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Community Connections with Cyndee Harding Part II · The Academy Presents podcast

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You're already taking the first step. Just by
1:00
joining us here today. No, they we've been doing
1:04
it. This is our third or fourth year of doing
1:08
backpacks. And so, yeah, they're always on board
1:12
with it. It gives back to the community. Just
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we don't want people to have to choose between
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paying their rent and getting their kids ready
1:21
for school. That's the main thing. And they do
1:24
know that it comes from ownership, like everything
1:28
else you know is all just part of the property
1:30
but the backpacks they know come from ownership
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and that is just part of a you know the optics
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of it that you know we as owners care about them
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I mean we care about them all the time and that's
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why we have all these events but you know the
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onsites are the one they get the kudos for that
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but the backpacks we do make sure that they know
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that it comes from ownership that it's not from
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the property management company. So just because
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we're just once a year that we do it. But we're
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always trying to come up with new ways to celebrate
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the residents, to do things for them. I have
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one particular community that is a lot of older
2:15
people. And my onsite came to me about two years
2:19
ago and just said, you know, no one in my community
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leaves for Thanksgiving. they just don't have
2:26
family or if they do they don't care to travel
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they're older so it's not a 55 and older complex
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but just the people that live there are older
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just for whatever reason and so she said can
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I do a friendsgiving and I'm like absolutely
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and so for two years now we'll supply the ham
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and the turkey And then she just asked the residents
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to bring like their favorite Thanksgiving dish
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that they love to make, that that's their family
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recipe. And so they do a friendsgiving. So they've
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done it two years now. Now this is going to be
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kind of weird. And I don't mean this to be mean,
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but we've talked about doing kind of stuff like
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that. And some of our onsites have been absolutely
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not. I will not eat anything that person rings.
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How do you handle that? We don't require onsites
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to eat the food. So I mean, if they want to eat
3:30
it, that's fine. If they don't, that's fine.
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I suppose there are some residents that are like,
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oh, I'm not going to that. I'm not interested.
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And that's OK. I do know that she has a couple
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of people that aren't social, but what they do
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is they come and they make a plate and then they
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go back to their apartment. But they still participate.
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So, I mean, I totally get that, you know, potluck
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can be kind of an iffy thing. But if nothing
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else, I mean, we're supplying the turkey and
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the ham and, you know, they know it's coming
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from wherever. So they can just come and get
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slice of ham and slice of turkey and go home,
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make a sandwich. Personally, I like potlucks
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because a lot of people are, they're coming in
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hot. They run through Little Caesars or they
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run through the chicken place. They go to the
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grocery store and they just bring it straight.
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So I'm never really worried. But I have heard
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a few different onsights be like, yeah, no, I'm
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not eating anything that comes out of the apartment.
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Yeah. And we, like I said, we don't require it.
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And we only have one complex. Sorry. We only
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have one complex where we do the Friendsgiving.
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And that was actually brought to us by the onsite.
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So there had to have been communication and conversation.
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It's an 80 unit property, so it's not super big.
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A lot of people have lived there for a long time.
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They know each other. They just wanted an excuse
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to get together. That's really cool. I know I've
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heard a friend of mine. I don't know whether
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to say her name or not um I know one Thanksgiving
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she worked for the local food bank and got I
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guess every apartment got a turkey or a ham maybe
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it was one or the other I think it was turkeys
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though um have you ever done anything like that
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because that's super cool to me I don't know
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how to arrange for it all but how awesome would
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that be we have done so we did a couple of things
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we've done where we have if you pay like a pay
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on time in November would be that you could get
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entered into a drawing and we would give away
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like three turkeys. I know one property we actually
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did, it was a pay on time incentive. So they
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got put into a drawing and it was a complete
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Thanksgiving meal from like Safeway or Walmart
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or one of the grocery stores where they do everything.
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um and then you just pick it up and so we we
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had two winners on that one so we do offer that
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as a you know they could do that as a drawing
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where they could win and it's already cooked
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it's a complete meal that's prepared you know
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at another location and they just go pick it
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up that's awesome yeah we've we've done that
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now you got me thinking like about different
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things we could do because i would assume that
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Some of the local grocery stores would even be
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willing to donate portions of that. Yep. Yeah,
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I think we did get the two mills at a discount
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because they knew what we were doing it for.
