Arizona Rental Housing Journal July 17 by Professional Publishing, Inc

Rental Housing Journal Arizona

July 2017 - Vol. 9 Issue 7

2 . Proven SEO Tactics for Apartment Communities

5. Salt Lake City Company Buys Arizona Apartments For $77 Million

3. Cost of Freon for Older Air Conditioner Repairs is Skyrocketing

6. Solving the Pet Pee Needs in an Urban High-Rise Apartment

4. Property Management Leadership Requires Timely Information

7. Top 3 Biggest Stressors for Property Owners and Managers in 2017 10. Dear Maintenance Men

WWW.RENTALHOUSINGJOURNAL.COM • PROFESSIONAL PUBLISHING, INC Monthly Circulation To More Than 7,000 Apartment Owners, Property Managers, On-Site & Maintenance Personnel

Colorado Springs Named Hottest Housing Market by Dow Jones Publication

By Myle sMa

olorado Springs is the country’s hottest housing market, according to a list published Tuesday by MarketWatch, a publication of Dow Jones & Co. The ranking is based on mortgage application data analyzed by ATTOM Data Solutions. Markets in Colorado and the Carolinas are drawing the most potential home buyers, according to data released recently by ATTOM Data Solutions. The property data company analyzed mortgage applications to create its “Pre-Mover Housing Index,” a measure of the proportion of homes likely to sell in a market. The index is based on the ratio of mortgage applications that include an estimated loan settlement date to the number of homes in a given market. Mortgages that have a so-called “pre-mover” flag, like a settlement date, close within 30 days 62.2% of the time, according to ATTOM’s data. An index above 100 in a given market means an above-average ratio of homes ...continued on page 9

Current Economic Data Supports Multifamily Investments

he macro data suggests that multifamily investments and properties continue to be a strong performing asset class, says the CEO of a specialty investment bank focused on real estate, according to a release. Multifamily is still supported by strong economic fundamentals, generally outperforming most other property sectors, David Blatt, CEO of Capstack Partners says in the release. Lenders have recently begun to express caution about financing new multifamily investments because of concerns ...continued on page 11

$217 Million in 5 Multifamily Sales Closed in Arizona

wo senior level investment advisors have closed five multifamily property transactions totaling $217 million and 1,699 units between May 30 and June 15 of this year in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Steve Gebing and Cliff David, two senior managing directors of Marcus & Millichap’s Institutional Properties Advisors (IPA) division, closed the transactions The properties sold in this period are: 1. Village Green, 112 units, Mesa, $7.7 million 2. Onnix, 659 units, Tempe, $77.05 million 3. Broadstone Gateway, 240 units, Avondale, $30.75 million 4. Green Leaf Promontory Pointe, 424 units, Phoenix, Confidential 5. Pinnacle at Union Hills, 264 units, Phoenix, $47.5 million Strong demand for multifamily housing “The enhanced demand for multi-

family housing in the Phoenix metro is being fueled by corporate expansions and relocations from large, international companies coupled with the expected addition of an estimated 81,000 net residents this year, underpinning household formation that exceeds the national pace,” Gebing said in a release. “Strong underlying macroeconomic fundamentals in the Phoenix MSA, and our team’s experience aligning in-

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stitutional and major private investors with value-add multifamily investment opportunities, produced an exceptional level of transaction velocity and sales volume during the last two weeks,” said Gebing. “Value-add opportunities are in particular demand, and our team has many years of experience identifying assets that meet the needs of investors ...continued on page 5

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Rental Housing Journal Arizona

Proven SEO Tactics for Apartment Communities

ou are most likely familiar with the acronym SEO, which, as you probably know, has long been defined as “Search Engine Optimization.” However, there’s a more recent movement that defines it as “Search Experience Optimization.” With this new outlook, the user is king. The mission of behemoth search engine Google is to deliver its users with an optimum search experience. In marketing apartments, it’s important to understand the fundamentals of this tactic in order to improve your community’s search visibility. On-page search optimization consists of several tactics including optimizing your content, adding title tags

on all of your photos, implementing relevant H-tags (headers), and enhancing your meta descriptions with keyword-rich content. All of these factors will help build a solid foundation for an effective strategy. Of course, there are more technical tactics that you should discuss with your website developer, but here are a few basic tips to help you improve your user’s search experience.

