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Fast Track Your Multifamily Management Career

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

By Cynthiann King, C. King Unlimited Education Services

The best way to get onto the fast track in our industry is to MANAGE YOUR OWN CAREER. No one can take as good care of your career as you can. No one has the same interest in your success as you do! Try these proven techniques to managing your career effectively:

(1) Know Your Position Description.
Read or create a written description of your position and its responsibilities. Understand the expectations through discussion with your supervisor and team members. Note what you do well and areas needing improvement or education. Determine which areas will boost your career. Create, write and discuss your new professional goals with people who can get and keep you accountable to these.

(2) Secure Mentors or Coaches.
Most fulltime professionals are too busy today to commit to coaching you weekly. If you approach several potential mentors and secure each person for one hour a week, you will benefit from a variety of talented individuals with a consistent flow of ideas, resources and recommendations. Know and nurture these supporters.

(3) Keep a Record of your Successes.
Designate and use a journal to regularly document your small and significant successes. Use this journal to accentuate your positive outcomes. Review your accomplishments and write new goals to challenge yourself. Use your journal when communicating with mentors and supervisors to acquire suitable recognition and secure additional direction.

(4) Develop the Look of Success. Image matters. Review your wardrobe, tools, posture, demeanor, communication skills, and overall image. Upgrade yourself to the next level. Attend a Toast Masters meeting to enhance your speaking skills. Paste a sincere look of interest and a smile on your face – even if you have to fake it to (eventually) make it.

(5) Develop a Professional Network. Take advantage of the network opportunities that exist in our industry: Attend an association meeting, serve on a committee, present a report, participate on a panel, secure and/or introduce a speaker, invite others to attend an event, attend an education conference, volunteer at a charity event, interact on a live CallSource webinar or teleclass, join a live chat on Gracehill.com, pose a question to experts at www.smmonline.com, submit an idea for an issue of Rent and Retain, and organize and meet with a sharing group of professionals.

(6) Become an Expert. Are you a Winner or a Whiner? What do you do when faced with a challenge? Detail its parameters and concerns. Visualize the challenge as resolved. Consider potential resources. Become an expert on the subject so you can pose plausible solutions. Present your solutions verbally and or in writing so others can benefit from your new expertise. Get recognized as a responsible, conscientious, creative team player. Be someone on whom others can really count!

By implementing these strategies you will garner favorable attention, earn deserved respect – and probably a promotion!

About the author: Cynthiann King is President of C. King Unlimited, national Speaker and degreed educator. She provides an array of innovative training seminars and services for multifamily firms and associations. Available for seminars, conferences, curriculum development and policies’ manuals, contact her at (847) 487-8791 or e-mail: cynthiann@ameritech.net.

Tags: Apartment Employee Performance, Apartment Mentors, Apartment Training, Multifamily Management
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12 Biggest Mistakes Salespeople Make

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

12 Biggest Mistakes Salespeople Make in Their Presentations

By Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE

Salespeople are incredible. Like Hollywood actors, whenever they open their mouths, they are putting themselves and their company on the line, taking a risk in the hope of a favorable outcome. Just like actors, even the best, most experienced salesperson can use some coaching and polishing now and then.

Here are the 12 most common mistakes salespeople make and how to avoid them.

1. UNCLEAR THINKING. If you can’t describe the objective of your interaction in one sentence, you may be guilty of fuzzy focus, trying to say too much at once. You’ll confuse your listener, and that doesn’t make the sale. Decide exactly what you want and need to accomplish in this contact.
What would be a positive outcome? For example, imagine that a busy executive says, “You have exactly ten minutes of my time to tell me what you want me to know about your company. In one sentence, tell me how I should describe your benefits when I talk to my managers tomorrow.” At any stage of the sales process, you should know in advance why you are interacting, what benefits you are offering your prospect or client, and what you’d like the next step to be.

2. NO CLEAR STRUCTURE. Make it easy for your prospect to follow what you are saying, whether in a casual conversation or a formal presentation of information and ideas. They’ll remember it better–and you will too.
Otherwise, you may forget to make a key point. If you waffle or ramble, you lose your listeners. Even for a conversation, mentally outline your objectives. What key “Points of Wisdom” do you want the prospect to remember? How will you illustrate each point? What phrases or slogans do you want to guarantee they will repeat afterwards? You speak to be remembered and repeated.

