Fair Housing: Landmark Judgment Passed for Multifamily Company

A landmark decision was handed out by the Justice Department yesterday.  This is something that everyone in the multifamily industry needs to pay attention to.  Here is the link to the article and also the full article from the Justice Department.

http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/capital/2009/11/03/justice-department-hits-la-apartment-owner-with-record-fine/

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2009/November/09-crt-1187.html

A couple of key excerpts are as follows: “Tuesday, the Department of Justice announced that a Los Angeles apartment-building owner had agreed to pay $2.7 million to settle allegations that he discriminated against blacks, Hispanics, and families with children. It’s the largest penalty ever obtained by the department in a housing-discrimination case involving apartments.

“The magnitude of this settlement should send a message to all landlords that we will vigorously pursue violations of the Fair Housing Act,” said Thomas Perez, assistant attorney general for the department’s civil rights division.”

In addition, an independent contractor will test Sterling’s compliance with fair-housing laws at his Los Angeles properties for three years and provide training to his apartment managers and leasing agents on fair-housing rules.”

This judgment should strike a chord with all of us the importance of making sure our companies are fully educated in the Fair Housing Act.  I found it quite sad after reading this article yesterday and then reflecting on a recent conference I attended.  Here is why.  One of my usual questions to everyone who came by our booth was, “What does your company do for training?”  It was unfortunate to hear from some, “Training! We don’t need training.” 

I wonder how this landlord feels about multifamily training now.  The Fair Housing Act is in place for a reason.  In order to work without fear of a violation, it’s important to be educated properly and have clear documentation on how each staff member is in compliance. 

This judgment could be the first of many to come.  Let’s be proactive and not reactive.  Being reactive could cost us dear.

Written by Jonathan Saar - The Training Factor

Corporate Cut the Tabs! -My Take on the Interview with Captain Sullenberger

If any of you missed out on The Daily Show with John Stewart the other day, the interview with Captain Chesley Sullenberger is below.  First of all, our hats go off to this amazing person who showed such poise and saved so many lives.  There were two particular points from his interview that struck home with me.  Much thanks to my wife Renee, who totally rocks, for pointing them out to me.

For my multifamily colleagues and really for all of us in business, here they are. 

1.       Corporations need to invest in training and

2.       Put the Tabs Back!!!!!!!

The interview is only about 7 minutes long, so please watch and then see my comments below.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Chesley Sullenberger
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Ron Paul Interview

How many of you thought how completely lame and ridiculous it was for an airline to mess with an emergency handbook!!  As the Captain stated, “I think it would make the system better if we put the tabs back.”  Corporate somehow came to a conclusion that to cut costs, it would be a good idea to take the tabs out!!

This is just an amazing example of where some corporate officials have their heads.  Unfortunately this line of thinking continues across the corporate world and seems to have leaked into the multifamily industry.  It continues to sadden me to hear of major layoffs as a result of the perception that this is the only way to cut costs.   These employees are the ones who have been trying to get their voices heard and who have consistently tried to present to their corporate heads cost saving solutions in order to help their company succeed.  But they feel like my illustration up at the top-gagged and tied up.  And the corporate solution- “Let’s cut back on the tabs.”

This post may be of little consolation to those who are stunned and hurt over what has happened to you.  You are thinking to yourself—“After all the years I have devoted myself to my job and I just got treated like a Tab!!!”  I was a victim of that once as well and I am sorry for what you are going through.

Thank goodness for the Captain’s training.  It saved lives that day.  In the multifamily industry, you cannot go without a training program.  When it counts the most, the training you provide for your staff may save you from a Fair Housing or Sexual Harassment disaster.  Do you keep wondering why your marketing dollars are not bringing the return you hoped for?  The training you provide for your leasing, maintenance and management team will change that.

This message may never reach the people who really need to hear it, but you are reading this now and remember to take this with you as you progress in your multifamily professional career.

P.S. please take a moment and comment.  Thank you.

Written by Jonathan Saar who was inspired by his wonderful wife for this post.