Content is King Thanks to smartphones, humans now have a shorter attention span than goldfish. Researchers surveyed 2,000 participants and studied the brain activity 112 others to conclude that the human attention span has fallen from twelve seconds in the year 2000 to eight seconds. And goldfish? They have the attention span of nine seconds. But this doesn’t detract from the importance of content. Algorithms are smarter and more complex than ever before; therefore, from a search perspective, search engines can spot content that is not useful to search users. Google’s mission is to deliver the best possible answer to its searchers so if your website has inadequate content, you will not have a strong presence in search results. In other words, the more helpful content you write, the more Google (and other search engines) will consider your website as a credible source on that particular topic. SEO has changed dramatically over the past decade. Repeating keywords over and over again will not help you achieve a higher search ranking as it once did. This means no “keyword stuffing,” or overloading your webpage with keywords in your content. Consider your target audience while optimizing your webpage for one or two keywords. In short, keep in mind what your audience is searching for when they utilize search engines such as Google or Bing. It’s really all about understanding the psychology of the user: their wants, needs, and desires when they look up a topic online. When composing the content for your apartment community website, it is critical to implement the proper headline tag to represent different sections of webpage content. It can impact both SEO and the usability of your website. H-tags are sequential: the most important headline tag is the H1 tag and the least important is the H6 tag. It’s imperative to include a primary keyword in your H1 tag. So don’t skip it! Title Tags The next step in your on-page SEO strategy beyond freshly updated, keyword-rich content is to optimize the title tags on each page, meaning on the homepage and all of the website’s interior pages. Even though it may seem unnecessary, considering you just wrote detailed content, title tags are vital to both user experience and search engine optimization. According to Moz, “It creates value in three specific areas: relevancy, browsing, and the search encontinued on page 10

Rental Housing Journal Arizona · July 2017

Rental Housing Journal Arizona

Cost of Freon for Older Air Conditioner Repairs is Skyrocketing

ir conditioner repairs this summer will come with skyrocketing costs for the refrigerant R22, more commonly known as Freon™, according to a release. Production of R22 refrigerant, which is being phased out by the Environmental Protection Agency because it contains environmentally harmful ozone-depleting substances, has already dropped by 90 percent. Production will be prohibited by 2020. In air conditioner repairs, owners face the challenge of whether to repair or to replace a system using R22 refrigerant from both a financial and environmental perspective, according to the release. “We are seeing the cost to repair older air conditioners needing additional

R22 refrigerant increase by 300 to 400 percent, and that cost is only expected to increase as summer continues,” Dave Moody, Vice President of Marketing and Customer Engagement for Service Experts Heating & Air Conditioning, said in the release. Air conditioner repairs or upgrade? “The repair cost increases are helping drive many owners to upgrade to a new air conditioning system to be comfortable, as they can also save up to 50% on energy bills right away.” New air conditioning systems use the more environmentally friendly R410A refrigerant, a different refrigerant that cannot be mixed or used in an existing air conditioner or heat pump designed for R22. Currently, reclamation continued on page 9

Rental Housing Journal Arizona · July 2017

Rental Housing Journal Arizona

Property Management Leadership Requires Timely Information

echnology continues to connect us faster and from greater distances, until time zones and the miles between us no longer matter. These changes are happening at a blistering pace and timely information is allowing property management leaders to operate their companies and their properties with a new set of rules. Thomas Friedman, author of “The Lexus And The Olive Tree” says, “the future will require a complete integration of capital, technology, and timely information for leaders to lead”. As a property management professional, are you ready to be a leader of the future? Reviewing some powerful statistics: Given the rapid pace of technology and innovation it’s important to realize just how fast information and ideas are reaching us, with the tap of a keystroke. Here are some powerful statistics about today and the future: 1. It took commercial radio 38 years to reach an audience of 50 million, it took 13 years for television, but the Internet only took five years to grow this large. 2. According to the Cisco Visual Networking Index global IP traffic will reach 1.1 zettabytes per year, global IP traffic has increased fivefold over

information: Many of our property management clients are using the statistics above to create some very innovative ways of applying capital, technology and timely information. Here are some examples:

the past five years, and will increase threefold over the next five years, two-thirds of all IP traffic will originate with non-PC devices by 2019, and broadband speeds will more than double by 2019. 3. 92 percent of North American Internet users currently research travel arrangements online. 4. An MBA at Duke, Purdue or Syracuse University can be earned by taking online classes. 5. E-commerce will continue to double,

over the next 24 months.

