February is designated as National Apartment Careers Month, and while she is not officially affiliated with the NAA campaign, Riverstone Residential Group’s Stephanie Brock could very easily be a spokesperson for the property management field’s capacity to launch and cultivate a distinguished and life-changing career. Brock, who was recruited into the industry while working as a bagger at a grocery store and attending the University of Texas at Austin, is now division president, Central, at Riverstone. She oversees 160 communities in Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Texas. By the end of 2013, that community number will be higher. As the largest third-party multifamily management firm in the United States, Riverstone will be taking on new inventory this year. These new Riverstone communities, especially those in high-demand Central division markets like Chicago, Austin, Denver, Dallas, and St. Louis, have been in the development pipeline for the last 12 to 18 months. In a shift from previous development cycles, Brock told us that developers are now seeking the insight of property managers before making final decisions on floor plans, in-unit technology, and community amenities. The anticipation of prospects’ wishes speaks to the growing power of the renting consumer. “In the past, I don’t think that developers were looking to sort out these types of details so far in advance,” observed Brock. “Today, if developers don’t have in-house management, they proactively reach out to our local experts for expertise and guidance on their target market and what consumers are going to expect or want.” After being discovered in that Austin grocery store by a property manager whose groceries she carried out to her car, Brock took a job as a leasing consultant in Austin and later moved to a property management role...

BRIDGE Housing doesn’t just build affordable homes. The longtime affordable housing provider transforms communities. And over the next five years, San Francisco-based BRIDGE, which also has offices in Irvine and San Diego, plans a huge increase in lives touched and neighborhoods changed as it doubles in size. “BRIDGE has always been committed to production, and we remain committed to that. We’ve been thinking in a forward way. We want to use the diversified platform we have built to increase our mission, and we have the capacity to do it,” said BRIDGE CEO Cynthia Parker in a recent interview. In its recently released strategic plan, BRIDGE’s executives and board outline a compelling case for the power of one housing developer – in partner with dozens of other community and government organizations – to affect real progress. And you only have to look as far as some of the BRIDGE projects completed or in progress to see what they are talking about. In San Francisco, BRIDGE is leading the effort to Rebuild Potrero, an ambitious project that will replace over 600 units of public housing in the Potrero Terrace and Annex, add new affordable and market rate homes, and fuse a connection between the vast economic gap that looms between the public housing residents and their neighbors on affluent Potrero Hill. In Los Angeles, BRIDGE is a partner in the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles’ efforts to expand and redevelop Jordan Downs, a 700-unit public housing project in Watts. The new construction will replace the existing units, bring mixed-income housing to the area, and add needed retail, industrial and community resources. In San Diego, BRIDGE developers are in progress on Comm 22, a transit-oriented infill project that is transforming four acres in Logan...

If you need a restaurant or bar recommendation for your next trip to Santa Barbara, Chad Barron is the guy you should ask. A district manager for the Santa Barbara-based Nevins Adams Lewbel Schell real estate investment firm, Barron is also immersed in the local food and beverage scene. He’s a volunteer organizer of the Santa Barbara Beer Festival, keeps an eye on the latest restaurant openings, and enjoys experimenting in the kitchen. The Beer Festival, which has grown from a small event five years ago to a major annual happening each October at Elings Park, benefits the park as well as the youth programs of the Santa Barbara Grunions Rugby Club. A former rugby athlete, Chad and his co-organizers hosted 2,000 people at the 2012 event. “I cannot believe how much it has grown, from us hoping to break even with 700 participants the first year, to selling out a week before the event this year. The brewers are great to work with, and it’s a lot of fun to see everyone have a good time,” Chad said. Don’t ask him to tell you what his favorite local brewery is, though. There are too many high-quality local contenders to select just one. “I would say it’s a really tough competition between Telegraph, Islands and the Brewhouse,” he conceded. The Brewhouse, a local favorite for happy hour and its wide-ranging dinner menu, is also on his short list of recommended restaurants – along with Cajun flavors at The Palace and locavore-inspired Julienne. When it comes to his own kitchen, Chad is always willing to try new things. His signature dish combines walnuts, bacon, and Brussels sprouts. The local Farmer’s Market is the source for many of his kitchen inspirations, from fresh citrus for experimental...

