American Homes 4 Rent (NYSE:AMH) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Bryan Smith: And Josh, further regarding our expectations on turnover costs and turnover rates for 2023, we expect occupancy to be similar to 2022. We’re pushing a number of initiatives that Dave mentioned, and some operationally to see if we can improve on that turnover rate. But going on, our expectation is to be similar to 2022 from that perspective. In terms of turnover costs, we are still seeing some cost pressures on the CapEx side and some of those COVID-related accounts may be more costly to turn than normal turns within the portfolio. So those are built into our expectations as well.

Josh Dennerlein: I appreciate that. And maybe stepping back this year, if I thinking about it, it seems like margins on the same-store pool are going to shrink. Is — do you think we’re at kind of peak margins? Or is there additional opportunity to expand margins in the future across the portfolio?

David Singelyn: Yes. So, Sam, it’s Dave. When you look at 2022, 2023 and margins, shrinking a number — a fair amount of it can be attributed to timing, timing of property taxes where we’ve seen significant growth in revenues and HPA in prior years and property taxes, as we know, is a lagging measurement tool. So, that’s a little bit of a catchup tool. When you look at margins going forward — well, and one other item I would talk about for 2022 and 2023 is what you just brought up. And what we’ve already talked about, and that is the temporary adjustment to our expectations on bad debt. Moving forward, I would expect bad debts to go back in line to 2019 levels. The initiatives that we are embarking upon today, consistent with all other initiatives that we have done in our history, have had a cost upfront and benefits on the backside, whether it’s been prior enhancements in the early days of our operating platform, whether it is in our development program, there is an investment cost upfront.

And then the benefits will accrue to us in the future. So, I see our margins what you are looking at in 2022 and 2023, shouldn’t be trended down for future years. I would expect that we will see going back to 2018, 2019, those trendlines from there, taking out the COVID years being much more consistent way of looking at life.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Sam Choe with Credit Suisse. Please proceed with your question.

David Singelyn: Hey Sam. Are you there? Are you on mute?

Operator: Please check your line–

Sam Choe: Sorry. Yes, I was on mute. Can you guys hear me now?

Christopher Lau: Yes, we can.

Sam Choe: Okay. Sorry about that. So, I applaud your guys’ commitment to technology and resident is pretty much a testament to that. I guess just when you are planning technology initiatives, I know you guys think about the long-term. So, when we have a backdrop like 2023 when there’s an inflationary backdrop, I guess, were there some concerns about rolling Resident 360 out because expense a lot of excitement with what this can do to the business? But just wondering if you had any concerns about the timing?

Bryan Smith: Hi Sam. Thank you. This is Bryan. Our Resident 360 program is really — it’s a testament to our long-term outlook. And as Dave mentioned earlier in the call, this is a program that we tested. We tested it in markets. We really like the results. And we didn’t want to wait to roll it out nationally. The quicker we can get it out, the quicker we can optimize it and make sure that those benefits start to show up on expense control and retention. On the technology side, we’re — we have a really good feedback loop within our system within our company. We’re listening to what the residents are saying, and we’re trying to match those needs and those requests with enhancements that we can make to our platform. And many times, the opportunities lie on technical improvements.

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