The “Upgrade Like a Rock Star” series highlights insider tips and tricks for a smooth transition to Voyager 7S, Yardi’s newest and most robust property management platform. For this installment, Yardi caught up with Will Newton, Director of Support Systems at Avesta Homes. His team converted from Voyager 6 to 7S more than two years ago. The transition took about four months. Getting Started Newton and his team began by promoting employee buy-in. Newton and a Yardi consultant visited each of Avesta’s four regions to drum up curiosity and excitement about the new software. “We basically did a little tour around each of the regions and got everybody pumped up about it,” begins Newton. “So, just kind of a quick, ‘here’s all the new functionality that you’re going to see. It’s much prettier and easier. You’re going to like it!’ That kind of got everyone excited about using it.” Testing and Implementation To make testing fun, Avesta turned the process into a competition. “We’re a pretty competitive company,” laughs Newton. “I had a little scoreboard thing going. I’d run queries on how many lines of code you did, how many update statements occurred, and other stuff that was more tangible for people.” These competitions helped the staff systematically sift through each of Avesta’s custom menus. Staff confirmed that pages and links functioned properly, and that pages appeared identical on various browsers. To avoid burn out and maintain regular workloads, staff limited tests to one hour per day. Avesta then hosted six on-site trainings, one for each region and two at the central office. During each occurrence, the offices shut down for a few hours so that all of the staff could be present. Regional subject matter experts, or SMEs, demonstrated specific, commonly used functionalities...

In 2017, Major League Baseball’s Atlanta Braves, the National League’s winningest franchise over the past quarter-century, will launch their season in a sparkling new 41,500-seat stadium, SunTrust Park.  In conjunction with that move, the team and three partners are developing The Battery Atlanta adjacent to the park. The Battery Atlanta is a 1.5-million-square-foot mixed development featuring retail shops, restaurants, an Omni hotel, the Coca-Cola Roxy Theatre music venue operated by Live Nation, 550 residences and Comcast’s regional office headquarters. “We believe that The Battery Atlanta will be the preeminent sports, lifestyle and entertainment destination in America,” Terry McGuirk, chairman and CEO of the Braves, said in a statement.  “This development will bring an energy to the area that will provide our guests with top-notch shopping, dining and living options.” Yardi will be just a ground-ball-to-shortstop’s distance from this milestone for the Braves organization.  The Braves own the adjacent The Battery Atlanta mixed-use development and will manage it with Yardi Voyager®. “Voyager will guide strategic decision-making and competitiveness for The Battery Atlanta by helping us perform effective forecasting, trend tracking and analysis of comprehensive business intelligence,” said Jeremy J. Strife, vice president and general manager of Braves Development Company. “Our relationship with Yardi will help us execute market-leading operational, financial and administrative strategies that will produce unparalleled experiences for all who live in, work at or visit The Battery...

Crescent Properties recently revealed McKinney & Olive, a Class A office building in one of the most desirable zip codes in Dallas. Yardi sat down with Montie Rouze, Vice President of IT, at the Yardi Advanced Solutions Conference in May to learn more about the new project. “They call McKinney & Olive the ‘sexy building’ because it has a curved shape to it that makes people think of the shape of a woman,” smiles Rouze. The 530,000-square-foot building stands on a 3.1-acre site conveniently located Uptown. At 20 stories high, it will be the tallest building in the neighborhood. “There is high end retail on the bottom floors,” explains Rouze. “The site will have lots of common areas, piazza space, and a neighborhood area with a big park. They really want people in the neighborhood to enjoy it, not just the tenants in the building.” Tenants and their guests will have easy access to the neighborhood’s best amenities including fine dining, shopping, and luxury hotels. The attractions of Dallas Arts District and West Village are just a stone’s throw away. McKinney & Olive is situated with easy access to McKinney Avenue Trolley with service throughout Uptown and Downtown. During development, Crescent turned to Yardi Voyager  Construction Management with Job Cost. The software helped Crescent control costs via complete budget oversight, forecasting, and contract management. “The development process is what got us into Voyager,” begins Rouze. “We had been a [competitor] client, so it was a daunting change. But we had this development project, and we needed Job Cost to track the development. We knew that Yardi’s Job Cost was better than [the competitor’s].” “We bought Yardi just for this one building, and called it our proof of concept for the platform,” continues Rouze. “We...

