At JWB, we’re always trying to build a company that people love to work for, and that residents love to work with. A little bit over two years ago, we made a change to our property management team’s policy that built on both of those, empowering our PMs and driving more unexpected delight for our residents.
The premise was simple: we wanted to find a way to give property managers more discretion over the little things they can do for residents. The result was a dedicated budget for each PM that they can spend however they want, as long as it’s to provide an extra boost to residents.
JWB has always taken the approach that real estate and property management are inherently personal businesses. That’s why one of our core values is “People first.” We go above and beyond to connect with our residents, build a rapport, and develop a relationship that goes beyond just transactional steps.
One way that we do that is with our welcome survey. When a new resident moves in, we send them a simple survey that goes beyond just logistical information, and asks questions like:
We frame this as a get-to-know-you, telling our residents that, because we often sign three-year leases, we want to get to know them more closely. We know life happens, and we want to be there with them through the ups and downs. Think about your own life and all the things that have changed or happened in those last three years.
We then store their answers in our property management system so that anyone on the team can easily access them. That means that when a resident calls into the office or sends us an email, we have a whole list of conversation starters to make things more personal.
The next logical step, though, was finding a way to use those facts to create meaningful moments down the line. How could we truly go above and beyond, more than just having something to talk about when we pick up the phone? That’s where our gifting budget came in.
We’ve always tried to bring an extra bit of joy to our residents, in part because it helps drive renewals. One way we approach this is by incentivizing renewals with upgrades to the property, which give the resident a nice boost to their living situation, but also create wins for the investors. We even had a dedicated budget item for incentives like this.
When we were looking for more ways to give a little bit extra to our residents, we held a resident experience workshop. One of the biggest learnings we had coming out of that was that our property managers wanted the opportunity to do things outside of the renewal period. There were points throughout the lease where they wanted to give their residents a surprise. It could be a hard time or a happy time—it didn’t really matter.
The question for us as business leaders was, “How can we do this in a way that empowers the property manager to make decisions, but also keeps the cost to the business reasonable?” Ultimately, we chose to carve out a piece of our larger incentives budget and give PMs the discretion to use it however they wanted, on whichever residents they wanted. We called it the “love budget” (the name was also chosen by the property management team) and put it into practice about two years ago.
Our property managers can break up the budget across multiple residents, or they can decide to spend it all on one thing. It can be a gift card, a rent credit, concert tickets, flowers, a donation… it really doesn’t matter how it’s spent. But PMs do have to spend it. We track each individual’s budget, and if they aren’t using it, we follow up with them and make sure they plan to use it before the end of the month.
One of the other considerations we had when we developed the program was how it would stand out in the market. We wanted to differentiate from any other company in town. The way I see it, there are plenty of great PMs who do wonderful things, but we want to do things that we can look at and confidently say “no other property manager in our market is going to do this”.
Not only did this help us stand out on its own, it also gave us some great material that we could use from a marketing and PR perspective. There were some fantastic examples of really impactful things we did for our residents, and we’re able to track those and promote them later.
Ultimately, we want to show that we support people through more than just housing. These residents are not just numbers to us.
Before we implemented the love budget, our property managers did still have a way to give gifts and surprises to their residents, but the process was clunky. Basically, they could bring up ideas that they wanted to execute on, and then their supervisor would have to decide whether or not to approve it. The big shift was putting power in the PM’s hands.
Our belief was that our boots-on-the-ground property managers should be able to do this quickly, on the fly, while they’re on a phone call with someone. Jumping through approval hoops just delays and waters down the impact. They’re closest to the decision being made so they should be making the decision themselves.
It’s also really gratifying for the property manager to know that they have decision-making rights. They feel empowered, and they get to go home at the end of the day and say, “Yes, my job can be really hard, but today I got to do something kind and meaningful that someone’s going to remember.”
There’s science behind giving that suggests iIt can be more satisfying to be on the giving side than the receiving side. We want our property managers to feel that satisfaction. It gives our team a lot of pride in what they do, which makes them want to work better and give an even better experience to our residents.
One of the coolest things about this program is that we’ve seen so many different creative things our property managers have done. Giving them the freedom to do what they feel is going to be most impactful for the residents that they’ve developed relationships with is so much fun to see.
Here are a few unique examples of how our property managers have used their love budget:
The reason that I love our program so much isn’t because we’ve invested a ton of money into it. It’s just that it reaches our residents in meaningful, personal ways. Regardless of the scale or financial position of your business, it’s the thought that counts. That might sound incredibly cliché, but it’s true.
Ask yourself, how are you taking the time to learn enough about your residents that you can add a simple touch? How are you providing a more personalized experience than they’d get from anyone else?
I honestly think that even just asking a simple question like “how’s your grandson’s soccer season going?” can go a long way, and that’s completely free. The key is to get out of the transactional mindset and get personal. At the end of the day, this business isn’t about doors or leases — it’s about people. And when your team feels empowered to lead with empathy, you create something that spreadsheets can’t measure: loyalty, pride, and genuine human connection.
Looking to create a more engaging, personalized resident experience? Schedule a demo of Second Nature's Resident Experience Platform to see how.