Q. How long have you been an apartment building owner?
A. More than 12 years.
Q. What is the greatest value NAA and your local apartment association provides for your business?
A. Without a doubt, it’s the ability to lobby local, state and federal legislators on behalf of property owners.
Q. How have recent changes in local, state or federal government regulations or taxes affected how you manage your communities?
A.The most significant issue has been property taxes. This line item has caused us to scale back or delay capital improvements to properties. Given that rent increases have been hard to come by over the past two to three years, our ability to keep annual capital improvements on schedule is limited.
Q. How has the “recovery” been for the Chicago and Midwest markets? How do you think your market compares to other prominent national and regional markets?
A. It depends which submarket you are talking about. Downtown Chicago and the near north side are doing pretty well. The far north side, west side and south are not faring as well. My market (south side of Chicago) comprises lower- to middle-class African-Americans and still is recovering. The rent increases we can make are minimal, if at all. The relatively high unemployment rate compared to other groups hurts our market.
Q.Are you offering more or fewer concessions in your market today compared to a year ago?
A. A bit less. We have always used concessions strategically. We don’t have across-the-board concessions. It all depends on where the property is located and what types of units are not moving.
Q. What is your favorite marketing channel for your vacancies?
A. The most effective is resident referral. The vast majority of residents who come from this channel are similar to the residents who refer them. They have been told that we run a good operation, they have seen the apartments and they want to live in a good environment.
Q. How does your resident referral incentive program work, and is it successful?
A. Any residents in good rental standing can refer a prospect. If we rent them an apartment, we provide the referring resident a check for $250 within 60 to 90 days after the resident moves in. There is no limit on the number of referrals. We get seven to nine referrals per year.
Q. When you or one of your staff members speak to your residents each month, what are their greatest concerns with their living arrangements and what are you doing to address them?
A. All in all, our residents don’t have big concerns. About 90 percent of calls from residents have to do with work orders or maintenance: sink stopped up, water drips or light bulbs out in the hallways, for instance. The other 10 percent are the types of resident issues that I believe all owners go through, such as “my neighbor’s music is too loud.” Effective resident screening and explaining our rules and regulations helps us to reduce the number of resident complaints.
Q. Can you share one secret that you have found to be effective in your efforts to manage your communities better?
A. Active management, upfront screening, investing money back into the properties and responding to residents’ issues in a timely manner. There is no such thing as turnkey management in this business.