Any apartment community that’s within walking distance of a Costco is a place I’d like to call home. Throw in a Jacuzzi, a view of the Washington Monument and a staff that would call my dog, Snickers, by name, and you’ve got The Metropolitan at Pentagon City—NAA’s 2010 PARAGON Community of the Year. And it’s so much more than that. Below are four reasons why the 325-unit Northern Virginia community managed by Kettler Management is the hot ticket in town.

How do you think the average leasing team is doing and how do you compare? I recently had the pleasure of reviewing last quarter’s industry report card from CallSource, where they conducted a Telephone Performance Analysis of 1,436 communities nationwide.

If you’ve ever had the pleasure—and I use that term loosely—of working as a valued Target team member, you’re well aware of the required red polo-khaki pants uniform. During my three months as a sales floor associate, I witnessed the power of such an ensemble. A plain polo shirt and khakis are fairly standard pieces in anyone’s wardrobe, but the Target brand was so deeply intertwined with the red and tan pairing that customers could spot me—a beacon of retail knowledge—a mile away. I wasn’t pleased with my uniform’s familiarity once the thrill of escorting customers to the toothbrush aisle waned, but Target was more than happy my clothing was associated with their brand.

I'm sure you'll agree, building rapport and trust with your prospects is one of, if not the most, important presentation skills you can learn. It's been said that people only buy from people they like and trust.

My roommate is about as indecisive as they come. She once spent 45 minutes in the school supplies aisle at Walmart fretting over the purchase of a Day Planner as if she were deciding whether or not to join the Peace Corps. I had the pleasure of waiting for her to make up her mind. As you can imagine, deciding which apartment community to call home was a nearly impossible task for her. If my roommate was going to sign a lease in the next 20 years, the leasing professional on hand was really going to have to sell it to her.

I've done a fair amount of property shopping in my days and the one thing that always turned me off from an apartment was the way it smelled. There are far too many apartments out there that smell like cigarette smoke, cooking odors, pet waste, cleaning products and just plain yuckiness for me to count.

One of the most important things that my overpriced college education taught me was to be prepared for an interview--especially if you have a semi-useless English degree and are desperate for any job that doesn’t involve the option to Supersize your meal.

At my last job, I had a co-worker who “telecommuted” every Wednesday. And by telecommuted, I mean sat in his Ironman pajamas all day playing World of Warcraft and plowing through an entire box of Wheat Thins while periodically checking his e-mail. I’m fairly certain this was not the vision of our generous CEO when he encouraged a more ideal work/life balance, but let’s be real—the majority of telecommuters are not going to sit in a designated “work space” in their homes, dressed in khakis and a polo shirt. Telecommuting is appealing for that very reason—telecommuters have more flexibility in their work schedule and a more casual work environment.

I’d like to take a moment to shift gears and share with you the side of our industry that resonates very powerfully with me. It’s something that can often be pushed to the side in the course of busy and unpredictable days, but it is literally the heart and soul of what we do every day.

It’s hard to believe that five years ago, NAAEI’s staff of less than eight graded more than 26,000 modular, Scantron, paper-based CAMT exams. Some of the exams didn’t even include names or ID numbers and the over 3,500 enrollment forms had to be deciphered by staff and keyed into the NAA database.

We don’t think about it, but appliances make our everyday lives easier. Imagine your life without the luxury of a dishwasher or a refrigerator. It’s almost frightening to think of daily life without appliances, let alone a computer or cell phone. But chances are that most of us have had the misfortune of a home appliance not working for one reason or another and remember how much of an inconvenience it was when it happened?

Whenever I see a picture of the standard ribbon-cutting included in almost every grand opening event, I’m plagued by one burning question – where do you buy those giant scissors? The answer, it turns out, is fairly obvious – the Internet! Unfortunately, shopping for 3-foot scissors is just the beginning when it comes to planning an apartment grand opening. Hosting such an event can be an overwhelming project for a new community, but as I found out while writing a story for the July issue of units, a well-planned ceremony can provide the perfect opportunity to show off your new property, thank investors, celebrate the completion of the project and even recruit a few new residents.

In grade school during the 60’s, I was taught that America was a melting pot where different cultures melded together into a hybrid of commonalities. Today, students are taught the analogy of America as a salad bowl, full of different cultures and nationalities, each maintaining its own uniqueness, tastes and traditions while living in harmony with the other ingredients. In the apartment industry, so many of us are fearful when selling or serving a prospect from a different cultural background.

I have been very blessed over the years to be part of some of the most successful sales teams in the history of the multi-housing industry. Some of it was luck, some of it timing and the rest of it was great team work and leadership. I learned early on that how you treat your people has a direct impact on how they treat their customers. People are motivated by recognition, encouragement and a fun atmosphere, not by beating them with a stick.

It’s Not All Black & White – Redux is a fair housing program that goes beyond the more familiar topics such as race and color (not that those are not very important issues, of course, and we should never lose sight of that). “Redux” means…wait, I am not going to tell you now because just like “there’s an app for that”, “there’s a slide for that” in my presentation.