May 2013 • Vol. 50 No. 5
The Official PublicaTiOn Of The arizOna MulTihOusing assOciaTiOn
Record Breaking Tributes Honor Arizona’s Finest By AMA Tributes finalists get the opportunity to meet in the waiting areas at the AMA office, gathering their thoughts as they prepare to meet their judging panels. Being selected for nomination is a tremendous honor and this year managers and executives wrote inspiring nominations for close to 500 individuals, teams, leaders, and properties. 122 judges took time from their busy schedules to volunteer with the AMA and contribute their expertise. With four new categories this year, the judging panels worked for months to review and score the nominees. In this process, judges have the opportunity to learn more about the successful strategies of their peers and competitors. And from the impressive pool of nominees, the group is narrowed to those finalists who have demonstrated the greatest skills. Each of them will be profiled in this publication, the Apartment News and highlighted at the AMA’s annual gala dinner, the Tribute Awards.
The Power of Change For the first time, the AMA has added categories to recognize the major investments and rehabilitation of aging properties. These owners and staff have spent years working to improve failing communities and the results are nothing short of miraculous. In the nominations, these companies’ leaders shared stories of genuine partnerships with local communities, the surrounding neighborhoods, police and others as part of their renovations. Focused not just on increasing revenues in the long term, these operators have created communities that are safer and more livable, with new amenities and all new design. Those investments also strengthen their neighborhoods. These powerful stories reveal the true transformation that great operators can have on not only their residents, but on the community.
After months of negotiation, the Arizona Department of Real Estate (ADRE) has agreed to allow multi-family leasing documents, including apartment finder fee documents, to be stored electronically or on-site at an apartment community’s leasing office. Prior to these new ruling, brokers were required to store these documents at the designated broker’s corporate office. The Department worked with the AMA to develop a substantive policy statement (SPS) related to the offsite storage for multi-family records. The Professional Publishing, Inc PO Box 30327 Portland, OR 97294-3327
The final group of profiles in this edition focuses on the best teams working in multifamily communities around the state. Nominators focused not only on their operation successes, but on their collective actions. Their performances, individually and as a team, should serve as inspiration for other managers and employees to emulate the best practices articulated in the profiles. 2013 AMA Tribute Awards By the Numbers • 471 Nominations • 26 Property Management Co. represented • 22 Categories (Four new categories in 2012) • 31 Judging Days • 122 Judges Total (Average of two dates per person) • 4 Days of Site Visits for Phoenix and Tucson – Development and Rehabilitation Projects • 38 Finalists traveled from around the state to Phoenix Continued on page 2
Real Estate Department Open to Changes for Onsite Storage of Leasing Documents By Courtney LeVinus and Jake Hinman, Capitol Consulting
Leadership from Within Perhaps the most inspiring part of the Tributes nominations is the team dynamics described in these nominations. The AMA honors teams in this awards program because all high performing communities are managed by high performing teams. But even in the individual profiles, at every level, the best kudos remark on each person’s contribution to and leadership of their team. In Bruce Tuckman’s seminal work on the development of teams, he names the four stages that teams move through as they grow together. These stages - forming, storming, norming and performing – exist in every community and every corporation at different points in time. Leadership, clear expectations, and a dynamic of supportive teams have a major impact on how communities live and function. Satisfied, motivated employees infuse their enthusiasm into their work and residents benefit.
Administrative Procedure Act requires the publication of substantive policy statements issued by agencies (A.R.S. § 41-1013(B)(14)). Substantive policy statements are written expressions which inform the general public of an agency’s current approach to rule or regulation practice. With the adoption of this new policy, brokers may store their documents at the leasing office by simply notifying the Department in writing. Additionally, ADRE now permits leasing documents to be stored electronically as long as brokers notify the Department “of the physical location and records host as prescribed in SPS No. 2010.01 Electronic Records Storage.”
Current Resident or
Continued on page 5 PRSRT STD US Postage PAID Seattle, WA Permit #741
AMA Takes to the Streets for BH4LH By Cathy Wagner, AMA The First Annual AMA Tucson / AME 5K Fun Run-Walk was organized by the AMA Tucson Big Hearts for Little Hands committee and held on Saturday, March 23rd, at Brandi Fenton Memorial Park in Tucson. 135 AMA members and their families and friends including 33 children gathered on a beautiful Tucson morning to raise more than $4,600 for Arizona Multihousing Education, Inc., the non-profit (501c3) arm of the
AMA. The beneficiary of this Tucson fundraising effort is Our Family-New Beginnings in Tucson. Many thanks to the inaugural 5K Fun Run-Walk Shirt Sponsors including AMA property management company members - MEB (7 participants), Scotia Group Management, LLC (24 participants) and HSL Asset Management (8 participants) as well as Associate members Bates Paving & Sealing, Inc., Distinctive Carpets, Inc. and MacGray Intelligent LaunContinued on page 9