Hosts: Ronn Ruiz and Martin Canchola 

Guest: Marcie Williams, CEO of RKW Residential

Martin: All right. Welcome to the Multifamily Podcast with Ronn and Martin. Today, we are thrilled to have Marcie Williams, CEO of RKW Residential, where she oversees all aspects of property management operations, new business development, and strategy. We were so looking forward to this episode and we hope you are too. Welcome to the Multifamily Podcast, Marcie.  

Marcie: Thank you for having me. 

Ronn: Thank you so much, Marcie. We appreciate your time and can’t wait to dive in and let the audience hear your journey. It’s an amazing one at that.  

Martin: Yeah. So I wanted to kick off this podcast with, with you sharing your story on how you entered the multifamily industry and went from a leasing consultant to a powerhouse CEO for RKW residential. How did you do that? 

Marcie: I’m happy to share, but I will tell you it was not easy. It took a long time. I started out leasing apartments and it’s not really a glamorous story but somebody suggested it to me. So after I graduated from college, I was doing something to make my parents real proud just bartending after they put me through college. And there was a regular who came to the bar that was in real estate and he said, you know you’d be really good at it. And so he gave me a list of property management companies. I applied and got a job as a leasing consultant in Charlotte, North Carolina. That’s where I am still today. And then I’ve worked with some fantastic companies throughout my career. Been in a lot of different positions, and then really in 2015 is when I joined RKW to start and grow the platform, as the president, and then today I’m the CEO. 

Martin: Man, so how many years all in from leasing consultant to CEO? 

Marcie: I know that was like 32 years in 30 seconds. So, I hope that gave you a good understanding. 

Ronn: A lot of highs, lows, and growth, right? 

Marcie: Yeah, for sure, for sure. 

Ronn: Wow. What an inspiring journey, honestly. Thank you for sharing. And again, we could probably have a whole podcast about the 30 some years and the evolution of the industry, which we’re going to get into a little bit of that. We actually obviously love keeping a pulse on the multifamily industry. It’s who we are. It’s where we were born and raised as well.  Can you share some insights into current trends you see shaping the multifamily and apartment sector, especially, considering recent market changes, obviously in sentiment. Thirty two years, you’ve seen it all probably, right.

Marcie: Right

Ronn: But I will agree this is a really unique market right now. 

Marcie: It is very unique and very challenging. I actually just had a town hall with our entire company just about six weeks ago. And I wanted to share that what’s occurring today is really a cycle. You know, there are ups and downs and a lot of people that are working at our organization today haven’t seen all, haven’t been through the financial crisis really, you know. Thinking about two years ago when the rents were, you know, going up 25 and 40 percent and then, you know, now they’re stagnant at best. You know, how do we react? The trends that I really am focusing on right now is refining and refocusing our operations platform. I mean, I could say the trends are AI and consolidation. I mean, there’s a million things that are happening in our industry. But right now, what’s important to our team members and to our clients is that we cross every T, we dot every I and we ensure we’re bringing the biggest bottom line to our clients as possible. Because there’s everything that is as, expenses are going up for anything from payroll to landscaping, taxes, interest rates. We’ve got to make sure, I think the trend right now is back to the basics and we define that as refining and refocusing our business. 

Ronn: I couldn’t say it any better. 

Martin: Yeah. So shifting to multifamily operators, like you were talking about, what are some other significant challenges that they’re facing and how are they navigating some of these challenges?  

Marcie: Yeah. Fraud right now, I mean, is a big challenge. It used to be just in the big cities, you know, but it’s really spread everywhere. And when that happens, everybody loses money. Everybody loses time and we’ve got to be able to have new processes and systems that are expensive, you know, for our clients.  To help prevent them, you know, it’s great when we can have, you know, sometimes when I come in and I see all these, you know, we got, you know, we came in and there were five leases overnight.

It’s like, no, no, no, no. That’s not good. If people are applying at two o’clock in the morning, it’s probably fraud, you know?  So we’ve got to be really thoughtful on stopping them in the past. So I think fraud is a big challenge we’re having right now. Of course, high interest rates for our clients, you know, where they were having, you know, X percent, you know, for their interest rates and now it’s basically doubled,  even though our job as a property management company is to increase NOI. I always share with our teams. Hey, our owners have a lot more expenses below NOI, and one of those is their mortgage. And so when their mortgage doubles, that means we have to work triple hard to ensure, again, we’re making sure we’re increasing income where we can, reducing expenses where we can, so we can help our owners be successful as well. 