Tip From The Coach: As a property management professional, do the above trends surprise you? Are you and your property management teams leveraging these trends for your competitive advantage? Remember, with the pace of technology, only the leaders who embrace this rapid pace will survive and thrive into the future! Leading-edge uses of technology and

1. Property management companies are using comprehensive internal websites [intranets] and the cloud, to maximize the flow of information and ideas within their company. In addition, our property management clients are linking their marketing information to the intranets of their corporate clients. 2. Leading property management companies are offering their residents WiFi Internet access and smartly-crafted resident portals. 3. Our clients have specifically designed their websites to capture the E-mail addresses of prospective future residents, for free future permission-marketing. 4. Apartment communities are leveraging their online forms/access for handling maintenance requests and other resident services plus tracking levels of response time plus completion satisfaction. ...continued on page 6

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Rental Housing Journal Arizona · July 2017

Rental Housing Journal Arizona

Salt Lake City Company Buys Arizona Apartments For $77 Million

Salt Lake City-based real estate investment and property management firm has purchased Arizona apartments called the Onnix, a 659-unit apartment property in Tempe, Arizona for $77 million, or $116,920 per unit, according to a release. Marcus & Millichap said in the release that its Institutional Property Advisors (IPA) division closed the sale . “The physical improvements made to Onnix, its excellent location and tremendous scale place the property in an enviable position within the competitive landscape of Tempe,” Cliff David, senior managing director of IPA, said in the release. “New ownership has the opportunity to resume implementing the apartment interior renovation program in an effort to generate additional monthly rent premiums.” The property is located off the northwest corner of Broadway Road and McClintock Drive at 1440 and 1500 East Broadway Road in Tempe, one mile from a Valley Metro light rail station. Arizona State University and downtown Tempe are also nearby. Arizona apartments have two phases Developed in 1984, Onnix is composed of two phases, 375-unit Onnix West and 284-unit Onnix East. The property underwent a program-

matic renovation in 2006-2007 that included condo-quality interior finishes at Onnix West. The common area amenities received extensive upgrades in 2014 with the ground-up construction of the leasing center and clubhouse, and fitness center. David and Steve Gebing, senior managing director, represented the institutional seller and procured the buyer for the Arizona apartments, Bridge Investment Group. About Bridge Investment Group Bridge Investment Group LLC (“Bridge”) is a leading privately held real estate investment and property management firm that manages $7.4 billion in assets under management within its registered investment advisory businesses. They combine a 1,000-person, nationwide, “boots-onthe-ground” operating platform with specialized teams of investment professionals focused on select US real estate verticals, which offer above-market opportunity: Multifamily, Affordable Housing, Seniors Housing & Medical Properties, Office and Debt Strategies. They are owners and operators with in-depth knowledge of local markets, as well as our extensive real asset and capital markets expertise. About Marcus & Millichap (NYSE:MMI) With over 1,700 investment sales and financing professionals located throughout the United States and Can-

Rental Housing Journal Arizona · July 2017

ada, Marcus & Millichap is a leading specialist in commercial real estate investment sales, financing, research and advisory services. Founded in 1971, the firm closed nearly 9,000 transactions in 2016 with a value of approximately $42.3 billion. The company has perfected a powerful system for marketing properties that combines investment specialization, local market expertise, the industry’s most comprehensive research, state-of-the-art technology, and relationships with the largest pool of qualified investors. To learn more, please visit: www.MarcusMillichap. com With a network of senior-level investment advisors located throughout the United States, Institutional Property Advisors (IPA) is qualified to meet the needs of institutional and major private investors. IPA’s combination of real estate investment and capital markets expertise, industry-leading technology, superior support services and acclaimed research offer customized solutions for the acquisition and disposition of institutional properties and portfolios. www. IPAusa.com

