My BingStudent Story

My name is Nikos Leonardos and I am now twenty-two years old and well into my final semester of completing my Masters in Business Administration at Binghamton University. I began to work for BingStudent on January 5th, 2016 as an intern with no specific position title and tasked only to do what I thought was necessary to optimize the operations of the firm. At that point the company's Binghamton holdings were only at around 68% occupied for the coming scholastic year. Optimizing the returns on these assets seemed even more difficult when I realized that the students’ peak renting season had already passed.

I was given almost complete freedom to employ any strategy that I trusted would increase the firm’s exposure to the target market. My only requirement was to pitch strategies in a written platform to the partners of the firm and receive approval before execution. I had built a two-prong approach that focused on client and cosigner needs as well as the overall increase in awareness for the firm and visibility to the public. Before the end of the spring 2015 semester, BingStudent was up to 99% occupancy and the firm was able to focus all of its attention on operational efficiency and new opportunities for growth.

Initially, I began working primarily on marketing strategies, tasked to help Alon Eckhaus’ management team develop a better understanding of what specifics students are prioritizing in their search for downtown housing. Soon I realized that these marketing objectives were in effort to allow BingStudent to consolidate its focuses and to sharpen its attention on a specific market share, a business strategy implemented by many successful firms.

Part of marketing for the firm included actual sales and frontal communication with prospective clients. Executing these tasks and communicating with residents allowed me to sharpen my ability to convey information to consumers and to complimentary business services, the third party contractors BingStudent would employ. This increased efficiency in communication shifted BingStudent onto the next level in its journey towards optimization.

Working in sales allowed me to better my understanding of the products and services that clients required and what would make our or competitor’s offerings even more attractive. The firm then implemented these lessons and new comprehensions of an ideal product archetype for this market in new product construction projects and existing renovation projects.

Additionally, management was under the process of developing a website to increase the visibility of the firm through the first months of my joining. The purpose of said website was to unite the services provided by each location under one entity. We expedited the completion of the site and created a logo to develop the BingStudent marque even further. The BingStudent brand was born and the concept of individual high-grade home/apartment rentals with a centralized and dedicated maintenance team for each began to be recognized.

Finishing 2016 & into 2017

As the summer of 2016 approached management asked me to turn my attention towards other cities and focus on other real estate business applications and growth for the firm. I began to regularly travel to Washington D.C. with the team on a monthly basis. Here I was able to observe a radically different real estate market than the ones existing in Binghamton or New York City.

The market in D.C. was more akin to a radically developing city, with tremendous appreciation and high opportunity to generate value for investors simply through acquisition and moderate remodeling. I spent time with employees of the firm in this vicinity and learned what processes that were necessary in order to complete a remodeling flip in the shortest amount of time.

My experience in D.C and my time spent analyzing the health and trajectory of the real estate market there has given me a more well rounded understanding of how to allocate assets of a RE investments firm amongst various product types based on input variables such as how much capital is tied up and competitive developments in the area.

As fall 2016 began, the firm’s new marketing strategy was implemented with full force from the start of the year. This was my opportunity to see the fruits of my labor and dedicated time. BingStudent’s new approach proved to be tremendously successful, achieving over 90% occupancy in only two months time. From that point forward my focus switched back to market research and analysis of student rental markets that have yet to have become saturated—areas where they underlying “value” opportunities may be hidden away.

What I Learned

First and foremost, my knowledge base and skill sets of practical real estate comprehension and investment strategies increased far greater than what I anticipated to absorb. By witnessing every stage of the value chain for the products offered, I have gained greater understanding of offerings in various real estate markets, how to operate the platforms of diverse strategies and how these strategies are affected in different real estate markets and economic conditions.

The most prominent lesson that I acquired and that will serve my future most is a newfound entrepreneurial spirit and the ability to see value in various opportunities based on judgment and knowledge of investment opportunities. I better understand what it would cost to create certain projects and products and can deliver a more astute analysis of the demand for that certain product.

Beyond just analyzing numbers I have become a more active investor and have a newfound optimism towards incurring risk for greater reward opportunity. I understand that focus and the ability to change are the keys to building any strong firm or service. The concrete results in the end of the year financials have inspired me to dive into, explore, analyze and hopefully take advantage of present and future opportunities.

I have experienced the various steps and struggles that must be encountered in order to build a successful brand with a desired product that has sustainable demand and interest. More importantly I have seen first hand the turn around of a firm to greater profitability after numerous years of reinvestment and capital expenditures to create a more structured team and a more attractive catalogue of offerings. All of these changes in the firm, solely accomplished through sheer focus and determination, have molded me into a more tenacious and opportunity seeking entrepreneur.