RPM Living Investments Continues Houston Growth, Acquires Ashton on West Dallas
RPM Living announces the acquisition of Ashton on West Dallas in Houston’s Montrose submarket, in the heart of the city’s urban core. The acquisition marks RPM’s 17th acquisition in the greater Houston area and the wrap-style community is the second Houston asset to be added to the RPM Multi-Family Fund I portfolio.
Located within walking distance to Houston’s expansive Buffalo Bayou Hike and Bike Trail, Ashton on West Dallas is in a highly convenient location with immediate access to the city’s central business district and multiple city parks. Surrounded by Houston’s most vibrant entertainment districts and attractions, the community is near a variety of neighborhood bars and retail that make up the Montrose, Midtown, and Washington Ave. neighborhoods.
Built in 2013, Ashton on West Dallas features 246 units with 10-foot ceilings throughout, elevator-serviced corridors, and a stand-alone 24-hour fitness studio. Modern one- and two-bedroom residences have floor-to-ceiling windows, wood floors, and stone counters.
“Ashton on West Dallas provides us great opportunity with the potential for outsized rental growth given the area’s limited construction pipeline and Class A absorption projected to remain strong in light of the increased cost of home-ownership and Houston’s consistent population growth,” says Hank Farrell, Chief Executive Officer of RPM Living Investments.
The acquisition was financed by Amerant Bank. For more information on RPM Investments, visit RPMLivingInvestments.com.
Project Highlights
Owner: RPM Living
Multifamily Manager: RPM Living
Developer/Builder: Alliance Residential
Location: Houston, TX
Opened: 2013
Number of units: 246
Unit mix: 1 and 2 bedrooms
About RPM Living
RPM Living is a full-service multifamily management company offering an innovative and personalized approach to real estate services including management, investment and development. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, RPM is ranked #7 on the NMHC Top 50 Largest Apartment Manager list, managing more than 100 clients, nine regional offices and 112,000 units, with an owned portfolio of $3 billion. Founded by Jason Berkowitz in 2002, the firm has grown to over 2,500 associates nationwide spread across over 35 markets, all of whom share the collective vision to enhance clients’ investments through customized solutions and exceptional resident-centric service. To learn more about RPM, visit RPMLiving.com.
RPM Living’s Marketing Team Named Department of the Year for Superior Performance and Talent
As the first multifamily management company to be recognized in the Public Relations and Marketing Excellence Awards, RPM Living’s Marketing team has been awarded 2022 Department of the Year. The annual PR and marketing industry awards identify leading agencies and corporate departments who delivered quantifiable business results for their respective clients.
RPM’s Marketing team is structured like an in-house agency, but has the added benefit of industry knowledge, giving it an advantage over other management companies and agencies. Comprised of agency-trained internal and external experts, the team’s unique approach and expertise allows them to develop strong brands that elevate and enhance the 450+ communities RPM manages and set them up to be successful right out the gate.
With a large role in securing new business opportunities, RPM’s Marketing team has directly supported the explosive growth of RPM Living, becoming the fastest growing multifamily company two years in a row, helping the organization grow from the 42nd to the 7th Largest Multifamily Manager on the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) Top 50 Apartment Manager List, the authoritative industry leader.
In the past year alone, the department has launched multiple programs and processes that directly impact performance, including a customized marketing BI dashboard to provide proprietary data that guides strategic business decisions, a complete CRM platform for RPM’s entire portfolio of properties that streamlines the leasing and retention process, and complete branding and digital services which brought previously outsourced services in-house for a more strategic solution at a lower cost.
The team is led by Chief Marketing Officer Alexis Vance and Senior Vice President of Marketing Lindsay Jacobs who have been able to attract high-caliber candidates in one of the most competitive job markets to build out an industry-leading marketing team. Over the past two years, the team has grown from a handful of associates to nearly 40 team members and experienced 15+ internal promotions.
“Our innovative, results-oriented team is strategically creative and creatively strategic,” says Alexis Vance. “Years of experience, truckloads of talent, and a lot of fun has allowed us to support the organization during a time of immense growth and really do things differently in the multifamily industry.”
