During the recent Yardi Forum for senior living and affordable housing, we sat down with Brandon Carter, director of information technology at Wallick Communities. Brandon has a wealth of knowledge about products from the Yardi Senior Living and Yardi Voyager Affordable Housing suites, and we were thrilled to speak with him in person. Wallick owns and manages affordable housing and senior living properties across the Midwest. More than 20,000 residents live in Wallick units. There are always more units on the way, as Wallick has experienced an average 23 percent growth annually. Wallick has worked with HUD tax credit programs for more than four decades, and has even been ranked first in the nation in affordable housing preservation. To put it plainly, Wallick is a big deal. Read on to learn how Yardi software helps Wallick achieve its mission. Q: Describe the value that Yardi products bring to your company? BC: Yardi has been a great partner for Wallick. Whatever the need, we can almost always find a Yardi product to help us fulfil it. We trust that Yardi is continuously working to develop new and exciting products to help us fulfil our responsibilities towards owners, staff and residents. Q: How does Yardi help to position your company for growth? BC: Having only Yardi software to manage makes Wallick extremely nimble and quickly scalable with growth. The Yardi platform allows us to focus on our associates and residents as we grow, instead of worrying about bringing on new technology. Q: What software challenges did Wallick face before adopting Yardi? BC: Before moving to Yardi, we used multiple pieces of software for our different business needs. That required us to spend additional time and resources bridging data gaps. It also created confusion for new associates...

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The Yardi Senior Living Forum kicked off two days of classes and networking with an insightful presentation from Argentum President and CEO James Balda, who revealed two of the most pressing challenges facing the senior living industry. Argentum, the leading trade organization for senior living, was formerly called the Assisted Living Federation of America (ALFA). The organization recently changed its name to reflect the evolving nature of the industry, Balda shared. Senior living communities now encompass multiple lifestyles and care standards, which require a broader definition than simply “assisted living.” Argentum, which means silver in Latin, is intended to reflect the clientele the industry serves as well as the organization’s intent to set leading standards for senior living communities across the nation. With the “silver tsunami” of aging Baby Boomers set to have a major impact over the next decade, there will be an increased focus on senior housing and care. But right now, the industry faces two major challenges, Balda revealed: labor shortfalls and declining occupancy. “We are struggling everywhere, in all markets around the country, to find talent,” he said. The industry currently employs around 1 million people, but in the next 7 years will need to hire 1.2 million more. Around 900,000 of those will be replacements for existing staff due to the industry’s high turnover rate in a tight labor market. The additional 300,000 will be new hires to meet the needs of aging Baby Boomers. “Senior living isn’t really seen as a career path. Nobody is waking up in the morning as a kid and saying ‘I want to go into senior living for my career,’” Balda said. But the good news is that senior living does have a compelling mission as an industry and...

A savvy group of marketers joined us for learning, networking and fun at the bi-annual Yardi Marketing Forum (YMF) in Baltimore last week. During the event, attendees explored the latest trends in digital marketing, tips and tricks to optimize outcomes, and real estate technology. As noted by Esther Bonardi, Yardi vice president of marketing, the event is “all about helping you tap into your inner marketing genius.” Here are some of the top digital marketing themes covered: Get in touch with your audience As marketers, we’ve traditionally divvied up our target audiences by demographic information. In today’s noisy digital landscape, we need to meet our customers where they’re at. Speakers Brad Downs, vice president of marketing for the Baltimore Ravens, and Brad Batesole, staff author at LinkedIn, shared strategies to better reach target audiences. Drawing from his fifteen years of experience in sports marketing, Downs stressed the importance of moving from brand first to fan first. “It’s that fan first mentality. Our fans are incredibly important to us. Fans want to feel as important as they are,” he said. By focusing on fans first, opportunities to engage and foster fandom become easier to identify. Downs demonstrated that life stage marketing goes beyond traditional demographic segmentation, resulting in better customer experiences, tailored events and increased engagement. For the Ravens, life stage segmentation resulted in targeted fan development campaigns focused around women and adolescents. This included Purple, a community building initiative to cultivate the female fan base, and RISE, a football outreach program for local children and high schoolers in emerging Ravens strongholds. Life stage segmentation helped draw 130,000 fans to Ravens marketing events,  development of an international audience, and an average attendance of 71,000 people at each home game. At Wednesday’s marketing master class, Batesole...

A host of marketing geniuses recently descended on Nashville, Tennessee for the first Yardi Marketing Forum of 2016. This bi-annual event for Yardi Marketing Solutions clients combines learning, networking, and fun for an unforgettable three-days. Take a look at some of the highlights from our time in Nashville: Google‘s Presentation We always look forward to sessions led by guest presenters, and this forum was no exception. As an official Google Partner, we were pleased to invite Ben Killmer (pictured, left)– our favorite Googler – onstage Tuesday to discuss the ever-changing world of mobile search. Ben shared actionable tips to help properties get found by apartment hunters. He also taught the audience easy ways to create a better user experience that converts prospects into residents. “There are four essential strategies that can help you win consumers during micro-moments,” said Ben. “You’ve got to be there, be useful, be quick, and connect the dots.” And here’s a fun fact he passed on to us: did you know that 15% of all Google searches are completely unique and have never been searched before? Ben will be taking us on a tour of the Googleplex office in Mountain View this June, and we’re all quite excited about it. We promise to follow up with another blog post detailing who we met and what we ate for lunch in the Google cafeteria! A Night at the Opry After a full-day of guest speakers and learning labs on Tuesday, our group bussed out the legendary Grand Ole Opry concert venue for a catered dinner, wonderful ensemble show, and private back-stage tour. We were thrilled to take photos on stage where so many stars have performed – including Dolly Parton and Randy Travis – and got to peek inside dressing rooms...