Doing the math on Obama's 100 days

By The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama marks his hundredth day in office on Wednesday, but it's hardly the only digit that matters to the new administration.

Here are some highlights of Obama's first 100 days, by the numbers:

$3.6 trillion — Total spending in Obama's proposed federal budget for 2010.

$1.75 trillion — Total projected deficit in Obama's proposed federal budget for 2010.

$787 billion — Cost of tax cuts and new spending in economic stimulus package approved by Congress.

$558.4 billion — Increase in the public debt, from Jan. 20 through April 24.

$235 billion — Tax dollars spent to bail out failing financial institutions, Jan. 20-April 20.

2.055 million — Number of jobs lost, January-March.

908,666 — Housing foreclosures, Jan. 20-April 24.

8016.95 — Dow Jones Industrial Average close on April 27.

7949.09 — Dow Jones Industrial Average close on Obama's Inauguration Day.

106 — U.S. military deaths in Afghanistan since Jan. 20.

49 — U.S. military deaths in Iraq since Jan. 20.

27 — Bank failures.

15 — Bills signed into law.

11 — States visited.

9 — Foreign countries visited.

4 — Visits to Camp David.

3 — Commerce secretaries nominated.

2 — Formal news conferences.

2 — Republicans in the Cabinet

1 — Visits to Hyde Park home in Chicago

1 — Commerce secretaries confirmed by the Senate.

1 — Number of college basketball teams picked by Obama that made it to the Final Four.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

100 Days and Still Fighting Our Way Through

100 Day Update.

100 days ago I put the following challenges out to our teams.

Occupancy - 97%
$50M in new acquisitions.
$45M in financing.
Close Wilshire
Stabilize all 07-08 deals.

And on top of that deal with all our daily icebergs.

So the update -

Occupancy - 93.25%. Great job in this economy. Let's keep pushing to hit 97%. We can do it.

Acquisitions - none - we have a lot in the pipeline but are still waiting for the sellers (lenders) to get realistic on price. We will wait to get the right deals.

Financing - zero - ties into above.

Close Wilshire - still negotiating for the right price and terms.

Stabilize all 07-08 deals - Waldo and Schuyler are holding us up on this goal.

Its been a tough 100 days for us as well as the rest of the world.
We obviously missed our goals but we have made great progress in what seems like a 100 mph head wind.

What we do have after 100 days is direction. We have goals and people are working towards them on a daily basis. Second, we have an understanding that our Icebergs, while solvable, have taken time to turn around. I look forward to removing the Icebergs from our list.

Let's Make It Happen!
Nick

Time to Lease

Spring time is upon us and our biggest opportunities to turnaround our early '09 results. Some markets have seen occupancy and rental decline others surprisingly have seen increases. But Spring time is a real opportunity to shine.

Since more than 50% of our leases expire in the summer months our spring leasing season is of great importance. Our business is like farming if we put in a strong effort in the Spring the Fall harvest will be fruitful. From past history we know that when we lease apartments in the Spring or early Summer we get better residents, higher rents, fewer vacancies and ultimately more profits.

In tough economic times like these a strong lease up season is what many of our assets need to turn the corner.

In preparation of the season I will be touring all markets over the next month or two and meeting with all managers to make sure we have what we need in place to make this our most successful leasing season ever. From the teamwork and early results I have witnessed recently I know that we will be making it happen.

If you feel that anything is holding up your leasing efforts and have a solution you would like to share with us please share it with me directly at jekogian@nwjcompanies.com or as a comment this blog.

I look forward to having a very active and successful leasing season. I am confident that by this time in July I will be able to report that our company hit its goal of 97% occupancy.

Thanks for making it happen.
Nick

GO TO HIGHER GROUND

Seeing things from a "distance". A few days away from the office is a great opportunity to see the company and the opportunities from a 25,000 ft level instead of the day to day grind. It is important for everyone to take a moment every few days and "go to higher ground", step back and see the problems from an elevated level so that you can more clearly come up with solutions to the problems at hand. It doesn't matter if you are one of our maintenance technicians that may be having a problem figuring out a solution to a plumbing problem or in our accounting group trying to reconcile an account, or CEO trying to negotiate with lenders, investors, sellers and buyers all at the same time.

We are living in very turbulent economic times and there is a lot of stress in the air. It takes a moment of rest and relaxation to get focused on the big picture.

A very useful method, that I use regularly, to focus my energy is to take out an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper at the end of the day and draw about 7 - 10 circles on it. In those circles I write the most important issues I am dealing with. My circles - Investors, Lenders, Waldo, Rebecca (my younger daughter), Levelland, Houston, SCM expansion, leasing season. I then put the paper on the floor and look at it for a few minutes from a higher level. I then think for a few minutes about what I will accomplish tomorrow for each of these projects. On the train ride home I continue to go through my mind the big picture of what the issues are and what I plan to accomplish tomorrow. When the following day comes I am prepared for the challenge of these issues and the others that will surely arise.

Try this simple "Go to Higher Ground" technique.
Please share your results with me.

Lets keep moving to higher ground.

Thanks for Making it Happen.
Nick

Failure is not an option!

