{"id":8663,"date":"2013-12-16T05:00:32","date_gmt":"2013-12-16T13:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/?p=8663"},"modified":"2021-02-03T15:55:06","modified_gmt":"2021-02-03T23:55:06","slug":"michael-johnson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/michael-johnson\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Johnson"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MichaelJohnson\"Michael Johnson is a veteran of the affordable housing industry. In 33 years at ALCO Management<\/a>, he\u2019s held \u201cjust about every job from Accounting Manager to CFO to COO to CAO,\u201d he told me at Yardi<\/a>\u2019s Fall Advanced Solutions Conference<\/a> in Anaheim, Calif.<\/p>\n

But Michael loves his work, and in his current position as Chief Administrative Officer, he has the opportunity to help chart ALCO\u2019s path to long term growth through strategic planning. Not that that\u2019s easy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a huge challenge,\u201d he admitted \u201cSome days I can\u2019t figure out where we should be tomorrow, much less think about five years from now and how technology is going to change.\u201d<\/p>\n

But with a positive attitude and the willingness to seek the right tools to help his staff succeed, Johnson has thus far been gifted an anticipating the future. ALCO\u2019s culture empowers property managers, site personnel and support staff to serve others and \u00a0celebrate teamwork.\u00a0 The company places a property management team on every site \u2013 not always the practice in the affordable arena \u2013 to make sure residents get the best possible service.<\/p>\n

Michael provided further insight on trends in technology and his role at ALCO:<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the current focus for ALCO Management?<\/b><\/p>\n

We\u2019re focused on growing our company slowly. We\u2019re continuing to grow in the tax credit arena. We manage both conventional and affordable properties; however, the majority of our properties are affordable properties.. Right now, the way to grow in affordable housing is mainly with tax credits. We\u2019re also doing more management of public housing units. We\u2019re finding public housing authorities are starting to contract that out more, or there are mixed use deals where some of the units are public housing units. We\u2019re finding a growing trend in doing more public housing unit management.<\/p>\n

Are there any specific challenges associated with that type of growth?<\/b><\/p>\n

One of the challenges we have been dealing with is getting Yardi\u2019s public housing program integrated with everything else. These properties are typically layered properties. Today, what we\u2019re seeing is not just a tax credit property or not just a Section 8 property but they\u2019re layered with all these different programs. What we need is the ability to produce a 50059, or a 50098 \u00a0or \u00a0a TIC or whatever compliance item we need, all from one place.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve been at ALCO for 33 years. What do you like best about your work?<\/b><\/p>\n

Think I\u2019ve done every job at the company, but the job I enjoy the most is the one I\u2019m doing now. I started out in the accounting side as an accounting manager and worked up to CFO. Then I became COO. Being on the executive team is a lot of responsibility, but it is very gratifying to be able to make strategic decisions that help lead the company.<\/p>\n

What is your current focus?<\/b><\/p>\n

A lot of my focus is on strategic planning. Even though I\u2019m busy thinking about what\u2019s happening with regulatory items, what\u2019s going on with our current environment, my job really is to think about where will we be five years from now, and what do we need to think about, and how do we get there. It\u2019s a huge challenge. Some days I can\u2019t figure out where we should be tomorrow, much less think about five years from now and how technology is going to change.<\/p>\n

Resident relationships are important in all areas of property management. How do they work at ALCO?<\/b><\/p>\n

As a company, we interact with our residents mainly through our community manager and our regional property managers. At our sites, we have a site manager on every site. Not everyone operates this way, but we believe that to have a very good property we need to have people there. We have a full staff on every site. They are our first contact with our residents, but our regional property managers also are involved and know our residents. Our websites allows us to keep in contact with them as well as email and phone calls.. Most of the time they probably have a question or a problem. It\u2019s nice when I get the ones that tell me what a good job someone did on site, and I get those too. That\u2019s the most rewarding email to get.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve been to many Yardi Advanced Solutions Conferences. What is notable about them?<\/b><\/p>\n

I am so impressed with all the Yardi staff and how they know their customers, know what kind of products we have. People that work on my account may not really know me, but they come find me and speak to me, tell me what part they\u2019ve been working on. Not a conference goes by that Anant (Yardi) hasn\u2019t found me and asked: \u2018Michael, how are things going? What\u2019s new with you?\u2019 And he really cares about the answers. As big as a company as this is, and as many customers as you have, he knows who I am, and I really appreciate that.<\/p>\n

Have the Yardi products you used changed much over time?<\/b><\/p>\n

Yes, they\u2019ve improved. The ability to make sure we are meeting all the regulatory requirements has improved. We\u2019ve built in checkpoints in the system that show us when something might be a violation of a regulatory requirement. That\u2019s a huge help. That helps my people catch it sooner on site. That helps my compliance department depend on the system more, instead of having to check every little detail. The regulatory side of it is so much better over the years.<\/p>\n

Working through software improvements isn\u2019t always easy. What\u2019s your perspective on it?<\/b><\/p>\n

The Yardi people we work with, \u00a0want us to find good solutions, whether its Yardi or other providers that we work with. We\u2019re working with good people and they want the best for us. They want us as their customer to succeed. Together, we can work through problems, look for solutions. \u00a0We don\u2019t always agree on the way it should be done immediately, but we keep working through the issue to get to the solution, because everyone wants the same solution.<\/p>\n

What do you want people to know about ALCO?<\/b><\/p>\n

Affordable housing is a business and we are a for-profit business. But you don\u2019t stay in this business if you don\u2019t care about the people that you serve. We know that we \u00a0provide good homes for people.\u00a0 Homes are well maintained and well run, and our residentsare excited to live in a place like that.<\/p>\n

We just had a company meeting recently, and people tell stories about the crazy things that happen on site, but what we had to remind ourselves is that it is only 5-10 percent craziness. You\u2019ve got 90 percent of people who want to do right, who want a good home, and who are appreciative of what we are providing. And that gives us joy every time.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Johnson is a veteran of the affordable housing industry. In 33 years at ALCO Management, he\u2019s held \u201cjust about every job from Accounting Manager to CFO to COO to CAO,\u201d he told me at Yardi\u2019s Fall Advanced Solutions Conference in Anaheim, Calif. But Michael loves his work, and in his current position as Chief […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":413,"featured_media":8685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_s2mail":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3354],"tags":[116],"class_list":["post-8663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","category-team-yardi","tag-yardi-client-profile"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nYardi Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Michael Johnson is a veteran of the affordable housing industry. 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