We believe that our property managers, the people that are onsite every day, need to focus most of their time on creating a great place to live for our residents. We are constantly looking for areas where we can free them up by centralizing their administrative tasks. Here are a few examples of centralized processes:

Compliance: All move-in and recert packages get approved by our central Compliance team
Finance: All vendor invoices go to our corporate office for scanning, coding and payment
Reporting: Daily performance reporting on vacancies and delinquencies are sent out to the field staff and owners

We believe ownership, accountability and responsibility are key to successful performance, but we go a step further and verify as well. We have extensive measurement and monitoring systems in place to ensure that if a property falls outside the norm, we catch it early. We respond to the situation and inform involved parties as soon as possible to work on a solution jointly. Senior field staff are compensated based on how their properties perform against approved budgets. Here are a few examples of our Centralized measurements and Monitoring:

Curb Appeal: We have a team of “curb appeal experts” that go to each property two times per year for unannounced inspections. We provide the results directly to owners.
Unit turns: We track centrally each available unit to ensure they are quickly ready for rent. Any exceptions are immediately escalated.
Occupancy: Each of our properties has an occupancy target (typically 95% or above). We report actual performance versus the target on a daily basis. In case a property is below its target, there is a written action plan available internally and to owners
Delinquency: We have several teams focusing on delinquency to ensure we get the money in on time every time. Our centralized collection team assists site staff with eviction letters, follow-up, and monitoring of key trends during the month for each property.

In Winterwood we have strong internal controls that protect our customer’s assets against fraud. We are well staffed in all departments so we can segregate duties and have reviews on controls. Here are some examples:

Cash Management: Monthly bank reconciliations being reviewed by senior accountants and CPAs
Payroll: Monthly audit of any payroll changes, verified by a department outside HR
Vendor creation: New vendors are approved and put in our system by a department outside Finance

In Winterwood we believe in giving ownership of budgets to our managers and field executives. We foster strong expense control and empowerment to ensure our staff has the authority needed to drive the properties performance. We work with one of the best expense management systems in the industry. All spending is backed up by a purchase order that is linked to budgets Ordering happens from a fixed and agreed upon on-line catalogue, where our negotiated terms from our preferred suppliers, that reflect the purchasing power of 10,000 units, are listed.

Bank: When you choose to use our banking partner, Traditional Bank, your property automatically gets a credit line
Flooring and painting: Our national partner, Sherwin Williams, provides us the best service level, quality and pricing available
Waste Management: Our waste broker, Simply Waste, consolidates and reviews all our waste bills and optimizes the cost

Our philosophy is that we work with a “no surprise” information strategy. We share our information and systems in an open way, and our owners have the same information, at the same time, as we do internally. This is a result of our proprietary reporting systems and the emphasis we place on site staff keeping system input up-to-date and relevant.

Daily information: We look at critical performance indicators daily to react quickly should issues arise
Reporting: Reporting is available on-line and is consolidated for all properties by owner. This information can either be retrieved by the owner as needed from the system or automatically pushed out depending on their preference.
Easy to use: We have made our information and reporting easy to use so owners can quickly recognize and react to relevant points.

Winterwood has an experienced senior team that can manage disstress or troubled assets. We will help you whether you are considering a purchase or if you already have a troubled asset and need an experienced partner to manage it for you. Our detailed due diligence includes a thorough property inspection by our Director of Maintenance, often accompanied by our in house REAC experts and an Asset manager. This team will make a comprehensive report that will give you direction as to what is needed to stabilize the property or get it ready for sale.

Please feel free to ask us for past results in this area.