5 learnings from NMHC Annual

Hey, everyone!

After a long hiatus - I’ve decided to bring the newsletter back.

If you aren’t interested, please feel free to subscribe - it won’t hurt my feelings. Admittedly, it’s been a very long time since I last sent one of these.

I missed it - most of you know me from LinkedIn.

The content I’m most passionate about spans Multifamily, leadership, fitness, and go-to-market. I know that is a very wide list of things - but, that is what you can expect from Modern Multifamily going forward.

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This past week, thousands of Multifamily folks gathered in San Diego for NMHC Annual.

The event is semi-hard to describe. Thousands of people (mostly wearing blue suits) gather to buy/sell properties, find new management companies, and stand up the year to hear about topics/strategies that span the industry.

Vendors don’t fit in super well to this one - so I feel like we are there to add value where we can, and to participate in the conversation(s).

Here are 5 things that I heard this past week in San Diego:

1/ Lot of discussion about Fees. This has been front and center across the media for the past handful of months. Most of the concern is around the disclosures, but also the necessity of a lot of these fees.

2/ Supply and Demand are really out of balance. Lots of discussion around concessions, overbuilding, and shifting market focus to find deals where there is a better balance between supply and demand. Demand is the challenge right now, but there are a lot of signals that pointed toward optimism - specifically with wage growth outpacing rent growth.

3/ Resident Experience is a focus - but budgets are thin. New residents are asking for big concessions, and retaining residents is a big focus. This came through pretty clearly across the spectrum, more from operators compared to owners.

4/ Property Management is hard. A handful of vertically integrated companies are closing down their management arms and shifting to outsourcing to a 3rd party. I heard from several owner/operators who are winding down their property management arm and plan to shift to outsourcing. I believe we will see growth through acquisition in the 3rd party space in 2024. (ICYMI - Greystar acquired Wood Partners this week).

5/ Centralization is still a priority - not just leasing... property admin, maintenance, etc. As part of this, everyone was very mindful of only participating in technology rollouts that were going to either aid in the pursuit of centralization or drive revenue without impacting site load work levels.

Overall, there was a strong feeling of optimism in the air. One that we did not feel heading into 2023.

That feeling is one I’m excited to carry through the year.

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If you made it to the conference - I’d love to hear what stood out for you.

Have a feeling that 2024 is going to be a fun and dynamic year.

See you again next week!

Mike