TAA’s Guide for Developing Your Independent Owner Membership · ideas to reach out to independent owners: • Word of mouth – Build a team of current IRO members to act as ambassadors.

TAA’s Guide for Developing Your Independent Owner Membership

TAA’s Guide for Developing Your Independent Owner Membership About the Texas Apartment Association The Texas Apartment Association, Inc. (TAA) is a non-profit statewide trade association dedicated to unifying rental housing professionals through education, legislative advocacy and member services. TAA is affiliated with the National Apartment Association (NAA) and local associations in 25 Texas cities. Members join TAA and NAA by joining the local affiliate in their area. TAA members are rental housing owners, builders, developers, property management firms and companies that supply products or services to rental properties. We have more than 10,500 members and represent more than 1.75 million units throughout the state. TAA owner/management company members

• Provide housing for more than 4 million Texans; • Employ an estimated 70,000 full-time employees; • Represent property with a market value of more than $150 billion; • Pay property taxes exceeding $3 billion.

TAA mission statement The Texas Apartment Association unifies the diverse segments of the state’s residential rental housing industry to advocate fair legislation and high professional standards. TAA provides its members with state-of-the-art resources, topical industry education and timely information to ensure their continued professional growth and current base of knowledge in a changing business environment. As the recognized voice of the state’s residential rental housing professionals, TAA fosters the stability of the industry to better serve the housing needs of residents in communities throughout the state of Texas. What is an IRO and IROC? You will often hear two acronyms when you begin trying to attract independent owners for your association. IRO stands for independent rental owner and refers to the individual person or owner. IROC stands for Independent Rental Owners Council or Committee and refers to a group of individuals that have organized as a council or committee through their local association. TAA defines independent rental owners as individuals that own or manage rental properties, and are actively involved, from an ownership perspective, in the management of properties. Notice that TAA’s definition of independent rental owner does not mention how many units the person must own to qualify as an independent rental owner. TAA chooses to focus on a hands-on management style to designate an owner as independent rather than focusing on the size of the company.

Why develop the IRO membership within your association? Consider these national statistics from the October 2009 revision of “How to Set Up and Run an IROC Program” from NAA:

There are an estimated 39,100,000 rental housing units in the United States, of which 6,000,000 units are in rental housing communities of 50 units or more. This leaves approximately 33,000,000 rental units in rental housing communities of 50 units or fewer, including single-family rental units, duplex, triplex or fourplex investment properties.

Independent owners represent a great deal of buying power, and many of them don’t consider the rental housing industry to be their primary career. They’re hungry for resources and education that will help them manage their rental properties more effectively and efficiently. Membership in your apartment association will provide connections to other independent owners, education about industry issues and knowledge about products and services. When is the right time to form an IROC? Not every local association forms an IROC. First, consider the profile of your membership. Do you have a wide variety of management styles among your owner/manager members? If yes, then forming an IROC could bring an organized focus to your communication with your independent owners and the benefits they receive as members of your local association. Are the majority of your membership independent owners? If yes, then forming a separate IROC may not be necessary. For additional guidance on creating an IROC, read “How to Set Up and Run an IROC Program” from NAA. How to reach independent owners Marketing methods most effective with independent owners You’ve made the decision to increase your independent owner membership. Now you need to get the word out about your association and the benefits membership can provide for independent owners. But which marketing methods are most effective with independent owners? Independent owners’ hands-on management style means they’re dealing with many different details every day. Many independent owners have a job outside the rental housing industry, and managing their rental property is something they do in their “spare” time. Try some of these ideas to reach out to independent owners:

• Word of mouth – Build a team of current IRO members to act as ambassadors. Ask them to spread the word about the benefits of membership in your local association. TAA has a flyer that can be customized for your local association that the ambassadors could give to each prospective new member they meet.

• Advertise in your local newspaper – Keep in mind that advertising is a long-term investment. Make sure you do your research to get the most from your advertising dollar. If you decide to advertise in your local newspaper, TAA has a template advertisement that we can customize for your local association.

• Email marketing – The beauty of email marketing is that it’s free or at least very low cost. First, though, you need to build a list of prospects. When your ambassadors are spreading the word about your local association, make sure they’re collecting contact information so you can keep in touch with them in the future. Have your ambassadors ask for permission to add the prospective member to your email list.

• Direct mail – Printing and mailing information that promotes your association is a more costly project both in terms of time and money, but every marketing method you try may reach different people who have different communication preferences. One TAA independent owner offers this observation: “When actual scenarios are in print asking me did I know..., or do I do... then my eyes open up.”

• Website – Most of TAA’s local associations already have websites. If you’re going to concentrate on recruiting independent owners for your local association, make sure you have information on your website that would convince prospective members how valuable membership is in your association. Talk about the benefits of membership, particularly for independent owners, and include a membership application. Consider linking to TAA’s Lease Contract Overview Video and some articles from TAA’s and NAA’s magazines written specifically for independent owners so the prospective member can see what kind of resources they’ll have access to as TAA members.

Where to find lists of independent owners Knowing your audience and having a list of people to reach out to is at the heart of marketing. Here are some ideas on how to build a list of prospective members.

• One of TAA’s local association executives has gone door to door at small communities, fourplexes and duplexes to inquire how to contact the owner. She then calls and sets up a meeting with the owner and takes a folder of information that includes membership benefits, a sample of TAA’s lease contract to show the owner what it covers, information on TAA’s small owner lease forms package and a list of all the TAA lease forms and other resources.

• Consider reaching out to your local housing authority. When issues come up, ask them to send owners to your office for help. You can use the opportunity to encourage membership to your association when they do not have a TAA lease contract. Don’t give legal advice but be well informed on TAA’s Lease Contract so that you can steer them in the right direction. Your local housing authority may even give you a copy of their mailing list to send seminar invitations to prospective members.

• Contact the appraisal districts in the counties served by your local association. Identify yourself and tell them that you’re looking for a list of rental property owners so that you can reach out to them. The appraisal district employee should be able to help you understand the options available with their system so that you end up with a list of independent owners. Look for people who own multiple single-family homes and people who own multifamily properties of whatever size is appropriate for your local market. You may have to pay a fee to the appraisal district to provide this information. Make sure you are aware of what the fee will be before you get too far with the appraisal district.

Example education and activities to plan for independent owners Once you have a substantial number of members who are independent owners, consider having educational and networking meetings focused on independent owners. Below are some topic ideas for educational meetings from some of TAA’s local associations. Briefings on new laws TAA legislative update Developing property policies Predictions on market conditions Current local issues New city ordinances Justice of the Peace speaking on evictions Panel of Justices of the Peace speaking on issues coming through their courts Property tax appraisals Mortgage banking Microsoft Excel for independent owners Managing lease expirations Mitigate your crime exposure Cost cutting through preventive maintenance Local housing authority speaking about the Section 8 program Panel of owners on various topics City code enforcement Advertising rental property Skip tracing Insurance Financing Rehab a rental property Foreclosure listings 1031 Realty Exchange Other important points to consider in developing independent owner membership Remember that independent owners usually don’t have the same level of resources that nationwide management companies have. Their hands-on management style means they’re often figuring things out by themselves. Independent owners appreciate anyone who can help them save money and be more efficient. Position your association as that resource and deliver on that promise, and you should be well on your way to an increased independent owner membership.