Kevin Thompson, Senior Vice President of Marketing for Greensboro, N.C.-based Bell Partners,  a Yardi client, has been known to say that when it comes to multifamily, residents literally “live in our box of Tide.” It’s an intriguing analogy from the experienced consumer product marketing executive, whose diversified experience includes stints at AvalonBay Communities, Iams, Fruit of the Loom and Promus Hotel Cos. At Bell, Thompson has pushed for creative marketing approaches that get realistic about how to connect with residents, and takes the time to listen to their feedback and concerns. While an apartment residence might not typically be thought of as a tactile product, the Tide analogy melds the residents’ living experience with the marketing of a successful multifamily brand. “Our consumers actually live in our product (the apartment home), as thus live in our brand, too,” Thompson explained.    “And because our customers do live in our box of Tide, any flaws or inconsistencies in delivering the brand and service promise are magnified.  Conversely, any positive experiences are also memorialized.  We need to be constantly aware of the intimate connection between our products and our consumers.  Only with this realization do we get the right sense of the importance of our brands.” MHN:  Bell recently introduced a new marketing campaign centered around the concept of “Hassle Free Living.” Tell us what you did differently and how it worked? Thompson:  Well, we wanted to get beyond the usual providing superior customer service mantra, so we started thinking about a residential living environment that would be characterized by the elimination of problems and issues before they happen.  Ergo, Hassle-Free Living®.  We began with a series of resident focus groups, to hear what our existing customers had to say about the concept.  The most interesting aspect...

Colleen Gray admits that when a frigid ice storm struck her hometown of Toronto, Ontario a few days before Christmas, she wasn’t prepared. “I had no flashlight, candles, tasty emergency food,” said the Business Applications Leader for Real Estate Management Services, a Yardi client. Her apartment lost power on Dec. 21 around 10 p.m. Nor did she realize that power was going to be out for more than three full days. The storm knocked out electricity and other services to 300,000 Toronto residents, and a few hundred were still without power as of this writing on Dec. 30. Anxious to have the most up-to-date information on weather conditions, expectations for the next few days how friends, family and colleagues were doing, Colleen was glued to her iPhone, which she hadn’t charged the night the power went out. “I was trying to get information from web sites, while at the same time rationing data access as I knew it drained the battery pretty fast,” she told us in an email. But Sunday morning, she was already below 50 percent of her battery and had no idea how much longer it would be out – service wasn’t restored until 6 p.m. on Dec. 24. Then she remembered – a tiny, battery powered iPhone charger was included in a gift for clients delivered at Yardi’s recent Canadian client appreciation dinner. “Brilliant!  This gave me enough juice to get through the day and evening. The next day I went to the office and was able to charge up both my iPhone and Portable charger to get me through another night.   It was a tremendous comfort knowing that I wasn’t going to run out of power when the only thing connecting me to information and friends and family was...

As 2013 wound to a close, natural disasters both abroad and at home were devastating for the Philippines – where Typhoon Haiyan killed nearly 6,000 people – and in Illinois, where tornadoes destroyed more than 400 homes. Both events occurred in November and were fast-moving and unexpected, leaving tremendous destruction behind. Yardi Systems has a long track record of providing financial assistance to disaster victims, and that tradition continued after these catastrophic events. Typhoon Haiyan To reach families who lost their homes and were without access to clean water following the typhoon, Yardi contributed to ShelterBox USA, a disaster support non-profit that is rooted in Rotary volunteerism. Based in Florida, ShelterBox committed to send 6,000 ShelterBox kits, which include a tent, water purification system, and other supplies to help people who have been left with nothing after a disaster.  More than 2,100 families have already received their ShelterBoxes. The organization will spend more than $2 million on the effort. Yardi contributed $100,000. Volunteers accompany the boxes to the disaster site and train the recipients on how to use the water system and set up the temporary shelter, where they can stay while they get back on their feet. The tents can house an extended family, accommodating up to eight people. “We’re trying to find the more remote, hard-to-reach areas, places where international aid organizations might not be able to access,” said Erin Holdgate, ShelterBox Donor Relations and Communications Coordinator. The non-profit has 24 volunteers on the ground in the Philippines, based in Manila, Bantayan Island, Cebu City, Leyte Island and Bohol.  Holdgate said that they have reported profound gratitude on the part of the typhoon survivors, who can’t imagine that people from far away who have never met them would want to help. Listen...