RPM Living is a full-service multifamily management company offering an innovative and personalized approach to real estate services including management, investment and development. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, RPM is ranked #7 on the NMHC Top 50 Largest Apartment Manager list, managing more than 100 clients, nine regional offices and 112,000 units, with an owned portfolio of $3 billion. Founded by Jason Berkowitz in 2002, the firm has grown to over 2,500 associates nationwide spread across over 35 markets, all of whom share the collective vision to enhance clients’ investments through customized solutions and exceptional resident-centric service. To learn more about RPM, visit RPMLiving.com.
About Business Intelligence Group The Business Intelligence Group was founded with the mission of recognizing true talent and superior performance in the business world. Unlike other industry award programs, these programs are judged by business executives who have experience and knowledge. The organization's proprietary and unique scoring system selectively measures performance across multiple business domains and rewards those companies whose achievements stand above those of their peers.
KPIs, also known as key performance indicators, play a crucial role in multifamily. KPIs are measurements of specific activities that directly influence strategy. When leveraged correctly, they provide invaluable data and insight that can positively affect property performance and ultimately inform strategy, allowing you to make thoughtful business decisions.
A KPI is simply a measurable value that evaluates performance. For example, conversions from a digital ad source is one of several KPIs that may indicate effectiveness of an overall strategy. KPIs provide a combination of data points that are then used to create a unique strategy to achieve a set of identified goals. KPIs present a piece of the picture that must be viewed in relation to the whole picture. When applied correctly, KPIs are extremely powerful tools that have a direct and timely impact on property performance and NOI goals and objectives.
Start With Strategy
Before determining which KPIs are right for you and your property, it’s important to first understand your strategy and business objectives. Strategy informs the types of KPIs to use by taking into consideration the specific asset, asset type, client portfolio, marketing channel, timeframe, market and business goals. What works for a luxury high-rise lease-up in downtown Chicago in January will be different than a stable student-housing community in rural Florida in August. When you understand your strategy, you can then determine and measure the KPIs that best align.
RPM Living owns and manages the 227-unit Atlantic on Main community in Summerville, SC. By adding starting-rent prices to its digital ads, Atlantic on Main saw a 35% increase in conversions to signed leases.
Leading and Secondary KPIs
To start, determine the type of leading KPIs that have the biggest impact on performance related to your goals. Typically, these leading KPIs are at the bottom of the marketing funnel — a term that measures a the customer journey, from the point they hear about you to the point they complete a sale. These last-mile KPIs typically focus on conversion rates and cost-per-acquisition or revenue.
To truly have an impact, a thoughtful marketer understands there are also secondary KPIs that are important to measure as they influence performance and work with leading KPIs. For example, impressions, click-through-rates and conversions would be considered secondary KPIs to digital performance while various conversion KPIs would be primary. The use of leading and secondary KPIs will ensure comprehensive performance evaluation and proper calibration of your strategy.
Let’s look at an example using a digital pay-per-click (PPC) campaign. PPC means an advertiser, in this case a multifamily operator, pays to have a property ad appear above other search results on websites like Google.
If we exclusively looked at cost-per-lease as the KPI, and we did not meet our goal, does it mean the campaign for this asset in this market didn’t work? Not necessarily. The secondary KPI, something like number of click-throughs to a website, may provide more insight into the role this marketing tactic plays in performance. Looking at a comprehensive set of leading and secondary KPIs allows us to make the best tactical decision in this scenario, saving time and money.
RPM Living owns and manages Altitude in Atlanta. The 327-unit property was built in 2016. By incorporate relevant keywords in its ad copy, Altitude experienced a 54% increase in click-through rates. This rate is a ratio of ad clicks compared to the number of times the ad is shown.
Multi-Touch Attribution
Considered the gold standard to determine the level of effectiveness for prospect touchpoints, multi-touch attribution gives us an understanding of how different channels (property website, social media, digital ads, etc.) in our media mix contribute to the ultimate conversion action of a signed lease, which is typically our leading KPI.
Multi-touch attribution determines the value of each customer touchpoint that leads to a conversion. According to Nielsen, multi-touch attribution is a marketing effectiveness measurement technique that takes all of the touchpoints on the consumer journey into consideration and assigns fractional credit to each so that a marketer can see how much influence each channel has on a sale.