Pathways to the world of property management are as unique as the people who travel them. For Leslie Dabi, an information systems manager for EAH Housing, a nonprofit affordable housing developer and management company, her road into the real estate realm began in college. While studying French and international relations at UC Davis, Leslie took a part-time job at her own apartment complex. She quickly learned about the unique challenges associated with property management for student housing. “We would do about 90 move outs and move-ins over a 2 day period during our turnover time – it was crazy!” recalled the Northern California native. “I remember working 18 hour days.” After graduating from UC Davis, Leslie had originally planned to pursue a law degree. But after taking the LSATs and waiting for her applications to various law schools to be processed, another onsite position in property management came calling her name. Ultimately, she changed her mind about a lawyer lifestyle and decided to commit to a career in the real estate industry. At EAH, a nonprofit company managing 9,300 units of affordable housing in California and the Hawaii islands, she has branched into new directions. In addition to handling technology project management, database administration, and software system integrations, Leslie provides onsite and offsite training for EAH staff, and oversees the Yardi & HUD/EIV Help Desk staff. The people-focused housing corporation is committed to caring for those who live in its properties – who bridge all walks of life from seniors, families, students, people with disabilities, frail elderly and the formerly homeless – and fosters professional development among its employees as well. “I can still relate to the onsite staff, because I worked in their positions, and I know what they go through,” Leslie noted....

Dawn Bolin isn’t someone to shy away from a challenge. After 20 years as an accounting manager for The Ezralow Company of Calabasas, Calif., she asked her employer to entrust her with a major new challenge – overseeing the transition of the multi-vertical property management firm from Yardi Enterprise to Yardi Voyager. As an accountant, Dawn suspected that her expertise on the financial side would be vital to a successful transition to the new software platform and way of working. And she was right. Along the way, she made a major leap into a new area of expertise – technology – and has never looked back. Six years later, she will start her 27th year with Ezralow this January.  Dawn’s responsibilities as the company’s Yardi Database Administrator have added many new facets to her job, and she tells us that she loves the challenge. “Things are constantly changing, and that keeps my mind busy. I like to learn new things,” said the Orange County native. When a technical glitch occurs, she’s excited about the opportunity to figure out how to fix it – and tries to avoid calling her Yardi account manager until she’s exhausted troubleshooting efforts. “All the Yardi people are great. They are extremely patient,” she told us. Dawn attends the Yardi Advanced Solutions Conference twice a year to get the latest updates on updates, new products, and more efficient work processes. And she’s focused the company’s current technology efforts on creating more efficient workflows and moving to mobile devices. “Our (property) sites have to log in to so many different websites to do their job. We’d rather them log into one and have it all be interfaced, so we’ve eliminated the pieces that are scattered and combined them all into one,”...

Maritza Martinez, Chief Purchasing Officer and Maintenance Coordinator of Westland Real Estate Group, Inc. in Los Angeles, has a smart and simple outlook on property maintenance. It’s about fixing things, certainly, and fixing them fast. But maintenance first and foremost is about great customer service. “That’s my main concern – I always want to make sure the tenants are happy,” said Martinez, who started at Westland nine years ago in a purchasing position for the maintenance department. Two years later, she was promoted to her current role, in which she supervises and coordinates the maintenance crews working on Westland’s multifamily and commercial properties as well as 10 mobile home parks. With 46 apartment buildings in LA County that account for 2400 units, as well as 40 commercial shopping centers, the Westland crews stay very busy responding to 200 to 300 calls for service in the average week. They also work on remodels and upgrades to the apartment units during tenancy turnovers. To make sure that residents can always reach someone to address their maintenance request, no matter what time of night or day, Westland uses a hotline system that bounces to an on-call cell phone between 5:30 p.m. and 8 a.m. An on call customer service representative is assigned to monitor the overnight calls and dispatch maintenance technicians to deal with any emergencies. Maintenance requests are also accepted through the on-site property managers and the company’s website, but Martinez told us that the telephone hotline is still the primary way services requests are submitted. In the future, she sees things moving to a web-based environment so that tracking will be easier. (Yardi’s Maintenance Mobile App is one easy way for technicians to view and respond to assigned work orders while on the go, and...