Sales Closed in Arizona... continued from page 1

seeking to grow revenue through strategic improvement plans,” David said. “Nearly all of the properties we’ve closed in the past two weeks provide their new owners with the ability to add value,” David said in the release. “In the coming years, as more businesses and residents relocate to the Phoenix area and infrastructure improvements are completed, we anticipate elevated investor demand and positive drivers of apartment fundamentals,” Gebing said. With over 1,700 investment sales and financing professionals located throughout the United States and Canada, Marcus & Millichap is a leading specialist in commercial real estate investment sales, financing, research and advisory services. Founded in 1971, the firm closed nearly 9,000 transactions in 2016 with a value of approximately $42.3 billion. The company has perfected a powerful system for marketing properties that combines investment specialization, local market expertise, the industry’s most comprehensive research, state-of-the-art technology, and relationships with the largest pool of qualified investors. To learn more, please visit: www.MarcusMillichap.com

Rental Housing Journal Arizona

By John Triplett

Solving the Pet Pee Needs in an Urban High-Rise Apartment

ow to solve pet pee needs in the middle of the night when you live in a high-rise apartment can be a real challenge. A San Diego start-up company has come up with a unique product that helps both property managers and tenants. As an individual living in a high rise condo or apartment, one can imagine how difficult it can be when your pet needs to go out to pee in the middle of the night. Tenants don’t have the option of opening the back door to a large grass backyard. It requires getting dressed, leaving the unit, going in the elevator, and eventually outside. In a city like San Diego that is embracing and building denser multifamily housing, moving from suburban environments to urban neighborhoods creates issues and difficulties for dogs and their owners when they need a grassy spot. Some dogs handle the adjustment to high rise living without incident. For others, it can be a challenge.

Solving the pet pee needs in apartments A new start-up company in San Diego has come up with a unique approach to pet pee issues that offers property managers and tenants the “backyard alternative for high rise living pooches.” 92101 Dog Solutions is subscription service that provides San Diego high rise dog owners with a fresh grass pee patch delivered to the door. In addition,

a member of their team returns in person to clean and replace the grass on a weekly basis. Founders Oscar Urteaga and Tricia Crespin started 92101 Dog Solutions less a year ago, and it has rapidly grown. In addition to servicing all the communities in downtown in the 92101 zip code, they also serve the 92102, 92103 and 92014 zip codes, including the neighborhoods of North Park, Bankers Hill, Golden Hill and Hillcrest.

Here is Urteaga’s story on how it got started “I met Tricia, my business partner and co-founder, shortly after she moved to San Diego from Arizona and brought her elderly dog with her. The dog had a heart murmur and had to take medicine that caused the dog to frequently urinate. “Living in high-rise condo in East Village, she was having to get up multiple times in the middle of the night, take him to the elevator, then downstairs outside where there were a lot of homeless people and it was not necessarily safe to take out the dog,” he said. “So I recommended to her some different products. Most were dog pee trays you can buy at pet stores and online. We tried every product and service we could find, and nothing met our expectations, and the dog did not utilize it at all. “One day we decided to buy a piece of sod and put it on one plastic ...continued on page 8

Leadership Requires Timley Information ...continued from page 4 5. Progressive companies are adding Chief Knowledge Officers to mine great ideas, share best practices, develop leading-edge technology and communicate strategic plans. 6. Our property management clients are conducting training and sharing real-time communication with their teams using a variety of training platforms.

Accessing real-time information: In addition to the examples above, leading vendors in the property management industry are providing real-time website information. Here are two examples: A leading industry website provides password-protected real-time access for its property management advertisers at a secured portion of their website. This means advertising clients can make changes to their rental rates, update property information, review web page activity and analyze monthly/year-to-date marketing reports. In a second example, a leading call tracking service is providing real-time access at their website for their property management clients. This access allows their clients to review important marketing information, compare the results of their marketing with other properties within their company, download and listen to actual in-bound telephone calls from future residents, download marketing information for 6

