Self Training

Put aside the live or online training you may be receiving from your property management company. What "self training" do you participate in that has been effective in strengthening your career goals?

Is it blog reading? Conferences? Webinars? I am very curious to hear from the self motivated folks on what you are doing to better yourself as a professional. Your expressions I know will help others.

I do all of the above... I love the free webinars that Multifamily insiders as well as gracehill put together. I love reading blogs on this site as well as gracehill and the training factor. As you know, I recently won a scholarship from the training factor and have been having so much fun taking the courses and learning so much!! I love going back on gracehill chat forums and reading transcripts as well from past chats. I do A LOT of research on line especially in marketing and sales... there is always a fresh idea out there that you can make your own! BTW thank you for the scholarship!!!!

Free Webminars are the best! I also look for classes provided by my local Multi-Family Chapter. I read books pertaining to my position, I have Google Alerts on topics from Leasing, Leasing Social Media, Rent Collection and I stalk some fabulous Multi-Family Pros like Lisa Trosein, Kate Good, Marci Brand, Doug Chasick, and Multi-Family Insiders. It's all about the drive to learn more and use those skills to help your community and futher your career

This is a great topic! I want to bump this up. Let's hear from more people!


I use webinars, seminars (ADP total source management training and what not) blogs, conferences (this year), and research. I am always on the look out for industry related information and non industry related articles. It's amazing what can be applied to our industry from so many other industries.


Did I say industry? lol :laugh:

I do not care for blogs too much, however there are those I respect and will read on occasion. I find that an easy way to improve oneself is to meet different types of people. With a busy life meeting others who do things a bit different has been exciting and educational. Also, trying to read a book on Leadership, Sales, Finance every two weeks (Sometimes Possible)is another method I use.

team Alaskan Success Inc is best hands on, you can not go wrong, just learn.
we are running numbers now to see if they are a fit for asi. go get em guys....

If you have not checked with your local apartment association, it may be good to do so about training and training materials in and out of classes. Not all associations are equal, but there are some that are really high speed and worth checking into as well!

Would anyone care to comment on what they believe the top 3 or 5 training courses a relative newby should take? For example using organizations such as your local association or a Grace Hill or The Training Factor, where should one start for self led training? I'd assume Fair Housing would be one of the first. This of course is in addition to good old fashion reading.

Mark, Fairhousing would be my first stop for sure! Having used both Grace Hill and Training Factor I would highly recommend using one or both. They both offer exceptional training in slightly different forms of delivery/ interaction. I really like the self led/ hands on format of these options.
A lot of multifamily companies use web based training as their only form of training or in addition to an in house program.

Is this information for you personally? If you don't mine me asking - Are you currently employed in the industry?

~Michelle

Mark what job position do you currently have or are seeking?

Michelle Fording wrote:

Is this information for you personally? If you don't mine me asking - Are you currently employed in the industry?

~Michelle

Jonathan Saar wrote:

Mark what job position do you currently have or are seeking?

Hello Michelle/Jonathan. Yes this information is for myself. I'm currently a corporate facilities supervisor (working the tenant as opposed to the landlord). I'm getting ready to start my final BOMI class needed for my FMA cert. I'm doing that in tandem with the BOMI RPA cert., of which I have 3 classes remaining. My goal is to try and move from the FM world over to the PM world, hopefully finding a job a APM job with a larger commercial facility (i.e. shopping mall, multi-use complex)or a larger multifamily property. I spent about 18 months working part time (concierge/general office tasks) at 22 story multifamily Kettler property and found it interesting. So with only having limited PM experience from when I worked for a commercial IT company as both the facilities administrator and the property manage, I don't have a lot of the core PM background. I was hoping the take care of at least some of those requirements by supplementing my FMA/RPA training with additional core classes such as the 79.00/view offerings at Grace Hill.

Hopefully that answers you questions in terms of background. Again, thanks for the reply.