Cindy Frank is a Renaissance woman – who writes romance novels. A technologist, published author and artist, her diverse professional and personal interests keep her constantly busy at work and on the weekend. As a staff assistant in the Tucson Housing and Community Development Department, Cindy found the perfect role for her background. She earned her doctorate from the University of Arizona in higher education, but the focus of her advanced studies was technology in the workplace.  (She had previously earned a masters’ degree in information systems from UA.) “My interest is primarily at the intersection of technology and people. This place is ideal for me because we have a lot of social services people, and they’re not always comfortable with technology. That’s my forte – the intersection of people and technology,” she told us in a recent interview. She’s responsible for overseeing the use of Yardi Voyager by the City of Tucson to manage its public housing and Section 8 housing programs, assessing new technologies like mobile apps, and other IT-related job duties. Outside of work, Cindy has several unique hobbies. She makes stained glass, expressing her artistic side. And she is an electronically published author of seven romances under a pen name. We promised to keep the moniker confidential, but we can say that you can find her works through publisher Ellora’s Cave, one of the first e-publishers to focus on romance. They accepted her first book right away with only minor revisions. A lifelong reader, dedicating free time to writing books on the weekends has become Cindy’s second job. A typical novel takes three to four months to complete if she sticks to a regular writing schedule. Cindy tells us she enjoys science fiction as well as romance and has written...

Nice neighbors make for better apartment living experiences.  For CEO Doug Hignell, creating a welcoming and caring environment at The Hignell Companies’ apartment residences in Chico, Calif. was a longstanding desire. “Relationships are my passion: both with God and with people. My driving purpose centers on ‘creating caring communities that transform lives’, both personally and through The Hignell Companies,” Hignell said. The Hignell Companies is a Yardi client, using Yardi products to manage its condominium portfolio, multifamily properties, and more. Hignell’s desire to comfort and connect led to establishing a non-profit arm of the family-owned property management, development, maintenance and construction firm founded by his father, Fred Hignell Jr, and partner Floyd Strange in 1948. The effort takes some cues from Apartment Life’s CARES Team ministry, which was generous in assisting Hignell as he started Creating Caring Communities. The focus for Creating Caring Communities, just as its name states, is on creating community. Today, Creating Caring Communities has seven teams who live on site in Hignell apartment communities that range from 224 units to 88 units in size. In exchange for a rent-free unit, the teams (married couples, families, or single adults) are tasked with hosting an event for complex apartment residents each month, connecting with their neighbors on a daily basis, and bringing people together in a social and neighborly way. Teams spend a combined 15 to 20 hours each week working with their community, and are asked to commit to a two year service period. Their rent and event expenses are generated by each apartment community via a per-door fee. “We are a religious non-profit. Our heart is about building community, but it is also loving on people, making them know they are of value and worth. If we can an opportunity...

When Alfonso R. Trujillo visits the affordable housing communities that he oversees as Director of Property Management for the César Chávez Foundation, he remembers his own childhood.  The son of immigrant farmworkers who came to the U.S. in 1972, Trujillo grew up in a Boyle Heights, Los Angeles Affordable Housing Complex. He recalls playing baseball with his friends in the street and the lack of laundry facilities – his mother would hang hand-washed clothes in the common area between apartments.  It was a safe place to call home, but there were none of the programs and services that are a priority for the Chávez Foundation, like the Si Se Puede Learning Centers (SSPLC) where kids can get help with homework and learn with their peers after school. “When I visit our SSPLC programs at our César Chávez Foundation affordable housing communities, I’m elated by it,” said Trujillo, who became the first member of his family to earn a post-secondary degree from Cal Poly Pomona. “I’m glad we’re able to give back.” He’s made supporting the families who live in Chávez Foundation’s communities a priority. Rather than outsourcing the running of laundry facilities to a third party vendor, it is now handled in house with profits going to the onsite SSPLC to supplement grant funding. The centers serve students from Kindergarten through sixth grade, and are a vital linchpin between school and home, especially for working parents. Founded by legendary farm worker activist César E. Chávez , the Chávez Foundation’s Housing and Economic Development Fund has developed or refurbished over 4,300 units of housing in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. Portfolio size has grown from $16 million in 1992 to $328 million today. The Chávez Foundation is a Yardi client, using Yardi Voyager to manage its affordable portfolio. Sixty...