3. TALKING TOO MUCH. Salespeople often talk too much about themselves and their service or product. They make a speech rather than having an exchange or interaction, otherwise known as conversation. The key to connecting with a client is conversation; the secret of client conversation is to ask questions; the quality of client information received depends on the quality of the questions–and waiting for, and listening to, the answers! In fact, a successful encounter early in the sales process should probably be mostly open-ended questions, the kind that require essay answers rather than just “yes” and “no.” And don’t rush on with preprogrammed questions that pay no attention to the answer you’ve just received. Learn to listen, even pausing to wait for further comments. Silence draws people out.

4. NO MEMORABLE STORIES. People rarely remember your exact words. Instead, they remember the mental images your words inspire. Support your key points with vivid, relevant stories. Help them “make the movie” in their minds by using memorable characters, exciting situations, intriguing dialogue, suspense, and humor. Telling stories of satisfied clients and painting a picture of how this client’s condition will be improved with your product or service are appropriate.

5. NO THIRD-PERSON ENDORSEMENTS. There’s a limit to how many bold claims you can make about your company and product results, but there is no limit to the words of praise you can put in the mouths of your delighted clients.
Use case histories of your clients’ success stories about the benefits they received from your service or product. When you are using their actual dialogue, you can say much more glowing things about yourself and your company than you could if the words were your own. Your endorsement stories should use the same ingredients as a good Hollywood movie: create memorable characters, use vivid dialogue, and provide a dramatic lesson learned.

6. NO EMOTIONAL CONNECTION. The most powerful communication combines both intellectual and emotional connections. Intellectual means appealing to educated self-interest with data and reasoned arguments. Emotion comes from engaging the listeners’ imaginations, involving them in your illustrative stories by frequent use of the word “you” and from answering their unspoken question, “What’s in this for me?” Obviously, a customer is going to justify doing business with you for specific analytical reasons. What gives you the edge is creating an emotional connection too. Build this emotional connection by using stories with characters that they can relate to and by providing a high You/I ratio, using the word “you” as often as possible and talking from their point of view.

7. WRONG LEVEL OF ABSTRACTION. Are you providing the big picture and generalities when your listeners are hungry for details, facts, and specific how-to’s? Or are you drowning them in data when they need to position themselves with an overview and find out why they should care? Get on the same wavelength with your prospects. For first contacts with executives, describe what your company can do for them in broad generalities. With middle managers, discuss exactly how you can work together, a medium level of abstraction. If you are dealing with IT professionals, use the lowest level of abstraction, lots of facts and figures.

8. NO PAUSES. Few sales presentations have enough pauses. Good music and good communication both contain changes of pace, pauses, and full rests.
This is when listeners think about important points you’ve just made. If you rush on at full speed to crowd in as much information as possible, chances are you’ve left your prospects back at the station. Give them enough time to ask a question or even time to think over what has been said. Pauses allow pondering and understanding.

9. IRRITATING NON-WORDS. Hmm–ah–er–you know what I mean–. One presenter I heard began each new thought with “Now!” as he scanned his notes to figure out what came next. This might be okay occasionally, but not every 30 seconds. Practice in front of your sales manager or colleagues and give them permission to call out whenever you hem or ah. Or video or audio record yourself, and note any digressions.

10. STEPPING ON THE PUNCH-WORD. The most important word in a sentence is the punch-word. Usually, this is the final word: “Take my wife–PLEASE.” But if you drop your voice or add, “Right?” or “See?” or “You know?” or “Okay?,”
you’ve killed the impact of your message. Another popular punch-line killer is the word “today.” Avoid saying, “Let’s look at the recommendations we have for you today.” Obviously, you’re talking “today.” The punch word in this sentence should be “recommendations.”

Comedian Jerry Seinfeld says, “I’ll spend an hour reducing an eight-word sentence to five words because the joke will be funnier.” Salespeople can do the same thing with their key phrases because their presentations will be more powerful.

