UDR, Inc.

Greetings and welcome to UDR's third quarter 2021 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Director of Investor Relations, Trent Trujillo. Thank you, Mr. Trujillo. You may begin.

Welcome to UDR's quarterly financial results conference call. Our press release and supplemental disclosure package were distributed yesterday afternoon and posted to the investor relations section of our website at ir.udr.com. In the supplement, we have reconciled all non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measure in accordance with Reg G requirements. Statements made during this call which are not historical may constitute forward-looking statements. Although we believe the expectations reflected in any forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, we can give no assurance that our expectations will be met. A discussion of risks and risk factors are detailed in our press release and included in our filings with the SEC. We do not undertake a duty to update any forward-looking statements. When we get to the question and answer portion, we ask that you be respectful of everyone's time and limit your questions to one plus a follow-up. Management will be available after the call for your questions that did not get answered during the Q&A session today. I will now turn the call over to UDR's chairman and CEO, Tom Toomey.

Thank you, Trent, and welcome to UDR's third quarter 2021 conference call. Presenting on the call with me today are Senior Vice President of Operations Mike Lacey, and Chief Financial Officer Joe Fisher, who will discuss our results. Senior Officers Harry Alcock, Matt Cozat, Andrew Cantor, and Chris Van Enns will also be available during the Q&A portion of the call. Our third quarter FFOA results achieved the high end of our previously provided guidance range, and we raised full year, same store, and FFOA guidance for the fourth time in 2021. The raise was driven by strong, widespread multifamily fundamentals, the benefits we are realizing from the platform initiatives, and accretive capital allocation decisions. Currently, occupancy remains elevated, rate growth is as strong as I've seen during my 31-year tenure in the multifamily industry, and we continue to successfully source rental assistance for many residents in need. As we move into 2022, we anticipate that our unique operating acumen and ability to creatively allocate capital across a wide range of markets should continue to differentiate us versus public and private peers. These value creation drivers include, first, our best-in-class next-gen operating platform, which widens our operating advantages versus public and private peers and broadens our acquisition and capital allocation opportunities. The platform focuses on self-service, enhanced resident satisfaction, and expanding our controllable operating margin. Through our associates' hard work, we have successfully reduced our on-site staff by approximately 40% since 2018. and rationalized the rest of our cost structure. Both put us in an enviable position as inflationary pressures mount. Platform 1.0 initiatives will continue to yield bottom line benefits through 2022. But we are already looking ahead to a new suite of initiatives that will drive additional revenue growth and margin expansion. Mike will provide further details in his commentary. And second, our market selection and capital allocation. Year to date, we have sourced nearly 1.2 billion of equity at an attractive cost and 300 million of property sales at favorable cap rates to accretively acquire nearly 1.5 billion of high quality multi-family communities in desired markets. These acquisitions are outperforming initial expectations due to strong market rent growth proximity benefit for sourcing the deal next door, and the implementation of our numerous and repeatable capital allocation value creating drivers. While business conditions are as strong as we've ever experienced, assorted regulatory restrictions continue to limit our ability to fully capture the economic benefits of our current demand trends. Still, the regulatory environment continues to slowly trend in our favor, and we expect to recapture deferred income resulting from emergency restrictions as we move through 2022. Moving on, earlier this month, we published our third annual ESG report. In it, we summarized the company's progress towards its ESG goals, introduced enhanced greenhouse gas emissions and energy energy use reduction targets and highlighted UDR's culture as well as the support provided for our associates and residents during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our actions resulted in UDR being named the number one ESG performer in 2021 Gresby survey amongst publicly listed residential companies worldwide. with a score of 86. I thank Gresby for their recognition of UDR as a global leader in sustainability and our teams for the ongoing ESG progress we continue to make. In closing, our success is driven by many factors, but a key one remains UDR's innovative and adaptive culture. This insight was recently validated in our biannual Associate Engagement Survey, which was conducted following the implementation of Platform 1.0. Primary takeaways from the 97% of the associates that participated included, first, UDR engagement and enablement scores are well above the norm for high-performing companies at 80%. Second, 94% of the respondents felt a strong sense of culture. Third, nearly 90% feel those with diverse backgrounds can succeed at UDR. Thank you to our associates across the country who shared honest and open feedback as we continue to improve our business practices, which enhance our status as well as being recognized as an ESG industry leader. With that, I will turn the call over to Mike.