Blog entries

Life as a Student Housing Community Assistant on YouTube

Audrey Nardecchia — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 02:29:42 +0100

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”.

Promoting National Apartment Career Month with the NAA

Audrey Nardecchia — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:50:32 +0100

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.

To read the full UNITS article, please follow this link: http://www.naahq.org/publications/units/2012/01_12

ACH Welcomes New VP of Business Development to Student Housing Team

Audrey Nardecchia — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 04:39:39 +0100

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.

YouTube And Your Student Housing Audience

Audrey Nardecchia — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 23:54:14 +0100

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!

Quality Student Housing Training

Audrey Nardecchia — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 03:02:58 +0100

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!

New Multifamily Management Assignment in Houston, Texas

Audrey Nardecchia — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 05:26:21 +0100

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.

ACH Student Housing on: Resident Events and How to Throw a Great Party!

Audrey Nardecchia — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 05:26:01 +0100

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!

A Glimpse of 2011 at Asset Plus Companies

Audrey Nardecchia — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 04:36:57 +0100

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 Year!

Audrey Nardecchia — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 02:49:32 +0100

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!

YouTube Your Holiday Greetings!

Audrey Nardecchia — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 22:57:46 +0100

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!

YouTube your Amenities

Audrey Nardecchia — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 04:45:28 +0100

This Friday we have a fun video from the team at The Domain at Tempe in Tempe, Arizona.

The Domain at Tempe is one of our student housing properties that features luxurious amenities like a 4,000 sq. ft. fitness club, exclusive tanning salon with stand up beds, a rooftop social lounge with firepits and a gameroom with pool tables, shuffleboard, and LCD TV's. In order to highlight all of their stand out amenities, the team created a short video that included ALL staff members dancing to the ever-so popular 90's hit, The Macarena.

Check out their fun video right here:

2011 Corporate Christmas Luncheon

Audrey Nardecchia — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 01:37:10 +0100

As 2011 comes to a close, we recently celebrated our annual Holiday Luncheon with corporate employees from Houston and College Station, Texas.

The annual occasion is a chance for employees to reflect on the past year and prepare our mind and spirits for the following year. With everyone dressed in red and green, we headed to Fogo de Chao to experience an authentic Brazilian meal. This was the first time for the majority of the team to ever dine at Fogo de Chao, making it a very memorable and fulfilling luncheon!

Along with toasts to 2011 and plans for 2012, Mr. McGrath announced four individual awards that represent the firm's accomplishments.

The first award is the Special Achievements Award, which was given to Heather Crimmins, our office manage for showing exceptional efforts in completing a notable achievement this year.

The second award is the People's Choice Award, which was given to Jason Fort, ACH Regional VP, for being a true leader that embodies the core values of our company.

The third award is the President's Award, which was given to Ross Williams, an accountant in our College Station office, for the highest recognition in showing exemplary growth and performance.

The last award is the Bohon Award, which is always given to an individual who demonstrates outstanding vision, dedication and a commitment to excellence. This year we were honored to present Sharon Sauer, a multifamily supervisor, with this award.

Congratulations once again to our individual award winners and the entire Asset Plus family for achieving another successful year in 2011!

Heather Crimmins - Special Achievements Award

Ross Williams - President's Award

Fogo de Chao - Holiday Luncheon

YouTube used to educate student housing residents

Audrey Nardecchia — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 02:24:46 +0100

This Friday's YouTube video is sent in from our student housing team at Knight's Circle in Orlando, Florida.

Students that have never lived on their own before, often have difficulties learning the ins and outs of living independently. Thus, the Knight's Circle staff decided to make an educational video on YouTube, teaching residents how to turn off their water in case of an emergency. For example, if your toilet is overflowing and maintenance is on their way, students will know how to readily turn off the water and stop any additional overflow.

Check out this two minute video on "How-to turn off your water in case of emergency."

Connection at Lawrence : "Best Apartments" on KU campus

Audrey Nardecchia — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 03:54:47 +0100

Congratulations to the team at The Connection at Lawrencefor being recognized as the "Best Apartments at KU" by The University Daily Kansan, KU's student newspaper.

Every year The University Daily Kansan,publishes an issue called Top of the Hill, where KU students vote on a series of the "Best of..." categories on or near campus. This is The Connection at Lawrence's second time to be recognized by The University Daily Kansanas the "Best Apartments at KU".

The student housing team at The Connection at Lawrence has done a phenomenal job demonstrating their expertise in customer service, it is no surprise they have been recognized by students at the University of Kansas.

