Riverside

Michael Burger

Riverview Apartments Case

Self-evaluation #1

At first glance of the case, there seemed to be a vast number of problems with the Riverview apartments. But after dissecting the case in class, I learned that all of the problems stemmed from two major issues: the inadequate management of the apartments and how the loss of control by management, at multiple levels, caused the majority of the problems; and the limited space for parking is a major flaw, and as a result, a deterrent for prospective tenants.

My initial analysis of the case led me to believe that the main issue with why the Riverside apartments operated so poorly was because of the inexperienced college students hired as apartment managers. This was actually a result of Riverside’s policy to hire a married graduate student couple to manage the apartment complex.

I thought that the inexperience of the apartment managers resulted in a high turnover rate for managers at Riverview. My reasons for this initial assessment was due to the poor conditions listed of the apartments and the sense I got that the managers did not care about their job. A few of the managers were either gone every weekend or simply away from their place of work. An apartment manager should be readily available to attend to any tenant’s issue in a reasonable amount of time.

Aside from not being there, the managers were left with advertising, collection, and sales duties among other duties. These tasks are challenging enough for an inexperienced business major and a recipe for disaster for any other major. The rent was not collected on time, vacancy rates continued to decline, even while student enrollment increased almost 120% between 1975 and 1985, and Riverside Apartments offered a “utilities-included” rate which was comparatively lower than its competitor’s rates.

However, further class analysis helped me understand that although the problems I identified are relevant to this case, they are not the two main issues...