Andy: All right, Alyssa, thanks for joining us. Please introduce yourself and share a little bit about your property and what your role is.
Alyssa: Absolutely. My name is Alyssa Meehan, and I am the property manager for Ariza Corpus South, located in Corpus Christi.
Andy: Well, as you know, we have three core principles: speed, skill, and stewardship. How does your team mobilize quickly when severe weather, fire, water, or another safety issue occurs?
Alyssa: Overall resident satisfaction and safety is essential. Whether it's addressing storm damage or anything like that, especially in emergency cases, we need to react quickly, because we're limiting damages. We're being proactive, essentially.
Andy: LeiLani, thank you for joining us today.
LeiLani: Yeah, I am LeiLani Gray. I'm in Huntsville, Alabama, at our Ariza Research property.
Andy: And what's your role there?
LeiLani: I'm the community manager.
Andy: Very good. Tell us about a time your team had to respond quickly to an urgent resident or property need. What happened?
LeiLani: Yeah, so I think the biggest one that comes to mind for me is actually a prospect. Future residents came in, and they were going through a really heartbreaking situation because of a fire, and we had to move quickly to get them accommodated, even though we didn't have anything ready for them. We were not prepared for them, but we had to make the move and be able to accommodate them in order to help them.
Andy: Sure. Jessica, thanks for joining me today.
Jessica: Yeah, absolutely. My name is Jessica, and I am the property manager here at Ariza Westview in Conroe.
Andy: Awesome. How does communication with maintenance, the management team, and leadership help you act quickly?
Jessica: Well, the communication between the three is definitely important, because it fosters urgency. And at the end of the day, that does save us financially.
Andy: Absolutely. Well, Linda, thanks for joining me today. Would you just take a minute to introduce yourself?
Linda: Absolutely. I'm Linda Daniel. I work for Cypressbrook, obviously, and I am the general manager for Greenbriar Wood Acres Apartments in Lufkin, Texas.
Andy: Okay, very good.
Linda: Ten years.
Andy: Ten years, that's a good run. And as you know, speed, skill, and stewardship are our core principles. What property management challenge are you most proud that your team successfully overcame?
Linda: I would have to say COVID. We are really hands-on, and COVID basically made it to where you couldn't be. It separated people. We like to be personable and one-on-one, and so that created a stretch of time where we were kind of disconnected. But we retained 100% occupancy during COVID. Maybe because everybody was scared to move, but I like to think it's because we were taking care of people.
Andy: Yeah, absolutely. That was a very isolating time.
Linda: Yeah.
Andy: Debbie, thanks for joining us today. I'd love for you to introduce yourself, your property, and what you're doing.
Debbie: My name is Debbie White. I'm the community manager at Ariza 290 West in Dripping Springs. We are currently in lease-up, and my main focus right now is the lease-up and developing a team.
Andy: What is an example of your team solving a complicated property issue that required creativity or experience?
Debbie: We recently had an issue with some plumbing, and of course we had a lot of problems with it. With the experience of maintenance, myself, and the team, we were able to find the source of the problem, find the solution, and share it immediately.
Andy: Awesome. Thank you. Stewardship is what I would probably say is our most foundational principle. What does taking care of your employees look like at the property every day?
Debbie: Absolutely. I like to make sure my team feels supported and appreciated. This can be little things like saying thank you for taking care of a task, even if it was a task unseen by others.
Andy: Absolutely. That's awesome. All right, Rachel, thanks for joining us. I would love for you to introduce yourself and tell us about the property you work at and what your role is.
Rachel: My name is Rachel Milot. I am the property manager for Ariza Temple and Ariza Scott Boulevard, and I've been with Cypressbrook for almost five years.
Andy: Well, as you know, we have three core principles: speed, skill, and stewardship. I have a few questions related to those. What relationship-building approach has helped your team build resident loyalty and improve retention?
Rachel: Yeah, so we have this funny thing: know the name of the resident, and then know their dog.
Andy: Okay.
Rachel: My team is so good at knowing all the residents and their family members. We're in a location where we have a lot of residency students, and we get to know their parents. And so that's the rule: learn the name, and then if they have a dog or a cat or some other strange animal, learn the name of the animal, because you can always win people over if you know their people, but especially if you know their animals. And that's what really makes a community, when you know the person.
Andy: Yes. So when you summarize our motto of speed, skill, and stewardship, what does that mean to you?
Rachel: All three of those things mean efficiency to me. I think you have to be very efficient in all three of those things at all times, to the best of your ability. And if you're consistent with it, then the efficiency just works itself out.
Manager: It's kind of funny, because I'm from Cypress, Texas, and especially compared to our larger markets, I feel like everyone's used to moving at a pace. I like to keep things in tune. I like to be efficient. I like to be one step ahead. So that's a big thing for me: being prepared and proactive, all the things that I think translate to work. It translates to the team, and our overall job is the team.
Manager: Those three together are what make property management work. Speed: if you don't have the ability to work quickly on these one-off situations, you're not going to be successful. Skill: being able to use all of the different skills of property managers and assistant managers. They all have different types of skills, marketing, financials, operations, and it's a pretty wide range, so being able to put all of those together for one purpose, that's what skill means to me. And as far as stewardship, it's believing that what we're managing is our own, even if it isn't, and acting as though the money is ours and we're trying to make the property as successful as possible, while also being mindful that we're dealing with people's livelihoods here at the property. Those three things, speed, skill, and stewardship, to me create a cohesive dynamic within the company.
Andy: That's awesome.
Manager: Probably the way Cypressbrook takes care of its employees. You know, properties don't run by themselves. It takes employees, and Cypressbrook has a way of making employees feel like they're part of a team, a family, almost. They recognize birthdays, they give bonuses, and when you excel, they want to commend you. They want to do something for you to say, hey, we're paying attention, you did a great job, high five. Money is a great high five.