Ronn: Yeah, no, it’s totally interesting to hear about those challenges operators are facing and on, and how they’re overcoming them. And again, we were just at AIM and I was in some executive level, meetings, dinners, all the above. Nobody is spared from this market, right?

Marcie: Right.

Ronn:  And I mean, even if you were locked into a, you know, a good interest rate, it wasn’t for long. Oftentimes, that’s the model in our industry, right? Things math out and map out well. And, yeah, we didn’t see it getting this crazy. The year 32 years, I’m 27, 28 years in. I too have seen it and been there, done that, but, pretty unique.  

Marcie: Yes.

Ronn: So obviously it’s in and around. The other thing that’s at play is obviously, as you mentioned earlier, the stagnant to rent, right. So they rent have truly been a hot topic. Like how could we raise value and raise rent still right in that moment. 

Marcie: Right. 

Ronn: But could you discuss how rent trends have impacted, have been impacted by market conditions, and then what strategies are proven effective for RQW? 

Marcie: Yeah, I mean, right now, the rent changes year to year, like you said, have been basically flat for 10 consecutive months,  at basically a little over 0.1%. And some of the markets that are really high supply. I mean, I read a lot, and I always looking at what’s happening, you know, at any given moment, and I read somewhere that supplies at a 37 year high. And so in the industry and demand is really high as well, but you know, I am not a econ major, but I do know that supply and demand, you know, rule everything.

Even though supply is high, demand is high; it’s still just really keeping those rents stagnant, like, like we said, at best. The strategies that we have been using, have really been doing, looking at anything that from an ancillary income perspective to add value for our residents is really important. We just don’t want to tack on a fee of A, B, or C at all. We want to be able to ensure that there’s value for the rent that they’re paying. And if there’s anything extra that we add, that there’s a value to that. So again, we look at those like invisible dollars. If you know, if something is $5, can it be $9? You know, just trying to look at anything from an application fee. Again, not to penalize the residents and not to just have fee for fee sake. But again, making sure we’re adding value when it comes to rent and any other fee or service that we provide.  

Ronn: That’s a great play.  

Martin: So, with AI technology playing a crucial role in today’s environment, how is RKW Residential leveraging artificial intelligence to enhance digital marketing, personalized services, and even streamlining efficiencies in your multifamily operations? 

Marcie: AI, you know, is not new, but it is being used in new ways within the organization. You know, we first started it from the prospect journey, where we would use AI through our CRM to ensure that our residents, I’m sorry, our prospects are getting contacted frequently with the information that they want. And I always say,  to quote Ricky Bobby, you know, from Talladega Knights, if you know that, you know, if you’re not first or last.  And that’s how I think about it, you know, so what are we doing? You know, we’ve also been utilizing AI when it comes to, now we are folding that more into delinquency and how we’re communicating with our residents. So it’s getting deeper Into the resident cycle where before we’ve just been using AI and automation, again just for the prospect journey. Now we put it into our resident journey. Again, trying to ensure that the service that we’re providing for our residents is, you know, giving them on demand service, you know, making sure that service is frictionless and making sure they have options, whether they’re using technology or using our people, you know, to get service. 

Ronn: I think the other thing that AI is bringing to us as an industry is to really understand our, again, prospects or residents, our customers overall, right?

Marcie: Yeah.

Ronn: To really like see the data for what it really is and extract what we need from it to be able to further improve. So I think that’s one of the best benefits moving forward in with AI.

Marcie: You know, it’s funny, like we have ToePilot, like I’m just trying to type a, you know, just a memo and like, I don’t mean AI, let me just say what I want to say. Sometimes it’s trying to take over. And I’m like, let me just do it myself, but we do use it where it makes sense, again, through the resident journey. 

Ronn: Yeah, I feel that just with my new iPhone update. I was like, wait, I’m not trying to say that. Calm down. Let’s do that.  

Marcie: Exactly. 

Ronn: I’m trying to be organic here in my text messages.

Marcie: I love it. 

Martin: There’s a lot of controversy in the LinkedIn space right now. I think LinkedIn added like an AI response to help you mix it up with AI. And, and no one’s liking, you know, if you’re going to be pushing your authority, your, you know, your knowledge out there and you’re just using AI to post comments. I mean, that’s, you know, that’s not what social media or AI is really about, you know, you still want to be that transparent person and, you know, be yourself, right.