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One complex that we are turning to a community,
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they did get tickets for any residents that wanted
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it to go to a pumpkin patch. So I'm not sure
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they just, the onsite went down there and said,
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I'd like to offer it to my residents. So they
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just had to come to the office and they got,
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now they didn't get a free pumpkin, they got
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free entrance, but they could go, you know, to
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the pumpkin patch and, and, you know, enjoy all,
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cause there's all kinds of food trucks and things
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that go on there. So we're always looking for
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ways to be part of the community. I know, We
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didn't do it this summer, but the last two summers
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we participated in the reading program at the
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library. And so it was for our properties in
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Mississippi. So we have four. And what they did
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is they rotated weeks. So they would, you know,
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all cover for the one that would go and they
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would go for an hour. They'd wear their badge
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and they would do reading time. at the library
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with the children and so once a month and they
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loved it because basically it was three times
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you know it wasn't like a huge commitment it
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was just for three months they went once a month
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and they would go to the library and they would
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read to the kids it got them out of the office
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and it kind of let them do something more than
8:16
um doing leases but at the same time you know
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they are promoting our properties and they are
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you know talking to people about Cause they're
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like, what, why are you here? What are you doing
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here? Oh, I'm just here for reading time because
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we support, you know, the, uh, literacy program.
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Love that. No, I, I really love that. It's so
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like, I never thought I would be a teacher. I
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never have a BBA with a major in economics, minor
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in music. Cause I started out as a music major
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and didn't want to lose all my hours. Went up
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with a master of science in economics, like.
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The last thing I ever thought I would do is teach.
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My first job was teaching in a private school
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and I loved it. I started teaching in public
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school the next year. Literacy is huge to me
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because I've seen what literacy rates do as far
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as income potential. There's direct correlation.
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If we are able to support the literacy achievements
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of our residents and I say residents because
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there's plenty of adults that um aren't literate
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that need to be um and if we could help them
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out in that way we set them up for future success
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um and that's a big part of my heart like yeah
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I want I want to see people be successful I don't
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want to see people continue suffering And a lot
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of the libraries will offer the program, you
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know, read 10 books, get a free personal pan
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pizza, you know, from Domino's, you know, read
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another 10. I know when my boys were younger,
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we always participated. We live in Phoenix, so
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they're, they often got diamond back tickets,
10:04
like you had to read. I don't remember how many
10:07
books, but they're the readers. So they read
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the books and then they got to go to the Diamondbacks
10:13
game. They earned Diamondback tickets. So I think
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anytime that we can support the local library,
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one of the things that we really wanted was like
10:23
a bookmobile, but they didn't have one because
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we wanted to, if there was one, we wanted to
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be on the route. that our apartment complexes
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were on the route that they would go and be able
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to you know get books that way because sometimes
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it's hard for kids if both parents are working
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you know when are they going to go to the live
10:40
show but they didn't have a bookmobile so I was
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very disappointed on that one. You know though
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you've you've given me an idea there because
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we have um we do have the literacy program with
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the local library here I'm assuming our other
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complexes right out of town in a small little
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town but I know they have a library too. It might
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have a bookmobile. I don't know that they have
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a bookmobile, but I'm wondering if it wouldn't
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be worth creating a small library in the complex.
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So we do that. That's funny you would mention
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it. So the leasing office, every leasing office
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has a bookshelf. It's, you know, take one, leave
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one. So people come in when they're finished
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with the books, they leave them, other people
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take them. So we do have that in every leasing
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office. Those are more books for young teens
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and adults. We don't really have children's books
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in there. That's more for adults that would like
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to read. But you can see I'm a big reader. I
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have this shelf behind me. It's huge, and I have
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five of them. We've got books everywhere, and
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we prefer to hold books. Me too. I cannot get
12:00
rid of books. I'm not also allowed to go to yard
12:04
sales and buy books. That's why I'm terrible
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about that. But I do tell my onsites when we
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start up the book, the library. in the leasing
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office, I do tell them just go to a yard sale.
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They're 25 cents a piece. Just get a variety
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of books and put them up there. That's awesome.
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So I know when one of ours we had it was we had
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a Bible and we had a Torah. So I did notice that
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in one of them. Oh, nice. Yeah, no, we. So like
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here for a while, I don't know if they're still
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doing it, but we had the Dolly Parton imagination
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rainbow. So kids through, I think it was through
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age five would get a free book every month. Melted
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them. Um, it was there for my first two children,
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maybe the third, but it was gone on my fourth.
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Um, and so that one's a free program and it might
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be worth just having that information for people.
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I'm gonna, I'm gonna check into that. Yes. Thank
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you. So it's usually what happens is a nonprofit
13:10
in your town agrees to sponsor it, but it's still
13:14
the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. So I think
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our United Way did it for a while, but that would
13:21
take care of the younger kids. It does board
13:24
books. It does counting books. It does like The
13:27
Little Engine That Could. That's like the third
13:29
book they get or something. It was every one
13:32
of the kids got one except for my last one. It's
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a really neat program, and it's at no cost to
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you. Okay. Yeah, I will check into that. Thank
13:39
you. I appreciate that, too. We're always trying
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to do things just to have people come together.