11. NOT HAVING A STRONG OPENING AND CLOSING. Engage your audience immediately with a powerful, relevant opening that includes them. For example, “You have an awesome responsibility.” Then fill in what it is:
increasing sales, reducing errors, cutting overhead, whatever your product can help your prospect do. Another excellent strategy is to do some research. Then you can say, “Congratulations on your company’s recent success,” and describe it. Or “I love your new commercials.” Most salespeople start by talking about their company. Talk about your prospect instead.

12. MISUSING TECHNOLOGY. Too many salespeople rely heavily on their PowerPoint and flip charts and do not ever make an emotional connection.
Technology is usually much more exciting to the person who created it than the person who is watching or listening to it. PowerPoint presentations tend to be wholly informational and don’t connect emotionally to the audience. Make technology a support, not a crutch.

When you learn to avoid these 12 common traps, you’re on your way to being a “star” of the sales world, ready to accept an award for your dazzling performance.

About the Author
Patricia Fripp is an executive speech coach, sales presentation trainer, and keynote speaker on change, customer service, promoting business, and communication skills. She works with companies large and small, and individuals from the C-Suite to the work floor. She builds leaders, transforms sales teams and delights audiences. She is the author of Get What You Want!, Make It, So You Don’t Have to Fake It!, and Past-President of the National Speakers Association. To learn more about having Patricia do her magic for you, contact her at www.Fripp.com, (415) 753-6556, or PFripp@ix.netcom.com.

Tags: sales mistakes
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12 Ways To Increase Performance During Soft Markets & Shrinking Budgets

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

With soft markets and shrinking budgets, the focus on retaining Residents and saving money is at an all-time high. Since our Service Team members are the key to achieving this goal, here’s 12 ways to make it happen!

1. Why most people don’t perform as expected: My basic premise is that 98% of all Employees REALLY WANT to do a good job (when you find you have hired one of the other 2%, arrange a transfer for them to the unemployment department). The people who want to do a good job thrive on training, knowing what is expected of them, receiving positive feedback, getting effective leadership, and being compensated appropriately. So, when someone isn’t performing, here’s where to look:

A. They don’t know what you want them to do: We must make certain that we are CLEARLY communicating what we want done; we also have to communicate our performance expectations so our Employees know what is expected of them.

B. They know what you want them to do, and they don’t know how to do it. Training is the answer here - just because someone has experience doesn’t mean they are TRAINED. It is our responsibility to make certain we train our staff in how we do things HERE.

C. They know what to do, they know how to do it and they think you don’t care whether or not they do it! Make certain that you acknowledge ALL performance, good and not so good. For the good stuff, thank them SPECIFICALLY, and in front of as many of their team members as possible. For the not so good stuff, you should be even more specific, and do it in private, behind closed doors.

EXAMPLE: Just saying, “Thanks – you’re doing a great job” doesn’t really say anything, does it? What behavior are you trying to reinforce? Be SPECIFIC – saying, “Hey Doug, thanks for handling that broken disposal in Mrs. Smiths’ apartment today. I’m sure she was very pleased that you got there so quickly!” tells Doug that you appreciate promptness – so, if Doug is one of the 98% that want to do a good job, he will now know that promptness is something you value!

2. Keeping the faith: Yes, times are tough, some policies are dumb and some supervisors probably should be prohibited by law from ever interacting with another human being for the rest of their lives – AND, none of that gives us permission to join the whiners. A good leader keeps the faith, no matter what the circumstances, and is a source of inspiration to their team. If things are SO BAD where you work that you can’t keep the faith, then you can’t keep the job – move on!

3. T/T/T (Train/Transfer/Terminate): As I said above, most people don’t perform because they lack training – so, TRAIN THEM! If they are still not performing up to expectations once you’re certain that they’re fully trained, then maybe a transfer to another job or another property is necessary. I’ve had incredibly talented people who were ineffective Managers and became brilliant Assistant Managers. And, since every property has its own personality, we need to match our Employees to our property profile. Finally, if someone is trained and is in the right job/at the right property and STILL isn’t performing, FIRE THEM!! Sure, I know how hard it is to find competent people and I’ve made more than my share of “Well, someone is better then being short-staffed” mistakes, and, every time I’ve done that I’ve been bitten right in the butt! The non-performers will drive away the performers, since the performers will get angry and resentful that the non-performer is able to do less and still get paid.

