HOMESTEAD HAPPENINGS
University Village – Voted Best Place to Live!
It's been a huge week for Homestead Companies! With the announcement of Homestead Living and the well-deserved promotions, we've got more good news to share!
University Village has been voted the best place to live at The Ohio State University by the Lantern Student Newspaper. This is the second year in a row that UV has taken home the coveted award.
A huge shout out to the team at UV for providing the best resident life experience possible and going above and beyond.
Champ Chain Winner: Rylan Romesburg
Please join us in congratulating the September Champ Chain Winner, the team member who went above and beyond to deliver on our mission statement of providing the best resident life experience possible during TURN, our most challenging time of year: Rylan Romesburg, our Marketing Manager at The View in State College, PA!
"Rylan was so instrumental in ensuring that we had a successful turn and move-in this year. I didn't expect to be pregnant during turn and unable to walk all of our staircases, but Rylan stepped in and took charge of the inspections. He made sure that our records were 100%, he pushed our teams to get ahead as much as possible, inspected vectors' work, lead cleaning crews, and even directed our furniture delivery and installation this year. Rylan has proved that he's so much more than just our marketing manager; he's a great, take-charge kind of leader and it makes me excited to see how he will continue to grow with Homestead U!" - Dana Culbert, Community Manager
Thank you, Rylan, for stepping up and taking on additional responsibilities during turn, which is such a reflection of your character and leadership! Your willingness to do what it takes for your team and your community is so appreciated, and well-deserving of this recognition.
Employee Spotlight: Cathy Compton
Job Title: Community Manager
Community: Homestead Village Beavercreek
How long have you been with Homestead? 8 months
What were you doing before Homestead? I've been a community manager for many years.
Where are you originally from? Terre Haute, Indiana
What are your hobbies?My daughter and I love going to haunted locations together. I love listening to audio books, sci-fi and thrillers. I'm a total geek with super hero & fantasy movies.
What would you most likely tell your 13 year old self? Smile and laugh more and don't sweat the small stuff.
If you could have coffee with three people, dead or alive, who would it be? My mother and both of my grandmothers.
Who is the most famous person you have ever met? I've actually never met a famous person.
What's your dream vacation? Anywhere on a beautiful warm beach.
What is one THING you can't live without? My kids.
What is your proudest moment at Homestead? Connecting with my senior applicants and helping them thru our construction delays. I'm proud to have created a great team at Homestead Village and to be a part of Homestead Companies.
Deandra Boll, Home Office, 3 years
Del Baker, Appian Way, 4 years
Haley Morris, Pavilion, 2 years
Tracie Greene, University Village, 2 years
Ricki Outlaw, Helix, 2 years
Seamus Brennan, Home Office, 1 year
Successful Move-ins for HU
This year's lease-up was one of our most challenging to date, with so much uncertainty surrounding the pandemic, how universities would respond and whether students would return to campus or stay online.
Leasing momentum lagged early on compared to our pre-pandemic numbers, and with all markets in some sort of hybrid state our physical traffic and ability to market on-campus was non-existent. But our onsite teams never gave up and never lost focus. We stayed nimble with our strategy and pivoted often to ensure we were pacing in line or ahead of our competitors. As markets began to open back up, we were ready to execute; it was so awesome to watch properties lagging 50+ leases behind catch up and exceed their goal in a matter of weeks.
From a turn standpoint, the proactiveness in planning and executing early paid off, and this was one of the quieter move-ins to date; out of 6,831 residents, we fielded no more than 20 customer service calls at the home office. Thank you to our onsite teams for taking great care of our residents during what can be a stressful and chaotic time, and for your leadership and commitment to our mission statement of providing the best resident life experience possible!
I am so proud of the grit and resilience our teams have demonstrated this past year and a half. We are preleased at 94% as of today, with 10 out of our 13 properties at or above their 2021/2022 occupancy goal, and we will continue to push throughout this month. With the new academic year underway, I am looking forward to kicking off the 22/23 leasing season and making it our best year yet. Thanks to each one of you, let's go team HU!
The Homestead Step Challenge is coming to a close in just a few days. What started out as a challenge, quickly turned to a bit of a friendly competition. Since the beginning of the "competition", The Home Office has walked a combined 3,3031,866. Guy Purington was able to hack Google and discovered 3 million steps, If each step you take were 3 feet long then doing the math that'd be 9,000,000 feet, or 108,000,000 inches, or 274,320,000 cm, or 1704.55 miles, or 5113.66 yds.
We hope everyone continues to stay active after the challenge and it was great seeing all the creative ways on how people got to stepping.
Some additional wellness tips:
What I Wish I Knew When I First Started
"This is a dynamic industry that presents a lot of unique and first-time challenges. So, the answers are not always in a manual or readily available. Oftentimes you must rely on your best judgement. Therefore, it is important to sharpen that skill by learning as much as you can, understanding the "why" behind goals, policies, and procedures, and referring to past experiences to help give guidance for future decision making."
QILETHA CASTON
Director of Operations for Homestead Companies
Champ Chain Winner: Jeremiah Orta
Please join us in congratulating the August Champ Chain Winner, the team member who went above and beyond to deliver on our mission statement of providing the best resident life experience possible: Jeremiah Orta, our Maintenance Supervisor at 2818 in College Station, Texas!
"Jeremiah came in as the Maintenance Supervisor for 2818, a new community Homestead U took over on 4/5/21. At that time the entire community had no office or maintenance staff. Jeremiah quickly jumped in and started taking inventory of all items that were in the 2818 shop, closed out as many work orders as he could, and re-staffed the entire maintenance team. Furthermore, Jeremiah works hard each day to make sure that all community needs are met and any make-readies or emergency calls are being completed in a timely manner. Jeremiah keeps a positive attitude and works well with both the office and maintenance team. We are thankful for his hard work, and we are excited to see him continue to grow!" - Jeremy Becks, Regional Manager
Thank you, Jeremiah, for your incredible work ethic and willingness to take this challenging transition head-on! And on top of the August Champ title, we also just found out Jeremiah won the title of National Maintenance Hero through Contractor's Inc! So well-deserved, and a true testament to your leadership...we are so lucky to have you on team HU!