Multifamily Management

Details

“My motto is ‘release’ I have it written in my violin case. ‘Release’ , meaning, ‘Step back a little’. Those are the words of world renowned violin virtuoso Charlie Siem. It struck me as I was reading through the latest copy of Monocle magazine. So many times in life and in the multifamily business we get caught up in the detail of things. We major in the minors making huge mountains out of what should be considered but mere speed bumps in the path of progress.

Major in the Majors

Charlie goes on to say, “Because when you hone in on all the tiny details, it’s natural to tense up – and then nothing flows.” Suffice it to say that everything moves at the speed of light anymore. Not when you tense up and take time to focus on the minutia at a very granular level. It stalls flow, it mitigates advancement and it stifles trust.

Granted mistakes can be and always are traced to the details of things and more astutely to people. Causes are often found in flawed policy and or application of business practices by teams or individuals. It’s still, at least in my head, not cause for alarm but rather time to address the mess and move on; a teachable moment.

I rather think you pick a course, put your metrics [budget] in place, gear yourself up [get the right people on the bus] and run the marathon set before you. Understand that you will experience adversities along the way, just make sure you have plans in place to address them quickly. But overall, stick with the majors. Sticking with the majors as it relates to a marathon would be to pace yourself, keep yourself hydrated and feed yourself mentally and physically along the way. Do that and the rest falls into place.

In contrast, focus on the nagging toe nail pain, foot pain, side cramp or bleeding nipples caused from friction between your shirt and skin and all of a sudden you stall your pace. You forget to hydrate and your mental and physical faculties give way to fatigue. It’s just not worth it.

My word this week – ‘Release’

Your releasing contributer,

62 Homes – A case study

Yesterday we did due diligence on an apartment community that we will begin to manage on 2.1.9. I hesitate to add too many of the specifics at this point as I have not discussed the use of social mediums with ownership. However, I do hope they allow me the opportunity to create a real time case study via this blog and the Twitter community. If all goes well this study will play favor to a number of advantages. Here are two of my thoughts for starters;

Increased Visibility

The use of social mediums and the creation of a real live and in the moment case study will bring attention to this otherwise lackluster (I use that term with all due respect) deal. The property is a classic destination deal located at the end of apartment row in an out of the way Saint Louis suburb. The city restricts the use of banners, bandits or any other free standing signage. Additionally, there is no monument sign of any sort. I think the use of social media will certainly augment our efforts to market the community and ideally it will mitigate our spend.

Community Builder

As we all know the real beauty of social mediums is the ability to communicate openly with our consumers. And, I think involving the current resident base in our turn around effort will bode huge in building the community. My thought here is to capture material in off-line spaces to build inventory for the various on-line spaces. Any and all offline events will be Flip’d and pic’d so as to provide material for a Facebook fan page and a community blog. Resident testimonials will be the keystone in building what will come to be vibrant place of social interaction. Over time the thought would be to harvest a community brand that residents, employees and prospects rave about. Ultimately the community will become self sustaining. Quixotic? Maybe. But, never underestimate the power of an energized crowd.

I look forward to providing some benchmarks in the very near future that we can measure our successes against. And, by all means, feel free to chime in with comments, suggests and constructive criticism.

Your looking forward to putting a dent in the multifamily universe collaborator,

Apartment Management, Multifamily Management, Apartment Marketing, Apartment Social Mediums