Over the weekend, I read many articles about managing your company for survival in a recession/depression. It was encouraging to see that many of the steps that we have taken over the past few months, are the ones major corporations are doing and the experts (if there is such a thing) are pushing. As everyone knows we made significant cuts in our workforce. This cut along with overhead reductions which include relocating the Philadelphia operations office to a small and cheaper office space, reducing travel, as well as many other items that were suggested by many of you. With those cuts, we are saving almost $2.0 million a year.

Focus on core profitable business- we do not own the nicest, highest end buildings in the markets. We are middle of the road affordable housing with a focus on the customer. We are Dunkin Donuts not Starbucks, McDonald's not Outback Steakhouse. People live in our buildings because they can't afford higher-end buildings but want amenities, they want to be treated like a resident, not a second class tenant. That is our core value. With all the cuts we have made, we are still focused on making the resident experience a good one.

One bright spot in a recession/depression market is the opportunity to make acquisitions. This company was born in the real estate recession of the early 90s. We purchased 400 buildings in a 5 year time span between 1995 - 2000. And that was with very little operational infrastructure. The opportunities available to us now are astounding. Many developers are over exposed and need to sell. Many banks are selling their debt for pennies on the dollar. And then our typical seller who has owned the property for years now realizes that it is going to be significant work to manage the property in these uncertain financial times. Or they can sell to us.

I feel that although the late 2008 cuts were difficult, they were necessary to put our company in a position to survive in '09 and expand our brand footprint.

Thanks for being with us and making this happen.

Nick

How to manage your business in a recession
http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/07/magazines/fortune/colvin_managing.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2009010809

“Be greedy when people are fearful and fearful when people are greedy.” - Warren Buffet