Multifamily Budgeting Tips During a Pandemic

 
 
 
It’s that time of year again, budget season. In a normal year, budgeting comes with it’s own set of challenges, in a year with a global pandemic, it can seem nearly impossible. 
 
I had the opportunity to sit down with 3 multifamily friends to chat how they were weathering the budget season in the middle of a pandemic.  Marcella Eppsteiner, Vice President of Marketing for Mission Rock Residential, Kim Boland, Director of Digital Marketing for Morgan Properties, and Savannah Wheeler, Vice President of Finance, Treasury and IT for Mission Rock Residential discussed next years budgeting strategy and how to adjust to an unpredictable world moving forward. 
 
Embracing Nimbleness and Agility 
Pivoting in the time of COVID requires nimble responses and openness to change. ”During a week in March where everything stopped, we realized 2020 was going to be an outlier,” Marcella says. 
 
Mission Rock Residential, which typically does extensive performance evaluations for each of their communities when planning budgets, won’t just be comparing year over year, but several years to get a better idea of how far off they are from the norm due to the pandemic. Marcella shares that this year’s data alongside the five previous years should be a key factor for budgeting, along with prioritizing requests.
 
“Traditionally, we would share feedback and input for the strategy. This year, the real difference is seeing the granular data points that are strategy-determining factors for each department,” Marcella  says.
 
This year’s global economic upheaval ……