4. They don’t know what you want them to do, Part 2: Who is taking service requests in your office? Probably the Leasing Professionals, right? Great, so what training have they gotten in writing a clear, concise and complete service request? Have you sent them out with the Service Team for a day, observing and getting some hands-on maintenance experience? One of the MOST frustrating things for a Service Tech is to get a service request that doesn’t clearly identify the problem, so the Service Tech can bring the right tools and parts with them and handle the problem on the first visit. How motivating do you think it is for the Service Tech to have to go back to the shop for tools and parts 10 times a day, and then get questioned by the Manager about why they ONLY completed 10 service requests that day?

5. They don’t know what you want them to do, Part 3: OK, pop quiz time – Who has the MOST CONTACT with our Residents? The Service Team, right? So, how much CUSTOMER SERVICE training do your Service Techs receive? Our Service Techs spend most of their day in Resident apartments, so what are we doing to improve their communication skills? We train them to handle a broken compressor; do we train them to handle angry Residents? Enough said on this one!

6. Give the gift of time, Part 1: Want to get all of your service requests completed on the same day you receive them? Well, either hire more people or receive less service requests! Since most of us can’t afford to hire more Service Techs, let’s reduce the number of service requests! How? By thoroughly training our Residents, AT MOVE-IN, about how to work everything in the apartment. “Disposal jammed? No problem, here’s how to fix it.” “It’s 120 degrees outside and your HVAC will only cool your apartment to 82 degrees? No sweat (well . . .), let me explain the laws of physics to you.” Walk the Residents through their new apartment home and show them where everything is and how everything works – it will definitely cut down on your Service requests.

7. Give the gift of time, Part 2: Anyone who has ever been “on-call” for the weekend knows it’s no fun! Your pager might as well be plugged into the wall, because you can’t go far, right? Well, why not schedule a Service Tech to work Tuesday – Saturday or Wednesday – Sunday? How about having someone work 12:00 noon – 8:00 PM two days a week? After all, our Residents seem to be home when we are closed, so why not be open and turn overtime into regular time?

8. YOU CAN’T MANAGE WHAT YOU DON’T MEASURE: What’s the deal with annual reviews? I can’t even remember what I had for lunch last Tuesday, yet I’m supposed to sit down with you and review 365 days of your performance? GET REAL! At a minimum, review each of your Service Team members monthly: schedule a 15 – 30 minute meeting, and review where they are, where they need to be, and what they can do to improve. Sure, we need to have an annual review for salary; however annual reviews will not help improve performance tomorrow (unless the review was yesterday!)

9. YOU CAN’T MOTIVATE ANYONE BUT YOU: Look at the “typical” motivation programs in place today – bonuses, contests, ETC – are these REALLY motivation or are we just creating a new generation of Pavlov’s dogs? TRUE motivation comes from WITHIN – we want to do a great job for US, not YOU! The only way to TRULY motivate someone is to create an environment where people feel appreciated, valuable, informed and an integral part of the overall success of the property and company. How do we create that environment? By HONESTLY and OPENLY sharing our vision, showing how everyone is vital to achieving the overall goals, and communicating frequently about where we are, where we need to be, and what we need to do to get there. Your Service Team’s performance will dramatically increase when they EXPERIENCE how important they are in making the goals real.

10. Give the gift of time, Part 3 – PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE: Here’s another way to reduce the number of service requests you receive – maintain the physical plant so stuff doesn’t break. According to Mel Schneider, CAMT, an effective preventive maintenance program can reduce service requests by as much as 80%! As the old saying goes, “You can pay me now or pay me later – you’ll have to pay at some point”. If you’ve cut back on preventive maintenance because of staffing or budget, you’re just kidding yourself. You’ll spend more time and money (and create more frustration for your Service Team, who know that the extra time and money could have been avoided) fixing it WHEN it breaks, than taking care of it BEFORE it breaks.

11. ELIMINATE THE “LITTLE” FRUSTRATIONS: Frustration negatively impacts performance, so let’s look for stuff that creates frustration and eliminate it. How about not having an adequate inventory, so you have to stop in the middle of a service request and drive to Home Depot or Ace Hardware - 3 or 4 times a day? Or as I mentioned earlier, getting to an apartment and discovering that the service request is incomplete or incorrect, so that you have to go back to the shop to get the right tools or parts? Or not having a two-way radio, so that the people in the office page you when you are wedged underneath the kitchen sink and you have to wiggle out and call them back because your pager went off? How about meeting up with a Resident who was promised something by someone in the office – and that someone in the office never told YOU what they promised the Resident? C’mon, let’s deal with this stuff so our Service Team can SHINE!