Domonique Dozier’s skills at guiding clients through troubleshooting on their Yardi PopCard product have been compared to an Air Traffic Controller working from the tower. “It is so much fun to watch Domonique work when she navigates through her three screens, it is like she is landing an airplane! She has complete control of property remote sessions, guiding each manager through their calls for assistance,” said her colleague Stephen Hennessey in Yardi’s Orange County office. In fact, Dozier’s true professional background is as a licensed vocational nurse. Dozier finished her nursing credential in 2011, the same year she took a position with Lead Tracking Solutions. Yardi acquired LTS in 2012. What do nursing and technical support have in common? Well, it turns out that someone with a caring and nurturing personality can be very good at both of them, and grace under pressure is another vital crossover skill. “Domonique is calm, cool and always assisting with the politest voice over the phone. Each tech call is assisted with confidence,” Hennessey said. “She is truly amazing at her job, and it shows.” Domonique readily admits that she loves taking care of people, from her PopCard clients to her patients to her little sister, who she watched over while growing up. She is also active in her family’s karaoke business. Another one of her secret skills is hula hooping – she recently won a contest at the Yardi office. Dozier fell into the real estate technology world quite by accident. While supporting herself during nursing school, she took a job working for a real estate investment firm that acquired and rehabilitated properties around the U.S. She found that the real estate industry truly interested her – so much so that she would like to become the...

Michael Johnson is a veteran of the affordable housing industry. In 33 years at ALCO Management, he’s held “just about every job from Accounting Manager to CFO to COO to CAO,” he told me at Yardi’s Fall Advanced Solutions Conference in Anaheim, Calif. But Michael loves his work, and in his current position as Chief Administrative Officer, he has the opportunity to help chart ALCO’s path to long term growth through strategic planning. Not that that’s easy. “It’s a huge challenge,” he admitted “Some days I can’t figure out where we should be tomorrow, much less think about five years from now and how technology is going to change.” But with a positive attitude and the willingness to seek the right tools to help his staff succeed, Johnson has thus far been gifted an anticipating the future. ALCO’s culture empowers property managers, site personnel and support staff to serve others and  celebrate teamwork.  The company places a property management team on every site – not always the practice in the affordable arena – to make sure residents get the best possible service. Michael provided further insight on trends in technology and his role at ALCO: What’s the current focus for ALCO Management? We’re focused on growing our company slowly. We’re continuing to grow in the tax credit arena. We manage both conventional and affordable properties; however, the majority of our properties are affordable properties.. Right now, the way to grow in affordable housing is mainly with tax credits. We’re also doing more management of public housing units. We’re finding public housing authorities are starting to contract that out more, or there are mixed use deals where some of the units are public housing units. We’re finding a growing trend in doing more public housing...

Detroit refuses to settle for the status of a has-been city. Tough economic times have certainly taken a toll. But rather than losing hope, city leaders are seizing the opportunity to recreate The Motor City as a metropolitan hub valued for its cultural offerings. Yardi client Bedrock is leading the way in the resurgence of one of America’s most iconic cities. Dan Mullen, Vice President of Development at Bedrock, has never doubted that Detroit was worth the fight. “It’s an amazing opportunity to be in Detroit,” he says. “An urban location provides this indescribable energy: being surrounded by industry, historic architecture, a place where everything is walkable, where you can work and play. As a company, having the opportunity to purchase and redevelop historic buildings and impact the outcome of one of the great American cities is something that we take pride in.” Bedrock leverages its position as the real estate services branch of Quicken Loans to purchase and redevelop properties in the downtown district. Bedrock works with affiliate companies to then “tie the thread,” or work together in the redevelopment process to ensure that local companies reap the benefits of the city’s growth. It’s truly a team effort that aims to pull everyone forward together. Mullen values the collaborative process, “We work closely with the city, Detroit Economic Growth Corporation, other developers and local businesses. We’re all one big team to help revitalize all of downtown Detroit. Bedrock definitely plays a role in [the resurgence] but we also have a lot of amazing partners.” The partnerships have helped Bedrock develop 8 million square feet of commercial space. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Demand for quality office space is rising downtown. Bedrock has responded by purchasing historic buildings, giving them a...

