Due diligence by onsite staff ensures a community is best prepared when executives pay a visit.
A visit by high-level executives to a community can be one of the most stressful events onsite staff will experience. It doesn’t have to be so nerve-wracking.
After her years of experience working on both sides of executive site visits, Lincoln Property Company Regional Manager Lenora Carpenter devised a seminar to help communities better prepare. The valuable training program, entitled, “The Big Wigs Are Coming,” has been well received at several local apartment associations.
“Everyone assumes managers know how to prepare for a visit, but the truth is that many don’t,” Carpenter says. “There are ways to make a better impression on owners and supervisors and make these visits more effective for everyone.”
The four-hour program covers everything from preparing reports and data well ahead of upper-level management’s arrival on the property and helping staff appear as professional as possible to making the community spotless.
“I’ve shopped properties for prospective owners and have been so disappointed in their curb appeal,” Carpenter says. She says part of the problem is that staff members are so close to their own communities on a day-to-day basis that they are unable to see what first-time or infrequent visitors do notice.
“A lot of times, property managers get stuck in the office working on administrative duties and they’re not out inspecting the community,” she says. ‘They need to get out there on a regular basis and see the curb appeal. If I’m an owner, I’m probably going to drive to the back side of the property and see if anybody’s paying attention over there.”
The presentation explains why and when owners visit, emphasizes the importance of having all staff scheduled for duty and available on the day of the visit and describes the importance of community staff having a strong grasp of the local market’s statistics and comps.
Knowing renewal numbers for the next 90 days, reasons for move-outs, eviction statuses and a community’s resident demographics are especially crucial for these visits, Carpenter says.
Prim and Proper
She also advises managers to check model apartments to see if they are in need of make-ready touch-ups and to check parking lots for striping and signage.
The community’s rental office should be freshened up and routine problem areas such as dumpsters, fascia board paint and stockpiled construction or landscaping materials should be given attention to help improve their overall appearance.
Onsite staff should be prepared to explain any ongoing fix-it projects and work-arounds to owners who may be surprised to see such conditions at the community, Carpenter says.
The sale of properties and the shuffling of management company personnel at a community can create confusion and miscommunication, Carpenter says.
“There is a lot of turnover in management in our industry,” she says. “That’s just the market, unfortunately. If you have a new owner, you don’t always know what that owner might expect. To be honest, we move people up the ladder very quickly sometimes, so you can have an inexperienced assistant manager suddenly managing a property.”
In a 15-minute exercise during the presentation, Carpenter has attendees discuss and suggest potential problems and assets in their models, clubhouses, amenity areas, gates, garages, parking lots and elevators to see what is operating well and what might be improved before the owners’ visits.
The Pre-Visit Checklist
Carpenter also provides attendees a checklist of items to deal with before a visit. These include potholes, untrimmed trees, drainage issues, ineffective lighting, deteriorating sidewalks and stairwells, trash collection areas, expired or missing fire extinguishers, inoperable cars, unsafe play equipment and garages or covered parking, among other things.
She advises attendees to find a positive way to deliver bad news: Have a plan of action in place to correct deficiencies, be open to suggestions, always carry a notepad and take criticism like a pro with the understanding that none of it is intended to be personal.
Learn From Local Associations
Carpenter says she was surprised that many attending her seminar are from service partner companies.
“One-third of attendees at one class were vendors,” she says. “They want to know what they can do from a marketing standpoint. Can they provide site traffic numbers in the area? Can they provide current market surveys? Can they supply banners or other materials? What can they suggest and how can they help prepare us?”
Even after years in rental property management, Brandy Lemon, Property Manager at Longfellow Heights Apartments, Kansas City, Mo., figured she could always use tips on preparing for a site visit by home office executives. So when the Kansas City Apartment Association offered a seminar on the topic in January, she signed up right away.
“The seminar gave us some great insights on how to flash things up a little when someone’s visiting,” she says.
Carpenter encouraged managers to always keep their communities in visit-ready condition, helping them avoid the chaos of rushing to prepare flower beds or having to paint parking lot lines in the days leading up to a visit.
Lemon says that was a valuable lesson. “A lot of managers spend time sweating it when someone’s coming to visit,” she says. “If you’re prepared on a daily basis, you don’t need to worry about that.”
And even she—an experienced manager—learned something new. “We don’t have uniforms at my property,” she says. “One of the things I took away is that if you’re not completely alike, try and dress in the same color so you have a uniform impression on visiting day.”