12. PEOPLE DON’T LEAVE THEIR COMPANY; THEY LEAVE THEIR BOSS: Read almost any survey about turnover, and you will learn that the number one reason that people leave is THEIR IMMEDIATE SUPERVISOR! How can we even think about improving the performance of our Service Team when we’re spending time replacing Team members? Here’s the bottom line: Would YOU enjoy working for YOU? Yes, enjoy – we spend the better part of our waking hours at work, and if we don’t enjoy what we’re doing and who we’re doing it with, eventually we’ll make a move.

Doug Chasick, CPM®, CAPS, CAS, Adv. RAM, CLP, SLE, CDEI
Certified Synchronous Learning Expert
Certified Distance Education Instructor
Licensed Real Estate Broker: Florida & Georgia
Licensed Fair Housing Expert Instructor: Virginia

Senior VP, Multifamily Professional Services CallSource
(888) 222-1214 Toll-free
dchasick@callsource.com
www.Twitter.com/Aptdoctor
www.LinkedIn.com/in/DougChasick

Tags: Add new tag, Apartment Employee Performance, Apartment Management, Apartment Operations, Apartment Training
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A Looming Transition: Survive the Mass Exodus of Boomers in the Workplace

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

A Looming Transition: Survive the Mass Exodus of Boomers in the Workplace
By Anne Houlihan

In 2011, the oldest of the Baby Boomers will turn 65, marking a turning point in corporate America. As the 76 million Baby Boomers begin to leave the workforce, the United States will experience the most dramatic economic and demographic changes in its history. For the first time ever we are facing a mass retirement movement. To survive unscathed, companies must begin planning and preparation for this transition today.
At first glance, the impending Baby Boomer exodus may seem of little concern to companies. After all, people have been retiring from the workplace for ages. However, companies need to keep in mind that the upcoming retirement years are going to be larger scale than in any other time in our country’s history. With 76 million Baby Boomers leaving the workforce and only 46 million Generation Xers available to take the newly vacant roles, there’s a deficit of 30 million workers. And while the Millennials (also known as Generation Y) number at approximately the 100 million mark, the oldest of them are too young and inexperienced to step into leadership roles.
Therefore, think about your own company for a moment. How will you handle this transition? How will you groom your Generation X workers to step into leadership roles? How are you going to transfer the 40+ years of wisdom and experience that the Boomers possess to your younger workers? How do you plan to keep your company successful and running smoothly with a deficit of workers?
The bottom line is that all companies need to harness the young leadership already in their company so that the Baby Boomer exodus has as little impact as possible on the organization. Use the following tips to help make the upcoming transition period a smooth one.

1. Know what you’re up against.
You need to find out as soon as possible how this mass retirement will affect your company. Get with your HR department and find out your workplace demographics. How many Baby Boomers are currently working in the company, what are their positions, and what are their anticipated retirement dates? For example, are all your middle managers positioned to retire in the next five years? Will three key machinists be leaving all at once? Will your sales department shrink by half in the next few years? You need to know what the impact will be on your company so you can start planning and be ready for the transition.

2. Develop a knowledge transfer strategy.
Most companies have policy manuals that detail each position’s job requirements. While such a policy manual is a good start for grooming younger workers, it’s simply not enough. After all, you can only document so much of the day-to-day activities. Plus, there are subtleties of every job—things you do just because experience and knowledge points you in a certain direction. You simply can’t document those kinds of things. That’s why you need to go a step further and develop a strategy/policy/training system for transferring the knowledge and skills of the older workers to the younger successors.

3. Mentor the younger workers.
As part of the knowledge transfer strategy, companies need to implement some sort of mentoring program. For a company to have a successful transition, the younger generation needs to work side-by-side with the older workers for some time. You simply cannot transfer 40+ years of knowledge and expertise overnight. Therefore, if you know that a key person is going to be retiring in three years, have that person start mentoring a younger worker now. Again, this is not something you can do during a new hire’s 90-day training period. True mentoring takes a year to accomplish at the very least. Additionally, the Generation X workers who receive this sort of long-term mentoring will feel more valued and will be more likely to stay with the company long-term.