As the owner and principal broker of a full service property management firm in Lafayette, Indiana, Jennie Kirby has insight into every sector of real estate in her Midwestern hometown. She and husband Aaron, associate broker, work with all types of real property at Kirby Property Management, from shopping centers to student apartments to single family homes to storage units and even fraternities. Their dedication to personalized service and client satisfaction has allowed them to grow their business quickly. And as a result of the hard work, last month the Kirby team was honored by the Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce as the Small Business of the Month. Working with four employees, Jennie and Aaron Kirby manage 35 single family homes, three shopping centers, a self-storage facility and the Sigma Nu fraternity at Purdue University. They also handle leasing and sales for commercial and residential, and tenant advisement. What binds all these sectors together? A need for quality customer service, which is one of Kirby Property Management’s focal points. “Really helping people find a home or a location for their business, representing tenants in any way shape or form is my favorite thing. I love to see the reaction they get when they finally get the lease signed and there’s that sense of relief that it’s done and they can make that next step in their life and move forward, whether it be with a business or a residence. That’s really a refreshing thing for me,” Jennie Kirby said. Delving into so many different real estate sectors certainly has its challenges, especially when it comes to maintenance. “Nothing’s ever the same – every day it changes. We don’t know if we’re going to be hanging a picture for a residential tenant or fixing a...

Need a refresher on your best practices for property management? Refocus on these two simple tips from Maria Stanton, Director of Operations for Property Management at Miller Valentine: Get your team on the same page, and focus together on your customers. They are lessons she learned as a young leasing manager for a high rise apartment community in Cleveland, and have been the foundation for a successful career in the property management industry. In her first multifamily experience, the then 21-year-old Stanton managed a staff of 40 people, and many of the employees were older than her. To make the community successful, she focused on building a strong team and working together cohesively to serve every resident – with 1,100 units, no easy task. “Understanding how your people can make or break the success of a community was one of the biggest lessons I learned. Getting that whole team together to accomplish the common goal was really important. You have to get everyone on the same page, understand their responsibilities and buy into the whole picture,” Stanton told us. What’s in the picture? Remembering that the customer comes first. “We sometimes get caught up in so many parts of our business that we can forget about the customer. It’s so important to maintain that understanding of what the customer wants.” Her early experiences in real estate helped hone that skill – while going to college, she simultaneously earned her real estate license and sold homes for a developer. After landing at the REIT-owned Cleveland high rise, Stanton became a community manager,  Sales and Marketing director, then Regional Operations manager before moving to her current role as Miller Valentine’s Director of Operations (she has been with the company for over six years). Today, she oversees...

Mindy Sharp is the type of property manager who does it all. From lease-ups to balance sheets to carrying the maintenance pager, the Ohio-based property professional tackles all aspects of multifamily life at Ashton Glen, a picturesque townhome and apartment community in southern Dayton.  When she’s not marketing units or touring with prospects, she finds time to handle social media and even have tea parties with young residents. Her grasp of the local rental market and knowledge of her own property is so strong that Mindy manages to rent up to 25 percent of her vacancies sight unseen. “That’s the Mom skill in me,” says the former teacher and mother of two grown kids. “It’s just listening and finding out what they want. I know this property; I know this entire Dayton market like the back of my hand. Once I know what it is that (the prospect) wants, I can assure them that they’ll be taken care of.” Despite challenging times for the Dayton area apartment market due to the economic downturn, Mindy has kept Ashton Glen close to full occupancy at all times. The community has military families among their resident base, so deployments often contribute to leasing turnover. She’s especially proud that two of the deploying families made plans to return home to Ashton Glen once they return stateside. “Home to them means not just the United States, but also this apartment community. Wow. And one of these families is actually paying rent on their apartment while absent. This says it all,” she wrote on her blog, where she is brutally honest about the ins and outs of daily property management. Some days, there are more outs than ins. When we talked with Mindy last week, she was on duty as...