Thanks to detailed accounting options and superior customer support, Sentio Healthcare Properties continues to expand its use of Yardi Voyager across its property portfolio. As a REIT specializing in senior living, Sentio Healthcare Properties oversees a diverse portfolio ranging from medical office buildings to senior housing, including independent living, assisted living and memory care facilities. At the company’s Orlando headquarters, about 20 employees work with third party operators at 34 properties located in 16 states. “REITS are not the easiest structure to understand,” admits Julia Avallone, Manager of Property Level Accounting and Asset Management (CPA) at Sentio Healthcare Properties. “I’ve been at Sentio nearly three years, and I’m still wrapping my brain around all the accounting complexities. That being said, I think it’s rare to find an accounting role where you feel that you are making a positive contribution to somebody’s  life. I feel that my role at Sentio is mission driven and contributes, albeit in a small way, to the quality of life the residents in our facilities enjoy.” Making the Switch to Senior Living Avallone began her career in public accounting mainly for real estate clients. Eventually, Avallone decided to transition into another industry, and one of her managers recommended Sentio. “My husband was also in public accounting, and it was too much to both work in the (same) industry,” explains Avallone. “I was looking for a change, and one of my managers knew the controller at Sentio. It was a good fit.” Avallone used to handle accounting for approximately half of Sentio’s portfolio, but is in the process of transitioning to an asset management role. Because Sentio’s properties are located in a variety of different markets, each community comes with its own advantages and challenges. For example, Texas recently moved to...

The first thing you notice on MC Companies website is that the Arizona-based multifamily housing provider is a very compassionate company. It’s one of the traits that make them one of Arizona’s “most admired companies.” The “Good Life Promises” that are part of the firm’s foundational values include a rent rescue program that excuses late fees and “life interruption relief,” a standardized accommodation for residents who might need a little help recovering after a job loss. ‘”Giving is very important to our company,” said Lesley Brice, principal and president of MC Companies, a Yardi client. Fellow principals Ken McElroy and Ross McCallister founded the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company in 1985. McElroy, a real estate entrepreneur and author who is passionate about giving back to the community, first became involved in Autism activism 11 years ago, when the child of a friend was diagnosed with the disease. McElroy is now chair of Scottsdale’s annual Autism Speaks fundraising walk. The event is held nationally each fall. In Arizona alone, 20,000 people walked in 2015, and 25,000 are expected at this weekend’s event. “Ken quickly realized that based on the statistic of 1 in 68 children (1 in 44 boys) with Autism that there are tens of thousands of affected individuals living in our apartment communities in Arizona,” Brice said. And with that realization, the entire MC Companies team was galvanized to action. As Brice explains it, the need to mobilize quickly to fundraise for the 2015 walk produced two exceptional ideas that MC Companies used again for the 2016 campaign. Hours4Autism – “We developed a program that allows companies to raise donations through Paid Time Off donations.  In our first year with our 300 employees, we raised over $20,000 or 1100 hours last year and expect to...

One of Jim Merski’s favorite quotes, rooted in a 17th Century Italian proverb, is “Good is the enemy of great.” “Our goal is to be great,” says Merski, chief financial officer of Boston-based Barkan Management Company Inc., a Yardi client that manages 147 residential communities with more than 23,000 units, primarily condominiums, along with other residential and commercial properties. Merski has lived that philosophy in his 2 ½ years with Barkan by focusing on process improvement, reporting and consistent financial processes—aiming, he says, to “bring our company to a much higher level of customer service, with a focus on reaching excellence.” Merski understands that excellence in condo management requires accommodating the human element.  “Accounting is not numbers. Accounting is communication. We need to break down the results of operations to the lowest common denominator for our board members, many of whom are non-financial people. They are volunteers, so we want them to get their arms around what’s going on very quickly,” he says. Colorful Numbers Barkan has enlisted a number of Yardi solutions in that effort.  For example, Yardi-built modules translate financial information in the company’s Yardi Voyager® property management and accounting platform into color-coded graphics.  This includes current and historical accounts receivables, payables, budgets and operating funds, along with replacement reserve funds, total cash, and changes in cash over a 12-month period. “The objective is to help a non-financial user of the financials (board member, trustee, director) to understand what’s going on within minutes of looking at the charts and graphs, without having to dive into the numbers.  Anyone can see at a glance how the month went,” Merski says.  “Voyager gives our clients and site property managers a very nice sense of how their associations are doing on a cash basis.  Feedback...

