Industry Network Connections Help Regional Manager Thrive in Various Rental Markets Across the Country 

Washington, D.C., Indiana, Las Vegas and Phoenix are rental housing markets that may as well be worlds apart.

So when Keir Morris moved from the nation’s capital and accepted a job with LCOR as a Regional Manager for its Midwest and West Coast communities, she had to leave behind the large network of local contacts she had built up over her past 19 years in property management.

Fortunately, the connections she made through her involvement with the National Apartment Association helped make her transition a lot smoother.

One of the first apartment professionals Morris reached out to for help was Alexandra Jackiw, CPM, CAPS, President of Indianapolis-based Buckingham Management LLC, and Vice Chairman of NAA, who referred Morris to several reputable vendors in the Midwest. Morris made a point of introducing herself to Jackiw years ago and has since gotten to know her well through various NAA functions.

She says her Apartment Guide contacts in Washington, D.C., and Virginia Beach also reached out and introduced her to the company’s Midwest team.

When it came to Las Vegas—a market that was completely foreign to Morris—she got in touch with Melissa Foley, Vice President of Sales for Multi Family Insurance Partners. The two first met when Morris worked for Lexis Nexis several years ago and kept in touch through NAA.

Foley connected her to Brett Holmes, President of the Las Vegas-based apartment management company Advanced Management Group, who took Morris out to lunch and offered his assistance.

“Technically we should be competitors, but [Brett] still wanted to help,” Morris says. “People don’t realize how important networking is. My connections through local apartment associations and NAA have been a saving grace—and I’ve tried to return the favor. Some vendors know I may not be able to utilize their services, but that doesn’t mean I won’t refer them to others.”

Morris was responsible for staffing needs for each management transition and originally thought she would have to replace the entire staff at one of her Phoenix communities after the employees were offered jobs to stay with their management company.

“Having a staff of zero at a 340-unit community on the West Coast would not be good,” Morris says.

But by working with Foley and executives at a prominent NAA member ILS, Morris was connected to the appropriate multifamily housing service partners in Phoenix.

Foley and the ILS then arranged for a networking happy hour and invited prospective employees they knew through their business relations. The following day, Morris had eight resumes.

“My boss could not believe I didn’t need a recruiter, but I got all of the candidates I needed through the networking and our own advertising,” says Morris, who ended up retaining most of the original staff.

While Morris’ association connections were of great help to her during her career transition, she says she also took a very proactive approach to each LCOR acquisition assigned to her.

“When you are taking over the management of a property in an unfamiliar market and you know you want to keep some—if not all—of the original employees, it’s so important to immediately make a site visit and communicate your company’s management intentions,” Morris says. “Put the staff’s mind at ease so that they can focus on their job instead of worrying about where they are going to interview if let go. It can be a traumatic and uncertain time for those employees and if you don’t handle that transition well, you’re going to lose people.”

Morris’ method has paid off. After flying to Las Vegas within a week of taking over the management of one community, Morris was able to convince a great leasing consultant who had quit the day before, assuming she would be let go, to come back and remain on staff.  Fortunately, at the other West Coast property where LCOR thought it might not be able to retain any of the staff, all but one leasing consultant ended up staying.

With staffing issues under control and a wealth of vendors to choose from, Morris says now it’s just about adjusting to the little quirks of each market.

For example, “even if you’re on the West Coast, the East Coast folks still want to talk business with you at 8 a.m. their time,” she says. “This time change will take some getting used to.”

And by networking through association contacts, Morris will always know who to call.   
  –NAA’s Lauren Boston

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