Best Practices and Requirements Revised for
The Best Practices and Requirements Guide is designed to give an outline of the daily, weekly and monthly practices for each team member to maximize each property s performance using Price Optimizer. This guide will continue to evolve as best practices are determined. Regional/Area Manager Responsibilities Daily Pricing Review (Recommendation Dashboard) 1. RM is to be copied on Manager price approval email sent to dailyrates@yieldstar.com and cc the YieldStar Consultant (Tiffany Stark tiffany.stark@realpage.com ) each day. RM should confirm that recommended prices are accepted OR confirm refusal after reviewing reasons for refusal. 2. If pricing recommendations are refused, copy Susan Passmore and Mindy McCorkle on the email with details regarding why the pricing is being refused. 3. RM will also be responsible for sending daily price approval email in the Manager s absence. Weekly Revenue Performance Review 1. Review the summary line of the property performance. a. Compare Post Date Rev/ASF and OCC (SF) numbers to 28 day Rev/ASF and 28 OCC (SF) numbers. 1. Select EXECUTIVE DASHBOARD. 2. Determine how current upload from previous day compares to 28 day average performance for the property. 3. Review 28 day average performance of property to determine any positive or negative trends. b. Review floor plan Previous Quarter and Previous Year percentages to compare current performance to past performance. 1. Utilize the hyperlink in the 30 day Rev/ASF column to review performance of revenue per total square foot and occupancy for the last 15 months. Page 2
A graph like this will open in a separate window: Alerts Review 2. Utilize the hyperlink in the Rev/OccSF column to review performance of occupied rents versus overall revenue and occupancy growth. 3. Utilize the hyperlink on the Executive Dashboard and select the Rate Acceptance checkbox to determine the impact of rate acceptance on revenue growth. 1. Rents/Recommendation alerts review stale units with Community Manager. 2. Transaction alerts review discrepancies with Community Manager. Page 3
The list of alerts and stale units will pop up: Quarterly Performance to Market Review Participate in a quarterly conference call or meeting with the YS Consultant/Account Manager, revenue manager, Regional/Area Manager and Community Manager to discuss the property s overall performance to market for the previous quarter. Review on site performance shopping reports and training recommendations. Page 4
Community Manager Responsibilities Daily Recommendation Review (Recommendation Dashboard) 1. Review Recommended Change column to identify floor plans with Rent change amounts outside of the auto acceptance parameters (D Daily; W Weekly; M Minimal). 2. Look for floor plans that are not forecasting to 100% of their Sustainable Occupancy in the Current and Recommended Forecast columns to determine if the Recommended Rent increase or decrease makes sense given the floor plan s performance. 3. If a concern exists with a recommendation then review reasoning for increase or decrease for each applicable floor plan. a. Compare Current Offered Effective price to Recommended Effective to determine the pricing difference from previous day to the current day. Page 5
b. Compare the Recommended Effective price to the Recent Average Effective price to determine how the recommended price compares to the average lease amount on the selected floor plan. c. Review sustainable number of units and number of in place leases to determine amount of leases required to arrive at maximum sustainable occupancy. i. Review Forecast to determine if Price Optimizer forecasts each floor plan to reach capacity. Page 6
d. Review Demand Forecast Chart (click on number of leases in Current Forecast column) to determine current in place lease level versus expected in place lease level. A chart similar to this will pop up: 4. Communicate agreement or concerns for rate recommendations to revenue manager VIA EMAIL TO BE DONE NO LATER THAN 9:30 AM EACH WEEKDAY. NOTE: ALWAYS cc your Regional Community Manager. If you are NOT accepting the recommended rates, you must also copy the Director of PM and the Operations Director. 5. Communicate rate changes, at a floor plan/unit type level, with on site team every morning. Page 7
Daily Alerts Review (Alerts Tab) 1. Rents/Recommendation alerts a. Review and walk any newly listed units that are displayed as Stale. 2. Transaction alerts a. Review alerts associated with lease signing dates and review the resident screens in the property management system to address any inaccuracies. b. Once information is reviewed and corrected or verified as accurate it is not necessary to take any further action. Page 8
Monthly Market Survey Update (Offered Rates Tab) you must update your property s competitor information at least once per month (as is noted on the AME checklist.) 1. Select Competitor from the lower portion of the Offered Rates screen. If no floor plans display for the competitor continue with the following steps. a. Click the add button. b. Select the applicable floor plan and confirm square footage and unit count. c. Enter the Effective Date and Market Rate for the selected floor plan. Enter any concessions that will reduce the Market Rate to an effective rent by populating the corresponding Months, Weeks or Fixed fields. 2. If floor plans already display for the competitor, enter the Offered Rate for each floor plan of the competitor and update any applicable Months, Weeks, or Fixed concessions to further reduce the Offered Rate and click Update in the bottom right corner. Note: Ensure that the boxes in the APR column are checked before clicking update. Weekly Performance Review 1. Review Lease Compliance Report. Verify that information in the Variance column is accurate and adjust OneSite as applicable. 2. Mentor leasing team to using flexible pricing method during the sales process. Should also facilitate regular roll play sessions with leasing team. Page 9
