Spending $20 for a toggle bolt? Apartment Managers can become obsessive about saving money on maintenance supplies. Sometimes the efforts to justify pricing from supplier A over supplier B have grown to simply outweigh the savings that might have been achieved. When you evaluate the savings, you need to include the hours of surfing […]
“Do you talk to strangers?” Ask a leasing candidate about a conversation with a stranger. It’s a good starting point to understand how easily they can connect and establish rapport. The answer to this question from a prospective leasing consultant gives you some insight into their character and personality. Interview questions for an individual without […]
“Here’s the list of the maintenance supplies we need.” Maintenance Expense is the area of the budget where there always seems to be more move outs in a month than dollars in the budget. Every week a stock of supplies is ordered. This results in overrunning the budget. Workorders have to be completed. Apartment turnovers […]
The act of changing a furnace/air filter is probably as unglamorous and unrecognized as any task that our team faces on a daily basis. Have you ever received a comment card that stated, “Tom changed my air filter today? He’s my hero!” Yet, this simple service, installing a filter. A filter that may cost a low […]
Many property management reports focus on occupancy. Every week we analyze the number of move ins and the pending preleases. But our progress is undermined by the number of move outs and the pending move out notices. Here’s the value of our lease renewals. The number of lease renewals is every bit as important as […]
Do you have a team meeting to start your week? Share the leasing goals for the week. Report results from the prior week. Ask for input on supplies to be ordered. Knowledge Creates Ownership Including your team in these discussions creates the opportunity for ownership in your property and its operations. All too often, the […]
The related costs of apartment turnover are often included in discussions of the impact of move outs on an apartment community. Rent loss due to days vacant. Marketing expense to advertise for potential residents. Time and expense to screen and process potential residents. In addition there are the obvious related expenses: Maintenance labor Miscellaneous prep […]
Coveted by property managers far and wide is an individual with the knowledge and skill to plan, execute and care for grounds. The appearance of the grounds is the first impression. Hiring or discovering someone on your management team is blessed with a green thumb, strong knowledge of grounds, is truly a treasure. Most […]
Understanding the places where prospects learn about our property is key to influencing our advertising dollars are spent. We have an opportunity to increase the occupancy at our community simply by the conversations we have with local businesses. We can create referrals. Referrals are a growing contributor to the sources of traffic at an apartment community. […]