Senior sales executive Joseph Bangert’s Connor Group career started in 2016. His nearly seven-year journey with the company required grit, relentlessness, and a good suitcase. Over those seven years, he’s worked in four different cities, helping the company position three properties for sale.
Joseph’s journey began in Nashville at Ashton Brook, and to say that his career got off to a rough start would be an understatement. He quickly learned about the importance of customer service and building rapport with residents.
“When I first got to Ashton, the property was going through a transitional phase. I can remember being new and having residents actually form a line outside my office to yell at me,” Joseph said.
Turning a scream into a smile is a quality that helped Joseph become known as the “renewal king.” Earning the crown wasn’t easy. In fact, just getting to do renewals was challenging by itself.
“The biggest culture shock to me after joining the Connor Group was the transparency. I remember early on, I wanted to start doing renewals, but my manager at the time decided to have someone else do it. She told me to my face that she thought I couldn’t do it and that I wasn’t ready,” Joseph said. “But that just made me want it so much more.”
Being driven by achieving the impossible makes Joseph a great cultural fit, but even renewal royalty can still learn lessons in systems and processes.
“I was so good at renewals and knew my residents so well that I stopped taking notes, and admittedly, that wasn’t the right thing to do,” Joseph said. “I remember CEO Bob Lloyd visiting with the new SMT at the time, Sal Gracia. Bob must have bragged about how good I was at renewals, but when they got to Ashton Brook, and Sal opened the binder, there were zero notes inside. Next thing I knew, I was face to face with Bob, who was now a new shade of red.”
That valuable lesson in accountability helped Joseph when he packed up and moved to Austin, Texas, to tackle West Lake Vistas.
“West Lake was a beautiful property located in the hill country of Texas. Listening to future residents and taking notes made it very easy to match people to what they really wanted,” Joseph said.
With Joseph’s help, we successfully sold West Lake Vistas in 2020 for $108.5 million. His next move took him north to Chicago to help fix Stonebridge Village. The 600-unit property was one of the worst-performing in the company’s portfolio at the time. He relied heavily on advice from his mentors to help motivate him.
“Whenever things felt overwhelming, and the odds were stacked against us, I could hear (partner) Kim Whitesell say, ‘you got this s***!’ She is simply magnificent. Kim is so confident, and she never has excuses.”
In April 2022, Joseph and the Stonebridge team started gaining momentum, driving more than 400 pieces of traffic. Joseph himself took 175.
“I keep Stonebridge’s April 2022 stat sheet with me to remind others and myself that nothing is impossible,” Joseph said.
All in, he’s delivered $326 million in property sales. He credits his success to the people who’ve helped develop him along the way.
“We have people who pick you up, people who reground you,” Joseph said. “Our people hold you accountable. It’s really like a family, and we look after each other.”