The Top Floor

Welcome to season three of The Top Floor podcast brought to you by AppFolio.

After two great seasons of hearing real estate leaders share their thoughts on the property management industry, we’re back for a third time around.

We’re featuring more experts in the real estate world as they discuss the future of the industry, how resident preferences have evolved, and how to use technology to create an efficient management system. This season, we uncover even more innovative solutions for today’s complex property management challenges.

Stay tuned for new episodes and subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Sticher, Google Podcasts, or wherever else you like to listen.

Key Links

• AppFolio

• The Top Floor podcast

The foundation of the property management business is, of course, rooted in people. It takes a village of employees to accommodate clients and residents in a 24/7, always-on industry in which property managers must be available at any moment.

At a time when real estate is in increasingly high demand as residents search for bigger spaces and new homes, property managers are in need of a full staff to keep operations running smoothly. However, staffing in the world of property management has been an ongoing pain point exacerbated by thousands of employees quitting amid the “The Great Resignation,” coupled with the new normal of hybrid work during the pandemic.

To combat this cycle, we discover how property managers are making do with smaller staffs, as well as the tech solutions being used to fill in the gaps. To discover how workers on the frontlines get the support they need to increase their bandwidth and how their employers measure up in terms of worker satisfaction, we turn to recent research produced by AppFolio in partnership with IREM. In this episode of The Top Floor, we speak with Steve Cadigan, author of Workquake, as well as Barry Blanton of AMO management firm Blanton Turner, to discover the perfect combination of employees and tech solutions to resolve today’s challenges in property management.

Board members are responsible for finding and partnering with an association management company that will best serve their needs and the needs of the community. When board members are satisfied and find value in their management company, they are more likely to stay with them, and also recommend them to other community associations.

However, now more than ever, board members' expectations of their management companies are high. Boards expect to be able to communicate instantly and carry out their tasks and duties anywhere and on any device. And many association management companies aren’t measuring up.

According to AppFolio and HOA-USA’s latest survey, which polled current and past board members, only 23% of respondents said they’d recommend their current or most recent management company – that’s a big gap for association management businesses to improve. More than half of board members surveyed, 66%, said lack of responsiveness was their number-one reason why they switched – or are considering switching – management companies, followed by failure to quickly and accurately follow through on projects (65%) and overall poor customer service (61%). These are major issues, because when a management company doesn’t communicate clearly with board members, misinformation can spread, leading to errors and frustration on all sides.

On this episode of The Top Floor, we sit down with an AppFolio expert to go deeper into the survey data to see exactly how board members' expectations are changing. We also hear how one association management company has been able to overcome challenges and better serve their boards by implementing mobile tools and on-demand experiences. Lastly, we get a firsthand account from an actual board member, who shares insight into how association management companies can pivot their customer service strategy to meet their boards’ and homeowners’ needs.

Change is often slow and subtle. But every so often an event takes place that accelerates existing trends, causing more dramatic and widespread change. In recent years, soaring rents have been driving many urban renters toward nearby suburbs or more-affordable cities. But then, several factors, including COVID-19 and the related economic changes, created a new-found sense of urgency among renters, and sped up this movement in some areas. While what we’ve summarized here is the most visible, recent shift within real estate, it’s just one detail of a larger, more diverse story. And over the next two episodes, we’re aiming to create a more complete narrative. Today on The Top Floor, we kick off our two-part series, “A Tale of Two Types of Cities,” which explores population exchanges between US metropolitan areas. Our series begins on the West Coast.

Resources:

AppFolio Survey: High renter satisfaction, low Net Promoter Score: How U.S. renters perceive their property managers

"Has the Golden State lost its luster? California population shrinks for the first time ever" (Los Angeles Times)

Atlas Van Lines annual Migrations Patterns Study

Welcome to the second half of our two-part series exploring US cities and how renter migration patterns have changed. In just under two years, a handful of lifestyle and economic shifts created a new-found sense of urgency among renters. But even before the pandemic, certain metros saw a rise in populations, leading to a surge in rent costs that pushed many renters out to less expensive cities where the cost of living was lower. On top of that, when remote work became the new normal for some types of jobs during the pandemic, an influx of renters in expensive cities like New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco started seeking out more affordable areas, such as the Sun Belt states. Today on The Top Floor we discuss some of those Sun Belt cities, including Dallas-Fort Worth, Miami and Atlanta, to discover trends influencing renter’s new living situations, and what property managers can do to respond to evolving renter preferences and become more competitive.

Resources:

High renter satisfaction, low Net Promoter Score: How U.S. renters perceive their property managers

Sun Belt real estate: Stats and trends for 2022

Census 2020: First results show near historically low population growth and a first-ever congressional seat loss for California

Communication has always been key in the association management industry. However, in today’s digital world, instant communication is no longer a ‘nice to have,’ but an absolute necessity. We all are accustomed to having immediate answers and information at our fingertips — and homeowners and board members expect the same experience from their community association. Due to these changing expectations, association management businesses have had to pivot their communication strategies in order to keep their homeowners and board members informed and satisfied. From community updates to board financials — everything has had to transition from traditional to mobile modes of communication. While it may have been challenging initially, today these strategies have paved the way for stronger, more connected communities. 

In this episode on The Top Floor, we explore the role communication plays in association management and customer relationships, and how businesses are working to streamline their processes to increase transparency, satisfaction, and efficiency. Throughout the episode you’ll hear from various association management companies, who will share how they have successfully boosted communication within their associations, along with an AppFolio product expert, who will talk about the emerging technologies your business can take advantage of today to strengthen your communications.

When’s the last time you audited the maintenance processes at your property management company? Outside of a list of preferred contractors, there may not even be a process, which can have real consequences on a company’s net operating income, as maintenance costs can be some of the most difficult to control. 

To serve resident’s needs and protect property assets, proper maintenance means regularly incurring hard costs, including people, time and materials. But it can be difficult for growing teams to accurately anticipate these costs and take the steps needed to streamline where possible. Without a process or thoughtful planning, how would your team know if they’re overpaying on parts and labor to replace a leaky faucet? Or how well they’re satisfying service requests? Today on The Top Floor, we’re investigating the relationship between maintenance costs and NOI.