Marcie: Authentic, 100%.

Martin: Too much generative content, it’s all just regurgitated and it’s like, you know, where’s the value. So sometimes I feel like sometimes search, you know, levels might go down if we get too much of that kind of content out there on the web. 

Marcie: Yeah, makes sense.  

Ronn: We like it making us more efficient, but we got to still sound like we’re a human.

Marcie: 100%. I concur. 

Ronn: Yeah. So shifting gears a bit. This is an exciting topic for us because, you know, as digital marketers, we’re always, you know, into new spaces and this is one in particular. But your company has recently, or I don’t know about recently, but expanded into the BTR sector, billed to rent. What prompted this move and what, this is what I really want to hear from you, what emerging market trends are you observing in this sector, especially in light of the economy? 

Marcie: Yeah. So we got into the BTR space because one of our clients was getting into the BTR space. So, we had, one of our larger clients had 99 townhomes. And they were working with the management company that and according to them wasn’t working out and needed somebody that could really zig and zag and think a little differently. So that’s how we started and believe it or not, it was back in 2018. Next, we were introduced to a home builder just by chance and that home builder wanted to get into the BTR space. So we started working with them. Again, I think it was like 90 units cottages on the coast of North Carolina that we leased up. And then, I mean, the strategy in the beginning in 2018 is very different than what it is today. I mean, the renter pool has really gravitated towards this because of what BTR can offer. It still has the rental ease, but it also has the space, it can be customized a little bit more. And the trends that we’re seeing as people are gravitating, people are renting longer. I don’t think that’s a secret, but people still have the same cycles, you know, they graduate from college and then they’re in a typical apartment. And then as they get older, they want, they couple up, they get a dog, you know, double income with a dog and then doubling time with dog and no kids. And then you have a kid, you need more space. I mean, all of that still transpires. And because that BTR space is in the suburbs, that’s attractive, again, more space and as long as it’s an easy commute with remote work, it’s really important. But what we’re seeing in the BTR space specifically that has been attractive is the customization. I think that’s really what it is. I mean, you want a screen door, great. We can add a screen door. You want to have a fenced in backyard. You want a doggie door. You want to have, you know, a rain camera. You want festival lights. All those things are so customizable in this space where in a traditional multifamily, you can’t do that.  

Ronn: Yeah, that’s amazing. Are you seeing, I think you mentioned earlier, but are you seeing that they’re staying longer also because they have more space and it’s like their own private home, if you will?

Marcie: Yeah, you know, I don’t have any data, you know, to support that because sometimes people move and I don’t know, you know, why, you know, we have data to say what they are doing, but I do think the natural step is they will buy a home. Now what’s happening today, as you know, because interest rates are so high, it’s keeping our residents longer. So, you know, it’s like the interest rates are good, you know, good for us as, you know, operators, maybe and owners in one respect because the residents aren’t moving because they can’t go buy a house. But at the same time, the interest rates on the communities themselves are higher. So it’s really a catch point. 

Ronn: Yeah, I think that that’s probably helping, right, to maintain at least retention. And what you mentioned about the refine and refocus is let’s keep them, right? Hopefully they’re not, I mean…

Marcie: Right.

Ronn: Hopefully they can buy a house someday. But if they’re not today, let’s make sure they don’t leave us and go to another community.

Marcie: That’s right. 

Ronn: Yeah. And just love on love on the one you’re with.  

Marcie: There you go.  One other thing, one other thing I’ll add is, you know, I still think it’s important that you have to create a sense of community within the BTR space. I mean, it’s really not build it. And, you know, good luck, you know, we’ve got to make sure that they know their neighbors and creating opportunities and even just pocket, you know, place for them to walk their dog or, you know, some of our larger communities do have like a clubhouse with a pool and, you know, things like that, but it’s just, we bring in food trucks and things like that, because that’s also how we get them to stay. 

Ronn: I feel like if a bill to rent, like a new resident comes to a build a rent and it’s like a lot of times it’s a brand new house, right?  

Marcie: Yes. 

Martin: So I mean, who would not like, I would imagine the year, how long they would stay there would be way longer than like a normal apartment because, you know, unless they’re ready to finally buy a house. But again, I think a lot of our demographic, they’re going to be okay with renting and maybe investing in stocks and other assets, you know, and be just fine with it. 

Marcie: I agree with you 100%. 