4. Retain the older workers in some fashion.
Realize that just because someone turns 65 doesn’t mean they want to retire that day. Many of your older workers will want to stay in the workforce in some sort of capacity, either by choice or by necessity. Since many Boomers worked hard to put kids through college or are currently taking care of aging parents, they still need to work well past age 65 just to make ends meet. Others are taking advantage of medical breakthroughs and as a result feel more active and alive than they did when they were younger. In either of these cases, your older workers may be open to staying onboard on a part-time basis or as a consultant. Since they often want to pursue other interests at this stage of their life, being chained down to a 9 to 5 desk job won’t appeal to them. But the more flexibility you offer, the more likely they’ll be to stick around as a resource for the company.

5. Put a strong management team in place.
For your company to get through this transitional period, you need strong management and leadership. You need someone who can empower and motivate both generations to be open-minded and to learn from each other. You need a leader with expertise, not only in your industry, but also in people skills. Realize that a lot of the younger workers don’t have much patience to be side-by-side older workers, because they believe the Boomers aren’t up-to-date on technology or know “how the world really is.” That’s why you need leaders in place who can help people be open to mentoring—both on the giving and receiving side. If your company doesn’t have the right leaders on board, the bottom line will suffer. Your leaders simply must be involved to see this transitional phase through.

A Successful Transition for All
Because the unemployment rate is high right now due to the current economy, companies can draw from that pool of workers to help fill the gap the Boomers will be leaving. But since no one has a crystal ball that can predict the country’s economic future, no one can rely on this “fix” for the long haul. That’s why planning and preparation are so needed.
The coming years will definitely be a challenge for companies, as more people will be retiring than usual. The smart organizations will take a proactive approach and start addressing the issue now. Remember, transferring the knowledge and expertise of your older workers to your younger ones is not something you can do in a few days or weeks. Therefore, you need to adopt a longer-term focus than what you may be accustomed to in order to survive the impending transitional phase. By helping everyone—young and old—work together, your company can be successful and thrive in the years to come.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anne Houlihan is president of Satori Seal, where she tripled revenues in one year with her innovative budgeting and leadership techniques. In addition, she is founder of Elevated Leadership International, where she shares more than 25 years of hands-on corporate experience and coaching to help companies of all sizes. Anne helps to improve management techniques, empower employees to be decision-makers, bridge the generational gap and overcome adversity. For information on hiring her, visit www.ElevatedLeadership.com or call 951-235-5405.

Tags: Apartment Management, Multifamily Management, Multifamily Mentor, Multifamily Pro, Multifamilypro
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Lease Renewal Strategies that Help You Manage

Wednesday, November 25th, 2009

By Tami L Siewruk

Wouldn’t it be nice if we didn’t have to worry about lease expiration’s? If every resident simply moved in and stayed….and stayed…and stayed? Ah, but this is the real world—and in the real world, leases expire and residents move out. Even the best resident retention plan won’t completely eliminate turnover.

Because lease expirations are a fact of life, they must be managed like any other aspect a property. You need techniques for ending leases at the most appropriate times and in manageable numbers. You also need strategies for getting a little more mileage out of a resident—for those times when the market is terrible and your occupancy is not all that it should be. This article will look at some lease-expiration strategies that help you protect your occupancy and your income.

It’s Staggering!

One of the most effective techniques for controlling expirations and ensuring that your occupancy doesn’t take any sudden plunges is to stagger lease-end dates. Some companies follow very strict policies about how many leases can end in a given month, ensuring that only a certain percentage of the total number of apartments turn over at the same time. Others try to make sure that most of their leases end in the spring and summer months, when traffic is at its highest. Companies with high numbers of student residents often write their leases with the school year in mind, offering lease-end dates that coincide with the ends of semesters or terms. By controlling the number of leases expiring in a given period, you make life easier on yourself and your entire staff. Your service teams won’t be faced with a daunting number of make-readies all at once, and your leasing professionals won’t suddenly find themselves with impossible numbers of vacancies to fill.

