Multifamily Budget Season: 3 Areas that Drive Top-Line Results

by Donald Davidoff | Sep 1, 2017 12:00:00 AM

September is upon us. With it comes shortening days, colorful leaves and crisper weather. And also, for most companies, budget season! This year’s budget season may be particularly challenging as it feels like we’re in some kind of a transition. We know we’re past peak rent growth, but we really don’t know how it will end up. Will we have a very soft landing, a prolonged period of 2ish percent YOY rent growth which is at or only slightly lower than the long-term historical average? Or will we see a rougher landing? Worse yet, a multifamily housing rent recession? We know from past experience that downturns can actually be a good thing. In prolonged periods of market tailwinds, it’s easy to lose some discipline, take on some fat and otherwise ride the wind. A market softening forces us to look deeply within ourselves and trim some of that fat, bring more discipline to our decisions and pedal harder in the face of a headwind. I can already hear the “let’s get back to basics!” mantra that was the reaction to each of the prior market downturns earlier in my career. In that spirit, I’ll spare the crystal ball gazing for this newsletter in favor of starting to “get back to basics” now. Why wait for the market to fall further before focusing on things we should be doing whether the next year is a soft or a hard landing?