Using the aforementioned scenario, if we measure multi-touch attribution, it may tell us that PPC is essential to converting organic website traffic, which accounts for people who land on your website without using paid clicks. Without PPC, we may learn that our lease conversions from the website drop significantly. Measuring traffic referrals - visits to your site from links that appear on a different site - to the property website is a secondary KPI that has now provided critical details in measuring the overall performance of the marketing campaign.
Consider the Market
Awareness of all factors influencing KPIs will allow you to set them appropriately in any given scenario. The market you’re in will influence how you define your KPIs the same way the asset type or marketing channel influences KPIs. At the individual market level, we set KPI benchmarks that provide relevant insight into performance. An example of a market-level KPI would be determining how demographic segments within any given designated market area (DMA) interact with marketing strategies and communication channels. Analyzing demographic-specific needs and habits will have an impact on where KPI benchmarks land.
The pandemic, which noticeably affected every market, is a great example of how different needs require different KPIs. When the pandemic took place, our marketing KPIs shifted to accommodate various sales experiences, like self-guided tours and virtual tours, thus widening the bottom of our marketing funnel. Now, we’re measuring a variety of tour types, which has opened an entirely new set of sales KPIs and benchmarks around each type of tour.
Olmsted Savannah, located in Savannah, GA, was built in 2021 and contains 163 units. RPM Living, which developed, owns and manages the property, experienced a 44% increase in the property's website clicks by adjusting its bidding strategy on specific keywords. Bidding refers to how much a property manager is willing to pay when a customer searches a specific keyword and clicks on the property's ad.
Dive into the Data
Equally as important is how you engage and apply the findings from your KPIs. Successful marketers relentlessly deepen their resources and insights and leverage data to continuously test their efforts.
There is no KPI that is set it and forget it. The frequency and cadence for how often to assess performance will depend on the channel and KPI. For example, you likely want to review PPC KPIs on a more frequent weekly basis because this type of marketing tactic yields immediate impact as opposed to search-engine-optimization (SEO), which can be looked at less frequently because the impact is demonstrated through longer lead times.
As marketers, it is our responsibility to proactively manage efficient ROI through strong performance. KPIs do just that. It’s important to note that if something isn’t working, it doesn’t mean you need to completely pivot. KPIs provide us with key intel to finely tune our strategy and determine which levers to pull and when. Sometimes simply adjusting spend level, messaging or creative is enough to make a big impact. When something’s not working, take pause, watch it more closely and tweak as needed.
Being agile is a critical differentiator in the multifamily industry, where unknown factors and changes are bound to occur. This, paired with a thoughtful strategy with long-term goals in place, is an invaluable combination.
Alexis Vance is the chief marketing officer with Austin, Texas-based RPM Living, a multifamily management company active in approximately 35 markets. She can be reached at alexis.vance@rpmliving.com.
RPM Living Ranks No. 4 on Multi-Housing News’ List of Top Multifamily Property Managers of 2022
RPM Living continues to gain national recognition, being named No. 4 on Multihousing News’ (MHN) list of Top Multifamily Property Managers of 2022, an annual ranking of industry leaders.
Instead of being based solely off unit count, MHN’s list of Top Multifamily Property Managers, which utilizes self-reported data, uses a weighted formula based on a variety of factors including property operations (both owned and managed), presence across property sectors, and total units under management. The result is a balanced representation between firm growth, market share and property diversity.
The recognition adds to RPM’s growing list of accolades including most notably, being ranked the seventh largest multifamily manager on the National Multifamily Housing Council’s (NMHC) Top 50 list earlier this year after experiencing its largest year of growth. In 2021, the firm added more than 47,000 units to its portfolio. Currently, RPM manages a diverse portfolio of 112,000 units across 35 markets and employs over 2,500 associates nationwide.
In addition to national growth, RPM has received recognition for its outstanding culture and leadership, having been named a Best Place to Work for 2022 by GlobeSt. The list highlights organizations that achieve outstanding performance, stay on top of workforce trends, strive to accommodate staff, and offer transparent communication methods and thoughtful employee engagement programming.