Princeton, N.J.-based property management firm The Gershen Group LLC opened in 1959 as a small family based firm.  It concentrated on planning and consulting before branching out to housing management in 1972.  Its principal focus today is affordable and senior housing, although the company’s commercial holdings have consistently increased over the years. Long after The Gershen Group moved past the mom-and pop-phase, a family-based orientation remains the core of its operating philosophy. Extended Family “We tend to keep employees a very long time, which is not the norm in today’s business world,” according to Jonathan Gershen, vice president and general counsel of the company his parents founded. “Only a few employees are actually family members, although they almost could be—one person has been with us 35 years, another for 25 years.  We think of our staff as family, and this mentality has served us very well.” This attitude extends to the company’s business partners.  “With our clients—whether they’re our fee-managed properties or our residents—the relationship goes beyond ‘Just pay your rent and that’s it.’  We know who they are, and they know the building manager who’s been there for 10 or 20 years.  We want to keep that connection,” adds Deborah Gershen, vice president and director of property management. She adds, “It would be very easy to manage everything that comes in the door.   We’ve given up projects, or not taken them on, when people say ‘the building’s broke, we don’t have to spend any more money.’  My answer is, ‘We’re not the right manager for you.’  We’ve been very selective that way, and that won’t change.” Technology as an Ally When it comes to adopting property management software, The Gershen Group makes another subtle yet firm distinction between personal and business considerations. “Our...

The semi-annual Yardi Advanced Solutions Conferences (YASC) take place on the West and East Coasts, providing clients with the opportunity to attend an event close to home. Each conference offers specialized courses on product features, networking opportunities, and one-on-one consultations with Yardi representatives. At YASC in Washington, D.C., Yardi sat down with Mariana Estrada, VP of Operations at Roscoe Properties. The company has had the opportunity to explore several products since joining the Yardi network in 2008. Estrada updated Yardi on her experiences with the software. Estrada began with Yardi Procure to Pay (P2P), a centralized platform that offers complete spend visibility, streamlined invoice processing, centralized MRO purchasing and vendor onboarding.  “The concept of P2P is exactly what we believe in – a paperless, time-saving option. We have a decentralized payables process so our onsite teams are responsible for processing payables and expense management at the site level. The time they used to spend filing and processing paper invoices is now time they can spend serving current residents and attracting new residents,” says Estrada. “And now with the Marketplace, we’re gaining even more time savings and streamlining our purchasing process even further. We just implemented one of our major vendors and Yardi was able to create an online catalog for us.” Yardi Marketplace furnishes access to more than 1 million MRO products and building materials. The program also delivers the best available discounts from nationally recognized suppliers. “The Marketplace has an Amazon-like interface everyone knows how to use,” Estrada explains, “so there are virtually no issues with training our maintenance and site teams. A few mouse clicks and the PO is created and the order placed. Since the users don’t need to re-populate line item details, they are able to move invoices through the processing...

For more than a decade, Dirk Völkel has channeled his passion for retail asset investment into his company, VÖLKEL COMPANY Group, which provides real estate management services in Germany.  Founded in 2004, the company today operates 170 properties valued at 1.3 billion euros and handles a high volume of transactions from offices across Germany. “Our business is family-driven and focused on maintaining long-term relationships with clients,” said Völkel, the company’s founder, main shareholder and managing director.  “We are a one-stop-contact in Germany, capable of providing the full spectrum of investment advice and services.  Some of our team members have been working in the field for up to 25 years, so we know the difference between real experience and merely good marketing.” Individual client service A special point of pride for Völkel is the degree of personal service his company delivers.  “For some large, long-established companies, any given client is one among many.  For us as a mid-size company, every client is important as an individual, and we take every client seriously. In an era that has seen the outsourcing of many services, our services are 100% “Made in Germany,” he said.  “We handle investments as if they were our own money. We are proud of the good references we have earned.  In fact, much of our new business comes from word of mouth among investors who are satisfied with our services.” While justly proud of his company’s achievements in offering engaged, flexible, quick and successful investment services, Völkel knows well enough that continued success depends on maintaining a keen focus on the future, rather than dwelling on a distinguished past.  “We constantly work to improve our high-quality services.  Not only that, we continuously measure our clients’ expectations of us.  As one extremely important example,...