their own internal spreadsheets and reports, E-mail reports to others within their company and define their own parameters for custom reports of their marketing statistics. Want to hear more about this important topic or ask some additional questions about how to access real-time leadership information? Would you like to know how leaders in the property management industry are using internal information dashboards to drive their critical decisions? Send an E-mail to ernest@powerhour.com and The Coach will E-mail you a free PowerHour invitation. About The Author: Ernest F. Oriente, a business coach/trainer since 1995 [37,400 hours], serving property management industry professionals since 1988--the author of SmartMatch Alliances™, the founder of PowerHour® www.powerhour.com, the founder of PowerHour SEO/SEM www.powerhourseo.com and his live weekly PowerHour Leadership Academy www. powerhourleadershipacademy.com/pm has a passion for coaching his clients on executive leadership, hiring and motivating property management SuperStars, traditional and Internet SEO/ SEM marketing, competitive sales strategies, and high leverage alliances for property management teams and their leaders. He provides private and group

coaching for property management companies around the world, executive recruiting, investment banking, SEO/ SEM web strategies, powerful tools for hiring SuperStars and building smart teams, plus social media strategies www.powerhour.com/propertymanagement/socialmedialeadership.html . Ernest worked for Motorola, Primedia and is certified in the Xerox sales methodologies. Recent interviews and articles have appeared 9000+ times in business and trade publications and in a wide variety of leading magazines and newspapers, including Smart Money, Inc., Business 2.0, The New York Times, Fast Company, The LA Times, Fortune, Business Week, Self Employed America and The Financial Times. Since 1995, Ernest has written 260+ articles for the property management industry and created 400+ property management smartly-crafted templates, business and marketing checklists, sales letters and presentation tools. PowerHour® is based in Olympic-town Park City, Utah, at 435-615-8486, by E-mail ernest@ powerhour.com or visit their website at www.powerhour.com on Twitter, https://twitter.com/PowerHourCoach on LinkedIn, www.linkedin.com/in/ ernestoriente and on Facebook, www. facebook.com/powerhour2

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Rental Housing Journal Arizona · July 2017

Rental Housing Journal Arizona

Top 3 Biggest Stressors for Property Owners and Managers in 2017

n a new survey of 700 rental property owners across the country, maintenance repairs and replacement continues to be the biggest stressor overall for property owners and managers, according to Buildium.com. Overall 61% of respondents reported maintenance and repairs as stressful, compared to 62% last year, according to the survey. “It is clear we are struggling with both maintenance and tenant management,” Darcy Jacobsen, content manager at Buildium.com said during the webinar about the property owners perspective survey. “If you are an owner and you are struggling with these issues you are not alone. “If you are a property manager these are things you might want to bring up when you are trying to win more business, or emphasize in your marketing materials, or when you are talking to owners,” Jacobson said. Top 3 biggest stressors for property owners and managers 1. Maintenance, repairs and replacements 2. Dealing with problem tenants 3. Finding and keeping good tenants Dealing with problem tenants now No. 2 While maintenance scored as the top stressor, three out of owners’ four top complaints were solidly in the area of tenant management. Last year, ‘finding and keeping tenants’ came in

a very close second (58%). This year it dropped to #3 (49%). It swapped spots with ‘dealing with problem tenants’, which is now #2 (52%). ‘Tenant damage and vandalism’ came in fourth place this year (38%). The take-away here seems clear. Maintenance woes scored highest on their own, but three out of owners’ four top complaints were solidly in the area of tenant management. In fact, you have to go very deep into the list to find additional maintenance-related issues—such as pest management and severe weather, which tied at 6%. Breaking down the top maintenance issues When Buildium.com broke down the top maintenance issues in the survey, to highlight problems that have hit own-

ers and property managers the worst in recent years, roofing, painting, foundations and landscaping came to the top. Maintenance upkeep costs were clearly at the top with “bad tenants” right behind, so “no wonder then when we asked owners why they might look for a property manager, 60% told us their top reason was maintenance,” Buildium.com said in the survey. Owners said in the survey, “I would like someone else to deal with maintenance and emergencies,” was the top answer. And, 52 percent said managing

property day-to-day is too time consuming.” Property owners were 54% men and 46% women, according to the survey. Buildium said in the survey that, “As a rental property owner, whether you are a strategic investor or someone who has fallen more unexpectedly into ownership, you are probably curious about the experience of others. • How are they keeping property ownership profitable and enjoyable? • What are their best practices?” “Or perhaps you are a property manager looking for insights on what owners care about most.” • How can you connect with them? • What are their expectations from property management and ownership? In March 2017, Buildium and All Property Management deployed this second annual Property Owners Perspectives Survey to nearly 700 rental property owners across the U.S., asking them about property, what they expect, and where they turn for information advice and help.

