The Heights at Tallahassee, a student housing property located near Florida State University, often receives questions from their residents on what it is like to be a community assistant. The staff told us that they wanted to be able to provide feedback to their residents through examples, so they have created a series of YouTube videos called “True Life - I’m a Heights CA”.
Our community assistants attend university full time and serve various roles on a day to day basis; leasing agent, bookkeeper, mail-sorter, outreach marketer, community liaison and maintenance assistant. With their ability to manage all of these tasks while maintaining a positive attitude, these young adults are true role models for their peers as well as their corporate team members. We applaud all of our student workers and look forward to learning more about what it is like to be an onsite CA through the series: “True Life – I’m a Heights CA”.
February is Apartment Career Month and the National Apartment Association has selected to partner with Asset Plus Companies in launching a program to market careers in the apartment industry to college students nationwide. UNITS, the most read magazine in the multifamily housing industry, featured an article highlighting why most college grads do not initially seek careers in the apartment industry.
Many people, especially new college graduates, don’t realize the variety of careers offered by the apartment industry. Multifamily housing companies employ more than 1 million people. Reaching out to recent college graduates is not new to the industry. In fact, the efforts highlighted below are but two examples of the ways in which the apartment industry is reaching out to new sources of potential job candidates.
UNITS interviewed our very own Chief Operating Officer, Ryan McGrath, to find out what exactly Asset Plus is doing to successfully recruit college graduates to the industry. Mr. McGrath discusses the training technique in which begins way back when the student is a resident at one of our student housing properties.
Often times, a resident will enjoy living at our communities so much that they will then apply to become a resident advisor the following year. Supervisors keep an eye out for young staff members who have a good work ethic, personal integrity and the willingness to learn. As of today, we currently have 13 previous resident advisors at our student housing communities, now working at our Houston corporate office.
We are proud to partner with the National Apartment Association in promoting careers in the apartment industry and support our industry’s endeavors in recruiting the top college graduates.
We are excited to welcome Geoff R. Eisenacher to the Asset Campus Student Housing team!
Mr. Eisenacher is Vice President of Business Development and is responsible for establishing relationships, seeking new management opportunities and forming future business opportunities for Asset Campus Housing.
Prior to joining the team, Mr. Eisenacher served as Assistant Vice President at Campus Living Villages, a national provider of privatized management and development of on-campus student housing, part of a global student housing network spanning the United States, Australia, the UK and New Zealand. In this role, he was responsible for various duties that included Portfolio Operations, Business Development and Special Projects.
Mr. Eisenacher started his career as a Resident Advisor for Allen & O’Hara, Inc. (EDR) and also worked for the Bromley Companies in various roles including General Manager and Director of Housing. Mr. Eisenacher holds a B.A. in Psychology with a minor in Business Administration from Ohio University. He is a licensed Real Estate Broker in the state of Texas.
According to Internet World Stats, over 78% of the United States population has access to the internet. This means that over 78% of the US population has free access to online reviews, ratings and opinions of both services and products that are available to consumers. With that being said, there is vast opportunity for our property managers and onsite team member to utilize the internet in communicating with future and current residents.
For this week’s video, our staff at 25Twenty in Lubbock, Texas, caught fever of the latest YouTube hit that is going on around campuses nationwide, and created their own version of the series called “Stuff 25Twenty Says”. This video features two minutes of basic one liners highlighting all of 25Twenty's amenities and reasons why they are the best housing in Lubbock!
Knowing what is going on at your local University is important for all off campus student housing communities, however, keeping up with what is popular online is just as imperative when it comes to managing resident retention. By being friends with your residents on Facebook or having them "Like" your business fan page, you are able to observe what is trending and popular amongst your audience. With this knowledge you can plan events and YouTube videos based upon the students' interests.
Our team in Lubbock demonstrates their familiarity with the Texas Tech market by creating clever videos like such and posting them on their Facebook Fan Pages. Kudos, team!
Asset Campus Housing begun the 2012 Annual Training Seminars Nationwide this week. With a portfolio of over 60 student housing properties, ACH hosts 4 regional training seminars for all onsite team members. The seminars cover a wide variety of ACH's most successful leasing strategies and property management skills.
This past Monday, January 16th, was the first of four training seminars in College Station, Texas. Over 150 ACH employees were in attendance including: college student CAs, Leasing Agents and Property Managers from all over Texas!
The training kicked off with an ice breaker that allowed for all of our student employees to mix and mingle and see what they held in common with other college employees in the company. After learning that most of our staff is Tebow fans, we buckled down and reviewed some of the basics such as: Customer Service, Fair Housing and The Perfect Tour!
