Multitaskers pay mental price
Attention, multitaskers (if you can pay attention, that is): Your brain may be in trouble. People who are regularly bombarded with several streams of electronic information do not pay attention, control their memory or switch...
Social networking etiquette and the office
Was it wise to accept a colleague or higher-up as a "friend" to begin with? And—perhaps more importantly—in this day and age, when people are seemingly available around the clock because of smartphones and...
Think happy thoughts at work
Instead, she got a big dose of something new: happiness coaching. Keynote speaker Shawn Achor—a former Harvard University researcher and former co-teacher of one of the university's most popular courses, Positive Psychology—extolled 90 listening...
Light of day
While year-end upticks in sales volume are seasonally typical, the first quarter of 2009 likely will be considered the bottom of the downturn in apartment sales volume, Marcus & Millichap predicted in a recent...
Apartment industry at a crossroads
It is obvious that there has been a fundamental change in the demand for homeownership over the last few years. Fiscal policies and social pressures have encouraged American consumers to buy homes, oftentimes biting...
Real estate deals: catching a falling knife
That was one notable assessment by panelists at the fall conference of the Samuel Zell and Robert Lurie Real Estate Center held at Wharton recently. They also offered insights on lessons learned from the...
The life of a bug
In the old-school novella, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (1915), the main character, Gregor, does just that. It's not so much that he bizarrely transforms from salesman to giant bug in the first paragraph of...
A glass half full
He is confident that the 72-unit DeKalb Apartments his firm delivered in Philadelphia's northwest suburbs in November is small enough to be stabilized or fully occupied by the end of the historically busy summer...
Can I get a lifeline?
The National Association of Home Builders' International Builders' Show organizers have created an event that is not only a trade show, but also a lifeline for companies struggling to sustain their businesses today. NAHB's annual...
Phoenix rising
The same set of circumstances that forced Fairfield Residential into a short sale last summer in Gilbert and Camden Property Trust to predict double-digit drops in NOI in the Valley of the Sun is...
Transactions market in Phoenix
"Transaction velocity is still very stagnant, contrary to popular belief," said multifamily investment specialist Steve Gebing, whose group operates under the Marcus & Millichap umbrella in the Valley of the Sun. It's easy to compare...
On the right track
But the much-anticipated light-rail inauguration didn't happen soon enough to save a number of TODs planned by companies like Opus Northwest, Unico Properties and Eagle Rock Ventures from being abandoned or postponed until the...
Rough patch
Both ventures are transit-oriented, mixed-use and mixed income and are expected to achieve at least a LEED Silver rating from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), attributes pegged as prime post-recession bets for real...
HUD financing: lessons learned
In the past year, this program has become either the go-to program for apartment investors who have identified buying opportunities, or the last resort for apartment owners with rolling debt. The popularity of the...
Own-to-rent: turning mortgages into leases
Here's how Deed for Lease works: Before a borrower is eligible to rent their home under Deed for Lease program, they must have a deed in lieu of foreclosure agreement (DIL) in place with...