Spring 2008 Sunrise Multifamily Rental Market Report Finds Average Rental Rates Rising Across Northeast Markets

Albany, NY – June 20, 2008 – The Spring 2008 Sunrise Multifamily Rental Market Report © released today by Sunrise Management & Consulting, reports average rental rates rising in most of the markets surveyed.  Rate increases were recorded in all the New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont markets.  Only Rhode Island and Western Connecticut, regions with existing high housing costs, reported flat growth.

The Spring 2008 Report finds: 

·        All the New York Markets reported average rental rate increases, led by the Southern Region (L.I., Westchester) with a $37 average rate increase, and the Capital Region (Albany) with a $26 increase.

·        New York’s Hudson Valley ($25) and Southern Tier ($24) regions posted strong growth.

·        Growth in average rent and average rent per square foot in all of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont.

·        Connecticut’s Eastern Region (New Hartford) posted growth with an $19 increase while the Western Region (Stamford, New Haven) had a slight decrease (-$8) in average rental rates.

·        Growth in Rhode Island relatively flat with a $4 increase in average rental rates

“The housing slump and tightening credit standards are increasing demand in the multifamily rental markets.” said Jesse Holland, president of Sunrise Management & Consulting, “The segment of the market that would normally be moving from rental apartment living to single family home ownership is finding itself stuck by higher lending standards requiring larger cash down payments.”

The Sunrise Multifamily Rental Market Report includes the entire Northeast except New York City.  The states surveyed and reported on include Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont.  The research team at Sunrise & Management & Consulting compiled the information by surveying almost 1900 apartment communities, representing 330,000 apartment units, and extensively updated the survey database.

The Sunrise biannual survey of rental conditions in the multifamily housing segment details average asking rents by unit mix and by square footage, and tracks historical trends on a county, regional and state basis. A regional summary report is available free of charge, at www.sunrisemc.com.  Sunrise Management & Consulting will prepare customized reports to meet any user’s specific needs.  Information on customized reports can be obtained by contacting Sunrise at 518-782-0200.

Headquartered in Albany, NY, Sunrise Management & Consulting AMO is an innovative third party property management company providing property management services, market research, and consulting to property owners, investors and home owner associations throughout the Northeastern United States. For information about Sunrise find us at www.sunrisemc.com

“Home improvement is the new American pastime, and renters
don’t want to be left out of the game. But tenants
have to talk with their landlords before tackling fix-up
projects, and they may be disappointed with the results of
the conversation.”

Read the full story here:
http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Style/226017/

The Latham-based company has launched a Homeowners/Condominium Associations Division, providing professional management services to association boards. The boards, which may set and enforce community rules, also often have the responsibility for tasks including grounds and private road maintenance, common area maintenance and the collection of monthly fees.

Sunrise, which manages the Highland Club Apartments in Watervliet and Adams Park Apartments in Albany, can efficiently transfer its management expertise to condo and single-family home development operations, said Jesse Holland, company president.

Depending on how a development is designed and marketed, an owners association may be responsible for lawn care and snow plowing in developments that offer low-maintenance homes, for the operation of a pool or maintenance of shared green space, or even the maintenance of private roads.

Managing an association can be very complicated, and boards are increasingly looking to turn over the daily management to professionals, Holland said. In addition to providing the required maintenance, associations often have significant budgets and operational requirements, including paying taxes and holding annual meetings.

The number of new developments with homeowners associations is increasing in the Capital Region thanks to demographic trends and economic circumstances, said Donald Zee, a Colonie-based attorney who often shepherds real estate projects through the municipal approval process.

Senior citizens are taking advantage of the booming real estate market to sell their homes, often moving to low-maintenance developments or condos. Young professionals looking for new developments or condos as starter homes are seeking upscale amenities and want to avoid spending time on yard work and home repair.

Additionally, cash-strapped local governments often prefer not to have to take on the maintenance of new roads and green space, Zee said. Leaving those maintenance tasks to an owners association helps preserve the value of a development’s homes and allows for amenities like cul-de-sacs and entry roads.

Sunrise will make sure private roads, driveways or parking lots get plowed as required, but the company doesn’t have its own regular maintenance staff, Holland said. Instead, it bids out maintenance tasks to keep association fees as low as possible.

