I recently looked at some of the online reviews of an apartment community where I used to work, and noticed that the ratings on the site have gone down almost 30% in the time since the community was purchased by a new owner and I (and many of the people I worked with) left. 

As I read through the reviews, the common denominator in most of the negative reviews was how residents viewed the staff. When I was at this community, I would often preach to our team that while we couldn’t always compete on product (we had some luxury communities in our submarket) or on price (I never wanted to be the cheapest option in the area), we could always compete with our people. 

The interesting thing is-I know that this community has had many improvements and upgrades done to the apartments and common areas since I worked there, which should have resulted in higher satisfaction among residents. Yet higher investment hasn’t necessarily translated to higher satisfaction, because of resident’s dissatisfaction with the people. In other words, people didn’t like where they lived, because they didn’t like the people in the office. 

Which proves, again, that it always comes back to the people doesn’t it? 

What Is Community?

Most multifamily housing professionals that I know are focused on trying to create a “sense of community” in their properties. And this is a great goal, isn’t it-after all, you want your residents to love coming home!

But do you know how your residents feel a sense of “community”? The truth may surprise you! I recently had a meeting with Jen Piccotti of Satisfacts and she told me that a recent survey they did showed that a resident’s sense of community was found in the quality of the relationships that they have with the staff at the community, as opposed to the quality of the relationships that they have with other residents. 

It appears that many residents really want to just go home at the end of the day, do their thing, and aren't that interested in hanging out with other residents. However, if a resident has good relationships with the people who work there, they would be more likely to feel a positive sense of community, because their “community” is YOU. 

Don’t Be the Absentee ‘Parent of the Year’

There is a great scene in the movie What Women Want where the lead character (played by Mel Gibson) tries to make up for years and years of fatherly indifference by taking his daughter out to buy a prom dress, shoes, and accessories. At lunch he tried to give her some advice (warnings) about boys-at which point she immediately rejected him by essentially saying, “After all these years, now you’re trying to act like my dad??” His efforts didn’t have credibility because there was no track record behind it. 

The same thing happens with your residents! 

Please understand-this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t put on the summer BBQ, or do a Christmas cookie exchange in the clubhouse, or have a pizza night. It does mean though that your focus should be more on how you interact with your residents on a day to day basis, rather than on just throwing great parties-or trying to come up with ways to get your residents to connect with each other.