Tech Whiz
Fortinberry builds AIMCO’s resident pay system.
When it comes to apartment operations, we’re in an era of automation and making things more user-friendly. Apartment firms that can offer flexibility in payment options gain a huge competitive advantage. First, however, they have to hammer out agreements with vendors, and then they have to get the system up and keep the property staff in the loop. It’s a challenge.
If you don’t believe that, just ask Mike Fortinberry, 37, vice president of resident services for AIMCO, a REIT based in Denver. Fortinberry and his team have the monumental task of bringing all of AIMCO’s 140,000 conventional units online. “Rent payment will no longer be transacted on site,” he says. “It allows payments across many platforms, such as online, over the phone, and [by] PayPal.”
Not only does the system give residents more ways to pay, but it frees AIMCO site-level personnel to spend more time interacting with residents. The key is to keep the staff in the loop. AIMCO’s system will do that. “It gives the staff all the information that would be available to them as if they got the payment on site,” Fortinberry says. “The problem in the industry is the lack of information that goes to the community manager about who has paid, who didn’t, and how much they paid. By solving those pieces of the puzzle, we kept the information where it needed to be.”
The system is scheduled to be finished up by the end of the year. So far, the project is ahead of schedule and budget, according to Thorn Landers, vice president of sales and marketing for AIMCO and Fortinberry’s supervisor. The two go way back: They’ve known each other for six years and were partners in a business that provided telecom to single-family builders.
When Landers needed someone with telecom expertise at AIMCO, he immediately turned to his old partner. “He has drive, focus, and determination,” Landers says. “He is incredibly determined. I don’t know of many people that can deliver what they’ll say they can deliver as well as Mike does.” So for him, it’s no surprise that Fortinberry is guiding AIMCO through upgrading its payment process.
Fortinberry’s fortitude was put to the test as he approached banks and other companies for the AIMCO plan. Part of his determination may come from his military background. He served nine years in the Army before leaving to major in chemistry and political science at Florida State.
“His background gives him a good idea of what it takes to work on a team,” says Ryan Gilbert, the CEO of Property-Bridge, an Oakland, Calif.-based company that has worked with Fortinberry on the AIMCO project. “He’s gutsy, but he realizes that to scale the peak, you need a good bunch of people with you.”