Applied Property Management Co. takes pride in spreading fast, convenient service across a portfolio that consists of thousands of apartment units which include market rate, subsidized housing and commercial spaces in New Jersey. Making life easier for residents and staff lies at the heart of Applied Property Management’s mission.  “Our company practices a paperless approach, starting at the very beginning—applying to live here,” says Raymond Lucena, a Yardi® specialist with Applied Property Management, the property management arm of Hoboken, N.J. developer Ironstate.  The company’s residential leasing process is 100% online, from marketing, applying and screening through lease signing and payments.  “It’s a user-friendly experience, which is a lot different than relying on paper as we did previously.  If you search our properties through Google, for example, you’ll go directly to our property websites via RentCafe®.  Our lead conversion rate is higher in the four years we’ve been using RentCafe because applications can be completed almost instantly.” Applied Property Management’s philosophy of paperless convenience extends to residential service.  “About 92% of our market-rate residents pay rent online; we expect that to reach 99%,” Lucena says.  “Eventually we want to duplicate this degree of participation in our commercial space.  We want all residents, vendors, and retail managers to manage work orders, ledgers, payments and everything else electronically.” Applied Property Management went mobile as well as paperless in the search for greater efficiency.  “We equipped our leasing agents with tablets and mobile devices.  When they’re showing a unit, they can launch the application, screen the prospect through Yardi Resident Screening™, and sign the lease on the spot, without waiting for paper documents to come through,” Lucena says. Staff technicians can receive, prioritize and document maintenance and inspections in the field with the mobile-enabled Yardi Maintenance™ and Yardi...

With thirty years of experience in nursing and senior care, Rhonda Knisley understands the power of ditching paper records for digital data. For the last three decades, Rhonda Knisley has watched healthcare change from paper archives and prescription pads to digital data and mobile record keeping. All along, she’s focused on providing senior living residents with personalized care while being at the forefront of some the industry’s newest technologies and services. Rough and Rewarding “When I started my job 30 years ago, I walked into the building and down the longest hall. There were 35 residents all lined up on one side of the hallway in their wheelchairs. I looked at them and thought to myself, ‘This may be the worst job I’ll ever have,’” she admits. “But then I absolutely loved it! I walked in as a floor nurse and within six months, I was the director of nursing. Within a year, I was the executive director of nursing. In the end, I became a consultant. Overall, it’s been very rewarding.” As Director of Nursing for First Community Village, Rhonda Knisley has done everything from coordinating software implementations to running multi-facility nursing operations. “I loved working in the continuing care arena,” she says. “I’d see people come into the healthcare center and then transition back into the community, and I can see how they are able to stay connected with their friends and family.” A Multifaceted Population Headquartered Ohio, National Church Residences is the nation’s largest not-for-profit provider of affordable senior housing and services with 340 communities in 28 states and Puerto Rico. At First Community Village, a National Church Residence property located in Arlington, OH, the community residents encompass a varied demographic. “We have a very affluent population, and because it’s Upper Arlington,...

“Hunt Companies is always giving back,” says Crisha Kamphorst, a business solutions manager for Hunt Companies Inc., referring to her employer’s devotion to employees, residents and communities.  Hunt Companies is a Yardi® client that manages more than 32,000 housing units across the U.S. as one of the military’s privatized housing partners. That dedication is rooted in El Paso, Texas, Hunt Companies’ headquarters since 1947.  The Hunt Family Foundation, founded in 1987, has made grants and commitments of $52 million to 548 organizations.  Organizations that have received funding include the University Medical Center Children’s Hospital, Texas Tech Medical Center’s School of Nursing, the University of Texas at El Paso, the El Paso Museum of Art and the El Paso Zoo. Deep Commitment Just as the scope of Hunt Companies’ business extends far beyond El Paso, so does the company’s commitment to residents and their special circumstances.  “From the moment a military family sends us an application to the moment they move out of our house, they’re part of our lives.  We’re part of their support network, we’re part of their group,” says Kamphorst, who as the wife of a retired U.S. Navy chief is quite familiar with the rigors of military life. “As a family-owned company, Hunt is not only committed to employees, it’s also committed to its mission,” adds Dennis McDonald, Kamphorst’s fellow business solutions manager at Hunt Companies.  “In military housing, that boils down to providing the best possible housing for our military members and giving them the support they deserve.  It’s something we take very seriously.” A major event for services members—and for Hunt Companies—is a permanent change of station (PCS), which can uproot a family by redeploying somebody from Germany to Hawaii, from Hawaii to Maine, or from California to Washington...