Ronn: My family did that. They built from the ground up, just an infill project, a brand new single family home in 2015. And I did the rental for them as I do most of their rentals. And I remember telling the resident, I’m like, who does this? Like who buys, builds a house and then hands it off to a renter and you get the benefit of having a brand new home. Like literally everything was brand new, custom pick. So, I heard BTR coming to our industry hereafter. I was like this is it, it’s amazing. If I was a retro, I’d love that. Right?

Marcie: Absolutely. 

Ronn: And a size of a home or town home or whatever. 

Marcie: Yeah. 

Martin: Someone’s got to…

Ronn: Bring on more. 

Martin: So as RKW residential celebrates its 10th anniversary, could you share some key achievements and milestones that have shaped the company’s journey so far? 

Marcie: I cannot believe it’s been 10 years and June 27th to be exact will be 10 years. And we have a lot of celebrating to do. We are have a fun day planned for our team members to help celebrate and there’s been So many great people and so many great clients and team members for sure. You know when I look back, I think about when our first lease up that we did was in 2015. When we are our central truths, really, you know, how we think about how we treat each other and treat our residents and clients, we established those in 2016.  When we started getting recognized, getting a little bigger, we hit 10, 000 units, it was a very big moment. When our parent company today, hello, Alfred acquired RKW was just a humongous wonderful pivotal moment within the history of RKW, really just marrying tech and our strong operational platform has been fantastic over the past couple of years.  You know, when we hit the top 50 list through NMHC is one of the largest management companies, was a big accomplishment now, just one place. I don’t know if it’s funny to me. We’re number 50. Okay. So it’s not like we, it’s not like we have climbed up the ranks, but listen, what I love about that is it gives us, that means we have enough units that for all the efficiencies that we provide, you know, all of the programming that we can have for our team members, makes me really happy. But really, what I’m most proud of is Jay Turner ranks those top, those people on the top 50 list and we were as it relates to online reputation and our RKW ranked number two within that top 50 list. So I love that stat and I love that designation as number two of having the best online reputation, but I’m happy to being number 50. I mean, I don’t think I’d ever say never, normally say that, but I’m happy to be on the list with the other prestigious management companies on. 

Martin: So at AIM conference we were at, one of the sessions, they were showing old school, like advertising back in the day and using humor to sell. One of the parts, you know, they were, I think it was like between Hertz and another car company rentals. And they were promoting themselves on a billboard, like saying we are number two. 

Marcie: Oh Hertz.

Martin: Yeah, yeah. So we’re going to be hungrier. Yeah. Number two. And so we’re hungrier, you know, then you’re number one. Cause the number one position, they get kind of complacent, you know, to where they’re at. So, and you’ll be number 50. It just shows, you know, RKW is hungry and we’re coming for you. 

Marcie: There you go. I love it. I love it.

Ronn: Hey, at least you’re on the list. I’m going to say, right. Yeah.  I mean, and there’s hundreds, as we know, and more coming out of the woodwork, it seems like management companies. So, you are on your way, my friend and 10 years, we celebrated our 10 year last year, so congratulations. I had that milestone as well. It’s just a cool double digit number, you know, you look back at all the pain points and the highs and the lows. Yeah, there’s Martin showing his hat on the screen. I know the audience can’t hear it. I often say we should be doing this on video because we all look good today. But yeah, 10 years, that’s a crazy milestone. You know, again, the highs and the lows. We always like to just talk about the highs, you really, you know, get nostalgic. You think like, wow, look what we’ve done. And so be grateful for that number 50 position because you’re going to be growing in the rankings from there on. So any of the other management companies out there listening, watch out. 

Marcie: Well, listen, from your mouth to the apartment god’s ears, right? 

Ronn: There you go, that’s it, yeah. We all have those aspirations. So, speaking of which, to be nostalgic, reflecting on the past, here’s a good one for a CEO and somebody who has been there, done that, and gone through the ranks. What are some of the important lessons that RK Residential has learned over the years. Again, 10 years is a long time to reflect. But more importantly, how have these lessons influenced who your companies is today, your growth operations, all the above.  