Another approach involves staggering leases by apartment types. This ensures that you don’t end up with an oversupply of one apartment type and no availability in other types. If you are very in tune to your market, and you notice that there is a higher demand for certain floor plans at certain times of the year, you can stagger leases to ensure that vacancies in specific apartments coincide with demand for those apartment types. If you don’t have a sense of which apartments are most in demand at certain times, review your traffic reports and lease information for the past couple of years and see if you can discern a trend. You might be surprised.

Any staggered expiration approach will almost certainly involve offering non-standard lease terms. For example, if a resident signs a lease in February, and you have already scheduled your maximum number of move-outs for February of the following year, you will have to offer either an 11-month or a 13-month lease. If you’ve already filled up your move-in slots for January and February and March, the lease expiration will have to be pushed into either December or April. Some companies put a “flexibility” sales spin on the funky lease terms, allowing residents to pick their own move-out month based on expiration availability.

Going Month to Month

Offering residents a month-to-month option may also help you manage move-outs. There are some disadvantages to the approach—the most obvious, of course, being its uncertainty. The more residents you have on month-to-month leases, the more precarious is your occupancy. You have no way of accurately forecasting your turnover beyond 30 days unless you REQUEST a 60 to 90 day notice to vacate.

But stress level aside, month-to-month agreements can work wonders for a community’s occupancy. If you simply can’t afford to lose residents, they can be just right carrot to entice those who are hesitant to sign a year or six-month lease. A month-to-month can also be useful for eking out just a few more months of occupancy when you need them most. For example, if you can convince a resident whose lease is ending in February to stick around for just another two or three months, you will be that much closer to warm weather—and to the traffic you need to fill vacancies.

If you opt to let residents renew their leases on a month-to-month basis, you are entering into what is properly called a “rental agreement” rather than a lease. Essentially, this agreement expires at the end of each month, and is automatically renewed when the resident pays his or her rent for the next month. In addition to specifying the standard terms that all leaseholders agree to (resident and management obligations, rules, etc.), the agreement should specify:

• How much notice the resident must give if he or she decides to vacate, and
• How much notice the property or manager must give the resident in order to either change the terms of the agreement or end the agreement

The length of both these notice periods is often 30 days, but may vary from state to state.

If possible, when offering a month-to-month lease you should ask for more rent. In many markets, residents are willing to pay a premium for the flexibility of such an agreement. However, if it is the weakness of your market that is forcing you into a MTM in the first place, you may find it impossible to increase the rate. If this is the case—and if you really need the resident for a bit longer—don’t get stuck on the idea of charging a premium. Keep your eyes on the prize: you’re NOI.

The Ostrich Approach
In markets that are extremely difficult, some communities may opt to simply ignore lease expirations altogether. That is, they do nothing to bring the lease end to the resident’s attention, in the hope that the resident will simply go on living there—and go on paying rent—as if nothing has happened. Doing this creates a “tenancy at will,” which means the tenancy has no specified duration and can be terminated at any time by either party. Laws may vary from state to state, so you should check, but in most cases, the original terms of the lease are still binding (with the exception of the lease term dates). Either the resident or the community may residency the tenancy with a certain amount of written notice, which varies from state to state. The community may also change the terms of the lease—such as the rent or security deposit—with a specified length of notice.
In practice, then, this approach differs little from a month-to-month rental agreement. The main difference is the lack of paperwork. Another practical difference is usually the ability to charge a premium. While some communities charge a higher rate for the month-to-month option, those that opt to create tenancies at will are almost certainly not asking for more rent. Quite the opposite, in fact— they generally need their residents so badly that they’ll do whatever they can to avoid rocking the boat.
Squeezing in Some Marketing

Whichever strategy or strategies you use for renewals, one challenge you undoubtedly face is managing them in such a way that you have enough time to market newly vacant apartments. This requires balancing two sides of your managerial personality. On one hand, you want to give a current resident every possible chance to renew his or her lease—right down to the wire. On the other hand, you need to know what apartments are vacating so you can start advertising them. The longer you wait to market, the longer the apartment may have to sit vacant. So how do you satisfy both of these demands?

