Jay Guinto Career Background
What is your biggest career achievement?
- An achievement I'm extremely proud of is transitioning a stabilized community to 100% paperless payments. Prior to starting at Sanctuary at Eagle Creek, a 550-unit community in the Lake Nona suburb of Orlando, the community would on average collect 40-50 paper checks or money orders per month. The initiative to move all of our payments online was no easy feat, considering a large portion of our residents fall in the 55+ age demographic.
From March 2022 to May 2022, I helped launch the initiative to collect all rent payments electronically. This included facilitating training sessions with the leasing team, creating infographics for residents, and guiding residents needing additional assistance with the online transition.
By June 2022, we increased our online payment collections from an average of 55% to 90%. In Q3 and Q4 of 2022, our online payment collection has ranged anywhere from 90% to 99%.
This initiative has been paramount in reducing our community's carbon footprint. Not only did we eliminate paper payments, but we were also able to reduce lengthy trips to the bank. Additionally, educating our residents on using the online payment center has proved to be a huge convenience, by saving them trips to the leasing office.
Given your past experiences, what event/ project or moment would you revisit and how would you go about it differently based on your current frame of mind?
- I was only a little over one year into my role as a Leasing Consultant when the world was inundated with the turmoil caused by COVID-19. Standard policies and procedures suddenly became obsolete, and we were forced to rapidly adapt to the ever-changing effects of the pandemic. Being a creature of habit, the unpredictability of what each day would bring caused me to spiral. At this point in time, the Community Manager was late in her pregnancy, the Assistant Manager was experiencing major burnout, the Maintenance Supervisor was on medical leave, and my co-leasing agent had started only weeks prior, leaving a massive weight on my shoulders to keep property operations afloat.
Looking back, I wish I could have set more boundaries for myself. I'm all about being a team player, and I take pride in being dependable, but I piled way too much on my plate and became extremely overwhelmed. In April of 2020, I was hospitalized after having a severe anxiety attack. This seriously put things into perspective for me, and I quickly started to appreciate the value of work-life balance. I learned a huge lesson about spreading myself too thin, and now I prioritize both my mental and physical health. When I'm at 100%, I'm much more capable of supporting those around me.
From your perspective, what is the industry lacking to support the modern renter and how do you plan to help supply that need?
- While the industry started to adapt their procedures during the course of the pandemic, I realized that we were quickly depending on our ability to lease apartment homes sight unseen. As wonderful as on-site viewings are, and being able to build a rapport with prospective residents, applications started pouring in from people I have never even spoken to on the phone.
We live in a world now where we rely on convenience and immediacy. A good majority of people would prefer to sit at home in their pajamas viewing a virtual tour of a community and leasing online, as opposed to doing an in-person showing. Unfortunately, not all communities are equipped with the online tools, marketing materials, and digital presence to support the modern renter. How many community websites have we seen that are flooded with stock images, but have no actual depiction of how the property looks?
My plan to supply this need is to prioritize digital and social media marketing to accommodate those renters who want to jump online, find an apartment they like, pay their deposit electronically, and have enough information available to them to feel confident in their leasing decision. This includes interactive site maps, 3D virtual tours, accurate photo galleries, live pricing, and the ability to schedule virtual consultations with a leasing agent.
My goal is not to completely eliminate the need for face-to-face interactions. We are still in a business that heavily relies on our soft skills, especially when we will be interacting with these residents for months, if not years on end. However, having a strong online presence through social media campaigns, and offering virtual tools to streamline the online leasing process will be cardinal in accommodating the modern renter.