Condo conversions can be risky business. That’s the lesson learned in Chicago over the last four years, where many efforts to transition apartment properties into for-sale condominium units flopped – and in some cases even reverted back to apartments once again. Chicago, the nation’s third largest condo market, saw median sales prices plummet when the economy crashed. The Case-Shiller Home Price Index reports that the Chicago condo index is now back to July 2002 levels, having fallen a total of 22.5% from its peak in September 2007. Steven Maher, Managing Broker and Director of Investment Sales for Kinzie Real Estate Group, has had a close-up look at the Windy City’s winners and losers in sales and leasing for more than two decades.  He specializes in urban infill development, particularly in the construction and adaptive reuse of mid and high rise condominiums, multi-family housing, resort properties, and condo conversions. After taking a close look at trends in Chicago adaptive reuse development, Maher shared his expertise with us. MHN: Condos, especially in urban markets, were one of the development types that really suffered when the economy spiraled. Many of them found new homes as apartment communities, rather than the owner-occupied use originally intended. Where was this type of reuse most common and was it successful? Maher: We have seen “fractured Condominium” projects all over the City as well as in the suburbs find temporary shelter as apartments. In some cases, especially when less than 25% of the units were sold, the properties were actually de-converted from condo ownership back to a single PIN and will likely remain as rental apartment buildings for the foreseeable future. In my opinion, this strategy has been most successful with condominium conversions that really should not have been converted in the...

Being tied to one city has never been In-Rel Properties’ CEO Mukang Cho’s M.O. Born in South Korea, he lived in eight countries while growing up due to the career of his father, Key-sung Cho, a diplomat who served as the South Korean ambassador to Guatemala, Peru and Argentina.  The family’s immersion into Latin America was so thorough that Mukang Cho’s first language wasn’t Korean – it was Spanish. Since coming to the U.S. to attend Cornell University followed by Harvard Law, he’s translated an interest in architecture, passion for business and his top shelf legal education into a successful real estate career. Cho joined the privately held In-Rel Properties in 2010, and has been instrumental in doubling the commercial firm’s portfolio, primarily through the acquisition of distressed assets. “With the broader real estate and capital markets improving, we are seeing fewer acquisition opportunities that come with a significant pricing dislocation, but they do exist,” Cho noted. The narrowing window for such opportunities is due mainly to strengthening retail and office markets around the country, including in Florida, where In-Rel is based. Founded by Charles Stein and Dennis Udwin in 1985, In-Rel now manages 6 million square feet of office and retail property in seven states. Cho explains that the company focuses not on markets, but on individual assets, when making purchasing decisions. “We really start with the asset itself, and try to create a thesis that this is an asset we want to own and operate. Once we make that determination, at the asset level, then we get comfortable with the submarket and market that the property is in. Unlike a lot of companies that take more of a top down approach, first identifying where they want to be, we take the inverse...