Part of the solution may lie in how much in advance you contact your potential renewals. The question of when to first approach residents with notice of their impending lease expirations depends largely on the state-mandated length of notice they are required to give of their intent to vacate. The general rule if to make contact at least one month before this formal notice is required. Following that guideline, then, communities with a 30 day-notice might make contact 60 days in advance, while those with a 60-day notice might make contact 90 days prior to lease end. Giving yourself the extra month accomplishes two things: (1) it allows you to surface objections that can be overcome, overcome them, and get the renewal, and (2) it allows you to identify those “solid” no’s, so you can start looking for replacement residents.

Solid no’s are generally those residents who are making major life changes—buying a home, moving out of town, getting married, etc. While it’s not impossible that they’ll change their minds, it is mighty unlikely. You are probably safe to assume that they’ll be vacating. Other solid no’s are those residents who, for whatever reason, are clearly unhappy in your community. You know who they are—every property has at least one.

Once you’ve identified those residents you know will be moving out, you can start your marketing efforts for those apartments. If you have a close-knit community, you may want to start close to home—with the neighbors of the soon-to-be-vacant apartment. Simply call those residents in the vicinity of the apartment, and say, “Mrs. Smith, can you think of anyone you’d especially like to have as a neighbor? The apartment right across the hall from you is opening up next month, and I wanted to let you know before we start advertising it, in case you had someone special in mind.” Who knows—you might just get a referral! And even if you don’t, you’ll win points with Mrs. Smith and the other residents you contact.

Tags: lease expirations, lease renewals
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Five Easy Steps to Mentoring Success

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

Are you thinking of starting a mentoring program for your company or community? Here are the steps that you need to take to make your program successful:

1. Define Your Program
Create a plan that articulates your goals, responsibilities of your participants, and benchmarks for success. You’ll also need a contingency plan that addresses issues like turnover and personality conflict.

2. Define Your Participant Criteria
All participants should be patient and willing! Mentors should be experienced, articulate, and accessible. Protégés should be motivated and proactive.

3. Create the Rules and Tools
You’ll probably want to pair individuals within a common discipline (marketers, trainers, managers, etc.); but you’ll also have to consider personality types. You’ll need a mechanism for people to apply for the program; a way for them to meet with each other and approve the match; a form or other tool that allows them to define their goals and a timeline; and a means for them to report their progress.

4. Review Goals and Expectations
Upon enrollment, all participants should receive written guidelines for their goals and responsibilities.

5. Follow-Up
Monitor participants’ progress, successes, and issues. Schedule follow-up meetings with each pair on a periodic basis (we recommend holding the first meeting at one month, with follow-up meetings every six months thereafter).

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12 Ways to Improve the Performance Of Your Service Team

Monday, October 5th, 2009

With soft markets and shrinking budgets, the focus on retaining Residents and saving money is at an all-time high. Since our Service Team members are the key to achieving this goal, here’s 12 ways to make it happen!

1. Why most people don’t perform as expected: My basic premise is that 98% of all Employees REALLY WANT to do a good job (when you find you have hired one of the other 2%, arrange a transfer for them to the unemployment department). The people who want to do a good job thrive on training, knowing what is expected of them, receiving positive feedback, getting effective leadership, and being compensated appropriately. So, when someone isn’t performing, here’s where to look: A. They don’t know what you want them to do: We must make certain that we are CLEARLY communicating what we want done; we also have to communicate our performance expectations so our Employees know what is expected of them. B. They know what you want them to do, and they don’t know how to do it. Training is the answer here - just because someone has experience doesn’t mean they are TRAINED. It is our responsibility to make certain we train our staff in how we do things HERE. C. They know what to do, they know how to do it and they think you don’t care whether or not they do it! Make certain that you acknowledge ALL performance, good and not so good. For the good stuff, thank them SPECIFICALLY, and in front of as many of their team members as possible. For the not so good stuff, you should be even more specific, and do it in private, behind closed doors. EXAMPLE: Just saying, “Thanks – you’re doing a great job” doesn’t really say anything, does it? What behavior are you trying to reinforce? Be SPECIFIC – saying, “Hey Doug, thanks for handling that broken disposal in Mrs. Smiths’ apartment today. I’m sure she was very pleased that you got there so quickly!” tells Doug that you appreciate promptness – so, if Doug is one of the 98% that want to do a good job, he will now know that promptness is something you value!