Mother's Day

What are you going to do on Mother’s Day?  I don’t know who created this Hallmark holiday, but I am pretty grateful that they did.  My son came to me the other day and asked, “Mom, what do you want for Mother’s Day?”  I thought for a minute and couldn’t think of one thing that I needed or really wanted.  My son still lives at home; he is one of the millions of young people who at the ripe age of 28 has not flown the coop.  Oh, he tried, and left for college for a couple of years, but with the economy and the downturn of jobs available, the decision to come back home was a good one for him to make. 

Imagine my surprise and delight when he asked me what I wanted.  Secretly, I was thrilled.  He is working now part time at about 35 hours a week and had a little money.  I replied,” You know, what I would really like is not to have to cook dinner, but I don’t’ want to go out, steaks on the grill would be a treat and how about a movie.”  The movie Thor is coming this weekend, and I love Natalie Portman and Chris Hemsworth is pretty easy on the eyes too.  So, in a matter of about 2 minutes, we planned to have a nice dinner and a movie this weekend with my son to celebrate Mother’s Day. 

Some mothers will receive flowers from their children who live far away and many more will go out to dinner with the massive crowds fighting for the seats in all the restaurants who offer special menus on days just like this one. I wish each and every mother a peaceful day with love surrounding them, no matter what their child offers. I am not a big fan of Hallmark holidays, but this one really tugs at the proverbial heart strings.  My mother is still alive and as many times as she can annoy me, I would have it no other way. A mother’s love is like no other and they are very special people who try to protect us and nurture us and feed us and make sure we get to school and work on time.  Mother’s fix skinned knees and hurt feelings all the while making us feel better. I have had the job of mother for 28 years and have enjoyed the work, the tears, even the worry and the ups and downs of parenthood.  What a blessing it is to be a parent; I know I am speaking for some dads out there too. 

No matter what you do or where you go or what gifts you receive or not. This is a special day to celebrate mothers, for without her, you wouldn’t be here and for that alone, Mother’s Day is a good day to celebrate.

The Value of a Mistake

     Have you made a mistake lately?  What did you do with that?  Did you hide it, or were you forthcoming and go to your boss and say, hey, I made a mistake, and it cost us X amount of dollars.  If you hide it, how much do you think that cost is?  The cost is horrendous, not only in time, but possibly in your integrity. How about your personal character?  Lots of cost there.  Last I checked we are all human, with the propensity to make mistakes and fall very short of doing everything right. But, I haven’t met a mistake yet, that I haven’t learned a great deal from.

     Mistakes are learning opportunities for all of us.  Yes, we make mistakes, and yes, we correct mistakes all the time.  When you make a mistake, as a leader it is important to own up to it and learn from it. Don’t make the mistake of ignoring the possibility of creating an even larger error. 

     Who has needed a property manager and there wasn’t anyone really qualified to hire? Or their personality wasn’t quite right for the existing team onsite. If you hire someone that doesn’t fit or isn’t qualified, you run the risk of setting them up for failure and worse, having to let them go and find another to take their place.  Again, it’s the cost of making the mistake of hiring the wrong person.

     When you learn from a mistake and admit to making it to your boss, your colleagues, your friends, you do several things, you show your humanness, you also add to your integrity by telling the truth of the matter.  You add to your value by turning a wrong into a right. You bring clarity to your intentions of doing the best job you can. This adds to your character and shows your peers you can be trusted and that my friends is invaluable and something you can’t buy at WalMart.

     I have made many mistakes through the years and I try very hard to correct them immediately. As Jim Baumgartner, Sr. VP of RentSoda shares in his blog Facing Failure, coming clean to your boss would allow for constructive dialogue and open communication. I stressed over making the mistake and then I stressed over having to tell my boss. Honestly, is there anything worse? But my boss would show me how I could correct the error, right away, and there wasn’t any loss.  It is important as leaders that we remember that everyone makes mistakes; it is how we respond to making them and how we embrace an opportunity to teach and to understand how to prevent them from occurring in the first place. 

     Mistakes do matter and what matters more is creating a culture where we can be cooperative, reaching out to make it right, correct the error, apologizing if necessary and moving on to a place of growth and further understanding.  We are all human, we all can make a mistake, it’s what we do after, and that counts.

        Make mistakes, but learn from them, cooperation and teamwork with your onsite staff will help correct them. Be informative and transparent with your clients and owners and your integrity will speak volumes when you have to reveal an error or mistake, always be clear with your intentions. Keep communicating and continue to create community.

Alison Voyvodich is Director of Communications of WRH Realty Services, Inc. 

Extensive Experience and a Client-focused Philosophy offering Property Management, Real Estate Consulting, Construction Management, Real Estate Investment, and Mortgage Banking.

www.wrhrealty.com | Avoyvodich@wrhrealty.com

Creating Community in 2011

It’s a New Year, saying goodbye to 2010 was easy; say hello to 2011.  Gone are the doldrums about the economy, good riddance to low occupancy, and never want to see you again lackluster marketing events. We have a clean slate, a new beginning and a positive outlook for the New Year. It is time to refresh, and take a ride with new motivation, new ideas, and a new purpose. 

