We are a property management company focused on managing its own apartments and several residential properties in the  Ferndale MI, and surrounding areas.  We handle locating tenants, qualifying tenants, maintenance and improving of properties, and collection of monthly payments.
Our primary mission is to provide unparalleled service to its tenants while simultaneously maintaining healthy profit margins on all levels.

Opportunity

We currently manage mostly studio and one bedroom apartments to single young professionals. The problems faced by these individuals as well as property owners looking to fill their properties include:

1. Tenants are seeking, safe, affordable real estate property. The process can be extremely stressful, difficult, and time consuming.
2. Apartment owners lose countless dollars seeking out new tenants to occupy their properties thus affecting occupancy rates
3. Owners face a variety of problems in today’s declining real estate values, unemployment of tenants, and higher turnover than historic norms.
4. Potential tenants want to know they can deal with an honest and ethical landlord/property manager, and that the real estate they are moving into is safe, well-maintained, clean and comfortable, while being affordable.

Solution & Business Model

ML Apartments' property management solutions:

1. Aggressive marketing solutions to find and acquire new tenants to ensure high occupancy levels on all properties under management.
2. Provision of real-time market analysis and advice on pricing assets properly to minimize the amount of time their properties are not producing income.
3. Provision of clean, decent, and affordable housing. We ensure the house is thoroughly clean and in working order. We check the electrical, the plumbing, furnace, and air conditioning. We spray for pests and clean out the trash out of the yard.
4. We also work on improving the energy efficiency in order to run environmental sound properties.

The full scope of ML Apartments' day to day activities includes:

• Locating new tenants
• Qualifying all tenants
• Maintenance of properties, including remodeling and mechanical system upgrades.
• Collection of monthly payments

Marketing Strategy

• Yellow Pages Advertisements
• Internet Marketing via VFlyer and other real estate websites, Craigslist, etc.
• Social Media
• List properties with the MLS and Realtor.com
• Client, tenant, and real estate agent referrals
• Website- our website clearly outlines the services we offer.

In addition to the list above, we have a presence at many real estate investor associations, networking organizations, and other real estate-based groups. We are always focused on building relationships with real estate agents as they are our top referral source.

Traction

ML Apartments has been established for over 2 ½ years and has built a reputation for being a quality, reliable, and affordable property management business. We have generated $75,000 in revenue over the past 12 months.

Market

ML Apartments targets apartment properties from 16 units + located in Plymouth MI, Ferndale MI, and surrounding areas. We work with clients ranging from those who only own one property to seasoned, out of town investors owning multiple units.

Management Team

Elisabeth Neumann, Owner- has extensive entrepreneurial experience in the real estate property management industry with experience developing and implementing business plans, financial management, marketing, and in executing important administrative functions. Real Estate Agent license holder, managed an apartment building and 2 single family homes for the last 2 years, doing most renovations herself.

Education: 13 years of school and 2 years of school similar to college (in Germany), worked as computer programmer in Germany for 17 years, experienced in bookkeeping, planning and organizing. She has an accounting and bookkeeping background and a thorough knowledge of the Plymouth real estate market.

Martin Neumann, Owner - experienced as a property manager, mechanical engineer, and was running a successful small business for computer services in Germany for over 5 years. Martin is in charge of the technical aspects of the business and does the planning and managing of the repair and improvement projects. Education: 1994 “Fachhochschule Bielefeld” (Germany) Mechanical engineering diploma. 1987 graduated from 3 year apprenticeship in tool shop as a certified toolmaker. SKILLS related to property management: Advanced knowledge about MS-Office tools. Software development (MS-Access, Visual Basic) and Database design. Fluent in German and English. Extensive project management background.

Competitive Advantage

ML Apartments holds several key competitive advantages, including:

• Extensive experience personally managing multiple properties.
• Advanced and aggressive marketing strategy to find qualified tenants (going beyond traditional marketing channels by using web-based and social media marketing methods)
• Several years of experience in the Plymouth, Ferndale, and surrounding area real estate market
• Value-added services above and beyond property management services
• Owner/Managers -Martin and Lisa Neumann have proven their capabilities over the course of the last year by using their engineering experience to remodel 9 of the 16 apartments and bring the vacancy down from 33% (August 2008) to 6% (February 2010).