RangeWater Real Estate

Maleria James

Resident Operations Optimizer

Please tell our readers about the current challenges in the Real Estate industry.

From a client’s perspective, we have noticed the market slowing down due to the changes with insurance and cap rates, resulting in a decrease in the number of real estate transactions. We have also been encountering vulnerabilities in the market as a result of the volatile mood effect.

Regarding the residents’ operations side, market softening is the biggest issue we are facing now. Market softening has resulted in lower rent figures which have made us realize the need to revise the revenue and renewal strategies.

We used to get upwards of 20 to 30 percent trade out on new leases and renewals, but that has scaled back. So now we're not getting as aggressive with our office to new residents. COVID had a drastic effect on the financial position of the residents. As the funds dried up, they couldn't pay all their rental assistance money. And many of these residents cannot continue to pay rent, resulting in higher evictions. So we have more exposure on our sites, leading to higher return calls as we've had to deal with these apartments from the beaches and the skip.

Could you talk to our readers about the recent trends that have been emerging lately to address these challenges?

I think the rates were excellent, and many transactions are happening in the real estate market. As buying a house was costly. So everybody gravitated toward the rental market. But now the rent prices are rising, and fewer people are trying to buy houses. And when there was extra unemployment because of COVID and the side effects of the Cold War. We also got this inflation, and many people were getting rental assistance money directly and not paying us. So using the rental assistance funds on other frivolous things has resulted in the funds drying out, causing more evictions and leading to more unbudgeted turn costs and court costs.

You are tailoring so much to the resident experience from a resident's perspective, especially in the luxury market. But since COVID, the experience has been very severely affected. For example, we used to have fun, cool and creative events pre-pandemic to create a sense of community where people might want to stay for years before they were able to buy their own homes. But as we tried to resume similar activities, we were pushed back by the rising number of cases. Apart from this, people have been asked to stay and work from their homes. Social distancing paired with restricted access to amenities, people have lost many perks of their home environment.

How do you envision the future?

We expect the housing prices to go down. We're going to see a lot of people go into purchase homes, patiently waiting. And as a result of that, we'll see a higher vacancy, and we'll have to pivot our focus from rent growth to more occupancy growth. So we're going to see some drastic decreases. It's going to happen in many markets, especially these significant cities with ridiculously inflated rates like South Florida. Still, they find that they have to be a little less aggressive.

"From a client’s perspective, we have noticed the market slowing down due to the changes with insurance and cap rates, resulting in a decrease in the number of real estate transactions"

I think more organizations are leaning towards software and systems that require fewer people to be on site. There's a focus on centralization across the board in my business. By establishing a centralized system and using online tools like zoom for customer interaction, the chances of getting held up will be drastically reduced. And that's something that will be set on the property side. On the corporate side, we've been allowed to work from home. I think that's not going to be something that ceases to exist, and the hybrid work scenario is here to stay. As we enter this post cold war era, companies will likely allow their support and property management people to work from home.

Maleria James is the Director of Portfolio Performance at RangeWater Real Estate. With over nine years of experience in the real estate industry, Malaria is helping provide support to Community and Regional Directors to drive property performance and streamline operations in continual attempts to meet the goals and expectations of the customers.