Along with handling management tasks once a development is completed, Sunrise also consults with developers during the planning stages to streamline future operations.

In multi-family property management the planning often begins with a budget. Our industry is becoming ever more competitive: maintenance costs are increasing, vacancy rates are rising, and concessions are putting pressure on effective rental rates. If you want your property to operate at peak performance levels you need to develop, review and execute a plan. Failing to plan is essentially planning to fail.

First, your management team should have a playbook of well thought out plans on how to proceed with everyday operations. These well-defined procedures ensure that daily tasks are done correctly and consistently. Rent collection, apartment showing, rental application and screening, work orders, and property maintenance should be performed to pre-defined playbook standards.

The next aspect of the playbook details plans for those unusual situations that we all hope will never happen. Accidents, fires, floods, deaths, hazardous materials, thefts, hurricanes - you name it, it can and will happen. Outline pre-determined actions on what your staff will do to stabilize the situation, who needs to be contacted, and who is responsible for media and tenant relations. How you handle these situations can greatly impact how your property is portrayed in the media, help mitigate the total cost of the situation, and aid the process to return things to normal. A disaster drill once a year is an invaluable tool in making sure your plans work and that everyone on your staff knows what to do. Evaluate your business, your processes, and establish priorities. Evaluate your business, your processes, and establish priorities.

Many property management professionals are good at the planning already discussed. However, in the area of annual planning, we as an industry often fall short. Rather than taking the time to set goals and strategies, we focus on day to day operations. We end up working harder but not smarter.

An annual planning process starts with gathering information. Not just last years numbers, but market information, physical inspections, demographic information, all the data needed to determine the current status of your property and identify what you want to achieve over the next year.

As you determine needs, your strategy will develop, the numbers will fall into place and the resulting action plans are your roadmap to achievement.

The most important step is to re-evaluate. The plan that seemed perfect in December may be unachievable based on circumstances in June.

At Sunrise, we even plan to plan. Every 90 days we take a corporate planning day for our senior staff. We evaluate our progress, review goals and plans, and make sure we are on target.

Try it, you’ll find planning can be quick and easy. A plan helps you to focus your team, improve performance, and save both time and money.

Jesse Holland is president of Sunrise Management & Consulting, in Latham, N.Y.

How good is your front line?
Pretend you are looking for an apartment and call your property. It can be an eye-opening experience.

At Sunrise Management & Consulting we research and publish a bi-annual Multifamily Rental Market Report. In the process we talk to literally thousands of front line rental agents. We request the same information, in the same format, from all the properties we survey. The quality of the front line performance easily falls within four common categories.

1. The “newbie”: This person just started as a rental agent. They have received no training and have very little information to share. The most common response is “I’ll have to check on that”. We even had one person who did not know what an “amenity” is. At best they can give you rental rates. They do not know the selling features of their property, and they cannot provide basic customer service. How they ever manage to rent an apartment is a mystery.
2. The “attitude”: This person can’t be bothered. Their attitude says you are taking up their valuable time and they try to get off the phone as quickly as possible. They won’t volunteer any information unless asked directly, and then answer questions rudely. These negative and unfriendly employees cost you money by chasing prospective renters away.
3. The “no response”: This person doesn’t seem to exist. Nobody answers the phone or returns messages that are left. The office never seems to be opened or staffed. You can almost hear the cry of lost opportunity, “is anybody out there?”

   It is interesting to note that the collateral paperwork for these properties seems to match the phone experience. Some properties have nothing, some provide copies of copies of copies, and some just can’t seem to get it together.

   The fourth category is the one you want to find when you call your property.

4. The “professional”: This person has the information they need and know how to use it. They have been well trained and their sales presentation is flawless. You feel welcome and all your questions are readily answered. The professional is a pleasure to talk to, and to work with. Most importantly, they ask for your business.

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. In today’s fast paced environment that means the first impression of your property is usually by phone or on the internet. If the initial experience at your property is not up to par, you may never see that prospect.

Give your front line the training and tools they need to be the professional you need. You’ll see the results in your bottom line.

Jesse Holland is president of Sunrise Management & Consulting, in Latham, N.Y.

Multifamily property management-customer service is not just important, its the difference

Is your customer service program up to snuff? In today’s fast paced, high tech world you have to make sure your apartments can compete, and not just with the property down the road. Let’s look at a typical multifamily property tenant, Jane Business. Jane has a good job, impressive salary, good credit and good references. She has no problem paying the first month rent and security. And Jane is very busy, busy at work, and busy at looking for an apartment.

