If you’re a PM Staffing associate, considering becoming an associate, and are new to the property management, multifamily housing industry, you might feel as if industry pros speak a language all their own. And, we really do, don’t we?
It reminds me of the scene in the movie Good Morning Vietnam where Adrian Cronauer remarks to his boss, who is fond of using military acronyms and jargon, “Excuse me, sir. Seeing as how the VP is such a VIP, shouldn’t we keep the PC on the QT? ‘Cause if it leaks to the VC he could end up MIA, and then we’d all be put on KP.”
So…if you are new to this whole thing, we wanted to give you a quick primer on the terms you’re likely to hear and what they mean, so that you can get up to speed quickly!
- Occupancy: This is a number, expressed in a percentage, that tells how full a community is. So, a 100 unit community with 95 apartments occupied is said to be 95% occupied.
- Availability/Exposure: This is a number, expressed in a percentage, that tells how many units are available for rent. This number is often confused with occupancy, but it is different! So, if a community has 100 units and there are 8 units available for rent (regardless of whether those units are occupied or not) then that community is 8% available, or is 8% exposed.
- ITV/NTV: These two acronyms are short for Intent of Notice to Vacate or Notice to Vacate and both mean the same thing. This is the written notice that residents provide letting their communities know that they’re moving out. This is often called the “30-day notice” or “60-day notice” depending on how much time a community requires residents to give notice before moving out.
- Traffic: This is a term used in the industry for customers that have visited the community. So if someone asks you, “What was your traffic like today?” they probably want to know how many people you took on a tour of the community.
- Tour: This is the industry’s term for showing a client around the community. You’ll often hear this when a co-worker is leaving the office to show a prospect the model and community…”Jake, I’m going on a tour. I’ll be back…”
- Leasing Velocity: This is a fancy way of saying how many leases you had. Why we ask, “What was your leasing velocity?” instead of “How many leases did you have?” is something I will never understand!
- Guest Card: These are used to write down all of the information you gather from prospects who call or come into the office.
- The Shop: This usually refers to the area where the maintenance team has their workshop/office space.
There are many more … but this should give you a good foundation as you learn how to speak “property management.”
