Is Airbnb’s overhaul a turning point?
It shouldn’t have taken two major incidents of fraud and violence to convince one of the world’s leading travel brands to upgrade their approach to safety and security. Airbnb, the popular online marketplace for lodging...
Virtual tours and live videos give rental prospects intimate access
Matt Weirich devised the concept of a video leasing platform after a painful apartment hunting experience when he graduated from Purdue University and moved more than two hours away to Chicago. Weirich says he...
Making Disparate Impact deliver fairness
HUD’s proposed revisions to our disparate-impact rule enhance our commitment to fairness for everyone. Everyone agrees that discrimination has no place in society. But everyone also agrees that a city should be able to require...
The changing face of rentals: single-family
Second quarter data for 2019 reveal that approximately 42,000 homes were constructed as single-family built-for-rent homes over the last year—equal to the prior four quarter starts total—representing about 5 percent of single-family construction. Although...
He who lives by the crystal ball will eat shattered glass.
In times such as these who needs prognostication? Truth alone is a wonder if you’re working from facts. Here are just a few. “We are in a very favorable place, the economy is strong,” said...
Growth strategy
Today’s tight job market, the current housing crisis and concerns about the impending softening of the multifamily market are prompting property owners to look for ways to control the cost of non-revenue producing functions. RealPage...
Brave new, networked world
Apartment dwellers today expect a high level of technology services. Thanks to the growing demand for bandwidth and internet-enabled devices, managed Wi-Fi and internet connections have become valued commodities that help attract and retain...
How property managers can survive (and thrive) in the era of proptech
Rent collection: There’s an app for that. Scheduling repairs: There’s an app for that, too. Apartment showings can now be handled by a suite of software programs that allow for virtual viewings, and background...
Apartment cleaning service expands business model
Lapa Lopa is a cleaning service that leverages technology to deliver an improved experience for apartment residents. Headquartered in Bellevue, Wash., the company recently launched a new app for cleaners, targeting prospective employees, contractors...
Smart city backlash
A new phase of pause seems to have gripped the three-decades-old global movement of overstressed urban centers transitioning to so-called smart cities with innovative, technology-led promises. The latest phase is marked by scattered, local-level...
Putting sharing economy property rentals on the straight and narrow
The romanticized view of the sharing economy runs something like this. We all have assets that we can share with other people in return for small amounts of cash or payments in kind. Sharing...
Airbnb arbitrage
How professional hosts are filling the unicorn’s call for quality rentals. As Airbnb prepares to become a publicly traded company in 2020, the home-sharing marketplace is signaling a huge appetite for high-quality supply. It’s a...
GSEs move toward privatization
FHFA says Fannie, Freddie must direct over one-third of multifamily loans towards affordable housing The Federal Housing Finance Agency will increase caps on the amount of multifamily loans Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can purchase...
New wave in smart home market
A producer of smart home software that helps landlords cut operating costs such as shuttling keys to waiting maintenance workers or guiding tours for prospective tenants has raised $32 million from Bain Capital Ventures...
Assessing risk: A cautionary tale
A new client contacted our property management firm unexpectedly a few years ago, needing help with close to 70 single-family homes in Springfield, Ohio. They were from upstate New York and had purchased these...