Veritas Investments might be small in some ways, but it stands tall in creative customer service. San Francisco-based Veritas specializes in owning and managing classic, character-rich apartment buildings with 20 to 30 units, as well as their ground-floor retail sections.  With limited space at its properties, Veritas employs imaginative ways to grab attention in a keenly competitive marketplace.  “We don’t have onsite fitness centers or business centers or dog wash stations that some larger properties have,” says Justin Sato, chief operating officer for Veritas, a Yardi client.  “So we use a number of partnerships and amenities to market our units in ways that aren’t traditional and which are eco-friendly.” “Today’s renter has a very on-demand driven mindset and concern for the environment,” he added.  “In the era of Uber and order food online, they expect everything to be moments away through their mobile phones.  And being ‘green’ is a core value to many.  We stay attuned to that demand with our partnerships and promotion of cool, tech-savvy amenities.” SF’s Largest Solar Energy User Sustainability-minded rental prospects can find kinship with Veritas’ status as the largest deployer of solar-generated electricity among multifamily property owners in San Francisco.  “For people to whom that’s a big factor in their leasing decision, we can differentiate our properties with the fact that we power about 20 of our 200 buildings through solar electricity.  We’ve made an effort to install solar panels on our roofs whenever possible to supplement our electricity needs—and to market the fact that even Victorian apartments can reduce their carbon footprint,” Sato says. Veritas’ solar energy system includes channeling electricity generated on the roof to battery packs in the basement parking stalls that can charge electric vehicles.  Unused energy can be fed back to the power...

For the Shelter Group’s LaTonya Lawson-Jones, Yardi’s suite of products provides enhanced operational efficiency and a personalized customer experience. “Time is money.” It’s an old saying, but for LaTonya Lawson-Jones, effective time management is key to a robust bottom line. As Business Systems Manager for the Shelter Group, LaTonya helps oversee a robust portfolio of 50 affordable housing properties, including 35 senior housing communities. LaTonya supervises a team tasked with tracking expenditures and providing support for a variety of electronic medication administration ad electronic health records applications. Multiple Tasks, One Solution With a roster of multifamily and senior living communities valued at $2 billion, the Shelter Group’s affordable and senior living properties cover a vast swath of the eastern seaboard, including New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia. In order to coordinate its multi-state operations, the Shelter Group relies on a whole host of Yardi products. “On the affordable side we use Yardi for our entire workload, from the prospect to resident screening to move in,” explains LaTonya. “On the senior housing side, we also use Yardi for marketing and in the business office for billing, managing services, and for all of our reporting needs.” With Yardi Voyager Affordable Housing doing a majority of the heavy lifting, LaTonya is eager to incorporate CRM, EHR, and EMR. “We are looking forward to using these products,” admits LaTonya. “We are working towards getting all of our employees on eLearning, and I found out that will be out soon, so I’m excited. We really can’t wait for the implementation to start.” No More Paperwork Most business managers agree the invoice process can be time-consuming and fraught with error. Submittals and approvals create lag, and hours are wasted tracking expenses and waiting for the right signature. Three...

As a longtime user of Yardi software in the investment management sector, David Lang understands the importance of strong accounting, operating and reporting systems. Currently serving as Controller for San Diego- based Capstone Advisors, Lang is responsible for all Capstone’s corporate accounting functions, and he also helps out with project and portfolio modeling. “At Capstone, we are owner/operators with shopping centers all over the US,” Lang told us during a recent interview at the Yardi Advanced Solutions conference. “Not long ago, our third party managers were sending us PDF reports and data was being compiled manually. We just thought, with technology these days, we should be able to automate a lot of these manual processes, and end up with a much better ability to data-mine our existing financial information to generate better management and forecasting tools. So we started researching property management systems.” What set Yardi apart? “Investment Manager really took Yardi to the next level,” Lang explained. “We own many properties, each with their own ownership companies for tax and legal purposes. With Investment Manager we can gain oversight into all of them and easily roll up the portfolio for reporting purposes. Finally, someone realized how much more goes on above the primary entity.” The diverse Capstone portfolio, which includes retail centers, office buildings, large residential land tracks, a housing portfolio and an international resort and residential development project, can all be tracked and reported on via Yardi. Since implementing Yardi Investment Manager, Lang has found that he is saving hours in compiling quarterly investor reports and quarterly distributions. “It used to take me two to three days to get everything together. Now I can run a few reports and I have all the information I need. I can do it in a...

