I recently heard a story from a friend who is also in the property management business about an apartment community that was promoting an early renewal contest. The community sent out flyers telling residents that if they signed renewal papers early, they would be entered into a raffle. So a resident excitedly entered the leasing office early with his paperwork and, as my friend stated, “that’s 12 more months of rent right there” and their office associate begrudgingly took the paperwork, almost as if not interested in dealing with this obviously-satisfied-enough-to-renew-for-another-12-months resident, that there was not even a smile on his face and didn’t even mention the contest until the resident asked about his raffle ticket.

I understand that sometimes we as property management communities forget that our every day job is the same place that our residents want to look forward to coming home to after a hard day of school or work. I can even think back to times when I was really tired and busy and would lose sight of the fact that where I work is where people live, their home, the place they chose to live (and renew) among the hundreds of others, but even then I can’t remember being annoyed and ungrateful when they brought their renewal paperwork back or got excited about a contest or event (especially because sometimes it took a lot of work on my part to get that renewal paperwork back!). The fact that they got excited about contests and events was often the motivation I would need to get back on the spirit train.

I visit on-site teams now to help them think of new ways to involve residents in the community, and more and more I hear them tell me that their residents don’t want to be involved or aren’t interested in the community experience. And I honestly started to believe it. Then I hear a story like this, and it makes me think: If when they are excited and motivated enough to participate, they are then let down by feeling like they are being bothersome, it’s no wonder they “don’t want to participate”. Just as we would not want to go home to someone who’s miserable to have us there, neither do our residents and it just might mean they go elsewhere where they are appreciated.

While I will not naively believe that every resident will get excited about or become involved in every community activity that is presented to them, that story helped me to regain that spirit and confidence in the importance of resident appreciation and community activities and I hope to motivate our teams to get back that spirit instead of giving up.

I would love some advice and even some great stories that I can share to help others regain their spirit and motivate them to continue to think outside the box and create a living experience that is truly memorable for their residents.

You’ve just surrendered not only a block of time but your freshest, best chance to start something new.

Time Sucks

It’s true; if I start my day in the office I inevitably get caught up in the race to get my inbox count to zero. Or, I get drawn into the necessary but time sucking “got a minute” conversations. Both of which leave the “move your business forward” stuff to suffer. There has to be a better alternative.

Something New

My something new for this year? It’s not really new but it is a more determined effort to exercise a relentless focus on delivering the things that matter most. Things that move my business forward. Things that keep my apartment management clients, collaborators and vendors feeling connected, communicated with and most important – wowed.

With that I’m considering a more mindful approach to consuming email, Twitter, Facebook and the such. I’ll be focused more on the end result of my actions as opposed to the processes that get me there. I’ll employ the build backwards approach to getting things done; thinking first of the end goal then the avenues and resources to get me there. It’s saying no more often. No to email. And, no to – got a minute meetings. A more controlled approach if you will.

First Things First As it Relates to Business

I am making this blog one of my first things first. I’ve admittedly been all over the board with my posting efforts. Will I do it better in ’12? Will I do it more in ’12? Will I at very least be more consistent? I think so. One of my blogging goals is to post on Mondays (Brief: inspirational – motivational) and Fridays (Apartment marketing, operations and at the urging of a friend some accounting).

Main takeaway – take control of your time as it will always be happy to take control of you.

Your taking back control of his time multifamily maniac,

M

Photo credit: GoodROI Internet Marketing 

Persistence

“There are no magic wands, no hidden tricks, and no secret handshakes that can bring you immediate success, but with time, energy, and determination you can get there.” – Darren Rowse, Founder Problogger

A ton of rhetoric has been penned about social media as it relates to apartment marketing, resident retention and the such. Some of it is really good and some of it is just fluff and fill. Some has merit and some has not the sense god gave a billy goat.

Apartment management brass tacks

Toss it all aside and get back to the brass tacks of good old fashion property management – what do you have? Boring, mundane, uncompelling and anti-dramatic and melodic methods of madness. Anyone who has been in the business for a very long bit of time would agree that property management is not rocket science. Just a couple days ago I was sitting diagonal from a finance quant who thought he hit the nail on the head when he made that very statement.

Personality

At the end of the day – it’s the culmination of personalities laced with wit, wisdom, humor, elevated emotion and a purpose larger than life itself that bring about the want to persist with the quest of managing property. And, those who do it well would admit that it’s what gives them life.

It’s the time that they love to spend.

It’s the energy that they love to exude.

It’s the determination of pursuing a worthy goal that keeps them coming back for more.

Admit it – There’s something about this business!

