2025 AAA President's Letter
It is a tremendous honor to be representing the Atlanta Apartment Association (AAA) as the 2025 Chair.
In what is the 50th Anniversary of this amazing association, I truly am standing on the shoulders of giants who have come before me. Not just all the legendary Chairpersons but also hundreds of dedicated Board of Directors and thousands of tireless volunteers that have made AAA the special organization that it is today. As Kool & The Gang said it best…2025 promises to be ‘a celebration that will last throughout the year.’!
I am so lucky to have had the pleasure of serving with my friend and our 2024 Chair, Melissa White. Melissa is one of a kind and has done an incredible job leading our organization this past year to reach new heights in membership, PAC dollars raised, and advancing our successful Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiative. Most importantly, her confident and determined nature push us as individuals and the entire AAA organization to be the best that we can be. I sincerely thank her for her service, advice, wisdom, and friendship. Melissa has certainly left AAA on very solid footing as we look to our bright future.
I also want to thank the tremendous AAA Staff, led by Jim Fowler, for their unrelenting support and dedication to making our organization the best in the country. We are very lucky to have a team of this caliber managing the day-to-day affairs of AAA. The last several years have thrown us several ‘curve balls’ and it is so reassuring to know we can always count on this strong team.
My path to this position has not been typical for past Chairs. My early career was in sales, marketing and consulting for packaged goods and technology companies, mixed in with a business school degree. I then entered the real estate world on the brokerage side of the industry in the early 2000’s. 14 years ago, I had the opportunity to join Rob Johnston and Mitch Harrison (each past Chairs of AAA) at First Communities and my multi-family career was born. I was honored and humbled to join the Association board five years ago and have had the opportunity to serve alongside amazing leaders who have been mentors to me…Alan King, Brett Duke, Melissa White, John Daniel, Jeremy Mesi just to name a few. We are truly blessed with the quality of individuals who serve on our Association board each year. AAA has been and continues to be in great hands.
One of my main focuses during 2025 will be the implementation of our latest three-year Strategic Plan that was developed mid-last year under the leadership of Brett Duke (2023 Chair). Every three years, a committee of current and past AAA leaders meet intentionally for two days to discuss what we are doing well, where we may need to improve, and how we can strategically position the Association for continued future success. This past meeting was a great exercise and resulted in the following updated Mission and Vision for AAA:
Mission: Support and elevate the interests of our members in the rental housing industry.
Vision: Position rental housing as a valued and essential partner to advance the well-being of our communities.
We plan to accomplish this plan through four key Principles that will guide all AAA initiatives going forward:
Advocate – Represent the interests of Georgia’s rental housing industry.
Educate – Expand programming to proactively meet the evolving needs of our members.
Collaborate – Enhance the value of membership through relationships and engagement.
Innovate – Leverage industry and technology trends to build opportunity for the association.
2025 is also a critical year for Government Affairs and one that we will all focus on during the upcoming legislative session. The biggest challenge we are facing in Georgia today is continued lawsuit abuse and the resulting insurance crisis. The laws that govern Georgia’s courts currently support increasingly lucrative and far-reaching premises liability lawsuits. Because of this, we as housing providers are having difficulty securing premises liability insurance coverage and when it is available, the policies often include exclusions that limit coverage and premiums are astronomically higher than what we see in other states. The other significant challenge we have is the continued eviction process delays that never stabilized after the government shut-downs in 2020. It can still take 6 months or more for property owners in much of metro Atlanta to remove bad actors from their properties whether they are creating a dangerous environment on the property or have failed to pay rent. These efforts will require everyone in our industry to be educated on the issues and involved at the grassroots level to help spread the message of desperately needed reform.
I frequently use the phrase “It takes a village” for many aspects of life. Similarly, I think this is so true for our industry and association this year. We all need to be working together in all aspects of the industry to move us forward to success. I look forward to being a part of this ‘village’ with you in 2025. Thank you again for the opportunity to serve and I look forward to a great year.
Jon Nixon
2025 AAA President