March Lunch Recap

Portland Apartment Market

By Lynn Beadling, Evergreen Business Capital

The March CREW lunch presentation was a discussion of the local multifamily market by appraiser Mark Barry.

Mark characterized 2012 as a strong year, based on low interest rates, rising rents, low vacancies, and high investor demand. 

New construction continues to increase year over year, and there are currently 5,350 units under construction.  Based on the number of permits issued over the past year, Mark estimates that between ten and twelve thousand new units will be built over the next two years. 

There were 175 sales transactions in 2012, up slightly from prior years.  Investors are seeking acquisition opportunities; however, sellers are reluctant to sell, given the returns they are earning.  The average price per square foot ($88) paid in 2012 is near the peak of the past 10 years.  There is a variance in demand between sub-markets.   A typical older (pre-1950) apartment in the central city sold for $148/sf, while newer suburban properties, particularly in East Multnomah County, sold for significantly less. 

Vacancies are currently a relatively low 4%, a level that has allowed landlords to enjoy above-average rents.   Portland’s population is increasing overall, including the 20 to 35 year old demographic which is typically more likely to live in rental housing.  On the other hand, home affordability is also rising and will erode some of the demand for rental units as the economy continues to improve.  Vacancy rates are expected to creep up to 51/2% in the next two years, with a resulting moderation in rental rates.

Rising interest rates are seen as the biggest risk in this sector, putting pressure on cap rates, and reducing values.  Financing for multifamily properties remains widely available.

The general forecast for the upcoming 24 months indicates a return to a more “balanced” market, rather than the current indicators which favor landlords and sellers.

February Lunch Recap

The Fine Art of Communication Presented by Patti Lind

By Marisol McAllister, Farleigh Wada Witt

CREW members got lucky in February when they attended the luncheon workshop offered by Patti Lind. Ms. Lind is a specialist in communication, has more than 30 years experience working with leaders, individuals and teams as they face communication challenges in their lives. 

Ms. Lind offered practical ways for members to improve their ability to make and maintain connections through a variety of challenging situations. 

Her first suggestion focused on making connections in a group.  She said that relaxing your body is very important, and that you should have a simple goal to meet a new person and learn a little bit about them.  She also recommended forming a habit on how to introduce yourself and then really focusing on the other person, instead of having an agenda of them learning about you.

She then turned to giving tips for engaging an audience as a speaker.  She emphasized making connections with the group right from the beginning, by getting to the presentation early, making connections with audience members, and making your way to the front of the room.  This will help you identify the goals of the audience.  She also recommended starting off the presentation in an informal manner and talking with the audience as if they were in your living room.

Ms. Lind then talked about how to effectively stay in a conversation when your audience becomes defensive and misinterprets what you are trying to convey.  First, when an audience is not listening, ignoring it will not make it better.  Therefore, she recommended mentioning it, for example, “Whoops, I think I am losing you.”  She also recommended being good humored about it, not blaming the audience and asking questions so that they engage with you. 

She gave a very compelling example of how she engaged an audience that failed to give her any attention right from the beginning.  She said to them, “Gee, it does not seem like you want to be here.”  An audience member said very sarcastically, “No, we’ve been waiting all of our lives to hear what YOU have to say.”  Ms. Lind rose to the occasion and showed that once she got one person to actually engage with her, she was able to talk to this member and then the whole group.  She said that finding out why the group did not want to be there was critical.  She kept asking questions until finally someone offered that they had heard everything on this topic a million times before and that they expected her presentation to be worthless to them.  Now that she understood the audience’s objection to her, she was able to address it and then ask them to give her a chance, and she told them that if her presentation was all a rehash, she would keep moving on to different material.  It was important, she said, to keep checking back with them to make sure her material continued to be relevant to her audience.  This worked well and the woman that had made the sarcastic response actually thanked her later for the material.

Ms. Lind also gave tips regarding how to manage your own defensiveness so you can stay effectively engaged in a conversation.  When a conversation is not going well, getting defensive and blaming is likely to make the situation worse.  Therefore, she recommended pausing, relaxing your body, listening and looking for an area of agreement.  She gave an example with the permission of Andrea Bainbridge.  Andrea had gone to a client meeting with an associate one time.  The client started getting agitated and the conversation began to heat up.  At one point, Andrea decided to just relax and sit back in her chair and listen, taking Ms. Lind’s advise.  The meeting started to get better.  Her associate mentioned to her later that she looked at Andrea during the conversation and when Andrea seemed relaxed, she took her cue from Andrea that everything was okay.  In addition, her client later mentioned that when Andrea relaxed and just sat back to listen, it made her client realize that he was being too hostile.

Ms. Lind is the author of Communication at Work, a longtime faculty member at Marylhurst University, and a co-founder of the Lind Consulting Group. 

December Recap
CREW Network Presentation, Branding to Increase Revenue and Annual Awards

Written by Collen Murphy, Fluent Design

CREW NETWORK IS THE NETWORK THAT WORKS

Ann M Jaeger, Esq., member of the Board of Directors of the CREW Network walked the attendees through the many benefits of membership in CREW and why CREW Network is such an asset to our professions. CREW members have access to many valuable resources through the CREW Network site.

Benefits of the CREW Network include the following:

• CREW Biz
• Career Center
• Chapter Resources
• The Leadership Roundtable
• Business Development
• CREW Knowledge Source
• CREW Foundation

Along with the above, CREW members have access to reports put together by fellow members as well as various White Papers and Benchmark Studies. Access to these are through the following links:

https://www.crewnetwork.org/membercenter/member_communications/annual_reports.aspx

https://www.crewnetwork.org/content.aspx?id=105

https://www.crewnetwork.org/content.aspx?id=106

Ann also outlined upcoming events that are organized by CREW National such as the following: 

• Webinar / Leadership Series
• National Convention
• Leadership Summit

We encourage the entire CREW Portland chapter to check out the CREW Network and access some of this valuable information.

Branding to Increase Revenue

Betsy Henning, CEO and Founder of AHA!

As an “innovative and visionary leader”, Betsy helps individuals, as well as Fortune 500 companies, define their strengths, “untangle complexity”, and communicate their message to make an impact. At the December luncheon she spoke to the lunch attendees about “Building your brand into a powerful business tool”. 

What is a brand? 

A brand exists as the total set of perceptions created through all the experiences people have with them. Service brands are individual, direct.

But as Betsy pointed out “ A brand is not what YOU say it is, its what THEY say it is. They being your customers, your contacts, the people you work with.  Simply put, your brand is your reputation.   

For example – Oprah versus Lindsey Lohan.  Thinks about the brands / reputations of both of those entities, what does their reputation say about their brand?  Brands are promises that create expectations. 

Betsy focused on five key elements in building your brand

Think – what do you want people to think about you?  She suggested that you isolate three words that describe what people think about you post-interaction.

Feel – what do you want people to feel about you?  This is the part that will carry you through the stumble, and we will all stumble.  What do you want your customers / clients to feel after an encounter with you?

Differentiated – What sets you apart from other brands, from your competition, from your colleagues?  How are you thinking differently today than you did five years ago?  Know your competition and how you set yourself apart from them. 

Relevant – How do you target your customer?

Valuable – To your business.  A trusted and valuable brand delivers ROI, shortens the sales cycle, increases prospect conversion, eases pressure to lower fees and saves business development time and expenses

http://www.aha-writers.com/download/Travel_Oregon_pres_Final_share.pdf for a presentation that is similar to the CREW presentation in December.

Photo's from the Annual Awards presentation are below.