What's your company's greatest strength? If you answered "people," you're not alone; it's a popular response among executives today, particularly in the apartment industry, where the talent you need can be hard to find and even more difficult to keep.
But it's not impossible. Just look at the five young leaders featured in MFE's inaugural class of rising stars. Some are multifamily veterans, while others come from other industries. Regardless of their background or company affiliation, though, each one has the energy, drive, and fresh ideas you'd expect from a member of multifamily's very own "Fab Five."
Mission Accomplished
A former sharpshooter sets her sights on establishing a national training program for her company.
In a people-centric business with high turnover, training is one of the best ways to prepare staff to win residents and stay with the company.
A 2003 Accenture study found that employees receiving the most training stay with their companies 14 percent longer, are 17 percent more productive, and perform at 20 percent higher levels relative to their peer group.
But there's more to training than a better bottom line, according to Stephanie Puryear Helling, 36, vice president of education and marketing for Greystar Real Estate Partners' Austin, Dallas, and Denver regions.
"There's great satisfaction in being able to play a part in the success of others," says Helling, who's based in Dallas. "Our success as a company is contingent upon giving our associates the tools they need."
That mindset prompted Helling, who began her career in 1992 as a leasing professional, to create Greystar University, an in-house training program that starts on employees' first day with the company. The program includes in-person and online training to create a blended learning system that allows Greystar to train more associates more effectively. She also helped form the Greystar National Education Counsel to help trainers discover and replicate best practices within the company.
"She is fabulous in training all the new employees who join our region," says Debi Wehmeier, senior vice president of Greystar's central region. "She relays not only the policies and procedures of the company, but most importantly is the first impression as a leader. Stephanie is dedicated to training each associate to success and to rise to the top of the industry."
That pays off in recruiting and retaining great employees. "We are continually receiving applications and associate referrals based solely on our word-of-mouth reputation within the industry," Helling says. And though turn-over figures weren't available for Greystar, the vice president says trends look good. "Tenure for our associates continues to grow, as we have many associates who have been with us between two years and nine years in Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio."
Helling attributes her success to her focus, which she honed in the Army National Guard as a combat medic and as a certified sharpshooter with an M-16 and a hand grenade. "Success is not achieved by setting your sights on the next best thing," Helling says, "but in being fully present in your current position, being willing to give your best to whatever your current role is, and realizing the importance of each role you play in the overall success of the team."
Young Entrepreneurs
A dream comes true in El Paso, Texas.
Melanie Bailey and K.C. Espinoza are living a dream.
After working for multifamily firms since they were teenage leasing consultants, Bailey and Espinoza decided to take the entrepreneurial plunge in 2003 by starting El Paso-based Integrity Asset Management, a third-party company that rehabs and manages apartment properties.
"K.C. and I dreamt of our future business prospering when we were 21, and now it has pushed our dreams to a new level," notes Bailey, now 31. "I envisioned that the possibilities were endless. I never saw myself doing anything else."
Espinoza, 32, concurs. "[The multifamily industry] was what I enjoyed and was good at and had the ability to go as far [in] as I chose to. I chose to never get down and ride the wave of ups and downs in our industry. Every door that was closed only made me look for an open window."
Their dream came true quickly. Bailey and Espinoza founded the company with 13 communities and now have 35 under management. They expect five more properties to be added by the end of the third quarter, just before Espinoza delivers her third child (bringing her blended family to a total of five).
That growth is due to one thing, according to Richard Aguilar, chairman of El Paso's Cash Investment and one of Integrity's clients. "Integrity is different from most property managers because they look beyond economic occupancy," he says. "A lot of management companies forget that everything has to work for everyone to win. Melanie and K.C. take a very balanced approach, focusing on keeping their employees, owners, and tenants happy, making sure the properties look good, and keeping costs down."
Responsibilities are divided up based on skills and personalities. Espinoza is the president, handling new acquisitions and serving as general manager. Aguilar calls her "The Energizer." "She's all pumped up all the time and really makes sure each property produces."
Bailey is the vice president, responsible for financial decisions and the Dallas and Austin properties. "She's really strong at making sure cost is managed carefully," Aguilar notes. "She's sharp. Nobody's going to pull the wool over her eyes."
The complementary skills helped them weather their first year. "It was definitely challenging," Bailey says. "We knew only one side of the business. Who knew what it took to manage an accounting department?"
They learned that and more on the job, which is an opportunity they also extend to their employees. "Our employees are what make us a strong force in the industry," Bailey notes. "They have really stepped up to the challenge and stuck by us."
Not surprisingly, Integrity prefers to promote from within whenever possible; some Integrity property managers were once housekeepers. Hiring counts too. The company prides itself on taking chances with people who have drive and personality, not necessarily multifamily industry experience. "You are nothing without good people around you," Espinoza says.
And both Espinoza and Bailey had plenty of good people around them early in their careers. Each was motivated by family members who encouraged them to set and pursue their goals. They value the guidance they received from other multifamily colleagues they encountered along the way, particularly Jerry Carlson and Rhonda Aten of the El Paso Apartment Association.
"Throughout our careers, they have guided us in getting our education and making sure we followed the laws," Espinoza says. "They have made sure we maximized our potential and stayed abreast of all the laws and trends. We have been truly blessed by their support."
Strategic Thinking
A marketing pro leverages the Internet to lower his company's cost-per-lease.
