Hard Work

"I could work harder than everyone." - Jerry Rice

I met Jerry Rice (SF 49, hall of fame football player) earlier this year. His talent as a player is amazing but when I asked him what separates him from the others his response was simple "hard work!".

Joe Montana explained it this way: "When Jerry showed up at training camp his first day every pass he received he ran into the end zone at full speed. All day long, pass after pass into the end zone. Before long everyone else was doing the same thing." Hard work with enthusiasm is infectious.

"We had other teams beat in warm-up because we were prepared." - Jerry Rice

The real estate business is just like football. If you want to win you have to be prepared and the only way to prepare is to work hard.

"I have never played the perfect game." - Jerry Rice

There is no end point in this game. The opportunities in the business are unlimited. There is always another building to buy, more units to manage, another resident to bring into the community, the next renovation to complete, a hallway to be cleaned, and another resident who's expectations we need to be exceed.

Keep up the hard work. You Make It Happen!

Nickolas W Jekogian
917-763-3500







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Staying Young

Its not a bad thing. As our company matures it is very important to focus on the future generation of the organization. This starts at our internship program and continues with our training program and speaker series.

The coop or internship program that started at NWJ almost 15 years ago has been a great success for the organization and for the employees/partners who have come to us through our program. Actually it all starts with my real estate career which came about through a coop position after my freshman year at Drexel University.

After my first year at Drexel I wanted a good paying job badly. With tuition to pay and other expenses I needed the money. So I interviewed at a lot of companies and got some good high paying offers. I also interviewed at a fast growing real estate company over 1 hour away from where I was living at the time. The company was building retail shopping centers all over and growing fast. Ten minutes into the interview I was hooked. I pursued the guy that interviewed me like there was no tomorrow. Hundreds of phone messages later I had the job. One month later when I received my first paycheck I realized I was making $160/week, less than a third what I had been offered by other firms. In the interview I never even asked what I would make. To this day I believe that to be one of my best moves in business. When you see an opportunity make it happen, the details can be worked out later.

Having gone through the coop/intern process I realize what an important role the process plays in our recruiting of new talent. I see the process as really a six month interview. We ask questions and see how people perform under pressure. In turn our commitment to the intern is an open door. You should question everything you are doing and ask your manager: why you're doing it what it means in the big picture and what the end results of your effort will be. Real estate is a business you learn by doing not by reading about. If you have any questions not answered by your managers than feel free to email me. It may not be immediate but you will receive a response.

With that I am pleased to announce that this year three former coops have taken full time positions with NWJ. Christian Van horn will be joining the asset management division, Doug Steiner the finance dept and Eric Wardrop is moving to FL for the retail consulting group. Each of them have been with us for at least one six month period and part time work while in school. They have each shown that they can handle the pressures of what we throw at them plus school work. Not an easy juggling act.

Welcome aboard guys.

Remember its people like Doug, Christian, Eric and all of you that will make our $1 Billion goal happen.

Thanks and keep up the good work.

Nickolas W Jekogian
917-763-3500

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Our progress on the Signature Community roll out continues. The KC team led by Michele is getting numerous requests for information on the recently released Jump Start Home Purchase Program. For those that don't know about this, Jump Start is an amazing equity building program for our residents. I would venture to say that this program will create more equity for a resident of two years ($2,500) than would have been accumulated by buying a home. The program is simple -- buy a home from a Signature Preffered developer and receive $2500 paid at the closing table. Only restriction is that they must be a resident in good standing for 24 months. This program is revelutionary in the sense that it completely changes the economic analysis between renting and owning. Now when you live in a Signature Community you are saving money.

The program above along with the other Signature Community advantages are changing the way people see Class B apartments.

On the acquisition front we continue to advance our market penetration. The Philadelphia office was quiet last week because of all the market time our acquisitions group were doing. There is no better way to make deals then being on the ground in your markets knocking on doors. Keep it up guys.

Quote of the week -

Step by step. I can't think of any other way of accomplishing
anything.

Michael Jordan

On a more macro level there was a recent news item about the raising rates of crime in cities --http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/09/us/09crime.html . In the short term this will effect leasing and operations in many of our markets. Long term I do not see this as a major problem. It will come under control. However this is an opportunity for the acquisitions department. We should be pointing this out to sellers and warning of the possible effects on occupancies. Many sellers will have a difficult time managing the properties through problems like this. Our company will not.

If anyone has something to share with the company they should add comments here.

Thanks to everyone and let's Make It Happen!

Nickolas Jekogian, III

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Welcome

This is the first of a weekly posting I will be making to keep everyone informed on our progress towards our $1 Billion growth goals.

This past week we closed on our 5th Indianapolis building and our first in the Greenwood suburb. This was an example of the perfect NWJ acquisition. The seller was an office building investor in Chicago. He had no idea what he was doing in the apartment business and Matt Lukoff and Dave Mclain did a great job negotiating an advantagous deal for us. The finance structure we put together was one that only NWJ could complete. We assumed the existing loan that would have required significant penalties if paid off. We intend to stabilize the building (its currently 70% occupied) with our management partners Neighborhood group and our newest manager Karen. Under the guidance of Massimo, Brian and their teams we should have no problem being ready to refi this property quickly. All market indicators show that we should be refinancing the project in the next 15 months with a full payback to the investors with premium thereby increasing the company equity share. Long term this will be a good assest for the NWJ portfolio and part of the Signature Community.


Also this week, Signture Community was initiated in Waldo Heights of Kansas City. Signture also anounced its latest resident feature --- Jump Start Home Purchase Program. This program gives $2500 to any resident purchasing a home from a Signature Preffered Builder. This is once again an amazing offering to our residents and Brian, Gail and the entire Signture Community are doing a great job getting the message out to our residents.

The best is yet to come.

Thanks to everyone for Making it Happen!