Marcie: I will tell you when the company first started, really understood. Here’s what matters, people. That’s it. When you have, when we came up with our branding and, you know, who, you know, who we want to be, we were just this like thing of Play Doh and just, you know, trying to mold ourselves. I kept saying, if we can just have the best people, we will have the best property. And if we can have the best properties, we will have the best people. And that’s really where our tagline, expert people, exceptional places came from. And then when Alfred acquired RKW and everything that they bring to our platform, we expanded to extraordinary experiences. But people are always first. A people first philosophy, expert people before expert places. When we look back at our essential truths, you know, our first number one truth in RKW is we excel by putting people first. So those foundational decisions on how we started the company and how we grew the company, that’s what we think of always. Every decision we make, every platform we want to bring on, every vendor relationship, we always think about people. But, you know, growing is important for a business too, you know, but it’s always the thing that we’ve learned is smart growth, is more important than just growth. We’ve had a lot of clients might say, hey, we’d love for you to manage for us in Denver. And I’m like, I’d love to be in Denver. I’m going to get to Denver one day, but I’m not there. Not going to be able to take care of the residents and take care of your needs in Denver, you know, or somebody might say, hey, why don’t you manage this asset class for us? And like, we’re just not experts at that. I want to be successful where I know we can be successful. And I’m based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The company was founded in Miami, Florida, and we’ve grown everywhere in between. A few, you know, outliers here or there, but it’s always been with clients that we can nurture, take care of and be successful, for those clients with our residents and our team. 

Ronn: Yeah, that’s so huge. I think that is. I mean, only somebody at your seat could say that confidently, right? Everybody else would be like, let’s go do it. And you’re like, I got it. I got to watch us, right. I feel like we’ve been, I’ve had the gap, what is it? The foot on the gas pedal, but also the break at the same time in many regards, because you don’t want to break. You want to be subject matter experts. You want to know, you know, your market and your clients and make them proud and, and sustain the business. And you don’t get to 10 plus years and it makes these top 50 and 10, 000 plus units for nothing, right? 

Marcie: Right.

Ronn: You got there organically and that’s the important part. And I love that about the people. I got goose bumps when you said that because it’s so cliché, but there, if you have, if you’re intentional about it, there’s so much greatness that could come from it, including just seeing other people’s careers take off and maybe become the next Marcie. You know, your representation of a female CEO is amazing in our industry. And hopefully there’s people that you mentor. I’m sure there are. Through the years, let’s say you two can do this, you know? 

Marcie: Well, thank you for that. Yes, and there’s lots of people that can do what I do for sure. 

Ronn: That’s inspiring. Thank you for sharing that. 

Martin: So looking ahead, what are RKW’s residential future aspirations and goals for continued success in the multifamily industry?

Marcie: Listen, I want to be, I want to do a lot of things and I want to be a lot of things, but what gets me most excited is growing our people. We’re continuing to provide opportunities for our people. You know, when somebody gets married in our company or has a baby in our company, that makes me feel really happy because like we gave them a job and they excelled and we paid them and they got to do what they want to do, you know? So I want to continue to bring the best and brightest people in our industry, you know, help grow those people, so our company can grow. Again, we do want to expand our footprint. You know, we want to be a national organization. Right now, we’re in eight states, which I’m really proud of, but we do want to continue to grow. But again, as I mentioned, we want smart growth. I want to be, you know, a leader in the organization as, you know, the best operator, not the biggest, but the best with having the, you know, best ideas, the best strategy and like I said, last and certainly not least, really first is having them. 

Ronn: Yeah. That’s amazing. 

Martin: Well, thank you so much for joining us on the multifamily podcast today, Marcie. It was such a fun and insightful conversation and you know, I just, I can’t believe that we’re talking to you really. I mean, it was really an honor to, you know, kind of, you know, meet you and get to know you a little better and I hope we get to collaborate more, you know, in the very near future.

Marcie: I would love that. Thank you so much for having me. I truly appreciate it. 

Martin: Ronn, any final thoughts?

Ronn: I mean, I just, I can’t believe we’re done.

Marcie: It was so fast. It was so, it was fast.  

Ronn: We definitely could talk more offline. But yeah, super excited about sharing your story with our audience. Obviously, we have people from across the country that we’ve done. I love that you guys are representing the Southeast and continue to do greatness in what you do. 

Marcie: Same to you. Thank you so much. 

Martin: All right. Well, that’s the wrap folks. Make sure to check out RKWResidential.com to keep up on their journey. And don’t forget to subscribe to The Multifamily Podcast at MultifamilyPodcast.com and get your Free Marketing Analysis from ApartmentSEO.com today and learn more about all of our offerings and how we can help your communities thrive online. Until next time, Bye everyone. Bye y’all.

Ronn: Cheers.