The Training Factor

Is Social Media Like Baking a Cake?

I remember making my first Devil’s Food Chocolate Cake . I was around 12 years old and my wonderful mother was trying to teach me to bake. This was no cake in a box method, it was all from scratch. She outlined the necessary steps in order to be successful. Read the recipe carefully. Make sure I have all my ingredients. Get out all my measuring instruments. Then begin the step by step process as outlined in the recipe. Thankfully I had my mother there while I painstakingly went through the steps. There was very little room for error, so I needed to be precise. She gave me some tips as I went along and Voila! I had my first cake.


I was thinking about that this morning and applied it to the continuing debate on how to employ Social Media. I imagined myself making that cake and not using the right ingredients, not measuring properly, and not reading through and applying the steps outlined in the recipe. What would I have? I would have a huge mess, failure, and something that would not represent my Mom very well.

Social Media is no different. You cannot just jump on the band wagon and throw a whole bunch of ingredients together and hope to have some sort of tangible results! The recipe is research. The ingredients are the right Social Media options that will suit your business plan and purpose. The measuring instruments speak for themselves. It is important to employ the right amount of any given ingredient. The steps also speak for themselves.

Is there only one recipe for Devil’s Food Cake? Absolutely not! They may all have similar characteristics, but each baker has their own unique recipe that fits them. Social Media is the same. You need to find your recipe. You need to measure and you need to take careful steps. Hopefully you will have a cool Mom to help you along the way.



Written by Jonathan Saar -The Training Factor


For more information on Multifamily Leasing and Fair Housing Training, please visit our site.

Is Email a Form of Communication?

Email etiquette is something that is extremely important in the professional world.  We have been trained on proper spelling, not using acronyms, using proper grammar and of course making sure we do not blab on and on over a subject that can be wrapped up in a few short sentences.

Email has become one of the fastest ways to send a message to a colleague, employer, and clients.  Text messaging is now becoming just as popular to send out quick bursts of information.  So back to my question: Is Email a Form of Communication?

Let’s analyze that question with some other examples.  If you are standing in front of a person who is asking you a question and you do not respond to them, are you communicating? The answer is NO.  If you are on the phone with someone who is sharing information with you and you say nothing in reply, is that communication?  The answer is NO.

The only way to truly define basic communication is when 2 or more parties in any given setting are actually exchanging words in some fashion.  So, is email a form of communication?  It can be only if you have the manners to actually reply back.  Otherwise you are no different than the person cited in the examples above.  How would you describe the person not responding in our two examples?  I will let you answer that in the comment section below.

For some odd reason “some” in this professional world have begun to view email as a “If I feel like responding” or “This email from this person is just not that important to me”.  Now before you get all ruffled, I am not talking about spammers or those companies who buy lead lists and shoot out a blast email with their latest product or service they are selling.  I am referring to all individuals who send you a message that has your name in it with some information and questions perhaps and then closes with their signature.  Can someone answer me as to why those emails would not be responded to?

Here is an image we can all relate to, 20 years ago, your parents are standing beside you and someone is talking to you.  You do not say anything in reply and what did your folks do to you next?

We have a lot to do each day, but setting an example in communication is paramount.  Some email responses may need some time and others may simply need a “No thank you” or “I have that covered”.  Whatever the case may be email is communication and when professionals do not respond, I wonder what you would call them?

Written by Jonathan Saar—The Training Factor

Hello!!!!! Anyone in There????

The above title can be a common expression when dealing with our fellow team members.  Our ability to communicate and to be communicated to is a major determining factor in our leadership skills.  The complete slowdown and or failure in the business process are usually attributed to a complete breakdown of communication between various departments.  Then the frustration, anxiety, uncertainty and many other negative emotions are the soup du jour.  How would you feel if these emotions are what described your communication business process?  Maybe it’s time for a second look at your communication policies.