Wall Street crushed us in 2008 and the banks just about depleted all our futures in 2009. 2010 was the year of transition, of taking stock of what was left and by the holidays; I think we all about had enough of the dismal days of “woe is me”.  People were out shopping, and doing things with their lives, making plans and moving forward.  We got a dose of reality, spending too much and saving too little, now with a couple of years under our belt, we are ready to shine.

Keeping our current residents is the name of the game plan, focus on our “bird in the hand”.  Keeping our residents happy and engaged is a full time job but one that can be easily planned.

1.       First and foremost, resolve your tenant complaints, a happy resident is one that will stay and not make problems down the road.  Have a time set aside each week that you are completely available to any of your renters’ calls, so they know you are there for them on a regular basis. As reibrain states, dealing with tenants is part of being a landlord. Everyone who complains likes to be heard, listen to them, acknowledge their complaint, fix the issue or explain why it can’t be corrected, clarity brings understanding, empathy brings understanding and understanding brings insight and appreciation that you are doing everything you can. Create community by understanding your resident’s needs and resolving the issues.

2.       Host events at your property that appeal to your residents. Do you have a lot of single parents? Host some children’s activities so parents can go shopping or to lunch, offer a game night, do you have teachers in residence, ask if they would be willing to tutor at no charge once a month.  Have a lot of singles, host some events to bring them together, pool parties in the summer, theatre events or movies, once a month outings that include a get together at a local restaurant. Have a lot of seniors, check out the senior centers and create a meet and greet there. Do you house students? Host a LAN party, don’t know what that is, it’s spontaneous, everyone brings a laptop, gets connected to the internet and plays a mutually agreed upon online game, gamers will know about this one, just have some snacks available. Brent Williams, Chief Insider at Multifamily Insiders offers some great ideas for event planning when he did a guest blog for My New Place, lots of ideas there, check it out. Ball games? Organize going to one. Dancing, create the opportunity to go and join in for the fun.  Reading? Create a book club and utilize your community room for discussions about the current book being read.  Guess what, if your resident’s are friends with each other, they are more likely to stay right where they live. Create community.

3.       Know your resident’s names, work on it, find a way to remember, some communities are really large, but do your best to walk your community and interact with your residents, carry doggie bones and make friends with the four legged residents that are walking around.  Take some time to say hello and good bye, ask how their day is going, you will hear more than you bargain for, but it offers time to engage and be social. Make a new friend by getting to know your residents. And then introduce your new friend to someone else in the community. Take the time to wonder and collect your resident’s interests. Do a survey, find out what your resident’s like to do.  Once you know, refer back to #2.

4.       Be proactive against any problems by making at least a twice yearly inspection of your units and give residents plenty of notice while doing so, make sure there are no leaks, no running toilets, all trash picked up in the walk ways and stairwells, lights are working where they should be, carpets are rather clean, pets are being maintained in a clean manner. This could be taken as intrusive by some, but others will appreciate the attention and may think it will head off problems before they begin. Let them know you care about the apartment and you care about them, in addition, it’s a good time to go over the renewal coming up and what they might be thinking. As the boy scouts say, “Be Prepared”.

5.       Please and Thank you go along way, when collecting rent, always be gracious, people work hard for their money and showing respect is important. Anytime you are interacting with a resident, they deserve your respect, but likewise you deserve theirs as well.  Sometimes, this isn’t always the case, there are always difficult residents to deal with and for those, always remain professional even when voices are raised, there is  no reason for you to raise yours, be firm, be  honest, be concise, but don’t be rude. Rudeness never wins any argument.

6.       What is your social media plan for 2011? Do you have one? It is easy to set up a Facebook Fan page and Twitter account, and a great way to harness the power of social media.  Find out if your management company has policies before entering the social media arena and have a plan going in. Be committed to posting regularly, and remember everything you post becomes available and very public. Utilize social media by showing off your community’s best attributes, upload photos on Facebook.  Twitter is a great way to communicate upcoming events, one Peep Tweet lets all your followers know there is a Crime Prevention meeting on Thursday at 7:00, come and meet your neighborhood crime watch volunteers. You can use the power of the Tweet for anything. Keep it Positive, keep it Engaging, keep it Energized and keep it Professional.  I call these my Peep Tweets.  Once you collect your resident’s usernames and start using them when you Tweet, you will be creating an online social community.  Bringing people together even in cyberspace is still creating community.

7.       It starts at “Hello”. Don’t underestimate the power of first impressions. Whether it ‘s on the phone or in person.  People size you up in seconds.  Look them in the eye and smile at first greeting. If you are on the phone, get down to business right away, ask them what they are looking for and what led them to you. The sort of questions you ask are the benchmark for future conversations, and always write key points down. What are they interested in, do they have pets, write down their name, first and last, that way you won’t forget it and if you do, you can check your notes. Smile whether on the phone or in person, just ask the Telephone Doctor about how far a smile goes on the phone.  We create communities with a smile.

2011 is forecast to be a slow recovery of the apartment industry; residents are an important part of the bottom line. They need to be nurtured and cared for, respected, and allowed to be heard. They need you to help create community for them and you will be rewarded by loyal residents and friends for all your hard work.  2011 will be the year that your occupancy is 100% with a waiting list. It is a lofty goal, but then nothing worth doing is easy.