The accolade compliments other recent awards including RPM’s Chief Executive Officer Jason Berkowitz and its Transition & Due Diligence Team both being named 2021 Multifamily Influencers by GlobeSt. in 2021 and RPM’s Chief Marketing Officer Alexis Vance and Division President Cynthia Miller both being named 2022 Women of Influence by GlobeSt.
Photo: Revel, an RPM-managed community in Minneapolis, Minnesota
RPM Living Boosts Student Housing Focus with the Addition of Theresa Sopata as Vice President of Client Services
RPM Living, the seventh largest apartment manager, has announced the hiring of Theresa Sopata as Vice President of Client Services over the firm’s student vertical. The move builds on RPM’s strategy to continue growing its student vertical, further diversifying its portfolio of assets.
Theresa brings over 15 years’ experience in property management and business development in student housing, multifamily, commercial and new development. She has previously served in various client service roles within the student and multifamily industries, and is skilled at driving portfolio growth, cultivating new client relationships and nurturing existing relationships while assisting clients with underwriting, asset renovation strategies, consulting on lease-ups, and tracking changing market conditions and new management technologies.
In her role, Theresa will be responsible for the identification and oversight of all new student business opportunities, working closely with Heather Sizemore, Senior Vice President of Operations over student, and the student operations leadership team, which has over 60 years’ combined student experience in nearly 30 states and 80 markets nationwide.
“Theresa brings a high level of expertise and knowledge to RPM where she will be critical to the continued development and growth of our student vertical,” says Kevin Owens, Division President. “She has already made a significant impact to growing the student portfolio in the short time she’s been with RPM.”
Theresa holds a bachelor’s degree in individual and family studies from Miami University and is a member of the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) Emerging Leaders Committee, a program designed to cultivate future leaders in the apartment industry.
RPM Living is a full-service multifamily management company offering an innovative and personalized approach to real estate services including management, investment and development. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, RPM is ranked #7 on the NMHC Top 50 Largest Apartment Manager list, managing more than 100 clients, nine regional offices and 112,000 units, with an owned portfolio of $3 billion. Founded by Jason Berkowitz in 2002, the firm has grown to over 2,500 associates nationwide spread across over 35 markets, all of whom share the collective vision to enhance clients’ investments through customized solutions and exceptional resident-centric service. To learn more about RPM, visit RPMLiving.com.
RPM Living Investments Grows Houston Portfolio With San Paloma Acquisition in Energy Corridor
RPM Living Investments (“RPM”) has announced the acquisition of San Paloma in the heart of Houston’s Energy Corridor, the city’s third-largest employment center. The 372-unit garden property was purchased from Blackstone/Livcor through a joint venture with DRA Advisors (“DRA”). The transaction is the second joint venture between DRA and RPM in Texas and is RPM’s 16th acquisition in greater Houston.
San Paloma presents an incredible opportunity with the community’s superb Energy Corridor location, forecasted to maintain its position as one of Houston’s strongest submarkets. The community is surrounded by 22MM square feet of office space, high-end infrastructure, and benefits from its location in the path of Houston’s western-leaning growth and a limited multifamily construction pipeline.
Built by Sueba in 2006, one of Houston’s highest quality builders, San Paloma features an unmatched amenity set, and unique floorplans with an average unit size of over 1,050 square feet that include arched doorways, vaulted ceilings, and built-ins throughout.
“San Paloma is an excellent property that provides tremendous opportunity in one of Houston’s premier locations. We are excited to add such a great asset to our portfolio and to capitalize on its maximum potential,” says Hank Farrell, Chief Executive Officer of RPM Living Investments.
"San Paloma is the perfect addition to grow our successful partnership with RPM. It is a high-quality asset in an A+ location with strong demand in a supply-constrained submarket, and we are excited to execute our business plan alongside the RPM team,” says Brett Gottlieb, Managing Director of DRA Advisors.
The acquisition was financed by Amerant Bank. For more information on RPM Living Investments, visit rpmlivinginvestments.com.
Project Highlights
Owner: RPM Living Investments Manager: RPM Living Developer/Builder: Sueba Location: Houston, TX Opened: 2006 Number of units: 372 Unit mix: One-, Two-Bedrooms
RPM Living Acquires Brentwood Downs in Atlanta’s Fast-Growing Suburban Housing County
RPM Living Investments announces the acquisition of Brentwood Downs, a 408-unit garden-style community in Lilburn, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta experiencing high demand amongst apartment dwellers. The acquisition marks the sixth asset purchased by the RPM Multifamily Fund I that launched last year.