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Rental Housing Journal Arizona · July 2017

Rental Housing Journal Arizona

Pet Pee Needs ...continued from page 6 tray. Given the texture and scent of real grass, the dog ended up going potty immediately. We realized that we needed real grass to curb the dog’s bathroom needs,” he said. “Unfortunately after a couple days of use, it started attracting some flies. Tricia’s brother worked on a farm in Washington State and we collaborated with him to formulate a deodorizer - we call it the, ‘secret sauce’ to reduce smells and flies. We can’t say what is in it, but we place the deodorizer under the grass to absorb all the liquids, prevent flies and it doesn’t smell. “After much trial and error to develop our own real grass pee patch, our friends and neighbors started to inquire how to get one of their own and at that moment we realized we had a business idea,” he said.

How do property managers and leasing agents feel about this? “The property managers and leasing agents we have interacted with support our service because they see it as a way to help keep their existing units clean and prevent damage caused by dog residents,” Urteaga said. “Unlike our competitors that just provide a product, our business is unique because we actually service and replace the grass patch. The grass patch has a five-layer system, so no liquids make it through to the floor or carpet. “You would be very surprised, but some of our customers - the first time we walk into their unit and all they had put down newspapers and pee pads. It was pretty gross. So we

believe 92101 Dog Solutions helps property managers and leasing agents keep their units much cleaner with residents that have dogs,” he said. “Our business is nothing new. We are not re-inventing the wheel,” Urteaga said. “What we did was we saw a need and a demand. We looked at some existing services and products that are out there and we figured out a way to make it better,” he said. He said right now they only service San Diego and will soon be announcing plans to expand their service offerings to include a full service dog concierge list of amenities, such as dog walking, dog sitting and vet appointment pick up/drop offs. “Before we decided to pursue 92101 Dog Solutions as a legitimate business, we looked at the market and numbers. We found that in the 92101 downtown zip code, there are approximately 35,000 residents, and about one-third of them have pets, mostly dogs. One of the biggest downsides of living in downtown San Diego is that there is not a lot of grass space and open parks. There are very few open parks or dog parks to allow these animals to do their business. So that is the demand we had identified. “This service does not replace dog walking – all dogs need exercise but rather offers an easy and convenient option for the bathroom needs of high rise living pooches,” he said.

How does the service work?

92101 Dog Solutions uses high quality Fescue grass that is dense and lush which dogs really enjoy. Customers can choose deliveries to occur on Saturday mornings, typically between 10:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m., or on Monday evenings between 5:30 and 7:00 p.m. “Most of our customers are busy working professionals, so we arrive at our customers units and change/replace the pee patch in less than 5 minutes,” he said. They have a growing customer base and service more than a two dozen high-rise condos and apartment buildings in the 92101 thru 92104 zip codes, he said.

Some of the top questions about the service Q: Do tenants have to get property manager approval for this product? Have any apartments refused your service? A: No. We have not ever needed property manager approval, and we have not received any critical feedback either. We have met with several leasing agents and property managers, and all welcomed our services. Q: How much does the service cost? A: For dogs 25 pounds or less, our standard size is $130 per month, which includes the pick up and delivery of the fresh grass pee patch for four weeks. For dogs between 25 pounds and 50 pounds there is an XL version that costs $180 per month. For dogs bigger than 50 pounds, the XXL version is $200 per month.

