Walking the walk with multifamily.
Once upon a time we were proudly managing a fleet of single-family homes that we had purchased by ourselves. Our residents were happy and we had figured out how to scale with ease and flow.
The recipe was simple: buy a house that needed some love, give it a quality upgrade, find a solid resident, make it easy to be a renter, and even easier to be a property owner.
Systems in place, service on lock, the Black Swan Way had proven itself to be worthy and profitable.
We couldn’t help but wonder…..
Are the skills we learned managing real estate for single-family transferable to multi-family? Could we make the world a better place to live for exponentially more people? What if we used the very same strategies and best practices we learned being a property owner/manager many times over across many properties and applied it to a larger building?
You don’t have to ask us twice! Black Swan believes.
We set out to test our theory: did we have the capability and the capacity to take a distressed or more-vacated apartment community and improve the occupancy and retention simply by elevating the renting experience? Yes, yes we do.
For proof of concept, we dipped our toes in the multi-family waters with Med City Apartments.
When Black Swan Living assumed management, Med City was freshly renovated and gleaming, but only 50% occupied due to mis-management. After our management takeover, the situation changed. Within 45 days, it was 88% filled. And then we were full. To this day, happy renters renew their leases with gusto and refer their friends. How did we do it? By doing the right things for the right reasons.
- Understand the needs of the ideal client (resident).
- Be accessible.
- Answer the phone.
It seems stunningly simple,, but time and time again our residents tell us that they love our management style just by the simple fact that we show up. And while that doesn’t say much about business-as-usual property management practices, it is good news for us.
Enter Nue 52
Med City showed us that we could manage any style of housing with the same business model and service delivery. So when Nue 52 became available on the market, we knew we could do it.
There was so much to love about Nue 52. The floor plans were limited, which allowed us to get really, really good about a single product and just keep iterating it. We were lucky enough to inherit a fantastic staff member to help with the transition. And finally, the building was only 5 years old in a growing part of Rochester. Nevertheless, the building had struggled with vacancy – up to 30% – since the time of construction, so we were going into major headwinds.
Again, we applied our simple strategy:
- Know the needs of the ideal resident.
- Answer the phone.
- Show up.
- Do what we say we’re going to do.
We facilitated a smooth transition and doubled-down on our communications. We put effort into advertising and marketing. We made it easy to lease. We managed maintenance tickets. We made it easy to rent from us.
As a result, rental rates rose and soon we were on a waitlist. 90% of our residents were young professionals, aligned with our brand, and referring friends. In response, we became responsive to lifestyle trends, like adding a dog park.
Now, we have no doubt as to the capacity of our company to add value to the properties we manage and the lives of our residents and it’s what inspired us to take on the Nicholas & Oliver Apartments this year. (More on that story later…)
These are some lessons we’ve learned along the way:
📈 The volume of inquiries is exponential. We find an average of 3:1 leads for apartments over single family homes.
🦄 The end user is a different kind of resident and we needed to get to know their unique needs.
💂♀️ Transitioning management from the old guard is a more formal process; we needed a dedicated team.
🤝 Our inherited residents may have a vastly different set of expectations than the newly inbound ones; express certainty at every turn. These folks may need a bit more hand holding.
👬 Place additional staff in the building for a while; accessibility is absolutely critical as you establish the vibe for the manager/resident relationship.
🖤 🦢 Reinforce our brand ideas. We are a local, family-owned, resident-focused company and people love that about us.
If you have a tried-and-true business model for your investment properties and you want to make more of an impact, improving streetscapes, neighborhoods, communities, we encourage you to explore Multi-Family real estate investing. For the most part, the formula is the same.