Wood Residential

Seeking enhanced efficiencies

By Leah Etling on May 21, 2015 in People

With demand for new, high-quality urban apartment projects on the rise nationwide, Wood Residential has been busy. Parent company Wood Partners builds, positions and then sells Class A apartment communities in the nation’s most popular major cities. Wood Residential’s job is to lease up the properties at the highest rate, providing a strong residency foundation for incoming ownership.

Wood Residential Services launched in 2010 with three properties and less than 1,000 units in its portfolio; it expects to close the 2014 calendar year with 41 properties and 10,000 units under management across the country.

As Vice President of Operations Jillian Kral recently explained, those numbers are always in flux due to the company’s business model, which makes her job challenging and exciting at the same time.

“The challenges are all very positive. Things move quickly, giving us a very short window to execute as a merchant builder. If we miss that window, we don’t get another chance to try again and we’ve lost opportunity and profit for our developers,” Kral said. A 9-year Wood Partners veteran, she worked her way from the sales and marketing side of the business, to asset management, and now focuses on technology, operations, policies and team building.

In order to create the smartest process for lease-ups, stabilizing properties and then turning them over, Kral and her teams have adopted an increased number of Yardi products. Over the last two years, they will have implemented the bulk of the Yardi multifamily single solution stack.

“With most of our portfolio, we have a 12–18 month hold time which is why it’s so important for us to have streamlined processes and efficiencies that focus on sales while increasing rents and velocity, ultimately resulting in a profitable sale of the property. The first step was to move as much of the administration as possible away from the site level so that the teams could really focus on sales,” Kral said.

One of the advantages of the Yardi technology Wood Residential uses is the transparency it provides into the sales cycle. Lead tracking, accountability and the convenience of a single database have all proven beneficial.

A few examples: “We do not have to do as much data entry because it’s a single point database. Every time a LeasingPad CRM lead comes in, it goes straight to Yardi Voyager. Every time a resident signs up with ResidentShield renter’s insurance, it populates there,” Kral explained.

She’s especially enthused with the growth and improvements she has seen with RentCafe Connect (formerly Yardi Call Center), an enhanced product that provides 24-7 live phone support to Wood Residential properties.

“The RentCafe Connect team has put in the time, effort, and resources to employ higher caliber individuals to answer calls and go to great lengths to know our product, know our properties and answer our prospects questions fluidly,” Kral said.

“I start by looking at a portfolio summary showing conversions from calls to tours to leases to move-ins and can then drill down and listen to every call without ever leaving the Voyager screen I logged into. Not only have efficiency’s been created at the site level but they have been created for our executive team as well which is a win/win any way you look at it.”