Yardi Voyager is used by companies and agencies around the world. But a training session for Yardi’s flagship product had probably never been delivered in American Sign Language (ASL) until very recently. Thanks to the initiative of Yardi Public Housing Technical Account Manager Bill Hughes, a staff member of the Ventura County Housing Authority, who is deaf and depends on ASL and reading lips to communicate was recently trained on Voyager by Hughes, using ASL. A student of ASL for about four years, Hughes and his wife Rosa volunteer to work with members of the local deaf community through their congregation. But that volunteer work typically doesn’t involve real estate technology. Converting some of the technical details of the sophisticated accounting and record-keeping system was more than a little tricky, Hughes said. “There were industry signs I had never used, because that’s not what I have practiced. So I immediately I went to work researching certain terms,” Hughes said. “Most everything software related was an immediate challenge. I had to do a lot of online research and work with the client prior to the visit to establish signs related to industry concepts.” The advantage to having a Yardi expert fluent in ASL conduct the training, rather than using an outside interpreter, was pivotal. “The few seconds between interpretation and vocal training would be eliminated, making it easier for the recipient to interject questions,” Hughes wrote in an article about the training that was published in the company newsletter this month. The article generated tremendous response from his colleagues at Yardi, who applauded his effort and shared their own experiences with sign language and in some cases dealing with hearing disorders in their own lives. “It’s really nice to know that our company has taken...

Looking for a new way to bring prospective residents to your property? One innovative approach, tried out successfully at numerous communities, involves everybody’s favorite meals on wheels: Food trucks! At a largely student-populated apartment complex in Gainesville, Florida, bringing together 12 food trucks for an afternoon this April resulted in resident fun, great local media buzz, and a handful of new leases. Stoneridge Apartments’ Super Sunday Funday Food Truck Festival wasn’t just a success – it was an epic success. “We had a turnout of approximately 500 people and our residents loved it. We’ve had a lot of positive feedback as well as requests for more food events like these,” said Denise Snyder, Regional Property Manager, CAM, for The Emmer Group. “The food ranged from awesome cupcakes, to ice cream and doggie ice cream, and there was Thai food, Cajun food and gourmet grilled cheese.” Snyder had a strong feeling that food trucks would go over well with her residents, and not just because many of them are college students who love to try new things. Stoneridge’s popular Perks Program, which gives residents discounts at local restaurants and other businesses, has been a big success. “Our residents (and staff) love to eat!  We plan to host another big event this fall, and delectable treats will certainly be a huge draw,” she said. Harnessing the power of social media before, during and after the event, word-of-mouth from residents and local businesses drove prospects, friends of residents, and the simply hungry to Stoneridge. Once they’d wandered the truck lineup and sampled some tasty treats, there was no reason to leave – a beer garden was set up on site, next to a lake on the property and under some shade trees. There was live music and...

Editor’s note: This guest post comes to us thanks to Patricia Marroquin, a Senior Writer for the UCSB Graduate Division. This post originally appeared on GradPost, the division’s online news magazine, which often features stories about exemplary alumni. Yardi COO Gordon Morrell certainly falls into that category, as do many of our Yardi team members. Read on for the profile and find the full interview on gradpost.ucsb.edu. Gordon Morrell has been juggling roles for decades, going back to his days as an Education Ph.D. student at UCSB in the 1970s. At that time, in the halls outside their tiny graduate student offices in what is now the Hosford Clinic, he and several of his cohorts would take breaks from their studies and do a little three-ball juggling. “We actually got to the point where we could pass to each other,” Morrell recalled with a laugh, adding: “It was a stress breaker; it was like a little relief.” In explaining why this routine was helpful for the grad students, he said, “You have to really focus when you’re juggling. You can’t be thinking about other things. So maybe it’s just a good way to get your mind off what you’re doing.” That focus and work-life balance has served Morrell well. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and raised along with his older brother in Goshen, a small farming town north of New York City, he earned his Education Ph.D. (Counseling Psychology emphasis) in three years at UCSB. “I went straight through from kindergarten to Ph.D.,” he said. “There were no breaks.” He put himself through college by singing and playing guitar in such local venues as The Feed Store restaurant and bar in Santa Barbara (no longer in existence); SOhO; and Cold Spring Tavern. Morrell’s career path...

