Monday, August 31, 2009

Are you an Otter?



Good morning everyone. I love watching Planet Earth and found an episode particularly interesting this weekend. There was a section that discussed the otter as a social creature and how well they work together as a group.

Here is what was cool. What do you think? One on One, Otter versus Crocodile. Who do you think would win. The answer is obvious. Don't count the otter out yet. Here is how the otter faces such a formidable opponent--teamwork. As a group they work together to harass and antagonize a crocodile that is coming to close to its family group. The crocodile although hungry, gives up on trying to catch a meal.

Lesson for today--Are you an otter? How much do you contribute to your team? What is the crocodile in your company's daily challenges? Is it the economy? Occupancies? Or maybe something within ourselves?

Whatever the case may be, there is a lot to learn from such a wonderful creature. The only thing that matters to an otter is keeping the team together and facing adversity and challenges head on. How do you act like an otter in your daily work and life? Thanks for reading, and have a great Monday.



Friday, August 28, 2009

Training--Huhh!! Why??

Good morning everyone and happy Friday!!!

Morning thoughts have been reflecting on the different types of multifamily professionals I have met. The most intriguing for sure were the ones that when I asked questions about their training program, they said--Huhh! Why? They looked at me as if to say-"We hired them because they know the position, why should we as a company have to go any further?"

I really need your input on this statement. Here is what I have humbly noticed thus far. Please notice that this may not be the only variable on this next statement, however it is an important factor. Those companies who did not believe in training have been laying off like crazy. In contrast those companies who have a strong training program are hiring and even buying up new additions to their portfolio.

My message--Maybe your response to why you are laying off or why your NOI does not look good at all should be--Huh!! Why!!

Open the mind, examine the possibilities, get involved with the social aspect of the multifamily industry so that you can learn from others. Be humble.

Please share your thoughts-thanks folks- Have a fabulous weekend.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Informative Multifamily Bloggers-Knowledge is Power

Good morning Everyone,

I am kind of new at blogging, but about to dig in and learn how to do it by just "doing". We know the old expression of jumping in with both feet. Knowing this was a necessary part of interaction with the multifamily community, I decided it best to learn from other's who blog that I especially appreciate. I know there are probably many others that I just have not noticed as of yet, so if I missed you and you want to share yours with me, please feel free.

The links below are some great blogs from experienced professionals here in the multifamily industry. The fastest way to keep in tune with their posts is to either subscribe by email or use a RSS feed that posts the information right to your reader. I use google as my home page, so when I open it up in the morning, I take a few minutes and get a good start to the day by reading the insights on their blogs.


I look forward to blogging regularly now. Just so you know I am not a "stats" kind of guy. I know that is helpful for many topics. My direction is more on overall development. Whether it is ourselves personally or how are companies grow, I feel that statistics have a place in the board room absolutely, but also how we live our lives each day and our personal motto we live with is just as important. Other than that I have a lot to share about my customers and their success. I work with a lot of great teams now and their passion inspires me.

Thanks for reading and I look forward to your comments.


Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Are Complaints Growing or Lowering?

Now that the Horizon situation seems to be passing for the moment, I thought it prudent to point something out that I have been monitoring. It seems that this twitter complaint has inspired others to really get on board. I use twilert to monitor certain keywords that people use and to see in what context they are using them. Of course I have our company name and I regularly do random tests to see if my tweet turns up in my morning email report on that key word.

I also have a keyword report on “property management”. Since the well published situation that happened not to long ago, I am noticing this trend of complaining continuing. This is just with that particular expression alone. In the tweets I noticed they named the management company within their post. One company I knew and I let them know right away which they were grateful for. The others unfortunately I did not know who they were and felt sad that a customer complaint was going to go unheard.

My other thought was, how many tweeters are not using the expression “property management”, but are just naming the company name. When I tried to see a twitter presence on the companies that were named in the complaints, I could find none.

What lessons do you think need to be learned here????

On the hand, I felt quite privileged last night to monitor a property management company have an entire business meeting via twitter. Mike Whaling from @30Lines made this great comment last night to them, “Want transparency? Very interesting to watch @AlbertMBerriz & the McKinley team openly talk about their biz plans on Twitter. “

I was amazed myself to see a team embrace technology with people who are using it to its fullest potential and are using it to engage and connect with their residents.

Is this message getting out there?