Return on Impact.
impact |
BUSINESS ENGLISH
impact
noun [ C, usually singular, or U ]
ˈɪmpækt
a powerful effect that something, especially something new, has on someone or something
impact verb [ I or T ] ɪmˈpækt
to have an influence on something
The meaning of Return on Impact to us is serving beyond our four walls.
There is a space beyond the comfort of our homes. That space deserves the love and attention that it needs. We want to go and serve others who cannot help themselves. That's really huge for Michael and me because this earth is a miracle, and it is so beautiful. There are billions of people on this planet and if only a small fraction of us strived to make a small impact every day, that would send out a powerful ripple effect that could change the world.
One of the ways that we do that, is by focusing on a different ROI. A lot of times people, a lot of real estate investors, or just investors in general focus on return on investment, right? ROI. However, we focus on a different ROI. That is Return On Impact. This is something that's immeasurable. So every time that we're analyzing a property, every time that we're developing a business plan, we take a step back, and we look at our business plan. And we say, how is this business plan, specifically, impacting the residents in the community that we're purchasing. If it's not, then we figure out a way to make an impact. We are buying apartment communities, people live there, right? These communities are where people live and so we want to make the largest impact that we can through real estate investing.
If we can make our community where people can focus on thriving instead of surviving, the ripple effect of that positive effect is huge. When you can focus on yourself more, you can focus on your family and/or your children more, then you can probably perform better in your job and just be a better overall citizen within itself. We really just wanted to make sure that we create a safe, basic need for people. We want to make sure that we have that covered in every way possible.
An example of that is that when we were looking over one of our assets, the biggest thing for us that jumped out was adding washers and dryers into the units. This would allow people to spend time in their home, instead of spending hours on a Saturday or Sunday going to a laundromat. That's just one less thing that they have to think about. It's now one task that they can just have happening in the background. So then they can focus on the things that really do matter inside their home. We're just trying to find different ways to make sure that the residents are truly comfortable.
By focusing on this different ROI whether it's adding amenities or adding in-unit washers and dryers, you're going to increase the retention of the residents on the property. That is the most critical thing as an asset manager. If you have resident retention, then you also have increased referrals coming in from your residents, which is huge. So, when you take a step back, and you move away from return on investment and you focus on return on impact, that is when you can achieve the highest resident retention.
To elaborate on how we serve beyond our four walls is that we truly love mentoring others. I have been a coach earlier in life and Michael is a professor. Through mentoring others, whether that was in business school for me, or when I was a coach, the most amazing moments were when I watched that light bulb turn on in somebody's eyes. It is a truly amazing effect because, in itself, they gain more confidence.
What we found in real estate was that it's a really great community where people are there to help one another, and what we see a lot in real estate, is that there are a lot of people that are more like a barrel of monkeys, instead of a bucket full of crabs.
If you've ever played the game, one monkey has its arm up, and the other monkey has its arm down, right, so you're always reaching down to help lift somebody up, and somebody will always be reaching down helping lift you up. If you've ever watched crabs trying to get out of a bucket, as they reach towards the top, you’ll notice the other crabs pulling them back down to the bottom. That is just a situation that we avoid at all costs. We want to constantly be in the mindset where we are always there to help somebody, not drag them down.
You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want. - Zig Ziglar
We love that quote because we are in the abundance mindset here at Adventurous REI. We love mentoring others, we love teaching, we love education, we love giving back through any kind of coaching, but we also love helping other people with real estate. We'd love to have you alongside us throughout this journey. If you're interested in joining us on this journey and making a lifelong impact, please feel free to reach out to us.
Until next time…
Explore more. Adventure awaits.