Make-A-Wish operates on a simple premise: every child deserves the hope, strength, and joy that comes with a dream fulfilled. The idea of Make-A-Wish spread like wildfire after the first wish was granted in 1980.  Seven year-old Chris Greicius yearned to become a police officer. His battle with leukemia posed a threat to his dream. Family friend, Officer Tommy Austin, and the team at the Arizona Department of Public Safety would not settle for a dream deferred. They arranged a special experience just for Chris including a custom made uniform, a city tour via helicopter, three cruisers and a motorcycle to escort him through town, and the title of honorary patrolman. As icing on the cake, Chris was tested for motorcycle proficiency, passed, and earned wings to pin to his new uniform. Regardless of his life-threatening illness, Chris fulfilled his dream. Chris’ experience sparked an outpouring of support. Make-A-Wish has blossomed ever since, granting the wishes of over 250,000 children with life-threatening conditions. The Georgia Chapter has fulfilled nearly 6,000 of those wishes since 1995. It expects to grant 425 wishes this fiscal year. Kari Love, Vice President of Corporate Development & Events of Make-A-Wish Atlanta, believes that the nonprofit can rise to its goals. She has been an advocate of the cause long before she began her career with Make-A-Wish. “I’ve always had a heart for nonprofit work,” she explains. “I loved the foundation’s mission before I was on staff.” Kari previously worked as a marketing director for radio.  In 1997, the radio station completed a holiday fundraising campaign on behalf of Make-A-Wish. “I fell in love with their mission and a few years later I had the opportunity to work here. I’ve been fundraising with Make-A-Wish ever since!” The mission of Make-A-Wish...

Alexis Vance wants to get inside the minds of the Millennials. So the vice president of marketing for Yardi client Alliance Residential Co. and her team completed an in-depth demographic analysis that revealed not just facts, but helpful nuance, about the country’s newest powerful renting and spending cohort. With a nationwide portfolio that touches 24 major metro markets, Vance knows that going beyond the surface to understand Millennials, who seem to appear in every other news story on demographics these days. While there is some definitional discrepancy about the exact range of the Millennials’ birth years, they are essentially in their early 20s to mid-30s today. Many moved back in with their parents during or after college due to a tough job market, but as the economy has improved, they are expected to account for formation of up to 3 million new households. They’re an important new consumer base for apartment owners and managers, and some of their unique behavior patterns—including reliance on technology and social media to accomplish almost any task—have made them the subject of focused marketing studies like Vance’s. “I do believe our industry needs to do its homework to truly understand this complex demographic. We need to shift marketing and communication habits significantly in order to effectively market to and resonate with this highly media-savvy generation,” Vance said. MHN: Could you define: experiential marketing, social responsibility and incentive to share as they are relevant to the multifamily leasing and living experience? Vance: Experiential marketing goes beyond a basic tagline, brand or event. The effort is comprehensive and engages the prospect in a way that allows them to participate with the brand. Because this demographic is skeptical of traditional advertising channels, experiential marketing is an excellent way to create conversation and develop rapport through...

At the heart of most talented marketing professionals is a creative and artistic sensibility. It’s something that Tarragon Property Services’ Jane Griffith was able to express in spades with her recent work on best-selling author and leadership trainer Ken Blanchard’s “Whale Done My Wonderful One!” The original iteration of Blanchard’s “Whale Done!: The Power of Positive Relationships” came out in 2002, and described the experience of trainers working with killer whales at Sea World to exemplify the immense power of positive reinforcement as a management, parenting and leadership skill. Recently, Griffith had the chance to illustrate a version of the book that focuses on children and their parents. What started as a storyboard project turned into a publication agreement with publisher Harper Collins. “It’s a mama whale and a baby whale, and the message is positive reinforcement as opposed to training by fear. It’s for adults as well as children, and teaches adults: You don’t have to yell at your child. Tell them they’re doing a good job. Catch them doing something right.” Despite already having a demanding full time job and busy life, Griffith made the time to complete the project. “I worked at nights, on weekends and whenever I could get the time. It ended up being really fun, and that was something on my bucket list that I never thought I’d get to do,” she said. In her day job, Griffith is Marketing Manager for the Seattle-based Tarragon Property Services, a division of Investco. She has extensive multifamily experience, having previously served as national Marketing Director for Pinnacle. “We have a long and extensive history of building our own properties and managing our own properties,” Griffith said of Tarragon. The Seattle-area multifamily market has been booming as of late, and one...

