Preparing for Corona Virus? - Multifamily

[Vinney Chopra]

How is everyone preparing their apartment communities for the corona virus? What are you guys doing incase an outbreak happens?

[Brian Burke]

We have written emergency procedures and protocols and we’ve activated those protocols.  In part, our onsite staff at our communities are being proactive in sharing information from the CDC with our residents, maintaining safe social distancing, wiping down golf carts following tours and leasing offices 2-3 times daily. Maintenance is wiping down all tools after each use, and maintaining safe social distancing.

Our offices will remain open if/and until forced to make other arrangements. We have a corporate business continuity plan in place that will enable us to maintain business as usual, including operations, accounting, etc. 

On an executive level, our IT operations are largely in the cloud so we can work remotely, if necessary. 

As a self-defense measure, we are examining our resident’s employment, looking to see how many of our residents work in the hospitality, entertainment, restaurant and airline industries so that we are aware of our exposure to future rent defaults by residents employed in industries most likely to see job/hour cuts.  So far we see about 25% of our resident base at the most risk of income interruption, which could be a hit to our income but hopefully not devastating, especially if we can stay ahead of it.

We are also initiating refinancing some assets to take advantage of the attractive interest rates!  Even problems such as this can breed opportunity.