By Jay Parsons, Chantelle Berger, Andrew Bowen and Tracy Saffos It goes without saying that 2021 brings some unique challenges. And one benefit to a challenge: It forces us to rethink, reevaluate and reprioritize. Challenges can sink us or make us better. We’ll see some of both in 2021. We’ve shared many tips in this series on finding success in 2021. Some have been very advanced topics with lots of supporting science and data. But today’s topic takes us back to the basics. No matter how sophisticated we become, we can’t lose sight of the basics—we can’t take them for granted. To be fair, the “basics” are important whether we are in an up cycle or a down cycle, but when demand is strong and rents are consistently on the rise, it is easy lose the precision necessary to perform in a down cycle. Listen or watch to learn more on this topic. You can’t control the environment around you. Focus instead on what you can control. Here are three simple tips for getting back to the basics. 1. Focus on excellence in everything you can control In good times: Expenses tend to creep up as we try out new programs … but rising rents offset the expense creep. A sub-optimal make-ready is covered up by multiple leads for the same unit type and a generally high occupancy. Curb appeal that is just OK is hidden by strong macroeconomic factors that are rising all ships. Those work orders that take a bit longer to get completed are probably not going to impact retention and even if they do, there are plenty of people looking for apartments right now. In a downward-trending market: There is no room for this type of sub-par performance. You have to be on you’re a game and that starts with doing the little things with excellence. Your curb appeal has to be top-notch every day. Every work order needs to be seen as a way to drive retention. Every make-ready needs to sparkle. If you haven&r...

By Jay Parsons, Chantelle Berger, Andrew Bowen and Tracy Saffos It goes without saying that 2021 brings some unique challenges. And one benefit to a challenge: It forces us to rethink, reevaluate and reprioritize. Challenges can sink us or make us better. We’ll see some of both in 2021. We’ve shared many tips in this series on finding success in 2021. Some have been very advanced topics with lots of supporting science and data. But today’s topic takes us back to the basics. No matter how sophisticated we become, we can’t lose sight of the basics—we can’t take them for granted. To be fair, the “basics” are important whether we are in an up cycle or a down cycle, but when demand is strong and rents are consistently on the rise, it is easy lose the precision necessary to perform in a down cycle. Listen or watch to learn more on this topic. You can’t control the environment around you. Focus instead on what you can control. Here are three simple tips for getting back to the basics. 1. Focus on excellence in everything you can control In good times: Expenses tend to creep up as we try out new programs … but rising rents offset the expense creep. A sub-optimal make-ready is covered up by multiple leads for the same unit type and a generally high occupancy. Curb appeal that is just OK is hidden by strong macroeconomic factors that are rising all ships. Those work orders that take a bit longer to get completed are probably not going to impact retention and even if they do, there are plenty of people looking for apartments right now. In a downward-trending market: There is no room for this type of sub-par performance. You have to be on you’re a game and that starts with doing the little things with excellence. Your curb appeal has to be top-notch every day. Every work order needs to be seen as a way to drive retention. Every make-ready needs to sparkle. If you haven&r...