Never underestimate the value of early work experience. Kim Mathews of Unified Property Group was first introduced to property management in high school at the age of 17, with a job working for a commercial firm. Not long after college graduation, she found her calling – property management accounting – and has stuck with it ever since. “I love the variety in property management,” said Mathews, echoing the words of so many fellow industry employees. She’s come up through the ranks from a property accountant to her current role as Chief Financial Officer at Unified Property Group.  In between she held a variety of roles including Financial Manager, Controller,and  Asset Manager. Along the way, she’s had the chance to work in all of the housing sectors Unified Property Group manages, including senior, commercial, multifamily, and affordable. One of the verticals she’s found most interesting has been senior housing, where Mathews observed that there’s a trend toward older residents with more pronounced medical issues who are more likely to need assisted care. “Our primary focus has been independent living,” so this has prompted a new initiative at one of Unified Property Group’s Independence Village properties, she said. “We’re starting out by adding memory care and assisted living at one of our properties and (if it is successful), we plan on expending that to all of our offerings.” Unified Property Group manages about 100 properties with 12000 units, with 40 percent of the portfolio made up by affordable tax credit housing. One of Mathews’ current initiatives is moving Unified Property Group towards paperless offices at its properties. Yardi PayScan and CheckScan are among the products helping that effort. “We’re trying to get everything automated with latest technology to find efficiencies and make sure we have best practices...

With dual expertise in Human Resources and Information Technology, Carrie A. Traeger of Property Management, Inc. (PMI), is well-equipped to make smart business analysis decisions. Pennsylvania-based PMI, specializing in commercial, residential, manufactured housing and homeowner association management, has 225 employees and is predominantly a third-party, fee-based management firm. PMI manages 5.4 million square feet of commercial office space, 80 homeowner’s associations (6000 units), 14 manufactured home communities (1400 units) and 45 residential communities (4000 units), all in Pennsylvania. The company has made a name for itself with professionalism and proven results for holders and investors, and has recently seen tremendous growth in its commercial sector. We recently had the opportunity to gain Traeger’s insight on trending topics in HR and IT, a combination she calls “a fun umbrella,” as well as best business practices.  A member of PMI’s team since 1994, she is active in the Society for Human Resource Management and the Human Resource Professionals of Central Pennsylvania. Traeger holds a MBA and accounting degree from Pennsylvania State University. In her free time, she serves as director of the PMI Charitable Foundation, which  provides funds to not-for-profit organizations from programs which seek to enhance human dignity for those who are economically, educationally, and emotionally challenged. Traeger is also  a member of her Church Finance Committee and as a leader in the Awana Program (children’s program). Many thanks to Carrie Traeger for agreeing to answer these questions for us. TBS: How do you manage dual oversight of IT and HR? CAT: My daily focus is on PMI’s mission statement. Our mission statement is to “provide superior property management services which exceed the expectations of customers and clients by focusing on prompt service, reliability, dedication, teamwork, education, training and innovation.” Almost every one of the...

Dena Xifaras started her professional life as an international management consultant, work that involved international travel to oversee decidedly for-profit projects. But she’s found her true calling back home in Massachusetts, where Xifaras has built a successful career in multiple roles for Boston-based Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH), a national non-profit and Yardi affordable housing client that focuses on rehabilitating properties and retaining their affordable status. She’s worked in development and financing, restructuring troubled properties, as a systems development lead, and was recently named Vice President of POAH’s Asset Management division. Xifaras is also an attorney, and earned her law degree in night courses from Suffolk University while working full time. Making the transition from her former life at Accenture to the nonprofit sector has been immensely rewarding for the former globetrotter. “I didn’t even realize until I had switched how meaningful it would be to me to do something (professionally) that contributed to society,” Xifaras told us in a recent interview. A lifelong volunteer and athlete with boundless energy, her passion for improving the lives of affordable housing residents was confirmed by her very first POAH project. The project was in Narragansett, Rhode Island, an affluent coastal town where housing is often out of reach for median-level wage earners. The work brought Xifaras in touch with some of the residents of the small affordable housing community POAH was redeveloping, among them a firefighter, and teacher and a nurses’ aide. “These were great contributing members of society who otherwise could not live in the town where they worked,” she said. “The idea that they could live in rental housing, stay in the community, have a four minute commute, and have their children go to school with the same kids that that they were teaching...