Situated northeast of Atlanta’s central business district, Brentwood Downs has experienced immense organic rental growth with rates increasing more than 18% over the last year. Located at 500 Pleasant Hill Rd NW, the community boasts spacious units at an average of 1,070 square feet, an attractive feature for those escaping the city and seeking more space.
Brentwood Downs’ rent rate increase is reflective of Atlanta’s overall demand for suburban housing. Gwinnett County, where Brentwood Downs is located, seems to be experiencing it the most with an over 8% YOY growth in employment. The demand is due to rising rents inside the Atlanta loop, which is partly caused by a surge in population growth and supply shortage. This coupled with the rise in remote work has further increased demand for rental housing in the suburbs, where residents are able to choose space over office proximity.
“The suburbs of Atlanta continue to see growth as residents leave the city center for more space. The strategic acquisition of Brentwood Down builds on our plans to further expand our national presence in growing markets,” says Josh Kahn, Chief Operating Officer, RPM Living Investments.
RPM sourced Brentwood Downs through a direct, off-market relationship with the seller who has owned the community since 2007. The acquisition was financed by First Horizon Banks and adds to RPM’s growing footprint in Atlanta and the Southeast region. To learn more about RPM Living Investments, visit rpmlivinginvestments.com.
Project Highlights
Owner: RPM Living Investments Manager: RPM Living Developer/Builder: Lane Company Location: Lilburn, GA Opened:1997 Number of units: 408 Unit mix: One-, Two-, and Three-Bedrooms
Honored for Remarkable Leadership, Cynthia Miller and Alexis Vance of RPM Living Recognized as 2022 Women of Influence by GlobeSt.
RPM Living’s Division President Cynthia Miller, and Chief Marketing Officer Alexis Vance have both been recognized among the top female commercial real estate professionals as Women of Influence by GlobeSt. for the significant impact they’ve made on the industry. Both women have been instrumental in leading effective change that has directly impacted the explosive growth and evolution of RPM Living, the No. 7 largest apartment manager on NMHC’s Top 50 list.
As Division President, Cynthia Miller directly oversees operations of RPM Living’s West portfolio of 77,000 units and supervises the Operations team and Analytics and Compliance departments. She has played a key role in several companywide platform rollouts that elevate reporting, people, and workflow to be the best in the business. Additionally, Cynthia has significantly grown the West portfolio. Most notably, in the past year, the Dallas-Fort Worth portfolio grew by 22,100 units and the Houston portfolio by 8,100 units, and her total portfolio’s average occupancy in 2021 was above the industry average.
As Chief Marketing Officer, Alexis Vance plays an integral role in positioning the company as a differentiator with an overall focus on brand equity and has led the company, from a marketing standpoint, through its two biggest years of growth. She has led her team through the launch of multiple key programs and processes, like an industry-leading business intelligence platform, a complete CRM platform, and in-house branding and digital services, all which directly impact performance as well as the resident and client experience.
Cynthia and Alexis’ strong leadership can best be seen in those they lead. Their ability to pivot and be agile has paid off with retention, and their strong support and investment in people is evidenced in their team’s growth and success. In the past year, Cynthia has had the opportunity to promote 17 individuals on her team at the Regional Vice President, Vice President, and Senior Vice President level alone. Likewise, Alexis’ leadership has allowed her to attract high-caliber candidates, even in one of the most competitive job markets, and build out an industry-leading marketing team, growing it from three members to 30 in just two years.
GlobeSt.’s Women of Influence awards recognize female commercial real estate professionals for their remarkable achievements who have personally impacted the market and significantly driven the industry to new heights via their outstanding successes. To view the full list of 2022 winners, click here.
To learn more about RPM Living, visit RPMLiving.com.
RPM Living Earns National Recognition as the 7th Largest Multifamily Manager on NMHC’s 2022 Top 50 list
Amidst national record growth, RPM Living is now theseventh largest manager in the nation, landing at No. 7on the Top 50 List of Apartment Managers by the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC), up fourspots from No. 11 last year. This marks the third consecutive year the Austin firm has been included in the industry’s chief ranking of the nation’s largest managers and the first year they’ve ranked in the top 10.