What is unique about our management approach is that we allow each of our employees the opportunity to lead. The various topics discussed were covered by a different individuals in our company who have demonstrated exceptional knowledge and expertise in the given field. For example, the property manager and leasing team at the Crossing Place, a student apartment community in College Station, TX, went over the importance of a guest card. The Crossing Place Apartments have leased 100% for the past 4 years, so taking tips from that team was no time waisted!
Along with the key apartment management skills that were discussed at training; we also rolled out the 2012 ACH Charity Water campaign. ACH properties have been challenged to raise over $50,000 at their communities by April 9th, 2012! With the caliber of young adults we have working at our properties, it was not surprise that by the end of the day, students had donated over $238 of their own money. The college students were giving whatever cash they had in their pockets, $1, $5 and $20 to show their support!
It is truly a pleasure to work with such talented and giving individuals. Good luck to everyone going into the the 2012-2013 leasing season!
Follow the blog for future updates on Charity Water!
Asset Plus Companies is pleased to welcome Arbor Ridge East and West to our multifamily portfolio.
The two communities are located in Houston, Texas and together offer over 390 units. With one and two bedroom apartments homes available, Arbor Ridge also leases an 1,100 sq.ft. town home to Houstonians!
Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Asset Plus Companies is a third party property management firm specializing in real estate services for investors, developers, and owners. We approach property management with a focus on outperforming the market and our competitors.
All of the multifamily and student housing properties that we manage are held accountable to host at least one monthly Resident Event.
Resident Events provide all tenants a time to meet their neighbors and their property management team. It is important that we as property managers not only provide our residents with a great place to call home, but also a place where the ENJOY living. These monthly events are free for residents and we encourage them to bring their friends and family members. Most events include free food, drinks, music and planned activities that involve everyone.
The team at Knights Circle made a YouTube video that gives you some "Tips For Throwing A Good Party" if you need some ideas, check it out!
Be sure to check out Asset Plus and Asset Campus Housing's January 2012 Asset Report. The Asset Report begins with a message from our company President, Michael McGrath, and then discuss different business accomplishments that we have seen on the student housing and multifamily side.
New student housing developments are discussed in detail along with photos that depict the new luxury living facilities. The student housing division also began a new training and development department that focuses on ensuring each and every property staff member is fully educated on the Asset Campus Housing procedures and strategies.
In addition, 2011 was a big year for Asset Plus when it came to giving back. With the support of residents, clients and colleagues, the Houston based property management company surpassed it's goal of fundraising $25,000 for the non-profit Charity:Water. The report discusses what Charity:Water is and how the management company raised support.
Click the image below to read the full Asset Report!
Happy New Years to all of our loyal employees, friends and family! We hope that everyone had a remarkable holiday season and made it back to work safe and sound in 2012.
Over the holidays many of our properties celebrated the season by hosting resident events featuring a special guest by the name of Santa Claus. Various properties welcomed residents to participate in events such as Saturday Breakfast with Santa, Christmas Sing-Alongs with Santa, Gingerbread making competitions and much more. The creativity that our onsite staff has throughout the year and especially during the month of December is truly noteworthy.
We took particular notice to one of our multifamily properties in Houston, Texas and their creative marketing endeavors this past December. The group decided what they wanted for Christmas was more traffic, and what better way to get more traffic than asking Santa to help? Well, Santa sent one of his helpers to assist by serving as their designated Sign Spinner during a few busy weekends in December. The extra help increased the property's traffic significantly and brought plenty of smiles to residents and guests!
The first commercial Christmas cards were commissioned by Sir Henry Cole in London in 1843 and featured an illustration by John Horsley (pictured below).
Over time, the images and distribution method of Holiday cards has changed dramatically. The World Wars brought cards with patriotic themes while in the 1950s there were many "studio cards" with cartoon illustrations and sometimes risque humor. In 1953, U.S. President Eisenhower issued the first official White House card.
Since then, changes in technology have assisted in the decline of the hand written Holiday Greeting cards. Consumers are now able to go online and personalize Holiday e-cards at no cost! In addition to sending e-cards, individuals and companies also have the ability to send real time holiday greetings to loved ones at any location due to social sites like Skype an YouTube.
This Friday's YouTube video features one of our student housing management teams wishing their residents Happy Holidays by interchanging the words to the "12 Days of Christmas"! Check out the video and let us know what you think!
Asset Plus Companies has one of the industry’s lowest supervisor to property ratios: 1-to-6 for multifamily properties and 1-to-4 for student housing properties.