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I mean, it's just really, you know, that and
13:48
that could be a it could be one of the monthly
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activities that we do is we just do a book exchange,
13:55
you know, where we invite the kids to go through
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their books and find one that they're tired of
14:00
reading and and get all the kids together and
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they exchange a book. We just did a water day
14:07
where we have these, they're blow up rockets.
14:13
blow up rockets. I want to say that so people
14:16
don't think we have rockets. And they spray water
14:20
out. And so and then we had popsicles and it
14:24
was just a way for kids to play in the water.
14:28
It actually rained that day, but it was still
14:32
a huge success because they were in their swimsuits.
14:34
It was just a rain. It wasn't a thunderstorm.
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And so we had a big water day. So I am actually
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going to talk with my onsights about maybe doing
14:43
a book exchange for an activity. I'm writing
14:46
that down too. So I know you talked about the
14:48
community garden. Do y 'all do anything like
14:49
a community pantry? We do not. No, we don't really
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have, we don't really have any stories. Yeah.
15:03
For the storage of that. Yep. I do love the community
15:08
garden though. Yeah. Yeah. And especially the
15:12
one where they're like, Hey, I can give you all
15:14
the pumpkin plants you want. You guys can do
15:16
a pumpkin patch for your first garden. So. Well,
15:20
like I'm thinking. So like zucchini is super
15:24
easy to grow. Now it's going to take over, but
15:27
you could apply an entire complex with zucchini.
15:30
Yeah. No need for a food pantry. Everyone gets
15:35
zucchini. Absolutely. No, and I'm thinking like
15:38
green beans grow really well and at least in
15:40
our area. Watermelon, cantaloupe. Yeah. I really
15:45
like that idea. Like I'm thinking of, I know
15:47
where it could go at one. The other property,
15:49
I'm like, where would it go? But I'm sure we
15:52
could find something. Even if we use like elevated.
15:55
I would say rate, you could use raised beds,
15:56
you know, if you're wanting to do it, like in
15:59
your common area. So that would be. Another idea
16:03
is to use raised beds. Just have to make sure
16:05
they get watered. Yeah, or like trellis so that
16:08
we could do like two or three different levels.
16:11
Maybe even four. Now I'm thinking about that.
16:13
I really like that idea. I think that's the reason
16:18
that we have it is we do. We always are sending
16:20
out polls, so we probably do. I don't know, four
16:25
to six polls a year. that we just send to the
16:28
residents and we say hey these are three things
16:30
that we're thinking about what is your preference
16:33
and on one of our recent polls that's what came
16:37
back was number one was pickleball which we had
16:41
a tennis court that we changed to a pickleball
16:44
and number two was a community garden. I'm just
16:50
really loving that because if there's any food
16:52
insecurity right yeah. No, that's awesome. I
16:58
remember hearing a story, um, when I was teaching
17:02
elementary school, is that a, uh, title one.
17:05
So high poverty and the teachers had gotten together
17:08
and they had saved money and they bought this
17:12
family a fridge and the family got so upset because
17:17
they were food insecure. And now they had this
17:21
big appliance and needed to haul around with
17:22
them if they had to dip out in the middle of
17:24
the night. because they were rent skippers. And
17:27
so I always think the food insecurity piece always
17:30
hits me because not because I was ever because
17:33
we were not. I've been chubby my whole life.
17:37
But I used to watch it happen with my students,
17:40
especially the middle schoolers. And so knowing
17:44
that there's a property that some of and I always
17:48
think about my middle schoolers being a part
17:49
of that property, like. if my babies were there
17:52
and they were food insecure, because they always
17:53
came to me for snacks. So I'm like, I don't care
17:55
if you're hungry, come to me, I will feed you.
17:58
And to know that if they were home and there
18:01
was nothing to eat and they could go to the community
18:02
garden and find food. That is one of the specials.
18:07
That's one of the specials that we run when we're
18:10
doing a big push on leasing is we have different
18:15
specials they can choose from. And one is called
18:17
fill my fridge. And so what we will do is we
18:22
will give them like a Walmart, you know, the
18:26
app that you can go online and order food. So
18:29
we do like $250. They go on, they order the food
18:34
that they want. We pick it up and then we put
18:38
it in their refrigerator, their cupboards, whatever
18:42
on the, like the day before they move in. So
18:46
when they move in, we always make sure so one
18:49
of the things we do is we buy toilet paper that
18:52
are individually wrapped by the big boxes and
18:57
we have them put the toilet paper that with the
19:00
wrapper on it in the bathrooms so they know that
19:03
no one has used that toilet paper maintenance
19:06
hasn't been in there and or workers or whatever
19:10
so they get brand new rolls of toilet paper and
19:14
then we would put the food away in their fridge.