I watched an awesome movie with my daughters last night. Apollo 13. This movie epitomizes the American belief that anything is possible. Three men 205,000 miles from earth in a spaceship made from aluminum foil. Limited electricity, no heat, almost no oxygen but shear will power and American ingenuity brought those American Astronauts back to earth safely.

Failure is not an option!

A small electrical failure stranded the ship but the country and NASA never gave up on them. Teamwork and determination brought them back to earth.

Does any of this sound familiar in these times. In the past 10 years very smart bankers (they call them Quants because they studied quantum physics in college, not banking) created vehicles that propelled our economy into the future. These vehicles made profits that were unheard of in the past and with these finance vehicles home owners were created, businesses were financed, power plants built, etc, etc. After a while it was every one's strong belief that this economy would stay strong forever. Apollo 13's original mission of landing on the moon wasn't even scheduled to be covered on TV. The belief was that this mission was just routine, in 1970 we started believing that space travel really wasn't rocket science.

One small electrical failure on Apollo 13 set off a chain reaction that would be fatal. Sounds like to today's string of failures, Bear Sterns, Lehman Brothers, AIG. All the worst case scenarios that no one ever planned for. Even the really smart quants.

Amazingly once the Apollo 13 failure became public the media coverage was enormous. Nothing else was on the TV or papers. Sounds familiar today with the economy. Can't go anywhere without hearing a story of economic failure. Even an article pointing to good signs in the economy is punctuated by a comment that it won't last or that its an anomaly. During the Apollo 13 mission, the media always reported how bad the odds where against the returning astronauts.
In the end, as you all know, the astronauts of Apollo 13 made it home safely. It was risk taking, ingenuity, teamwork, out side the box thinking and the belief that failure is not an Option, that eventually brought them down safely.

Once that thinking takes effect in the US on this economic crisis, sounder minds will prevail and we will be back on the track to a stabilized economy. I am not saying the economy will be as hot as it was but it will be stable.

My daughters watched the movie with me and Bryna(6) said after wards, that the lesson she learned is that anything is possible with teamwork.

Let's hope that politicians, bankers, CEOs, and consumers can all find it in themselves to work together to bring the US (now the world) out of this economic free fall.

Make it happen
Nick

The Power of Positive Thinking

Its not in the newspapers, in the streets of New York, or even on main street America. Optimism is by far, going to be the biggest driver of the economy out of recession/depression territory. Until banks, investors, business owners, and consumers are optimistic about their financial outlook the economy will only get worse.

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that Obama has the ability to make everyone optimistic, and rightly so. He can not do it alone, we have to be ready to jump in and do our part. We are at a period in the US where consumers and businesses need to reposition themselves into better spending patterns. In some households that means no more BMWs or multiple vacations a year, in others it may mean no home ownership. These are realignments that need to be done because our previous levels of spending were unsustainable.

How do we become more optimistic? Well its pretty easy, start thinking about the present and not the past. About the current opportunities not the past failure, about the good news not the negative media spin.

Everyday, very positive and amazing things happen in peoples lives. However, lately, we tend to be focused on the 10 negative stories on the evening news. To become more optimistic, stop watching the news. Quickly skim the morning news and only read the positive articles or find some good positive articles on the Internet (check out www.happynews.com). Find an article you like and send it to everyone you know( include your residents).
Ask them to send you any positive articles they find in the news. Before you know it you will be inundated by positive news and energy.

With this new found positive energy, keep spreading it to your residents, employees, vendors, sellers, whoever you deal with.
Remember, in today's environment, you made be giving them the only positive news they received all day. Positive energy shared with others, comes back to you and the company in kind.

"I am not saying that the world economic crisis is going to be solved by smiles and positive articles, but I do believe positive attitudes will help start propelling our country back into the economic powerhouse we are accustomed to.

Let's go out and make people happy.
Thanks.
Nick

The Way I See It

While it seems that the news gets worse and worse every day, stocks down, real estate values down and going further, corporate bonds priced at all time lows, unemployment at historical highs. Its bad, BUT if you look back through history, all the greatest companies have had their breakthroughs in bad economic times.

The way I see it. How could we ever make any money in an economy where we were buying buildings at prices that yielded returns lower than our cost of debt. That means we need to pay to own the building. But its even worse because the debt was at all time lows so interest rates had no place to go but up. Our residents were moving out to buy houses with $250,000 mortgages that were easier to obtain approval for than our credit apps for $700/mo apartments.

Lucky for us that's all changed. Apartment buildings are now priced for profitability. We can now buy buildings that cash flow and depending on when the economy kicks back in, we may even see some appreciation. BUT, it gets even better. Residents can no longer buy $250,000 homes (or even the same house for $150,000) and get 100% loans so they are staying with us longer and longer. Additionally, many sellers bought long term assets (apartment buildings) with short term money (3 year) so now they need to pay back lenders and can't. So what should be priced at $10 Million has to be sold for $8 M. There is some amazing opportunities to be had in these times.

From an operational standpoint the opportunities to work with vendors and suppliers are huge. I have personally witnessed firms offering 30-50% discounts to keep our business. On top of that our new lean management structure has significantly reduced our operating costs.

So the way I see it is this recession is not only forcing us to be a better more profitable company, but also creating buying opportunities that will lay the foundation of our growth into 2010 and beyond.

Let's make it happen.
Nick