The heart of the tech industry may beat in Silicon Valley, but for a vivid example of how software can streamline large-scale operations and enhance lives, you don’t need to go all the way to San Jose. In California’s central valley, the Chavez Foundation has created a self-sustaining and economically viable nonprofit organization able to provide housing and community services to farm workers and low-income families throughout the Southwest. Norma Soria has been with the Chavez Foundation for over 20 years, working her way from basic property management to Management Systems Director, and watching as the foundation grew in size and complexity. With her background and training in affordable property management, Norma has helped usher Chavez Foundation into the modern age. “I had previously worked with a well-established company that had many affordable properties,” she begins, “So I started saying ‘you need a manual,’ ‘you need to do this,’ and I began creating certain forms and procedures and that’s how [the current system] evolved.” A Growing Portfolio When the Foundation’s property portfolio expanded to include 4300 rental units and 300 single-family homes spread across three states, Norma was put in charge of compliance and training. She began traveling to other offices to prep employees on procedures and guidelines, and as she bounced from location to location, it became clear the foundation needed a more effective approach to managing its multistate operations. The solution arrived in 2002 when, after reviewing several different software options, the Chavez Foundation chose Yardi’s Voyager 5 software. The initial implementation and training went smoothly, but with little oversight or enforced compliance it wasn’t long before problems began to arise. It all reached a fever pitch when Norma returned from maternity leave. “I spent 90 days going through all the sites...

Doran Companies exploded onto the student-housing scene with an audacious plan to provide luxury housing to students attending the University of Minnesota. Breaking ground at the start of the real estate recession was a bold move that paid off. The company’s current property portfolio at one point included 5 major complexes with 900 units and close to1500 bedrooms: all similarly upscale and all near in or around the University District. As founder and principal, Kelly Doran soon realized the needs and wants of the average college student were shifting as increasing numbers chose to move out and live on or near campus. Doran anticipated the demand for a new type of student housing, and over the years, he has managed to win awards and praise from residents, the University, and industry leaders for his modern, stylish student housing developments. Gone are the wretched studios and bodies packed into small square-footage most of us remember from our college years. These days, many students are cracking books in stylish, modern apartment complexes that often contain game rooms, study lounges, fitness centers and even tanning booths. In what is being called a “university housing renaissance,” the high-end student housing trend has carved a lucrative niche in the hyperlocal and hypercompetitive student rental market. With 25% of college students living on or near campus, there’s plenty of demand to push developers into finding new ways to entice tenants. Leading the charge is Kelly Doran, founder and principal of Doran Companies. This family-owned business manages the development and management of a variety of multi-family residential and commercial properties in its home state of Minnesota. With a focus on aesthetics and quality construction, Doran Companies controls a vast cache of award-winning projects, including its student housing properties located near the...

Going into 2015, Jeff Danley did not expect that the multifamily investment firm he co-founded back in 2006 would keep buying properties at a fast clip. With 35 transactions closing this year for Yardi client Peak Capital Partners, however, he’s ready to admit that he was wrong. “Obviously we are pretty far into the cycle at this point. There has been a lot of interest from the market in the multifamily space, and a lot of new investors have gotten into the industry in the last few years. So the competition has increased. But I would say 2016 looks like more of the same,” Danley told us in a recent interview. Based in Salt Lake City, Peak Capital Partners will close 2015 with a mixed portfolio of around 20,000 doors. Assets include Class A & B multifamily housing, tax credit properties, and a few student housing communities. Markets where Peak Capital holds multiple properties include Atlanta, Dallas, Kansas City, Denver, Salt Lake City, Raleigh, and Nashville/Memphis. We talked to Jeff Danley about his company’s approach to the multifamily investment space. How did you end up in the multifamily investment sector? Danley: My partners Jamie Dunn, Jeff Burningham and I founded Peak Capital Partners in 2007. When the market was getting really overheated, we called each other and said we ought to start a firm that buys distressed multifamily assets. So that was the genesis of Peak. We formed the firm in 2007 and we were a little early to the anticipated downturn. Then 2008 happened and we had a couple of lean years. But in 2009 we bought our first property and we’ve done close to 150 acquisitions since then. How did you get involved in purchasing tax credit investments? Danley: Back in 2009...