Anyone who has ever worked in onsite property management probably has a small arsenal of stories to share. But WinnResidential’s Emily D’Urso is the first mom we’ve met whose kids ask her to entertain them with tales of a property manager’s daily life. “I had so many stories about things I had to fix or crazy residents. They have their favorite stories that they love for me to tell them over and over,” she told us during a recent interview at YASC DC. Her 6 and 8 year old will say: “Tell me the one about how you put the locks on the doors, or tell us the one about when the sewers backed up into people’s closets.” Now an experienced business systems analyst for WinnResidential, D’Urso describes her first job out of college, working as an assistant property manager for five affordable properties in Boston, as “the most not boring job ever.” Though she took the position simply to be self-sufficient after finishing college, her onsite property management work turned out to be an entry point into the multifamily world, leading her to a fulfilling career doing what she loves. And it gave her a first-hand look at the challenges faced by on-the-ground property staff. After moving up the property management ladder, her technical problem-solving skills were recognized during implementations of new technology, and she accepted a position in the systems department.  (WinnResidential’s merger with Lend Lease Real Estate, preceded by Lend Lease’s acquisition of Boston  Financial Group, brought D’Urso to the Winn team.) WinnResidential’s multifamily portfolio includes 94,190 units across the United States, the majority of which are affordable housing. The company is known for its rehabilitation of historic structures, and has received numerous awards for turning decaying old buildings into newly vibrant...

You never know where life’s journey will take you. Jo Marie Ziegler didn’t start life as a Michigan resident or envision a career in the property management industry, but that’s where she ended up. In 1990, Jo Marie and her husband, Amos, moved to the Great Lake State so he could study at Michigan State University.  22 years later, Jo Marie has become a veteran property professional. Based in Lansing, DTN Management Company’s portfolio includes 6800 residential units, mainly in the Lansing and East Lansing area.  This includes a significant number of properties serving Michigan State University students. A “can do attitude” is at the forefront of the DTN company values, and it’s a quality that Jo Marie exemplifies. She’s always ready to pitch in no matter what the need.  For student housing providers, move-out and move-in is an “all hands on deck” time of year. Jo Marie described it as, “long hours and you’re constantly busy but it feels really good when you’re all done.” During move-out, her job transitions to managing the rehab and freshening up of numerous DTN properties. Armed with a spreadsheet and well-versed in how to communicate with contractors, she works to turn the units as quickly as possible. The rest of the year, Jo Marie’s job has a very different focus. A self-described “Yardi Guru” who helps with Yardi support and internal training, she has a natural knack for databases. Here’s how it started: “When we converted our property management software to Yardi, one of the owners asked if I would move from the Cedar Village hub to the corporate office so I could help get that conversion to Enterprise up and running. From there, with the help of our Spartan-Net IT department we progressed from 5.0 to...

From his high-rise office in downtown Denver, Dave Woodward has a great view of the snow-capped Rocky Mountains just beyond the Mile High City. He’s also taking the long view with his new company, CompassRock Real Estate. Formerly the CEO of the Laramar Group for 12 years and prior to that a senior vice president at Archstone, UC Berkeley grad Woodward has spent his career as a property management executive. He’s now using those years of experience in a new firm that focuses on properties from special servicers, lenders and other institutional owners. “One of the things that’s really exciting for me is that CompassRock isn’t just a multifamily company, we are providing property management and other services to all real estate product types.”  Dave told us. “CW Capital is my initial financial partner, with six other clients also signed up. They will help by contributing some of the management assignments in their portfolio.” The initial portfolio will be comprised of distressed assets, mostly taken back through foreclosures. In some cases, CompassRock will also be stepping in as court-appointed receiver while the properties work their way through the foreclosure process.  Generally a two to four year window to maximize values, clean up the assets and position the properties for sale is common. “Our plan is to manage a lot of these properties and then retain management when possible upon sale.  In addition, we’ll be managing for longer-term owners as well.”  Dave explained. His business model at CompassRock will maximize efficiency with two key best practices he’s identified over the years for cutting down costs: -A shared services system for back office human resources, accounting, information technology and risk management will streamline those functions across all management categories. -Outsourcing some lower-level services, such as monthly...