19:16
but it's a special that's called fill my fridge.
19:20
And especially now, you know, a lot of people
19:23
are very interested in that. Plus we also have
19:27
a military base very close to one of our properties
19:30
and you know, they're just coming in and they
19:33
just got their duffel bag and they've been transferred
19:36
and they're coming into the military. So they
19:38
don't have any food. And they usually arrive
19:41
on a plane. So instead of having to go and buy
19:45
everything that they need, they can at least
19:48
get a start. So. So as we also live close to
19:53
an Air Force base, we're actually I think we're
19:55
the largest NATO Air Force base in the U .S.
19:59
because we trained a specific jet. But do you
20:02
find it's mostly officers because a lot of the
20:04
enlisted that are coming in, they don't have
20:06
offsite privileges left for live offsite. privileges
20:09
yet for living off base. So is it mostly officers
20:13
that are coming in? No, actually the. The base
20:18
that we're next to is an intelligence base. So
20:21
there's no planes going in and out. There's no
20:23
training or anything like that. It's all intelligence.
20:27
And so they are allowed to live off base. They
20:32
have a hotel there that they live in until they
20:35
can find a place to live off base. But most of
20:38
them, occasionally there are some that are restricted,
20:40
but we have every branch of the military and
20:44
some foreign military. that come to this place.
20:49
And honestly, we are literally across the street
20:52
and it is faster to walk to work than it is to
20:56
drive. By the time you have to go through the
20:59
inspections and everything, it's much faster
21:01
for them to walk, just show their badge and walk
21:04
through. So we do have quite a few military that
21:07
live there. That's awesome. On the move -in specials,
21:13
other than the film our fridge, what else? What
21:15
are the kind of move -in specials? Do you all
21:16
do? So we'll do a TV. I'm trying to think what
21:22
holiday it was. Was it Memorial Day? Maybe it
21:24
was Memorial Day. Walmart had TVs for $197, 50
21:29
inch with a mount. And so we We did like the
21:35
first three leases was the first of the month.
21:38
So the first three leases for that month got
21:42
a mounted television, 50 inch television. So
21:46
we've done that because it's only $200. We do
21:50
fill my fridge. We also will do a look and lease.
21:53
So that basically is if they come and they look
21:57
at the apartment and they sign the lease that
22:00
day, they get $300 off their rent. It's after
22:06
they've paid a full month's rent, then the next
22:08
month they'll get the 300 off. We have a really,
22:12
so one of the things that's the benefit of going
22:16
from a complex to a community, I mentioned it
22:19
at the top of this interview, is our referral
22:22
and retention. So we have a very aggressive referral
22:26
program. We offer $300 for referrals. And when
22:31
we get ready to have, for example, the water
22:33
day, we tell people, invite your friends, have
22:38
them come and see what it's like to be here.
22:41
So they get an idea of the vibe of the community.
22:46
So we get really good referrals. And if you think
22:50
about it with a referral, first off, the person
22:53
that's going to get the referral has to pay on
22:57
time so if they pay late they don't get their
22:59
you don't get the referral fee um and then also
23:03
they make sure that their person they referred
23:07
pays on time because they don't want that bad
23:09
reflection on them so it really helps uh with
23:12
the referral and then with our retention we run
23:16
about 85 percent and the national average is
23:20
between 50 and 60 percent so if you think you
23:25
know I'm sorry, a renewal rate is 85%. That means
23:33
that we don't have to turn a unit, we don't have
23:35
to renovate a unit, and we always offer a bonus
23:40
on the renewal. So typically our rents will go
23:44
up maybe $20 if they're just already at the stabilized
23:50
rent. For that $20, we have a list of things
23:56
that they can pick from. Now these things all
24:00
add value to the unit. So for example, we don't
24:04
like to clean the carpets because that does not
24:07
add any value to the unit. And sometimes it makes
24:11
them kind of mad because they get clean and then
24:13
six months later, the stain is still there. So
24:17
what we would prefer to do is we would prefer
24:19
to put in new blinds. or put in new lighting,
24:24
or put in a gooseneck faucet in the sink, in
24:29
the kitchen sink, or replace the bathroom mirror.
24:33
All four of these cost about a hundred dollars,
24:37
so that's kind of, you know, where we try to
24:40
land on it. And so that's what we want them to
24:43
do is pick one of those, because even when they
24:46
move out, That faucet is still there, so that
24:49
has added value to that unit.