FOCUS
by JIM KJOLHEDE

August 15th, 2009

Focus is a strong word.  It is a word that if mis-directed, can actually hurt our “main thing”.  Our main thing in Multi-family is how to grow the NOI.  NOI should be the driver of our efforts….sometimes directly, sometimes indirectly.  Every prospective resident that calls, emails or walks in the door should be the FOCUS of the office during their visit.  What is more important than that person at that point in time?  I had a policy that if a prospective resident was in the office, the Property Manager, if available, had to get from behind his/her desk and go say hi.  Unfortunately, most residents don’t know the Property Manager by site and probably have not had any face to face interaction with him/her.  Just think how positive an effect it could be if the PM came out to meet the prospect and as one of my favorite PM’s used to tell them “No one will LOVE you like we will!!!”.  And the way that she said it, the prospect KNEW that it was true and it is not any wonder why her occupancy and revenue growth was one of the highest in the portfolio that I oversaw.  A FOCUSED Team can achieve many wonderful things.  At the same time, whenever I have viewed under or non-performing sites, there was NOT a clear, concise and the same focus by all of the Team Members.