With more than two decades of experience in the residential property management industry, Ken Doble, Partner at Atlanta-based Quantitive Realty Capital (QRC), is well-versed in what’s trending in multifamily today. A technology-savvy executive who shares updates via his Twitter feed daily, Doble began his career 20 years ago as the on-site property manager of a 24 unit apartment community of Atlanta apartments. He’s also a military veteran, and served as a paratrooper in Panama and the Gulf War. We asked for his insight on current happenings in multifamily in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic, where QRC is in the process of acquiring more properties, including distressed assets that need improvements. Most of their current 12 properties are comprised of class B and C apartments. There’s strong bidding competition among investors for class A inventory in the southeast, Doble noted, especially in top markets like Atlanta. QRC has focused on opportunities in the secondary markets and properties that need rehabilitation. In 2011, the company spent $7 million on renovations.  Improving those properties is Doble’s favorite part of the work he does today. “I like seeing the transformation of the property. We typically go in and buy distressed properties that have deferred maintenance. I like to go in and do the renovations on those properties and see the properties come up from a low occupancy, say in the 60s, to the 95-96 range. I like to see the properties really stabilize, see the happy residents, and see the properties and staff really take off and perform.” At the Parkview Apartments in metro Atlanta, where 18 units were down and there were crime, aesthetic and mold issues on site, QRC achieved a complete turnaround in just a number of months. With large numbers of families in residence at...

ECI Group owns and manages 9300 units of multifamily housing, with 37 communities in Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, and Alabama and more on the way. David Hirsch, Chairman, tells us that ECI has new developments in the works as the multifamily market continues its strong performance. Occupancy rates at the company properties are in the 90s and the regional apartment market is strong, Hirsch said. Based in Marietta, Ga., the company is privately owned and has been recognized as one of the leading developers and providers of housing in the Southeastern United States. The newest ECI Group apartment projects are located in Apex, North Carolina, and Charlottesville, Virginia. The Apex project will consist of around 300 conventional garden apartments, and Charlottesville is a “Texas donut” midrise complex also around 300 units. Keeping up with amenities to meet tenant desires and demands is one of ECI’s many priorities. Some ECI properties feature fireplaces, 9 foot ceilings, washer and dryer connections, large patios and balconies, screened-in porches, large walk-in closets, designer kitchens, high speed internet access, and water views. Among the companies top properties are the Columns Apartments, such as the Columns at Bear Creek (New Port Richey, Fl.), Columns at Cabana West (Panama City Beach, Fl.), and Columns at Pilgrim Mill (Cumming, Ga.). ECI has made near-comprehensive use of Yardi’s product suite to streamline their business practices and aid their employees in establishing an uber-efficient workflow.  Using Voyager, Portal, PAYScan, Procure to Pay, Site Stuff, CHECKscan, and Yardi Energy Solutions, ECI Group’s onsite staff have been able to work faster and smarter by eliminating tasks that used to eat up significant amounts of time in their day, such as making individual orders for site supplies (Site Stuff makes all procurement a snap) and even trips...

With a long history in property management that started in his hometown of New York City, Alex Ruiz of Picerne Real Estate Group is on top of the latest developments in tax credit, project-based Section 8, and public housing agency regulations. Alex was one of the many terrific clients to join us for training at YASC DC this week. He coordinates the use of Yardi products for 128 properties in Picerne’s affordable management division, trains on-site property management staff on how to use Yardi’s systems, and picks up compliance paperwork duty as needed. “It’s an IT job but it’s not really an IT job,” Alex told us. “I get to do a little bit of everything. I visit the properties, interact with the staff, listen to their recommendations, and find out what they want Yardi to do for them. I’m an accountant one day and an IT person the next.” He’s made great use of his former experiences as a property manager, both in New York City and Orlando, in order to better serve his coworkers’ IT needs and implement software and report-writing customizations that allow them to do their jobs more efficiently. “When someone comes with a request or wants to see something in Yardi, I can think the process through from the end user’s perspective,” he said. “And when I do Yardi training, I understand what they go through.  When people come into IT straight out of school, they just know the database side, and not the day to day operations for property management or accounting or finance.” One of his major goals is moving the Picerne properties he works with toward a paperless office, which can be tough when compliance requires so much paper work. Procure to Pay is the next...

