The Closing: A Monthly Summary with Ideas to Get Your Deals Closed

At April’s Novogradac conference, I had the good fortune to meet an absolutely amazing entrepreneur focused on improving and streamlining compliance in affordable housing. As someone who totally geeks out on entrepreneurship (see my favorite podcast in Other Interesting Items below), I was thrilled to meet Christine Wendell, CEO & Co-Founder of Pronto Housing, a software that makes resident qualification for affordable housing easy, efficient, and fast — for everyone!

After viewing a demonstration of the product, I knew I had to spread the word. This could be a game changer, reducing time spent on compliance by up to 80%. Also, I am all about shouting out bad-ass female entrepreneurs. (Pardon the language – but it seems fitting). In that spirit, this month’s featured topic comes to us from Christine herself, with ideas to make compliance a bit easier for everyone.

Five ways to make affordable housing resident qualification easier and more efficient:

1. Meet your residents where they’re at
Applying for or renewing affordable housing is stressful enough for residents without having to fit it into the confines of 9 to 5 hours. On average, each household certification requires 150 forms and documents, which can be challenging to provide during typical office hours when residents may be at their own jobs.

Make the process accessible for residents with a mobile-first 24/7 solution, offer the ability to add a helper, and address language and other accessibility challenges.

2. Hire for capabilities over experience
Given the complexity of affordable housing, there is a temptation to hire for compliance expertise. These hires can be more expensive, or altogether unavailable. Rather than hiring experience, try prioritizing hires who are detail oriented and have a sense of urgency.

With the right oversight and processes, affordable housing compliance can be taught, and when deep expertise is needed it can be captured by centralized team members, legal counsel, or consultants.

3. Boost your teams productivity with recognition
With compliance comes a mountain of files to get through just to stay on track – with more due every month. Keep your team motivated to amp up their output with financial incentives. Consider tying a bonus structure to affordable certifications to reward employees for staying compliant and filling certifications faster.

4. Consider a centralized approach
You don’t have an accountant at every property, why have a compliance specialist? With a smaller portfolio, your property manager needs to be a jack of all trades, but with a larger portfolio, compliance can be centralized for maximum efficiency. Having one in-house expert can be much more beneficial than having several people try to tack on compliance to their other duties.

5. Tap into technology
You probably don’t do your taxes by hand anymore, but the vast majority of property teams are still tackling affordable housing compliance manually. Simplifying the process with digitization saves time and money, while reducing human error.

Interested in more ideas about using technology to qualify residents for affordable housing? Visit and follow Pronto Housing’s LinkedIn, or contact Christine Wendell directly for more information. You can also ping me for an introduction. Pronto’s Software and seamless user interface for tenants and staff save property managers time, resources, and sanity

And, in case you missed it, click here to view the recording of CBRE’s webinar - Prop-Tech Spotlight: Technology Changing CRE.

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Upcoming Events

NCSHA Housing Credit Connect
Seattle, WA | June 13 - 16, 2023
So sad I will miss this one in my home town but you can connect with Taylor Froland or Jeff Arrowsmith who will represent CBRE Affordable.
Texas Housing Conference
Austin, TX | July 24 -26, 2023
I won't be attending this one, but our team members will. Ping me for an intro.
NH&RA Summer Institute
Laguna Beach, CA | Jul 31 - Aug 3, 2023
Looking forward to seeing you there! Ping me for a meeting.

Notice Board

Rates

Rates are moving as the markets feel some heart burn regarding the current game of chicken over the debt ceiling. If only I had some Tums. As a result, treasuries have been climbing in recent weeks.

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Other Interesting Items

Check Out This Podcast!

In the spirit of this email, I am COMPELLED to share my all-time favorite podcast, How I Built This with Guy Raz. Every episode is a deep dive into an incredible entrepreneurship story. I never tire of hearing how amazing individuals (like our guest writer!) take ideas, nothing more than inspiration that lives only inside of themselves, and build companies (empires) that can change our world. If you only ever listen to one of these, I recommend the episode on Chobani. What a story. Immigrants, they get the job done. (you’ll get it when you listen, and credit to Lin Manuel Miranda for the oh-so-appropriate line.)