YouTube as a Student Housing Online Scrapbook

Audrey Nardecchia — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 08:10:26 +0100

Not only can YouTube be used to invite students to resident events, but YouTube can also serve as a virtual scrapbook for students.

With the advancements in technology today and the philosophy "less is more", we see a trend in less students printing off photos from Target or Walgreens, and instead uploading all of their photos to online social networks such as Facebook and Flickr. Here we see a student housing property in College Station, Texas (The Cambridge) using YouTube as an online scrapbook to share with residents.

The Cambridge at College Station is known for hosting an annual Thanksgiving Flag Football Tournament where each Resident Advisor is responsible for a team of 15-20 residents. The teams compete in a full day of competitive flag football and every year the event is voted by residents as their "Favorite Resident Event."

The resident advisors got creative this year and instead of simply printing the photos off and hanging them in their halls, they decided to combine all of the photos AND videos that were recorded this year and create one video on YouTube with music in the background, visual effects and much more. Now this video can be shown to residents, their parents and even other prospective residents who would like an idea of how the staff and the residents interact with one another!

Check out the video below:

Asset team members receive National Apartment Association Designations

Audrey Nardecchia — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 03:13:39 +0100

Asset Plus fosters growth not only within our internal training program, but also by supporting our individual team members in the quest for industry knowledge and certifications through local and national apartment associations.

Last Thursday, over 200 members of the Houston Apartment Association gathered together to recognize their peers’ accomplishments in achieving industry designations.

Asset Plus is proud to have had 4 different employees from on-site and the corporate office receive National Apartment Association Designations.

Along with the presentation of designation recipients, the Houston Apartment Association also announced the 2012 Board of Directors and Advisory Board. Chief Operating Officer of Asset Plus, Ryan McGrath, was elected for his third consecutive year onto the board while his colleague, Stephanie Graves ,was elected to the 2012 Advisory Board.

Student Housing uses YouTube as online marketing brochure

Audrey Nardecchia — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 02:20:13 +0100

Student Housing is a very competitive industry; therefore our teams have to constantly stay in touch with their market and research the best ways to communicate with students. Thanks to social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, we are able to communicate instantly and memorably with our residents.

Last week we showed the video of Knight's Circle and the CAs using YouTube to promote their resident events, this week we are going to show you how one of our properties used YouTube as an online marketing brochure.

Legends at Stephen F. Austin is a new student housing development located in Nacogdoches, Texas, scheduled to open for residents in fall of 2012. Legends at SFA recently hosted a Grand Opening event at their club house and had an overwhelmingly successful opening day by signing over 100 leases! Since the property did not have any completed units to physically show, the staff created a YouTube video that functioned as an engaging online marketing brochure. The video has renderings of floor plans, amenities, and exterior photos as well as captions on each so that you know what is what. In the background of the video, our team picked a catchy song that would capture the student's attention and keep them engaged to learn all about the property.

Even though every prospective resident was given a brochure with images and floor plans, every single one of them still stopped to watch the video displayed on the flat screen TV! YouTube is a great way to capture the student housing residents, and it is also FREE - if you are not on it now, you are missing a great opportunity to capture your audience's attention!

Change for Charity Water

Audrey Nardecchia — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 01:53:12 +0100

Over 1 billion people on the planet lack a necessity that we so often take for granted: water.

In October 2011, Asset Plus began fundraising for Charity Water, a non-profit that delivers 100% of proceeds to bodings rigs and wells for people in developing nations so that they may receive clean drinking water.

We recently hosted an online 20 minute webinar that allowed for property managers and supervisors to collectively brainstorm effective ways to get residents and staff involved in fundraising activities. The response was overwhelming and we look forward to sharing all of our communities events through our Asset Plus Blog.

Check out this video that shows how our Houston corporate office has already begun collecting donations:

Promote your Resident Events on YouTube

Audrey Nardecchia — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 04:29:05 +0100

At Asset Plus Companies and Asset Campus Housing, we encourage our property managers and leasing teams to get creative with how they promote their resident events.

Knights Circle, a student housing property near the University of Central Florida is keeping their student residents engaged by promoting their resident events on YouTube, the SECOND largest search engine online.

Check out their quick video right here:

Great job guys - wish we could make it out there for the carnival!

New property management assignment in Baytown, Texas

Audrey Nardecchia — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 21:19:30 +0100

Our Asset Plus multifamily division was recently assigned managementof Creekside Apartments located in Baytown, Texas. The 250 unit property offers one-, two- and three bedroom apartment homes.