National Apartment Association

Greetings...just back from my vacation and ready for the grind!

The National Apartment Association was a success. I was introduced to a few new companies that can help us in our business. We are getting formal presentations from the new vendors to see how we can benefit from each other. All the new companies have something to do with technology. Rent Wiki is a new social media oriented apartment locator for our industry. It is in its beginning stages, but they have pulled concepts from MySpace, Facebook, Apartment Ratings, TripAdvisor, etc. It should be a great product once it is finalized. I also met with 2 vendors that will benefit the property's individual websites...one helps to search local businesses around an address and the other helps residents set up their utilities. We are working with them now to see how we can integrate for success. Lastly, we reviewed a Lead Tracking system to partner with Yardi to help us manage our "guest cards" more effectively.

Steve Hayworth, Maintenance Director, toured the trade show floor meeting with current vendors and seeking out new companies and products.

National Apartment Association (NAA) is also the time our current vendors introduce new products or enhancements. I was excited to learn how Yardi can help us even more in the management of our properties as well as enhancements within Vaultware.

You recently received a memo from us about finding a replacement for Ron Melvin, our COO/President. While we are very sad that he will be retiring in a couple of years, we are excited about the prospect of bringing in someone dynamic to help us to obtain the goals of our strategic plan--which is basically to grow our business in all departments. We have just started the search and hope to have someone within a few months.

Did you know you could receive a bonus for bringing leads for new business? It could be a lead for commercial space management, commercial space leasing, property management or a commercial sale. Just contact myself, David or Wendy if you have any leads and we will redirect you to the appropriate person.

Finally, for your enjoyment, I wanted to share with you a short clip from UTube on a recent story I saw about 2 guys and their lion cub. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiGKWoJi5qM