Joanne Massey is the controller for Sundance Square, the renowned Fort Worth property management firm owned by the Bass family that controls 35 city blocks of the city’s downtown core, including numerous historic buildings, and is considered one of America’s most successful urban revitalization efforts.  But her interest in cool stuff from the past doesn’t end when she leaves the office. In her free time, Joanne and her husband Robert enjoy shooting vintage lever action guns – “the kind that cowboys used to shoot” – in Cowboy Silhouette competitions. She’s reached the AAA level in many of the competition categories, which is no surprise when you learn that she’s a former national-caliber archery athlete. She got into Cowboy Silhouette after reconnecting with her husband, a college sweetheart whom she married four years ago. He was attending competitive rifle and shotgun events, so she tagged along. The Omaha native is also an avid golfer who hits the course several times a month. “I won’t go and just sit, that’s too boring,” she told us. While attending college at Texas Christian University, she was the top female collegiate archer in the state of Texas, and ranked in the top 10 nationally. Though the U.S. team selection process for the 1980 Olympic Games didn’t go in her favor, she has fond memories of her archery days. Joanne is also right on target with her career at Sundance Square, where she rose up through the Bass corporate accounting office to head up the accounting team for Sundance and oversee numerous major software transitions. Her team initially ran two high-rise office towers, then merged with another Bass-owned operation to form Sundance Square that oversees all of the downtown properties. She loves her job. “Being in a property management office,...

Lucy Billingsley’s distinguished career in real estate development ranks her among the nation’s leading female industry executives.  In the fourth decade of her career, she maintains great passion for the next project to command her attention. “My favorite deal is always the next one,” she told us during a recent interview. Billingsley Company, the Dallas-based company with land, office space, industrial, retail, single-family, multi-family, mixed-use and master-planned developments that she and her husband Henry founded in 1978, is flourishing. New phases of 10,000 unit master-planned rental communities The Neighborhoods of Austin Ranch and Cypress Waters are currently underway, and Billingsley is excited about changing the face of the multifamily experience. The company is also expanding its office and industrial holdings. Billingsley also devotes much of her time and energy to charitable work, and her philanthropy has included The Chiapas Project, Grameen Foundation USA, Women for Women International, National Geographic Society Council of Advisors, World Affairs Council (Dallas), Brain and Creativity Institute at USC, Council of Foreign Relations, The Hockaday School, and The Hunter and Stephanie Hunt Institute for Engineering and Humanity Advisory Board. In a short conversation, she filled us in on few views of the current marketplace, how she chooses philanthropic causes, and the lessons that her father, famed developer Trammel Crow, imparted to her. TBS: It’s been a challenging climate for real estate sales, investment and development over the last several years, although Texas come through the down economy very strongly. What do you see as the most pivotal focal points for property executives as the financial climate nationally continues to improve? LB: I think the multifamily world is a world that has made a significant and permanent shift in its role in America today – the shift is because the American...

When John Edwards and his wife, Darcy, moved to Salt Lake City, they only expected to stay for a year.  That was more than 20 years ago. Today, John oversees the installation and support of Yardi Property Management software for all of the properties of Cottonwood Capital, a Utah-based real estate and investment company. John’s journey to his current position in technology management was an unexpected one as well. When he and Darcy moved to Utah so she could pursue her nursing career, John took what he expected to be a temporary job as a bookkeeper/accountant for a Salt Lake City apartment complex. “The plan was to stay for just a year. 15 years later, I was still there,” he told us in a recent interview. The management company of the complex was Nevins Adams Lewbel Schell (NALS), and John ended up trying a variety of on-site jobs, including leasing agent and property manager, before falling into an unexpected role as a training expert on Yardi’s computer programs. His natural affinity for computers and learning new things made him a perfect fit, and he even overcame a fear of public speaking as a result. John received his CAM Certification (Certified Apartment Manager) from the National Apartment Association in 1997. Five years ago, he accepted a position at Cottonwood Capital, where he oversees all of the company’s Yardi needs. More than 100 property managers will attend a company retreat later this month, where John will revisit that previous role he enjoyed, training on-site personnel. Cottonwood’s management portfolio now includes 110 residential properties, a more than 10-fold increase from five years ago. “I just love learning new things, working with the managers and helping the managers succeed,” he said. Many of Cottonwood’s management-level staff have worked...