Property Management: Mowing the Grass

January 24, 2012

Landscaping is important. In the property management business spring is when we set up for the summer pool season. Winter is the time to think about the pending spring growth season and how to best address grounds maintenance.

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Multifamily and Crime

January 18, 2012

Real estate investing requires interaction with the public at large. There is no way to avoid it. If you are in any way involved with income property management then sometime during your career path you and the assets under your management will be impacted by crime. Sometimes, violent crime. To the best of your ability try to avoid turning a blind eye to criminal activity.

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Six Ways to Buy a Kitchen Appliance

January 10, 2012

For stabilized multifamily everyday appliances include stoves, dishwashers, refrigerators and microwaves (built in). Unlike disposals and locks, unless you have affordable and secure storage keeping these on reserve on site is seldom a good idea. It’s amazing how often a refrigerator can “grow legs” if left un-attended for several months.

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Multifamily and the World Around Us

January 4, 2012

From a birds-eye view the US multifamily market is poised to have a strong 2012 with at least modest rent growth gains and good absorption of new product. Rent growth is pressured by limited increases in payrolls and paychecks, however, with limited new construction in the pipeline (as compared to historic norms) vacancy should tick down.

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How to Select a Lock

December 20, 2011

This is a discussion on selecting door locks for apartment communities. Many multifamily communities fall in to one of two categories; one lock per door or two locks per door. Surprisingly, safety is seldom the determinant.

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Multifamily & Educational Attainment

December 13, 2011

It is well documented that third-grade reading levels tell us much about adult achievement. There is a direct correlation between personal income and educational attainment. Can we select multifamily assets to acquire based on the educational attainment of the individuals residing in submarkets?

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Budgeting and the Beginner’s Mind

December 7, 2011

In its most basic form “the beginners mind” allows us to believe that in any circumstance there are many possibilities. Can we apply this to the annual budgeting process for our assets?

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Carpet, Tile, Vinyl and Wood

November 29, 2011

As property managers we spend more real cash on flooring that just about any other item. Excluding roofs, windows and boilers, flooring is often the one line item expenditure that pops on the annual profit/loss. Some property managers are flooring experts. Most of us muddle forward executing a well rounded flooring strategy that needs work.

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The Best of Us

November 23, 2011

It’s Thanksgiving.   This is a great tradition and one of the few originated in the United States with a 400 year history.  This is a tradition with deep roots- so much so that even the retail “noise” stops for twenty-four hours (assuming the television and laptop are turned off).   

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Property Management: Amplifying the Positive

November 16, 2011

Name three things that are outstanding about your property. The three things that came to mind first, were they benefits or features? People like features but they buy benefits. Consider I seldom write “fluff”. This is a sincere question- what are the benefits to the end user derived from your asset? Ok, shelter. Check. Every competitor offers this benefit. What else? Are you applifying the positives?

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How to Read a Rent Roll (8 Ways to Sunday)

November 8, 2011

Following are eight ways to measure financial outcomes from the rent roll. There are numerous metrics to value a multifamily asset from revenue per square foot to replacement value. This writing is focused on the rent roll and various means to measure the quality of the income stream derived from the existing, in-place tenant base.

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Real Estate Finance and Demographic Trends

November 2, 2011

With pent up demand for multifamily why is the construction pipeline slow to respond? Real estate finance is not for the faint of heart. The credit pipes “frozen” in 2008 continue to un-thaw three years later. And reading demographic trend tea leaves is becoming a tricky business.

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Real Estate as a Store of Value

October 25, 2011

Recent volatility in the stock and bond markets has people turning to gold as a “store-of-value”. Can multifamily investment property act as a “store of value”?

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Multifamily Make-Ready’s Made Easy

October 18, 2011

The best way to assure easy make-readys is to have as few as possible, right? How to make that happen? With an earnest focus on leasing renewals. Focusing on renewals reduces turnover. Concessions at lease renewal are almost always less expensive than turnover expenditures.

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Super Committee Blues

October 11, 2011

I am trying to be optimistic which is difficult considering the summer brawl in Washington DC over the Federal Budget. We are best served by this committee following the mantra of “first do no harm”.

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Property Management and the Amazing Affects of Coffee

October 4, 2011

Coffee is a business tool. While probably overlooked by Drucker, it really is utilized across the world as a handshake, a welcoming comfort food. It says “stay a while”. Why is that important? It may gain you one or two additional leases each year. What is the value of your coffee pot?

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Valuation Matters

September 28, 2011

Value can be defined as the intrinsic worth of an asset based on underlying fundamentals. Paying attention to valuation means increasing exposure to risky investments when valuations and projected returns are attractive, and paring back exposure as valuations become stretched and projected returns decline.

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Multifamily Acquisitions: The Age Quotient

September 20, 2011

The age quotient for a multifamily asset has two components: the actual age and the functional age. One is no less important than the other. In competitive markets age can sometimes become meaningless.

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8 Places to Find New Multifamily Tenants

September 14, 2011

While it is nice to advertise in a newspaper that covers the entire city, most of your new customers already live right around the corner. Literally. Here are a few places to look for new customers close to property. We live in an “on-line” world.

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Banks, Litigation and Mortgages

September 7, 2011

Large banks will be in litigation for years to come from the recent implosion of mortgage-backed securities. At the end of the day, who wins? Years of litigation will redirect human and monetary resources of major banks away from their primary business mission- lending.

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