RPM Living Hires Chief Economist for an Edge on Predictive Analysis
Brad Dillman brings housing forecast model expertise and more than 15 years of experience to RPM
RPM Living, the sixthlargest apartment manager in the nation, announces hiring well-respected chief economist, Brad Dillman, to enhance its forecasting capabilities as it dials in on strategic growth, and provide associates with a competitive operational resource.
“I’m excited to be on board and look forward to enhancing the gains made by our award-winning analytics infrastructure,” says Dillman.
The addition of Dillman brings a new level of technical expertise to RPM, through statistical modeling, data science, and forecasting, which informs how it can build operational models that will improve performance. This, coupled with the internal and external data it collects, will help RPM and its clients make savvier investment decisions.
“We are bringing Brad on board to enhance our predictive analytics and forecasting abilities, which are being both demanded and made possible by our rapidly growing scale,” said Jason Berkowitz, Chief Executive Officer of RPM Living. “Brad is a well-respected and proven macro-strategic thought leader and technical expert that will help us grow our management and investment platforms and arm our associates with even more resources to continue providing best-in-class service.”
Prior to joining RPM, Dillman was an economist and data scientist building housing forecast models for well-known national homebuilders and other multifamily property management companies. He has a Master’s Degree from the London School of Economics and holds the Financial Risk Manager (FRM) and Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) professional designations.
Dillman tracks industry, economic, and capital market trends, regularly presenting to investors and other key stakeholders and industry audiences. He leads research and analytical initiatives through hands-on experience in forecasting and predictive modeling, including econometric, stochastic, and machine-learning processes and then translates that research and analysis into actionable takeaways. Dillman has authored numerous works on the economy and housing and is regularly tapped for his insights as a media commentator on national outlets including CNBC, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Yahoo Finance.
###
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 #6 on the NMHC Top 50 Largest Apartment Manager list, managing more than 180 clients, 12 regional offices and 200,000 units, with an owned portfolio of $3 billion. Founded by Jason Berkowitz in 2002, the firm has grown to 4,500 associates nationwide spread across over 50 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.
Photo: Brad Dillman, Chief Economist at RPM Living
RPM Living Named No. 5 Top Multifamily Property Management Firm by MHN
RPM Living has made the top 5 of MHN's annual Top 50 Property Management Firms rankings for 2023! For more information on the rankings and methodology, please visit Multi-Housing News’ website.
RPM Living Leans Into Giving Back; Discusses What's Important to Renters in Multi-Housing News Feature
Lindsay Jacobs, our Senior Vice President of Marketing, was recently featured in Multi-Housing News where she shares what's become top-priority for prospects and residents, like helping the greater good through sustainable features and amenities and giving back to the local community, highlighting our in-house charitable arm RPM Serves as an example. Read the full article on MHN's website.
Thoughtful Growth Earns RPM Living National Recognition as the Sixth Largest Apartment Manager on 2023 NMHC Top 50 List
RPM Living is now the sixthlargest manager in the nation, moving up one spot to No. 6on the Top 50 List of Apartment Managers by the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC). The firm had the second largest portfolio increase among the Top 50 managers.
In 2022, RPM Living experienced its largest year of growth, adding nearly 50,000 units to its portfolio, and entering six new states, including Indiana, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Today, the firm manages a total of 148,603units across 25 states. This path of purposeful growth has not only expanded RPM’s national footprint but created opportunities to bring on incredible talent from inside and outside the industry, further diversifying and enhancing the knowledge and skills of its teams.
“The opportunities created for our associates is truly what excites me most about our growth – expanding our footprint purposefully and strategically allows us to stay one step ahead of the competition,” says Jason Berkowitz, Chief Executive Officer of RPM Living. “Our No. 6ranking is a true testament to our teams and our commitment to living our vision of being a place where extraordinary people thrive.”
This vision – along with a new mission and set of core values – was introduced at the end of 2022 to better align with who the company is today and to ensure the reimagined values ladder up to the mission and vision. Each element also reinforces a focus on advanced performance, enhanced client and resident relationships, and cultivating a people-centric organization for its 3,200associates.
By growing strategically, RPM has also been able to keep an ongoing focus on technology and innovation. Its Analytics team was recently named a 2023 CRE Tech Influencer by GlobeSt.com for its custom proprietary solutions and forward thinking. Also recognized this past year for bold, impactful ideas, RPM’s Marketing team was named Department of the Year in the 2022 PR & Marketing Excellence Awards.
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. This year marks the fourth consecutive year RPM has been included in the industry’s chief ranking of the nation’s largest managers after debuting at No. 42 in 2020.
For more information about RPM and its national portfolio, visit RPMLiving.com.
###
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 #6 on the NMHC Top 50 Largest Apartment Manager list, managing more than 150 clients, 10 regional offices and 148,000 units, with an owned portfolio of $3 billion. Founded by Jason Berkowitz in 2002, the firm has grown to over 3,200 associates nationwide spread across over 45+ 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.
Photo: Olmsted Savannah, a 163-unit property in Savannah, GA which RPM Living developed, owns and manages.
RPM Living’s Analytics Team Recognized as a Tech Influencer by GlobeSt.com for its Innovative Thinking and Proprietary Solutions
RPM Living’s Analytics Team has received recognition for its forward thinking, having been named a 2023 CRE Tech Influencer by GlobeSt.com. Formed in 2020, the team has developed and implemented a data infrastructure that helps to seamlessly move data around the company, greatly improving efficiency across all levels and departments of the organization during its largest years of growth.
The Analytics team has developed tools and processes to help the organization scale and capture data to make informed decisions including a customized marketing BI dashboard that provides proprietary data insights that directly impact property performance, an internal key performance indicator (KPI) program that’s able to predict NOI, a front-end reporting tool to provide better insight into property performance, and an internal billback application that has greatly increased collections of billable services.
By leveraging these tools and technology, the Analytics team has supported and enabled our best-in-class Transitions & Due Diligence team in transitioning in a record number of properties, which directly supported the organization being able to climb from No. 42 to No. 6 on the NMHC Top 50 list in just three years.
CRE Tech Influencers recognizes those in the commercial real estate space that not only have 360-degree knowledge of technology but an in-depth understanding of the problems the technology needs to solve. The CRE Tech Influencer accolade compliments other recent awards RPM has earned including its Marketing team being named Department of the Year in the 2022 PR & Marketing Excellence Awards.
To read more about GlobeSt.’s 2023 Tech Influencer, click here. To learn more about RPM Living, visit RPMLiving.com.
###
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 #6 on the NMHC Top 50 Largest Apartment Manager list, managing more than 150 clients, 10 regional offices and 148,000 units, with an owned portfolio of $3 billion. Founded by Jason Berkowitz in 2002, the firm has grown to over 3,200 associates nationwide spread across over 45+ 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 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 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
