Mills Apartments
Multifamily #Trust30: Greatness
Moving past the halfway point with day 16 of the #trust30 challenge –
Greatness appeals to the future. If I can be firm enough to-day to do right, and scorn eyes, I must have done so much right before as to defend me now. Be it how it will, do right now. Always scorn appearances, and you always may. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Trusting intuition and making decisions based on it is the most important activity of the creative artist and entrepreneur. If you are facing (and fearing) a difficult life decision, ask yourself these three questions:
1) “What are the costs of inaction?”….
2) “What kind of person do I want to be?”
3) “In the event of failure, could I generate an alternative positive outcome?”
Multifamily greatness
We recently purchased a property from a lending institution who had in turn taken it back from a previous ownership interest. When completing the due
diligence phase of our process we discovered roughly 40 units in various stages of disrepair. Units we classify as down. Down to mean not habitable absent some major rehab.
It spoke loudly to the point of the first question – inaction. Banks are not property managers. And, in lieu of spending $25 to $30k to replace the roofs, they left them alone. Result of that inaction? Several hundred thousands of value wiped away.
Greatness starts with forecasting the consequence of in-actions. In this case, it would suffice to say that some back of the napkin math would have yielded an ROI that would have driven a decision to replace the roofs.
What kind of company do we want to be
At Mills Properties, we ask that question a lot. As of late it has been in the area of branding, marketing, digital footprint and the such. We have been slow in moving toward what we want to achieve part and parcel because of near 50% growth in community and unit count over the past four years. And, in part not having a real plan.
Fast forward to today. We have taken the time to craft a 40+ page branding/marketing plan that includes everything from font types and size for all thing forward facing to big ticket strategies to dominate the St. Louis Apartments on and off-line space. It lays it all out and captures how everything from curb appeal to lease contract signing ladders up into an overarching message for the neighborhoods and communities we serve. And, in advance our striving to make a splash nationally at some point.
It all starts with asking the right questions.
Multifamily failure
I think the best way to overcome failure is understand that it going to happen from time to time. In fact, I like what Tom Peters has to say about it, “reward
failure.” If you are not failing, you are not trying, you are not learning and thus you are not growing. Equity Residential cements this in their 10 ways to be a winner – one being ‘take educated risks.’ The expectation is that you gather every piece of information you can to include the counsel of others before you pull the trigger. And, if you fail, you simply have a group postmortem where you examine the facts and the various action points to see what could have been done better.
Off for a float trip
It’s Saturday, it’s raining and we are headed out for camping and a float trip. Should be loads of fun. I say that with lots of hope in mind.
Your hoping you have an amazing weekend contributor,
M
Multifamily Leadership: Reward the Doers
Execution and results are the name of the game in any and all business. Be it for profit or not for profit, getting things done that most positively effect the outcome is the chief aim. And, there are several ways to make sure your multifamily business is achieving results. There is the almighty stick and the ever enticing carrot. Threats and rewards. For the sake of this post and the continuation of this leadership series let us focus on reward.
Multifamily Doers
What is a doer? I heard a saying one time that went something like this; I would rather catch a tiger by the tail than have to light a fire under an
elephant’s ass. It speaks loudly in the way of defining a doer. Doer’s get things done. They move mountains. They find ways that others never even dream about much less think about. They never let a day go by without making meaningful progress toward their goals and aspirations. And, doers get rewarded.
Three Suggestions
1. Measure what you expect and reward what you measure
2. Reward the doers far in excess of the status quo – exaggerated and excessively reward the doers
3. Promote those that get things done – quickly
Multifamily Leasing: What Pulled Your Trigger
Common question from a regional manager to a property manager; “What is the reason they didn’t lease?” Maybe the better question is; “Why did they lease?”
Take the people that did lease and find out what pulled their commitment trigger.
Triggers:
1. People want to look good. Is it that your address or your building one that will give them celebrity status?
2. Does it save them money?
3. Does it shave their commute time?
4. Does it help them worry less?
5. Is it comfortable?
6. Does it help them feel accepted or included?
Who out there asks, ‘why they did’ in lieu of ‘why they didn’t?’
What did you do with the information?
Your wondering why contributor,
M
Multifamily #Trust30: Like New
Day 13 of the #Trust30 challenge
…Can you remember the moment when you stopped walking a path of someone else, and started cutting your own? (Author: Bridget Pilloud)
I am a bit off prompt again today but hopefully you can appreciate the spirit of it.
I can remember the day like it was yesterday. It was late 1998 and I lived in Silverdale, Washington. I worked for a national REIT at the time. I was privileged to work for a gentleman that I still consider one of the best in the business especially as it relates to the topic of leadership. He was a teacher first and a business person second. Working for him was an absolute education.
The moment of truth for me came in the way of an employee concern. This individual had an alpha dog Type Triple A personality. Bite first and forget
about asking questions later. I had given it everything I had up to that point and resigned to calling my RM in. What did he do? Nothing! He listened to my plea for him to assist in taking care of this guy and he simply kept asking me what I was going to do about it? To me, I was doing what I was going to about it; I wanted him to deal with it.
Up to that point in my career; two things existed for me, 1. I worked on amazing assets and 2. the people loved what they did. The path I followed up to that point was one of little to no resistance to getting things done. At this moment the only path that existed for me was vertical and gave cause for a major pain in my side. And, I no ability to displace it. G thanks, Mr. RM man.
Fast forward: I survived!! Mr. RM man forced me to stare my moment of truth right in the eye and do something about. I had to choose my own path and fortunately it worked out. I was able to forge a new beginning with Type Triple A and he actually thanked me for taking the time to care. Whoa! Not what I expected to hear.
From that day forward, I looked at every employee issue – like new.
Your looking at everyday and every circumstance like new contributor,
M
Photo props to cheesy42
Multifamily Leadership: Follow Through
Up to this point in our Seven Behaviors Leadership Series we have talked about Knowing Your People and Knowing Your Business, Insisting on Realism , Setting Clear Goals and Priorities.
In today’s entry we are going to discuss follow through. I have disclosed my follow through epiphany story a couple of times on this and a couple other blogs. It really was the turning point for me in my career as the point of follow through hit me right between the eyes. It was one of the those duh! moments.
Multifamily Team Follow Through
That said and on the heels of our Relentless Courage a couple weeks ago. The post spoke to people withholding comments and feedback in group meeting forums. So much gets missed if we don’t encourage an open culture where feedback is paramount to getting better. Once you have the sharing culture set in place; follow through should be next on the list.
Four Things to Consider
1. Team leaders/communicators have to make objectives or action items very clear. Ask clarifying questions such as; Do you understand what is expected? or Is there anything you don’t understand about what we need to get accomplished?.
2. Help people understand the ‘Why behind the what’ of follow through items. Helping people see the big picture assists with two things
a. They see the action item as a mission and not a task
b. They understand that the action is assisting in the creation of something bigger than self. A key motivating factor for many
3. Set the right follow through mechanisms in place. Who is responsible? How will they track? Who will they report out to? When?
4. Ask questions along the way. Don’t just assign and forget. As the leader, it is imperative that you check in along the way.
5. Always conduct postmortems? Review the results of follow through or lack thereof. There is tremendous value in replaying events.
Your off to follow through on today’s commitments contributor,