Quarterly Performance to Market Review This is a quarterly conference call or meeting with the YS Consultant/Account Manager, Regional/Area Manager and Community Manager to discuss the property s overall performance to market for the previous quarter. Review on site performance shopping reports and training recommendations. Renewal Process 90 days before lease expiration Generate Renewal Offer Analysis Report in excel format along with the Expiration Statistics Report and the Renewal Summary Report. o Review Rates, Pending Exposure and Expiration Statistics o Add comments for offer terms and any rate exceptions o Send to Regional/Area Manager for Approval 85 days before lease expiration Regional/Area Manager Approves rates and returns to Community Manager and Pricing Advisor 80 days before lease expiration Pricing Advisor completes necessary 12 month rate edits notifies Community and Regional/Area Manager 75 days before lease expiration deliver the Renewal offer letter quoting 6, 9 and 12 month terms; inclusive of MTM. 65 days before lease expiration deliver the 2 nd Reminder offer letter 45 days before lease expiration deliver the MTM reminder letter that lets the resident know the prior offer has expired and their current least will convert to a MTM status. If they would like another lease term, they are asked to please contact the office to be provided with a new quote based on the desired lease term. For details on how to access the reports, refer to Renewal Reports Screen Shots and How To document located on the Gateway. For details on entering a YS renewal into OneSite, refer to YS OneSite Renewal Process document located on the Gateway. Page 10
Resident Services Specialist Responsibilities It is important to follow these best practices when leasing: Review rates daily with Community Manager. Follow up with prospects. o Let prospects know of rate changes. o Document follow up in OneSite activity. Quotes must be issued to each prospect as a means to deliver price. Create a quote EVERY TIME you talk price. New Lease Quotes will expire within 2 business days of issuance (unless the unit is rented in which case the quote is no longer valid). Note: Quote expiration is set for 5 days for properties with high student population as approved by RPM). Focus on prospect s needs to determine price. o Begin price discussion by giving the rate for what unit size and lease term the prospect requested. o o Never lead with the best price or offer a lower price until you sense resistance. When a prospect just wants a price and/or refuses to give you the necessary qualifying information, simply quote the rent range from Rent Summary Report. Roll play with other team members and manager to practice selling with flexible pricing. Important Points to Remember: As soon as someone is moved from Prospect to Applicant, the scheduled billing needs to be entered. Use paper guests cards only in the event of a power outage or when there is only 1 person working and prospect volume does not allow for point of contact entry. Make ready dates must be kept current every day. Current default setting is 7 business days. Pricing to use in advertising and for prospects who just want a price: rent range from Rent Summary report. Pricing to provide for market surveys and weekly reports: Current Offered Effective rates for New Leases from the Dashboard. For weekly report purposes, this should be done on Friday morning after accepting rents for that day. Page 11
YS reviews availability on each floor plan every day. It is extremely critical that leases and renewals are entered EVERY DAY. If the applicant wants to change their move in date after a date is set: o To a later date: the max # of days that the date can be moved and still get that price is 5 days. Otherwise, we need to re quote. o To an earlier date: stick with most current quote even if it s expired. Always quote what they want. If they want a 7 month lease and the price is lower on a 9 month lease, don t spill the beans until they indicate that price doesn t meet their needs, then quote a lower price. After accepting price recommendations via email, print the Rent Summary report for the day. Remember: Create a quote EVERY TIME you talk price! Try not to give more than 3 quotes to any prospect. The more options that have to choose from, the harder it is for them to decide! No more MTM or Short Term Premium Fees. No need to print OneSite availability report. Use the Rent Summary report to see how many of each floor plan is currently available. Recommended Reports Rent Summary (Note: It is important to remember that the prices on this report reflect a 12 month lease term and the first available move in day for each unit considered in the range). Page 12
a. This report should be printed on a daily basis once recommendations have been approved and accepted. b. Report should be made available to all leasing staff for the following uses: i. Determination of applicable floor plans for prospects ii. Response to traffic who do not have the time to discuss specific move in dates and lease terms Rent Roll a. This report is helpful to determine the status of units on the property (exposed, renewal, new lease). The Units shown carry the status through the end of the forecast end date. b. Knowledge of what the model considers as exposed versus occupied gives insight into the reason for the recommendations. Lease Compliance monitor compliance by focusing on units with variances over 3%. To determine if concessions are being given the concessions that display on this report are only those concessions that Price Optimizer has been set up to recognize. You can use reports from the PMC to determine total concessions given. a. This report is utilized to review leasing activity for a certain period of time and to compare scheduled rent amounts to the amount that YieldStar recommends. Recent Average Effective Rent a. Report is utilized to determine number of leases and normalized rent amounts referenced in Average Effective Rent amount displayed on Recommendation dashboard. b. This report also provides the weighting numbers used to impact the overall average amount. Recommendation History a. Report is used to determine the trends of recommendations for a set period of time to help understand changes from day to day. b. Movements in recommendations, which are usually driven by changes to sustainable units, in place leases, or Recent Avg Eff Rent, can be recognized to help understand the changes in sustainable leases as well as changes in the forecasted percentages. Expiration Statistics a. This report displays the historical average lease expirations for each bedroom size for each month as well as the current scheduled expirations for comparison. b. Historical items displayed on this report include average lease starts, renewal conversion percentages per month, average days vacant per month. c. Future items displayed on this report include expected new leases and any surplus expirations or new leases when compared to historical average numbers. d. Rent premiums per month are displayed for each bedroom size and correspond to the premium days value. Renewal Rents a. The report displays the renewal rates for all leases expiring in the configured Notice Days parameters within Price Optimizer. The Renewal Offer Analysis a. This report displays the renewal rates for all leases expiring in the configured Notice Days parameter within Price Optimizer. It also shows the New Lease pricing for the same unit assuming it was available at today s prices. Page 13