What is it for you? What keeps you coming back for more? I dare you to tell me in the comment section below! Double dog…
M

To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, that is genius. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

What is burning deep inside of you? If you could spread your personal message RIGHT NOW to 1 million people, what would you say? (Author: Eric Handler)

It’s All About Choice

The message is something to this effect – the difference between that which you are and that which you want to be is the sliver of a  space between stimulus and response – you are what you ‘choose’ to be and you can be what you want to be by choosing differently.

How would you answer the question above?

Your lovin’ the #trust30 challenge contributor,

M

In brief of our policy is as follows:

1. Employees are paid for one-hour minimum – if they physically leave their home to complete a call

2. They are paid at time and a half

3. They are paid mileage from their legal residence

I am curious about other nuances our there; please drop us a comment as the community is interested.

And, I do hope that you have an amazing and over the top weekend.

A lot of renter’s in our communities are one life circumstance away from total financial ruin up to and including losing their apartment. It has given cause for desperate behaviors such as sacrificing their electricity, gas, phone, cable etc. in order to make the rent. In other cases they use creative means such as robbing electricity via extension cords run to your common area outlets in hallways and laundry rooms. It’s amazing what you see out there anymore.

Now one could argue that life choices predicated on fulfilling wants over needs or necessities has contributed to a lot of this and in the same respect I think there an equal amount of people out there that make all the right decisions and still get hit with the downside of adversity.

Our residents are not the only ones faced with making the rent. Many of our employees are waging the same battle month after month. And, sometimes it leads to desperate actions.

That leads me to the premise for my question – money orders left blank by the prospective resident and or current residents paying rent are so very tempting in a desperate time of need. Can you share some of your processes with me as it relates to keeping good people honest. What do you do to keep integrity in the system on your bigger sites where you have six, eight or even ten people working an office and handling money. Specifically, what do you do to make sure these blank money order gems are not used as float to get by to the next pay period? How do you make sure that once an application is taken that it is processed in your property management software asap?

While they are a necessary evil – I have to believe there is a system of handling that keeps theft to a minimum.

Thank you in advance for your considerations and feedback.

Your ready for some economic prosperity friend,
M

Please share the stories that come to mind from the video in the comment section below…

Business has been crazy as of late and the blog has been left to suffer. Not good for a number of reasons and in the same respect I appreciate the time to focus. That being said, thank you for the various emails some of you have sent questioning the next post. In some ways – it’s a good precursor to the quote I want to share.

“Until you value yourself, you won’t value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.” -M. Scott Peck

Could I take that one step further in the way of being a leader in the Property Management Space?

Until you value your time you won’t value the time of others either.

Being on time is huge in the eyes of others – if you make the commitment – be there.

What are you doing with your time as it relates to others?

Property Management Company: Cause

I received an email not long ago asking a question along the lines of finding a cause for a firm – in an email exchange I penned the following:

I see a cause as being something bigger than self or team. To me – it’s audacious in nature. And, it has nothing to do with selling more stuff but everything to do with building individual and organizational character as a way of changing the world. I don’t use – changing the world – in jest. It is the only premise with which to build an organization. In my head organizations are built to serve the people that serve it – period. That is first and foremost. If built right all else will fall into place. An organization that focuses on building character will see that character exercised in the way of success on every level with every metric.

I think Emerson said it best when he penned the following:

“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children…to leave the world a better place…to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”

Capture that in the way of a cause that lays over your companies mission, vision, strategy and goals that help to execute as much and you have something people can believe in. You will have found something that people can get out of bed in the morning for – you can change the lives of hundreds if not thousands and as a default – you will create wealth beyond your imagination and more important – the imaginations of those that are served by the organization. They will have lived what Emerson had in mind – all because you made a decision to offer up a worthy cause.

Do you have a cause? What is it? Why do you think it is important?

Bronx Landlord Jailed for Continued Housing Violations – Bronx Housing Court last week ordered Sam Suzuki to be held behind bars until he corrects the nearly 700 open housing violations | Katy’s Exposure

Apartment Education – The Heat of the Moment

It’s summer time and many – if not all- of us are heavily involved in turning apartments and fielding A/C calls. It’s a busy time of the year and as a result education and safety meetings have the propensity to get put off. The idea of that brings to mind a scene from the movie Crimson Tide where Denzel Washington’s character questions Gene Hackman’s character on a decision to run a missile readiness drill all the while there was a fire going on in the galley. Hackman’s response was along the lines of – war does not stop for fire’s in the galley and Hackman’s character suggest that is the best time to run a drill.

As it relates to our own operations: I am a big believer in repetition when it comes to education and this coming week, despite the busyness, might be a good week to dust off your mold remediation policies, procedures and brief your teams. The story linked above might be a nice supplement to the training. Siting the article as a example of the use of social media to draw attention to the story might be a good preface on the power of ignorance.

Have a smashing week – and feel free to sound off in the comment section below -