Q: Should I pick up the poop from the grass pad? A: We provide our customers with poop bags to clean up after their dogs. Q: I have two dogs, do I need two pads? How many dogs can one pad handle? A: Depending on the breed of the dog, some may become territorial of their grass patches. But most of our customers that have two or three small dogs typically share the grass pee patch. We always offer advice and solutions for any requests our customers bring us. Q: Do I keep it inside or can it go on my outside balcony? A: Yes, you can keep it indoors or leave it on your balcony. Our unique five-layer system absorbs all liquids, and does not attract flies or create smells. Obviously, the grass eventually dies off after a full week of use, but we replace it the following week Q: Do you plan to expand from San Diego? A: Yes. We started in just downtown 92101 zip code. We currently now provide service to 92102, 92103 and 92104 zip codes. We are also looking to expand even more, and we will keep you posted on our progress. Contact 92101 Dog Solutions at 619-796-3647 or 92101DogSolutions@gmail.com

Text REALESTATE-ROI to 44222 to receive a digital copy of this year's

Real Estate Opportunities in Investing (ROI) Finding Investing Success in Today's Housing Market

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Rental Housing Journal Arizona · July 2017

Rental Housing Journal Arizona

Colorado Springs ...continued from page 1

Cost of Freon ...continued from page 3 conditioners is 8 to 10 years, which will help determine the cost benefit of either paying the premium price for R22 to repair older systems, versus upgrading. Additional benefits to upgrading include the opportunity to take advantage of energy rebates being offered and improving a resident’s efficient use of energy. New equipment will also have longer warranty periods, quieter operation, and the peace of mind of a more ozone-friendly refrigerant, not to mention greater home comfort through more advanced technology.

will be sold there compared with the national average. ATTOM looked at 120 metropolitan areas that had at least 100,000 single-family homes and condos. Those that scored the highest combined affordable homes with access to jobs, said Daren Blomquist, senior vice president of ATTOM. An index above 100 in a given market means an above-average ratio of homes will be sold there compared with the national average If you’re looking to buy in one of these markets, competition could be fierce. It may help to get preapproved for a mortgage and to pull your credit to make sure there’s nothing on your report that will bog you down. Take a look at this list of the 15 areas with the highest Pre-Mover Housing Indices.

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over 10,000 apartment owners, on-site and maintenance personnel monthly Call 503-

and recycling of R22 is expected to be sufficient for existing systems, albeit at a much higher cost, providing time to upgrade systems before the phase-out period, according to the release. “Owners don’t have to replace their entire system now, but it’s helpful for them to know their options in this situation,” Moody said. “It’s important to know you can’t mix R22 and R410A.

When a new R410A system is installed, the outdoor equipment and outdoor coil both need replacing, and the interconnecting refrigerant tubing needs inspecting. These newer systems are often far more energy efficient and can significantly save on energy costs, sound pollution, or even utilize alternative energy sources like solar energy.” The average life-span of many air

Service Experts Heating & Air Conditioning locations have been serving their communities with air conditioning and heating repair, maintenance plans and new system installation for decades, and the average age of their service centers is over 50 years. Headquartered in Plano, TX, Service Experts is one of North America’s largest heating and air conditioning service companies with 90 locations across 29 U.S. states and three Canadian provinces.

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Rental Housing Journal Arizona · July 2017

Rental Housing Journal Arizona

DEAR MAINTENANCE MEN: Couter Tops, Pinhole Leaks and Smoke Detector Batterys

By Jerry L’Ecuyer & Frank Alvarez Dear Maintenance Men: The kitchen counter tops in my rental units are old and tired looking. I want to upgrade but I am confused about which counter top material will be best. Can you go over the pros and cons of some of the more popular counter top surfaces available? John Dear John, We are lucky today to have so many choices of countertop materials available. The four most popular materials are plastic laminate, granite, engineered stone & ceramic tile. Plastic laminate or better known as Formica Brand is still the most popular choice for apartment counter tops. This is because the choice in colors is almost unlimited and the ease of installation keeps the costs down. With proper care, plastic laminate will last for years;

however, it can be easily scratched by knives or scorched by hot pots. Laminate counter tops can be easily installed by the average handyman, DYI person or contractor. Granite counter tops in the apartment industry are very popular and with good reason. The cost of granite has come down to reasonable levels and the upgraded look of a granite countertop is substantial. They are very tough and are resistant to staining, scratching and scorching. Granite countertops will need to be professionally installed and sealed periodically. Engineered stone countertops are almost as popular as granite, and are slightly more expensive than granite. Popular brands are DuPont & Silestone. Engineered stone countertops are composed of quartz particles and resins and the surface is smooth, non-porous, and scratch resistant. They require less