Yardi client Housing York, Inc (HYI) is The Regional Municipality of York’s non-profit housing corporation and the seventh largest housing provider in Ontario. This year, HYI added Mackenzie Green to its portfolio of sustainable housing. Located in Richmond Hill, one of the fastest growing communities in Canada, Mackenzie Green has demonstrated a complete approach to human and environmental wellness. Sustainability Mackenzie Green awaits Canada Green Building Council LEED® Silver certification, meeting strict criteria for resource efficiency, sustainable material selection, and innovative design. The site’s energy efficiency begins from the core. Mackenzie Green’s insulated envelope facilitates 30 percent energy savings. To further increase cooling efficiency, designers chose white dolomite marble to cover most the roof. The stone’s reflective properties disperse the sun’s rays rather than absorbing them. Mackenzie Green’s windows also contribute to the envelope’s overall efficiency. Double-paned, low-e windows were filled with argon gas. The gas reflects outside heat and simultaneously stabilizes indoor temperatures. This composition helps units maintain comfortable living conditions while decreasing strain on interior heating and cooling systems. The well-sealed, insulated envelope does not entail that tenants are breathing stale, captured air. Efficient HVAC systems work in conjunction with heat recovery ventilator (HRV) systems into regulate the indoor air quality of each residence. HRV systems recycle room air in a manner that circulates it with air entering from the outside. HRV then cools or warms the air depending on the desired interior temperatures. The result is fresh air for tenants without compromising the building’s thermal integrity. Though Richmond Hill has access to Lake Ontario, fresh water isn’t taken for granted. Low flow fixtures and toilets reduce water waste by 45 percent. Randall Profitt, Manager Operations at Housing York Inc. South, says Housing York hasn’t stopped there in its effort to keep...

John Huskey has a different twist on seniors and affordable housing. He’s giving it a theme—and not just to attract residents but to drive resident interaction and engagement. His theory, at least in the case of senior residents, is that being an essential part of a group is vital, answering a desire to feel needed and inspiring mental stimulation and creativity. The venture, which began with education-oriented and then arts-themed offerings in a few focused properties, now provides some degree of programming in all of Meta Housing Corp.’s Los Angeles-area properties. And that is no small undertaking, considering the portfolio now consists of 27 seniors apartment assets, 16 family-oriented affordable housing complexes and eight that it classifies as rehab projects, plus its recently opened The Metro @ Hollywood mixed-use complex. Another 14 properties are under construction, and Huskey has his sights set on expanding into select locations around the country. Huskey, who has been developing housing units since 1969, founded Meta Housing Corp. in the early 1990s and opened his third arts community, NoHo Senior Arts Colony, in North Hollywood in January with a new twist: a professional on-site theater. He credits Tim Carpenter, founder & executive director of non-profit seniors activity provider EngAGE, for identifying the need to encourage interaction among seniors housing residents to improve their quality of life rather than simply providing the high-quality environments on which Huskey’s company and its predecessors have focused. Research provided by the University of Southern California at the request of financier Century Housing Corp. confirmed that providing such interaction increases residents’ health, longevity and happiness, he said. The specialized seniors housing properties target a mix of professionals with a “strong desire to share and teach”—the first to be recruited to a new property in order...

