Wins and losses
"You can learn a line from a win and a book from a defeat." - Paul Brown, Cincinnati Bengals coach
I am a dyed in the wool optimist and couldn't imagine being an entrepreneur in the real estate business or any business without optimism. I am also a realist who has learned (the hard way in many cases) that you must learn from your mistakes. Ironically, we often learn a lot more from the losses than the wins.
As for the wins, we did a great job this leasing renewal season at Signature Community. We renewed more than 75% of our existing residents, we leased up to 100% occupancy in just about all our markets and we cut our cost to turn and renovated apartments to fractions of what was paid in the past. I am very proud of our entire team for reaching the incredibly difficult stretch goals that I set for them and making it happen! We are celebrating these wins this week.
We also had a few losses this year. We failed to meet certain lending requirements for buildings that will jeopardize our long term ownership of those assets. We failed at cutting expense quickly enough to offset some of the revenue decline we have seen in markets.
In the fourth quarter of this year our primary focus is learning from our mistakes and amplifying our winning traits. If something worked in one market or building we are going to make sure it is implemented in all buildings. If something failed we are going to research why and make sure that we learn not to make the same mistake again. We are not wasting this recession. We are learning from it and getting better because of it.
I am looking forward to working with all of you to make Signature Community better in 2011 and beyond. Thanks for the wins and let's learn from the losses.
Nick
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