What can a guy who has marketed hotel rooms, dog food, and underwear know about marketing apartments? Plenty, says Dirk Herrman, chief marketing officer of AvalonBay Communities, who recruited just that guy Kevin Thompson for AvalonBay six years ago.
"His experience from outside this category is critical, and it's why I hired him," says Herrman, who had worked with Thompson at Fruit of the Loom. "He knows how to build a brand and integrate it through a company."
Today, Thompson, 39, is senior director of marketing for the Alexandria, Va.-based apartment REIT. He directs AvalonBay's day-to-day marketing agenda, including advertising, marketing collateral/signage, Internet, promotions, and public and investor relations.
"Marketing is marketing while the products may be different, many of the methodologies remain the same," Thompson says. "My first challenge was to understand the multifamily industry and then to apply specific marketing strategies that have proven successful in the past."
Thompson's biggest accomplishment has been harnessing the power of the Internet. He started by rebuilding the company's national Web site to consolidate the Avalon brand across 140 communities. The new approach helped prospective renters find properties and gave current residents an online community resource. It also won an NAHB Pillars of the Industry "best Web site" award in 2003.
After the Web site redesign, Thompson concentrated on lowering AvalonBay's cost-per-lease and strengthening resident communities all while reducing company's marketing and advertising expenses by more than 10 percent for three years running.
To drive more traffic to the redesigned site, he oversaw a search engine optimization project that generated a 400 percent increase in unique visitors (nearly 100,000 per month). Those leads cost the company nothing after the upfront cost of developing and delivering the campaign.
Then Thompson really shook things up by moving away from print guides, focusing instead on online sources, which are less costly and increasingly effective. By listing properties in online guides, placing banner ads on Web sites, and selectively pulling out of print guides, the company has significantly reduced its cost-per-lease for the last three years running. Today only about 6.4 percent of AvalonBay's leases are generated by print guides (down from 18.4 percent in 2002) versus 37.4 percent from the Internet (up from 19.8 percent in 2002). The cost-per-lease for Internet sources? Just $175, hundreds of dollars less than a print ad.
For instance, a placement on Rent.com in June 2005 would have been seen by 3.1 million visitors to that site, according to comScore Media Metrix. The leading apartment guides and locator services averaged about 2.5 million visitors overall.
"We were right at the beginning of cybermarketing when we hired Kevin," Herrman says. "He brought an ability to interpret and guide our work. Now we're at the forefront of the multifamily business with regards to Internet marketing."
Revenue Manager
Strong leadership transforms a regional portfolio and introduces a public company to new technology.
Laurie Baker inherited the two toughest markets in Camden Property Trust's portfolio when she became regional vice president for Houston, Austin, and Corpus Christi, Texas, last year.
"The silver lining was that it provided me the opportunity to review all aspects of operations," says Baker, who just sneaks into this year's list of rising stars who are 40 years old and under. (Baker turns 41 later this month.) As part of that, she did monthly goal-setting at both the community and individual levels and reviewed the results at weekly staff meetings.
"Each week we surpassed our goals and quickly started the trend upward in all areas being measured," she says. "The team members became energized by their own successes. We are still in distressed markets, but the bar has been raised, and everyone has risen to the occasion."
After one year under Baker's leadership, overall occupancy at her properties rose from the high 80-percent range to 96 percent. "She took a group that had spent two years talking about what they couldn't accomplish and changed the attitude of an entire region," says Keith Oden, Camden's president and COO. "Her communities are clearly outperforming the market now."
All this from someone who started in finance, overseeing several support departments, including ancillary services, purchasing, real estate taxes, and security. But Baker's performance caught the eye of management, and when the regional vice president spot opened, Oden recruited her.
"I liked her ability to understand the importance of team play," Oden says, who believes this quality is particularly valuable on the operations side. "People in operations are skeptical about allowing other groups to help them," he says.
Oden was confident Baker could disarm any skeptics with her infectious optimism and her ability to "understand how to get all the pieces of the puzzle put together in a way that ensure success." He also liked the fact that she started her career in the medical business, not multifamily. "She came without the old biases and preconceptions," he notes. "She's curious and brings an outsider's perspective. Laurie questions everything."
Not content to rest on her past success, Baker is preparing to make hers the first Camden region to adopt revenue management in all its communities. "This is an exciting new opportunity for Camden and for the industry as a whole," says Baker, who has been working with RealPage to test and refine their YieldStar revenue management program. "If we can harness appropriate technologies that truly make us better operators, by saving time and improving our pricing fundamentals, we will incrementally achieve better returns."
She adds, "The multifamily industry has a tremendous amount of opportunity for process improvement and growth. We are evolving as an industry and becoming more professional, which will ultimately attract the bright and talented, and provide new career opportunities."
– Margot Carmichael Lester is a freelance writer in Carrboro, N.C.
People to Watch
Do you or does someone you know qualify as a "person to watch"? If you (or they) will be 40 years of age or younger as of Sept. 1, 2006, please send an e-mail to Alison Rice at with the person's name, contact information, and a short paragraph on why they should make next year's list. (Please put "PEOPLE TO WATCH" in the subject line.) We are looking for junior executives at large multifamily firms and young entrepreneurs who are making a name for themselves in the industry. The deadline for submissions is March 30, 2006.