While biking down The Strand in Orange County, Kyle Kazan blends in with other fitness seekers and nature lovers. With his broad smile and down-to-earth demeanor, one couldn’t easily tell the years of graveyard shifts and pavement pounding that it took to build his company from the ground up. That company is now a Yardi client and a recipient of  The Apartment Association of California Southern Cities’ Property Management Company of the Year. Kazan’s hard work is paying off and with every mile that he puts behind him, he draws closer to a more promising and exciting future. Before starting Beach Front Property Management, CEO Kazan served five years as a gangs and drugs identification and eradication specialist for local law enforcement. The police force is not a common segue to a career in property management, but it is one that has served Kazan well. While many companies can’t handle the crime that creeps into neighborhoods, Kazan is able to take a hands-on approach. “I’ll actually leave my office, jump in the car, and go talk to the gangsters. I speak English. I speak Spanish. I read ‘gang,’” he laughs. “I’m quite capable of looking at tags in the area to figure out who’s hot and what’s going on.” Kazan’s local research helps him to zero-in on troublesome tenants. “I’m very good at talking people out and stabilizing the building. It helps that I can talk the talk and walk the walk; it bridges the divide, the delta, between law enforcement and property management since I’ve done both.” Bridging that divide has helped Beach Front Property Management turn mediocre properties in profitable successes. Another benefit to his background in law enforcement: Kazan isn’t afraid to take calculated risks. When economic downturn hit southern California in...

Steve Schutz would have come to the Fall 2013 Yardi Advanced Solutions Conference (YASC) no matter what – as a 12-year user of Yardi products, he recognizes the value of the event to educate and inform him about developments and solutions for the software he uses daily. “I do everything from training, document writing, help desk, troubleshooting, setting up properties, setting up menus, just about anything and everything,” said the Yardi Director for Trade Street Residential, an East Coast multifamily management firm. A free entry to the conference (valued at $995), $500 VISA gift card and VIP seating at the conference gala event managed to put a smile on his face and new baseball jersey in his closet. Steve’s name was drawn at random from hundreds of entry forms. Oh, and he learned a few cool things about the new Voyager 7S, too. Trade Street will upgrade to the new Voyager version in November. In addition to its device and browser agnosticism, two things that piqued Steve’s interest in 7S are its search capabilities – it features global and predictive search – and overall look. “The search functions are great. As the help desk person, I often get the phone call: ‘Where can I find this report?’ And now, users can type a key word in there and find it themselves,” he said. A veteran of five YASC events, his favorite parts of the conference include networking and the opportunity to work through trouble spots in the lab. “I’ve learned a lot, just being in the lab,” he noted. Schutz is based in Florida. He’s worked in residential, commercial, affordable and military property management for the last 12 years. That new baseball jersey, though, wasn’t for a Chicago Cubs player – he probably already...

Last month, The Laramar Group announced a major acquisition in Southern California. With the purchase of Los Angeles-based JB Partners Group, the company assumed management of 7,000 new third-party owned units, adding 77 properties and 170 employees with the merger. It’s the latest significant uptick in what has been a steady several years of national growth in inventory  for the Chicago-based firm. CEO Jeff Elowe, who was recently named Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young for the Mountain Desert Region, took the time to speak about the company’s strategy and give us his take on the multifamily industry now. Elowe has worked in multifamily since 1989, and has charted the course for Yardi client Laramar as the firm  invested $3 billion in real estate, primarily multifamily and retail assets. MHN: The Laramar Group came out of the economic downturn in a strong position as a third-party manager and owner. How has the last year been? Are you still seeing growth, and in what asset sectors and markets specifically? Elowe: We used the downturn as an opportunity to grow, especially our third-party management business. We grew by two and half times. We really took on a lot of meaty assignments that led to a more institutional third-party management business. We’re in 26 markets, so we expanded from about 15 to 26 markets, with a distinct focus on major market, such as Los Angeles, where we now manage  in excess of 8,000 units. It’s a very big target market for us, and we acquired a property management firm there. We really grew on a national basis and established Laramar as a highly recognized, go-to property manager for institutions, lenders, and servicers. MHN: Denver has been an especially strong multifamily market as of late, and...