for every single property, and their credit card application and paperwork was extremely tedious for the team. You personally cannot manage or administer the platform for users, you always have to send requests to yardi to add/remove/ move users to other properties.
Just overall it wasn’t a good fit, even though I really wanted it to be! In the end I have to be considerate of how it affects the users.

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Industry Resources

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Budget season doesn't have to be a stressful scramble. Imagine a future where you leverage data to not only streamline the process but also gain a strategic advantage for your entire property management operation. Evaluating data can help determine which processes and vendors should be reevaluated to fit the changing needs of your organization. Below are a few tips to help you survive Budget Season 2024.Unlocking Hidden Potential: Efficiency and ...

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Good Morning, I am looking for a policy/best practices regarding associates that live onsite, if anyone is willing to share. I am specifically looking for how long they need to be employed before moving onsite, do you allow them to transfer units, etc. Thank You!

Brent Williams

Donna Wilkenfeld Yes to both, we allow our employees to move on site at the time of hire, we hired them so we prefer to show trust right out of the gate. We do however deduct their portion of rent from paycheck so they are never late that could cause a strain on the relationship, they also sign a employee housing agreement that gives them 7 days to move off site if we part ways by either party.

Niki Baker Thank you!

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Cedar Argo is friends with Brent Williams

U.S. Home Purchase affordability directly influences multifamily rental property rents and values. In 2023, only 16% of homes were affordable in America, falling from 21% in the year before.

An affordable listing was defined as one with a monthly mortgage payment no more than 30% of the median monthly income of that county. Below, we show the share of affordable listings in the 97 biggest U.S. metropolitan areas by population:

Although mortgage... Show more

Brent Williams

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Security Cameras… Any rules around a property releasing common area video recordings to a resident requesting…

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Nicki Hall We require a police report

Guest Insider We will provide to the police department, not the resident.

Mark Tanguay It depends on the situation.

Stacey Pichette Our cameras = our footage. We don’t allow access to it unless you’re law enforcement and they need to state what they’re investigating and why the footage may be helpful

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45As "the guy" who led the development of the first pricing and revenue management system for multifamily housing (LRO) and was the industry's first-ever VP of Pricing and Revenue Management (PRM) back in 2001, I've watched with great interest the past 23 years as adoption evolved.What started out as a practice highly questioned for its relevance to rental housing has become de rigeur for the NMHC Top 50 and at least a few hundred other companies ...

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