Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Q3 2020 Independence Realty Trust, Inc Earnings Conference Call. [Operators instructions] I would now like to conference over to your host, Ms. Lauren Torres. Please go ahead. Lauren Torres;Edelman Financial Communications;VP: Thank you and good morning everyone. Thank you for joining us to review Independence Realty Trust's Third Quarter 2020 financial results. On the call with me today are Scott Schaeffer, our Chief Executive Officer; Jim Sebra, our Chief Financial Officer; and Farrell Ender, President of IRT. Today's call is being webcast on our website at www.irtliving.com. There will be a replay of the call available via webcast on our Investor Relations website and telephonically beginning at approximately 12:00 PM Eastern Time today. Before I turn the call over to Scott. I'd like to remind everyone that there may be forward-looking statements made in this call. These forward-looking statements reflect IRT's current views with respect to future events and financial performance. Actual results could differ substantially and materially from what IRT has projected. Such statements are made in good faith pursuant to the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Please refer to IRT's press release, supplemental information, and filings with the SEC for factors that could affect the accuracy of our expectations or cause our future results to differ materially from those expectations. Participants may discuss non-GAAP financial measures during this call. A copy of IRT's press release and supplemental information containing financial information, other statistical information, and a reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to the most direct comparable GAAP financial measure is attached to IRT's most recent current report on the Form 8-K available at IRT's website under Investor Relations. IRT's other SEC filings are also through this link. IRT does not undertake to update forward-looking statements in this call or with respect to matters described herein, except as may be required by law. With that, it's my pleasure to turn the call over to Scott Schaeffer.

Thank you, Lauren. And thank you all for joining us this morning. I'd like to start off today's call by thanking our team for their dedication and diligence during a year which we could never have anticipated. IRTs execution of its strategy has been steadfast enabling us to continue to deliver value to all of our stakeholders. We focused on protecting the health and well-being of our employees and residents providing flexibility to those residents demonstrating financial hardship, driving leasing traffic, and growing occupancy, all while sustaining our financial flexibility and strengthening our balance sheet. Our successful execution against these key priorities is evidenced in our third quarter performance. Our total portfolio average occupancy increased 60 basis points from a year ago to 94.1% and we collected 98.9% of third quarter rent. Our same-store NOI grew 0.5% on a year-over-year basis. Our core FFO improved more than 14% to $19.4 million with the core FFO per share of $0.20 and we ended the quarter with $217 million of total liquidity. We continue to see strong results through October 27th, our current occupancy now stands at 95%, a 250 basis point improvement compared to the end of October last year. We have collected approximately 96.7% of October rents, which is consistent with collections in September and given our low lease expirations and high occupancy in the fourth quarter, we've been able to drive rent growth. We are also encouraged by the pickup in activity in our value-adding capital recycling programs. While Farrell and Jim will speak about them in greater detail, I'm pleased to note that we are taking a thoughtful approach to re-allocating our capital into markets with strong demographics that offer healthy rent growth and steady or increasing occupancy levels while exiting or reducing our presence in less viable…

Thanks Scott and good morning everyone. With no doubt, 2020 brought us a fair share of challenges and our team reacted with resiliency and determination. Our onsite teams put an effort to improve total portfolio average occupancy in the third quarter to 94.1% from 92.9% in the second quarter and 93.5% a year ago. Currently, our occupancy rate is 95% of 90 basis points from third quarter levels and 250 basis points from the end of October last year. The average occupancy across our same-store portfolio not including our value add communities in the third quarter was 94.6% and as of today is 95.3%. This increase is due to a coordinated effort to drive resident retention higher and build occupancy during the pandemic. On a lease over lease basis for the same-store portfolio during the third quarter, new lease rates increased 1.8% and renewals were up 0.5% yielding a combined lease over lease rental rate increase of 1.1%. As of today, as Scott mentioned, we've been able to drive rent growth in the fourth quarter. Our new leases have increased 7.4% while renewed leases are up 1.3% with a blended lease over lease rental rate increase of 3.9% for our same-store portfolio. Now I'd like to provide an update on our value add and capital recycling programs where we have resumed activity. First on our value add program, we completed renovations on 237 units in the third quarter and 774 units year-to-date, realizing Average rent premiums of more than 18% as compared to un-renovated units. We performed renovations at 17 of our communities and as of today we've classified 4 as complete, having renovated 85% or more of these units at each property. Prior to the pandemic, we had identified an additional 6 communities to enter our value add program.…

Thanks Farrell and good morning everyone. I would like to begin with an overview of our third quarter results. IRT recorded net income available to common shareholders of $1.1 million, down from a net income of $4.9 million in the 3rd quarter of 2019. It is important to note that net income this quarter was impacted by a $1.8 million asset impairment associated with the property held for sale, while a year ago, net income benefited from a $2.4 million net gain on the sale of assets. During the 3rd quarter core FFO grew to $19.4 million, up 14.3% from $17 million in Q3 2019. Core FFO per share during Q3 was $0.20, 5.2% higher than Q3 last year at $0.19 per share. Turning to our same-store property operating results, NOI growth was 50 basis points in the quarter, driven by revenue growth of 3%. Rental rates increased year-over-year with an average monthly rent of $1106 this quarter, up 2.2% since the 3rd quarter of last year. While this includes value added communities, we did see rental rate growth at our non-value added same-store communities with rental rates in Q3 increasing 80 basis points over the prior year. We continue to closely evaluate the impact of the pandemic on our collections. In the third quarter, we collected 98.9% of our billings. As a result, we evaluated our outstanding receivables for our collectability and increased our reserve for bad debt by $80,000 during the 3rd quarter to a total reserve of $803,000 as of September 30th. The $803,000 reserve for bad debts recorded as of September 30th reduces the future risk of any build revenue that we have not collected. To put it in context, we ended the quarter with $1.4 million of gross receivables including those that were part of…

Thanks, Jim. I'd like to close out by saying that the IRT team has stepped up to the challenge and produced favorable year-to-date results during these uncertain times. We've rightly focused on supporting our employees and residents while safeguarding our properties and communities. I'd also like to congratulate the IRT team for being named Shelters to Shutters Industry Partner of the Year. Shelters to Shutters is a great organization which helps local communities with employment and housing opportunities in an effort to reduce situational homelessness, which has become a national growing concern. I'm proud of the team's efforts and look forward to our continued success as we look to strengthen and grow our business while learning from our experiences. Operator, at this time, I would like to open the call for questions.

[Operator Instructions] I am showing no question at this time, I would now like to turn the conference back to Scott Schaeffer.

Well, thank you for joining us today and we look forward to speaking with you again at [indiscernible] virtual conference later in November. Everyone have a good day. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference. Thank you for your participation and have a wonderful day. You may all disconnect.