UDR, Inc.

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, 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 on 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 fourth 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 Kozad, Andrew Cantor, and Chris Van Enns will also be available during the Q&A portion of the call. 2021 was a remarkable year for UDR and one that was filled with a variety of accomplishments and milestones, including, first, we completed the rollout of Platform 1.0, across our markets, thereby fully transitioning to a self-service business model. This implementation enhances customer service, resident satisfaction, and has delivered nearly 20 million, or 3%, in additional run rate NOI through margin expansion driven primarily by lower controllable operating expenses. Our controllable operating margin is now 250 basis points above our peers at the same average rent level and even higher versus private operators. Second, we accretively grew the company through 1.5 billion of acquisitions that utilized many of our repeatable operating and capital allocation competitive advantages. Funding these fully equitized transactions with attractively priced capital further enhanced our value creation and balance sheet strength. This approach and subsequent execution has added 1% to 2% to our run rate earnings based on stabilized yields. Third, we generated total shareholder return of over 61%, which extends our track record of outperforming peer and all REIT return indices over time. Fourth, we published our third annual ESG report, which further supported our ongoing commitment to continually improve our corporate citizenry. In the report, we introduced enhanced greenhouse gas emissions and energy usage reduction targets, and highlighted the support that we have provided to associates and residents during the pandemic. including helping to secure over $28 million in rental assistance funds for those in need. These ESG actions and others led Gresby to recognize UDR as a global leader in sustainability and at the highest rated publicly listed residential company worldwide, with a score of 86. Last, we conducted our biannual associate engagement survey, to which we were a remarkable 97% participation rate. Key findings were UDR associates, enablement scores were well above norm for high-performing companies, and a very high percentage of UDR employees believe that diverse opinions are valued at our company and those with diverse backgrounds can succeed. As we embark on our 50th year as a public company, I'm excited about the opportunities ahead for us. We have a track record of consistent FFOA growth and TSR performance as evidenced by our better-than-peer median earnings growth in seven of the last nine years and significant TSR outperformance over rolling five-year periods over the past decades. We believe this robust performance will continue going forward due to, first, favorable fundamentals. Apartment rental demand is robust, and pricing power is as strong as I've seen in my 30-plus year career. Second, our unique operating and capital allocation value creation drivers that should continue to drive margin expansion in excess of our industry. And third, our next-gen operating platform and Innovation 2.0, which compounds the benefits of our best-in-class operations and the use of advanced AI technology data science to drive growth opportunities and cost savings. Regarding external growth, our plan is to continue to identify targeted accretive opportunities that utilize our competitive advantages. Our focus will remain on one, finding under-managed deal next door acquisitions that afford elevated margin expansion through greater on-site efficiencies. Two, securing DCP investments that deliver high current yields with embedded acquisition optionality. And three, expanding development and redevelopment opportunities that enhance NOI. What worked well for UDR in 2021 should continue to generate relative upside in 2022 and beyond. Our best in class operating acumen and ability to creatively allocate capital across our diverse portfolio should continue to differentiate us versus public and private peers. Considering these attributes, we expect FFOA per share growth of over 12% at the midpoint and dividend growth of 5% in 2022. This positions UDR well to again generate attractive total returns for our shareholders. Mike and Joe will provide additional color on our guidance in their commentary. To summarize my thoughts on actions taken during 2021, we accretively grew the company by $1.5 billion. We were far more active than peers in utilizing attractively priced equity. And we fundamentally changed how we interact with our customer by moving to a self-service business model through our next-gen operating platform. As stewards of your capital, we appreciate your trust in our people, process, and strategy, which has been critical in enabling us to build and continue to build and deliver on our vision. Last, our long-term success has been and will continue to be founded on our people and our culture. We all have experienced a lot of change over the past two years. And I'd like to express sincere gratitude to my fellow UDR associates for their hard work, their compassion, and their willingness to think outside the box. I look forward to another strong year of growth in 2022 and beyond. With that, I will turn it over to Mike.