She has a major report due in two days, and an apartment she needs to find by the end of the month. Her day is filled with transactions and decisions that are impacted by customer service.

Jane has a software glitch that is causing her headaches in finishing the report. She calls into her support tech center, and while online, the tech dials into her system, downloads a patch, and she is up and running. Finishing the report she emails it to her local graphic company for 50 bound copies. It is delivered several hours later, with a bag of fresh baked cookies. Jane calls FEDEX, and her call is answered on the second ring. The rep looks up her account and schedules a pick-up in a matter of minutes. Before she leaves at the end of the day her report is out the door.

While she is doing these things, she is also scanning the local paper looking for an apartment in a multifamily property. Typically, she will call several ads that look appealing to her. Three are answered by a machine with a message to leave her information and someone will get back to her. She leaves messages on all of them. She connects with one, and the leasing agent provides her with basic information, a two bedroom apartment, $650 plus utilities.

The agent doesn’t know the square footage, or what the utilities run for that apartment. More importantly, the agent does not give her any reasons to come look at the apartment. Still, she asks to make an appt. that evening. Sorry, but it will have to be before 6pm, or the next day.

As Jane is busy presenting her report the next day, she takes the appointment that day, leaving work early to make it. Once there the agent is 10 minutes late. The lawns haven’t been mowed recently. Twenty minutes later the agent shows up, and, unable to get the key to work, has to go back to the office for the correct key. Once in, Jane finds it hasn’t been cleaned, but is reassured that it will all be taken care of. At the end of the day she has not been called back by the three properties she left messages with, and she realizes finding an apartment is going to be a very time consuming task.

Multifamily property managers are absolutely in competition with companies like FEDEX, because they have established the standard of how our customers want to be treated. Customer service is a universal principle of good business. It can set you apart from the majority, and directly impact the performance of your property. First impressions are critical. That first contact with a potential tenant will establish how they view the property, and the property management.

Jane’s customer service experience with a properly managed multifamily property will include:

• A return call immediately, if only to schedule a time to speak.
• Detailed information about the neighborhood, amenities, utilities and square footage.
• Appointments scheduled to her convenience.
• A clean apartment to look at.
• Applications and paperwork available at the meeting
• Professional treatment that tells her that the property management cares, about the property, and about her.

And customer service extends beyond the leasing agent.

We should regularly evaluate the customer service our property management frontline provides. While customer service is not hard to deliver, it does take training and focus to really implement a true customer service program. If your staff is not up to snuff, provide them the training and direction they need to succeed.

Jesse Holland is president of Sunrise Management & Consulting, in Latham, N.Y.

- Michael C. Mills,
Village Manager

PNL was in a difficult position after we foreclosed on the property in 2001. We were out-of-state owners with no local presence. The tenants were unhappy and threatening to leave due to a lack of maintenance and proper attention from the prior owner and management. The accounting systems had broken down and tenants were not being properly invoiced. Property taxes were delinquent. Deferred maintenance had become a problem. Roofs were leaking. The parking lot needed resurfacing. The interior common areas needed painting and new carpet. Most importantly, the property was suffering from a lack of new leasing and an overall negative image in the community.
I am happy to say that you have addressed all these problems in short order. By immediately meeting with the existing tenants, hearing the complaints and providing them with a vision of the future, we were able to stabilize the property occupancy. Since that time we have not lost a single tenant. Three tenants have renewed and two more are in the process. We also subsequently signed a new long-term lease with a national retailer, and are presently in negotiations with another, which would raise the property occupancy rate to over 90%.

You have also been an outstanding administrator and project coordinator. The prior owner’s chaotic accounting records have been replaced with a professional property management system. You have helped coordinate a property tax appeal and repaid prior year taxes under a payment plan that preserved monthly cash flow. Capital improvement projects have been implemented on-time and below budget.

In summary, you have removed the daily burden of managing a labor-intensive business from our hands at a very reasonable cost. The tenants are happy and revenues have increased. We are delighted that you have taken a personal interest in improving the property’s operations and value. We look forward to a continued successful working relationship.

- Daniel S. Levitan,
Senior Vice President �