Inside Tucson Business
In the midst of all else that’s happening these days, officials at Northstar Management and Consulting decided they wanted to make a game to see if they could fill 100 percent of their more than 2,300 apartment units in 31 properties.
 Linda Sovola displays the chart that tracked Northstar's progress on its 100% game. |
“Basically, I just wanted to see if we could do it,” said the company’s director Linda Sovola who came up with the game. “I’m never satisfied with the status quo. I’m also a big proponent of Landmark Education and believing in what’s possible. Rather than be satisfied with 90 percent, why not reach for 100 percent?”
Northstar had a bit of headstart when it started the “100% Game” on June 26. The company’s vacancy rate was about 8 percent, compared to the market average of about 12.5 percent.
The game consisted of three goals:
• All properties were to achieve 100 percent occupancy by Sept. 21.
• All applications had to line up with Northstar criteria.
• No more than 5 percent of the applications taken during the game period could be delinquent as of Sept. 21.
“This way we kept the integrity in the game,” Sovola said. “It’s one thing to just fill units up, but we wanted to be certain these are people who would be staying with us. Otherwise it is an empty goal.”
Northstar’s owner Stuart Wolff said he was probably the biggest naysayer.
“This is obviously a little nuts to try and do when you’re already beating the market average for vacancies. I never thought we would get there,” Wolff said. “But I figured if it got us a couple percentage boost, then why not give it a try. It just goes to show you good things happen when you get out of the way and let your team go to work. We have some unbelievable people working for us.”
To attract new tenants, several of the company’s properties took part in a “Midnight Madness” sale offering $1 rent for the first month or remainder of the first month and took the deposits out of the second month’s rent. They also offered rental referrals of up to $100 cash and a $200 gift card at certain properties.
“All in all, it wasn’t anything too different than what is being offered out there right now,” Sovola said. “But we really marketed it and pushed ourselves and really believed we could do this.”
There were 728 apartments rented during the game, of which 172 were cancelled or rejected leaving a net rented of 556. In the highest week during the game Northstar rented out 72 units.
“An average week will be about 40 to 50 units,” Wolff said. “We were consistently getting 60 to 70 units per week, which is incredible. When you are doing something like this, it is easy to get to the 85 percent, 90 percent and 95 percent range, but it is that last push that is the hardest.”
Northstar, which ranks No. 5 on Inside Tucson Business’s list of residential real estate management firms, has properties throughout the region, including the 204-unit Casas Adobes Apartments, 6200 N. Oracle Road; 197-unit Portofino Apartments, 1702 W. 36th St.; 186-unit La Entrada Apartments, 255 N. Granada Ave.; 167-unit Sunrise Apartments, 3636 N. Campbell Ave., and 144-unit The Lakes Apartments, 5666 E. Hampton St.
Bob Kaplan, with Picor Commercial Real Estate Services, said the accomplishment was impressive in today’s market.
“The market in Tucson is still quite weak,” he said. “I have not heard from anyone that there are signs of it getting any better either. This really bucks the trend of what we’re seeing in the apartment market.”
As for what’s next, Wolff said he wants to see the company revisit its goals quarterly as opposed to yearly.
“In this market a lot can really turn on you in a year,” Wolff said. “We need to let them rest right now, because they really worked themselves crazy to reach this goal. But we’ve obviously set the bar pretty high on ourselves and we intend to keep it right there. Keeping tabs on what we’re doing quarterly will help us do that.”
Contact Joe Pangburn at jpangburn@azbiz.com or (520) 295-4259.
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