Making procurement pay
Cutting costs never loses appeal, even in a robust industry and a thriving economy. Inescapable expenses such as insurance and taxes, along with competitive pressures, have forced property owners to become increasingly creative in...
INFOGRAPHIC: Grinding housing into votes
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Landlords rarely escape the machinations of politics. Just how far will tinkering with free markets go this election cycle?
In an election-year effort to shift responsibility for the nation’s high costs of living away...
Summer of blackouts
Two-thirds of North America could face power shortages this summer during periods of extreme electricity demand and spiking temperatures, the nation’s grid reliability monitor warned in May.
The North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) found...
If I read one more platitude-filled mission statement, I’ll scream
At the risk of adding another consulting cliche to the mix, we can map the most common directional documents on a practical grid to help us to make sense of them.
On one hand, we...
Converting to a paperless rental office is not an option
Multifamily remains the most fragmented industry in the United States. That is, there is no REIT, private company, nor entity that has devised a single unifying operational model that works universally for every property,...
Multifamily’s TKO
Over the past ten years, the 35-year-old Olympic gold medalist, ten- time world title holder in a record six weight classes and Grammy-nominated recording artist has been assembling a business empire known as Golden...
Waiting to exhale
Yet, Congress has been consumed over the past year with those things at the bottom of Americans' priority list: reducing health care costs (57 percent), providing health insurance to the uninsured (49 percent) and...
The accidental landlords
Essentially, homeowners in foreclosure would be allowed to switch from ownership to renting their property.
I work for one of the largest "scattered site" property management companies in St. Louis, and I have years of...
How much does rudeness cost you?
A recent report by Florida State University revealed the impact of bad bosses. A survey of more than 700 employees at different job levels and situated in various industries suggested that:
39% of bad...
Property Bill of Rights passed by House
HR4772 would help ensure due process for property owners when their rights have been violated and their property has been taken. The bill would clear procedural hurdles that affect property owners' access to justice...
Energy update
Given the drag higher energy costs can have on net operating income, more multifamily owners and managers are zeroing in on reducing energy use at their properties. But beyond just reducing costs, more companies...
U.S. Supreme Court declines rent case
The U.S. Supreme Court in October announced that it will not weigh in on two cases challenging rent control and eviction laws in New York and California.
The lead case, Community Housing Improvement Program v....
Multifamily investment bright while household formation remains dim
Even as construction of new apartment buildings hit the highest monthly construction pace since the beginning of 2006, the latest absorption rates for unsubsidized, unfurnished, newly-built apartments have kept pace. The Census Bureau reported...
Lightening the load
Speed Queen, Whirlpool and Maytag all offer laundry systems that also have less impact on the environment than previous models, while making life easier for residents of apartments and student housing and saving money...
Banks paying homeonwers a bonus to avoid foreclosure
Lenders have routinely delayed or blocked such transactions, known as short sales, in which they accept less from a buyer than the seller's outstanding loan. Now banks have decided the deals are faster and...