Here is an example of a typical corporate situation.  Your superior assigns you a project wanting to see a specific outcome in order to enhance a particular business process.  You research, brainstorm, rough draft and then bring the project to a final proposal.  You present the information to your superior but that is the last you ever hear of it.  No next steps, no implementation date---nothing!  What happened?  You may never know.  Reason why this took place—no communication.

This is one little teeny tiny example that barely scratches the surface of where breakdowns in communication can hurt the daily process.  So what can practically be done?  Maybe the title of this blog should be the theme of your next communication training meeting. 

Some other symptoms of bad communication would be finger pointing, lack of follow through, no clear direction for next project and the list goes on.  Those are the symptoms, how about attacking the disease.  Lack of policy is the disease.  The communication policy needs to include everyone.  It does little good for a policy to affect only certain departments but never applied by the leaders of the company.  One word for that—FAILURE.

You want to start saving money and make your company a happy and productive place to work—this is my tip of the day: Open your two ears and do a lot more listening and do half the talking.  That's what my Mom would always say to me.  What does your communication policy sound like?  I hope it's not like the one demonstrated in our video below.  Enjoy the laugh.

Written by Jonathan Saar:  The Training Factor

More Bang for Your Buck

This was an absolutely hilarious training video in my opinion, but then again I am often told my sense of humor is quite dry.  From a business point of view, this video has such a great analogy.  Keeping this all in good humor of course, but can you honestly imagine this poor guy making it to the Olympics with this existing program he is using?  It may be cheap, it may look like what the real Olympic training programs are, but the bottom line is that it is NOT!

There seem to be quite few companies offering multifamily training programs out there.  They promise the world, they say they can offer it for half the price of other systems which is probably absolutely the truth.  I guess the moral and professional dilemma is the decision to choose what training is best for your multifamily team.  What kind of bang do you want for your buck?  Maybe it depends on how bad you want the gold medal for your team.

Written by Jonathan Saar The Training Factor

New Media Atlanta Summary-Choose Your Direction

Last Friday September 25^th, I had the opportunity to attend “New Media Atlanta” at the Georgia Tech Research Institute.  Chris Brogan was the keynote speaker and was surrounded by other speakers who had their own take, message, and experience to share with this audience.

The scene was quite intriguing.  The room where the conference was held was extra high tech.  Quite comfortable for everyone and a place to plug in your laptop, make some notes and enjoy the presentations.  The environment was totally the perfect breeding ground for the social media enthusiasts who were ready with their twitter accounts to share this information with the world.  On that day alone, 3719 tweets were recorded based on statistics from http://wthashtag.com/Nmatl

Trying to wrap up the key points from that day in a few paragraphs will be a challenge, but here I go.  Basically there is not a one size fits all standard of Social Media.  Every company has a different product, service, and customer that need to be engaged properly.  It does you little good to have 30,000 followers on Twitter and 950 fans of your Facebook page, when you have absolutely no dollars to show for it.  Social Media is just another aspect of any other marketing plan. You do not just jump in with both feet; you need to carefully study and measure to make sure your methods are providing the best effect. 

This really starts by “listening”.  Do you know what your customers or residents want?  Do you know what they are saying about you?  Do you have a message that will engage them, so that they want to come back and hear more?  These are just a few questions that are necessary when formulating a plan to add Social Media to your existing structure.  FYI-Horizon Realty made the list of examples of what not to do when using Social Media.  I don’t think we need to go down that road again.

One statement that stuck with me from Chris Brogan’s presentation was this; ask people “How much do I suck?”  In other words, be ready to take the good with the bad.  Social Media has made the world completely transparent.

The multifamily industry is starting to break into this frontier.  Some are trying it out on their own, and some are using experienced and skilled consultants.  Social Media can you show your dedication to Fair Housing Laws.  It demonstrates your commitment to customer service and resident retention.  The main point is to accurately measure your path.  Use strategic reporting to carefully chart your progress.  If after a business quarter passes by and you do not see the results, do not toss the plan into the garbage.  Tweak it and keep moving forward.  Social Media is not a fad, it is here to stay.

Written by Jonathan Saar The Training Factor