Sharpen
Your Pencils
By Rocky Sundling
Greystar Real Estate
The conundrum
of informational
dynamics contrasted with data
analytics and analysis. Or – Questions
Rule, Numbers Drool!
I
t's budget season once again. The
sound of pencils being sharpened,
spreadsheet macros being tuned
up and bottomless cups of coff ee and
Red Bulls being poured are heard
throughout the property management
land. Frantic questions about revenue
growth expectations, utility increases
and how much more do I have to
pay a maintenance tech in 2020 are
being emailed and IM’d among every
property manager and RPM in the
state. NOIs are being tweaked, capital
bids are being value engineered
and everyone is scrambling to
get numbers, numbers and more
numbers. And I would submit you are
all wasting your time.
Yes, good budgets require good
numbers. And bad budgets are
usually the result of bad numbers.
But budgets are less about numbers
and more about questions. The best
numbers are the result of FIRST
asking the right questions. Even the
best, most thoughtful, most analyzed
numbers will be categorically wrong if
they don’t answer the right questions.
Its similar to your contract painter