The ranking is an impressive feat considering RPM debuted on the annual list just two years ago in 2020 at No. 42 and was able to climb 35 spots among the industry’s ever-evolving landscape due to the global pandemic and a highly competitive job market. The quick ascent can be attributed to the firm’s exponential growth over the past few years. In 2021, RPM experienced its largest year of growth, adding more than 47,000 units to its portfolio. Currently, RPM manages a diverse portfolio of 112,000 units across 35 markets and employs over2,400 associates nationwide.
“It’s an honor to be named the No. 7company in the country and the achievement is an attestation to our team’s constant dedication and hard work,” said Jason Berkowitz, CEO and founder of RPM. “I am proud of our team's commitment to best practices, innovative solutions and resident-centric service which continues to be our focus and what propels us forward, allowing us to evolve and maintain our upwards trajectory.”
Contributing to the recent growth is RPM’s investment and development arm which successfully closed the RPM Multifamily Fund I, its first LP real estate fund which received commitments totaling more than $100 million. In 2021, the firm acquired roughly 3,600 multifamily units totaling a gross value of over $800 million. RPM Investments now owns a portfolio with a market value of roughly $4 billion, primarily consisting of properties in the rapidly growing South and Southeast.
Further accelerating RPM’s growth are its recent partnerships with industry powerhouses Ron Bonneau as Partner and Managing Director of Acquisitions, and Chase Hill as Partner and Managing Director of Development. The two bring extensive industry experience that will directly benefit the firm’s efforts to grow its platform nationally and further expand on development throughout the South and Southwest.
In addition to national growth, RPM has received recognition for its outstanding culture and leadership, having been named a Best Place to Work for 2022 by GlobeSt. The list highlights organizations that achieve outstanding performance, stay on top of workforce trends, strive to accommodate staff, and offer transparent communication methods and thoughtful employee engagement programming. The accolade compliments other recent awards including RPM’s Chief Executive Officer Jason Berkowitz and its Transition & Due Diligence Team both being named Multifamily Influencers by GlobeSt. in 2021.
The NMHC Top 50 is the industry’s chief ranking of the nation’s 50 largest apartment developers, 50 largest apartment owners, 50 largest apartment managers, 25 largest builders and 10 largest syndicators.
For more information about RPM and its national portfolio, visit RPMLiving.com.
Exceptional Culture Focused on Associates Earns RPM Living a 2022 Best Place to Work Recognition by GlobeSt.com
RPM Living has received recognition for its outstanding culture and leadership, having been named a Best Place to Work for 2022 by GlobeSt.com. The list highlights organizations that achieve outstanding performance, stay on top of workforce trends, strive to accommodate staff, and offer transparent communication methods and thoughtful employee engagement programming, while continually earning respect from professionals.
"After experiencing our largest year of growth ever, it’s an honor to be recognized as a GlobeSt. Best Place to Work. From the start, our associates have always been our main focus and a big part of our success.” said Jason Berkowitz, Founder and CEO of RPM.
Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, RPM has experienced tremendous success over the past two decades, and particularly in the last few years. In 2021, the full-service multifamily management company made the biggest leap on the National Multifamily Housing Council’s (NMHC) Top 50 List of Apartment Managers, jumping to No. 11 after debuting at No. 42 in 2020. Now, with over 112,000 units under management, RPM is expecting to make another jump when the 2022 list is announced in mid-April.
Even among the industry’s ever-evolving landscape due to the global pandemic and a highly competitive job market, RPM has been able to grow at all levels. The company currently employs over 2,400 associates, all of whom share the collective vision to enhance clients’ investments through innovative solutions and resident-centric service. Currently, RPM manages a diverse portfolio of 112,000 units across 35 markets in 21 states.
The Best Place to Work accolade compliments other recent awards RPM has earned including its CEO Jason Berkowitz and its Transition & Due Diligence Team both being named Multifamily Influencers by GlobeSt.com in 2021.
To read more about GlobeSt.’s 2022 Best Places to Work winners, click here. To learn more about RPM Living, visit RPMLiving.com.
