National Multi-Family Real Estate Firm – Best Practices in Condominium Development, Construction and Sales
The Challenge
A national, multi-family real estate firm that specializes in apartment development was expanding into the condominium (condo) business due to market demand. The corporate office was concerned that the company’s regions might not be maximizing profits due to the unique challenges with condo development.
The Client asked Teel StratVisor Group (StratVisor) to evaluate their company-wide condo development and leasing processes, reporting and tools, and provide them with recommendations to standardize and streamline each area.
What We Did
The StratVisor team’s goal for this client was to document best practices and opportunities for improvement. We accomplished this by understanding the current processes, reporting and tools, and by reviewing current documentation as well as conducting interviews.
A comprehensive request for documentation was developed and submitted to the client. From this request, StratVisor received over 60 documents from seven geographic regions. The StratVisor team reviewed and analyzed each document individually and compared and contrasted similar documents.
The StratVisor team also conducted 27 interviews (on-site and by telephone) with four business units: Development, Construction, Accounting and Information Technology. The interview content was captured with detailed notes, and themes were summarized for the Client.
A comprehensive current state was developed from the sample documentation and interviews. From this current state, best practices and opportunities for improvement were categorized into eight themes:
- Software applications
- Budgeting
- Construction
- Financing
- Operations
- Reporting
- Sales Process
- Upgrades-Condos
There were 70 best practices documented that were unique to condo development. These best practices were a combination from the client, industry trends and other condo development firms.
The StratVisor team also identified over 130 areas for improvement. These opportunities for improvement were categorized by cost benefit as well as length of time to complete (short-/long-term) and complexity. 90% of the opportunities were “Quick Hits” or tasks that could be implemented rapidly (in 45 days or less) by the client. The other 10% were tasks that were complex or would take longer than 45 days to complete.
The Result
As a result of working with the Teel StratVisor team, the Client received the following:
- Comprehensive and objective analysis/comparison of the Client’s processes, reporting and tools
- Review of over 60 areas of documentation
- Summary of themes from 27 interviews
- Documentation of opportunities for improvement for over 130 areas that included individual recommendations
- Opportunities for improvements categorized by time to implement, complexity and cost benefit.
- Documentation of internal and industry best practices
- Formal presentation
Timing: 12 weeks