At Foster City, Calif. based Legacy Partners, renter’s insurance is a requirement at all multifamily properties. The company has a 15,000 unit portfolio, which includes both conventional and affordable housing product. “We have 100 percent of our residents insured. That way we can reserve our big time liability policy for the big stuff. The little stuff can be handled through either the master policy or the resident’s individual policies,” explains Lisa Dixon, Residential Help Desk Director. To offer residents a quick, easy, and affordable insurance policy option, Legacy Partners chose to use Yardi’s Resident Shield renters insurance product. With full integration into Yardi’s RentCafe offering, Resident Shield is one of the most convenient and reliable renters insurance offerings on the market today. “Because we’ve implemented this at the same time as RentCafe, with the online lease execution residents cannot execute a lease unless they have a current policy. It’s very easy, convenient, and competitively priced for them to choose Resident Shield,” Dixon said. Handling individual policies for Legacy Partners’ mixed-portfolio and affordable properties is slightly more complicated, as affordable housing typically cannot require residents to provide insurance. “We’ve been able to work with the team and have different unit types designated, so our leasing managers can program the correct settings. The affordable units either have a requirement for an individual policy – but we absorb the cost – or we sign them up on the master policy, at our expense,” Dixon explained. Multifamily residents are offered the opportunity to select any insurance provider they wish, but it saves Dixon’s staff time when they choose the Resident Shield policy and information is populated directly into the Voyager 7S database. “A lot of people do get to that point in the application process and go ‘Oh,...

With a longstanding tradition of community building and long term development vision in their home state of Colorado, McWhinney Real Estate Services, Inc. works on real estate ventures that range from commercial to hospitality to multifamily. As Vice President of the company’s Multifamily Operations division, Dori J. Brewer and her capable team are tasked with identifying opportunities for McWhinney to continue to expand its multifamily portfolio, leasing up newly developed properties, and maintaining a strong operations platform. Yardi is a vital part of that platform, providing McWhinney’s core multifamily accounting software via Voyager 7S. The company moved from MRI to Yardi in 2014 and her team has been extremely happy with the change, Brewer said. “I love it, and I’m super glad we have it,” she commented about Voyager 7S. Her team is considering expanding its Yardi product line to include resident screening, renters insurance, business intelligence, revenue management, and Rent Café resident services. With two marquee Class A multifamily properties in Colorado, Brewer and her team are focused on continuing to provide enhanced residential services for their residents. They’d like to implement an online payment, leasing system and work order request portal in the coming year. The “McWhinney Lifestyle” is a unique branding of the company’s apartment communities, which connects them with local regional themes and offers a highly amenitized Class A living experience. The two properties are the 314-unit Trails at Timberline in Fort Collins, and the 394-unit Arbour Commons in Westminster. Trails at Timberline takes its name from Fort Collins’ exceptional regional trail system, and Arbor Commons is named for fruit orchards that were once prevalent in the area. Units are named after trails and apples, respectively. “We build amenities that we think are lifestyle driven and then we program around...

Moving to a cloud-based commercial property management and accounting platform typically sounds like a daunting transition. Kim Mann, CPA/property controller for Kansas City-based Block Real Estate Services LLC, makes it sound more like a walk in the park. “Going from self-hosted to hosted was the easiest conversion that I have ever done,” Mann said. “When you have change, people tend to get cranky about it. But I didn’t have any push back.” And when it came time to flip the switch to the Yardi cloud, the transition was fast and easy. “I simply sent out the new URL, gave everyone a half day off, and said, do not enter Yardi until tomorrow, and we went back live within 24 hours,” Mann said. Block Real Estate Services LLC converted to Voyager 7S in June of 2015, and Mann anticipated that the customizations and intricate property structure set-up would complicate the transition. That turned out not to be the case, an impressive feat considering that her team tracks 700 financial entities using Yardi software. Preparing for the change with extensive testing, Mann also enlisted 12 of the company’s Yardi users to become “champions of the change.” Testing took four weeks, with the entire conversion time frame lasted two months total. Both of the transitions – a cloud-based platform and use of the new Yardi Commercial Suite, have created enhanced efficiencies and time and cost savings for Block Real Estate Services LLC. “Going to the cloud freed up a massive server and saved us from having to buy another server, so we did not have to incur that expense. Our IT department loved that,” Mann said. Use of the Yardi Commercial Suite has changed the way Block Real Estate Services LLC processes invoices, and while the switch...