maintenance than granite. Engineered stone countertops are not DIY friendly and will need professionally trained installers. Ceramic tile countertops have been around almost as long as plastic laminate. They can be installed by the average handyman, DYI person or contractor. They are heat & stain resistant. Ceramic tiles do need to have periodic maintenance to keep the grout lines clean and sanitary. From a management and maintenance prospective, we are finding granite countertops to be the top choice. The price difference between laminate and granite are close enough to warrant upgrading to granite. If you intend to hold onto your investment for a long time, granite will more than pay for its self. Dear Maintenance Men: My plumber just informed me that my

10 unit building has “Type M” copper piping. He says Type M has thinner walls than the more robust “Type L” copper pipe. Could this be the reason I am having more water line pinholes leaks? Dave Dear Dave: A number of things can cause copper water line pinhole leaks. Having the thinner Type M copper pipes may result in your property having pin hole leaks sooner than with the thicker Type L pipe. However, thin Type M pipe is often only a contributing factor when it comes to pinhole leaks. Typically, water chemistry, incoming water pressure, recirculation pumps and poor construction methods are part of the contributing factors in pipe leaks. Check with your city or water distributor in your area to get infor...continued on page 11

Proven SEO Tactics...continued from page 2 gine result pages.” The best thing about title tags, unlike generating content, is that they are low-effort; however, they still effect SEO in a highly significant way. The optimal title tag length is 55-60 characters. Think of the title tag as a description of that particular page’s content. Although longer title tags often work better for social sharing and search engines don’t necessarily cut off keywords in search results, it is often suggested to write title tags that encourage clicks rather than obsess over length. Placement is also important. The closer the keyword is to the start of the title tag, the more it will help ranking, boosting clicks from search users. Many SEO firms recommend using the brand name at the end of the title tag, especially if the brand is less well

known. Just like when you’re writing content, you need to consider the user’s experience while you are creating title tags as well as keyword usage. If your title tags are compelling like your content, it will earn more visits from the search results. Since the title tag dictates the visitor’s first impression of your brand when they locate your apartment community through search, it should evoke a positive reaction.

Meta Descriptions You know that small description you see under a link whenever you perform a Google or Bing search? That is a meta description. Essentially, the meta description is an explanation of the content on the webpages you pull up during your search. According to the represen-

tatives of Google and Bing, a webpage’s meta description isn’t directly used in search engine ranking algorithms, but most SEO professionals still consider them to be critical because they will allow your website to gain user clickthrough rates. You should think of the meta description as an opportunity to advertise the content on your webpage to searchers, allowing them to discern whether the given webpage contains the information they were initially searching for. Meta descriptions are a search marketing tactic. Like webpage content and title tags, they should be unique. Even though you should use keywords in your meta description, you must also create compelling content in the process that will draw the user in, encouraging them to click on the link above.

Most meta descriptions are between 150-160 characters. Remember: Google and other search engines will bold keywords in the description when they match the user’s search terms. When crafting the content of your website, there is nothing more crucial than the user’s experience. You must develop a deep understanding of your prospects as well as your current residents. To boost on-page optimization, and in turn, click-through rates to your apartment community’s website, which have the potential to turn into leads, it is vital to write quality content, include title tags and H-tags, and carefully construct your meta descriptions.

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Rental Housing Journal Arizona · July 2017

Rental Housing Journal Arizona

Data Supports Multifamily Investments ...continued from page 1 that there is too much inventory. Many banks share the belief that the added supply will cause vacancies to increase and rents to drop, especially those lending into primary and high growth markets, which have been seeing the most investment activity over this last market cycle. While it is certainly valid to monitor the volume and delivery pace of apartment inventory, banks’ views can often get distorted when their primary data source is their loan portfolio allocation, Blatt says in the release. While lenders will naturally become more selective as they consider increasing their multifamily investments exposure, it’s critical that they rely on a broader dataset to ensure attractive multifamily lending opportunities are not overlooked. The most prudent lenders also rely on historical and economic data to help guide their capital allocation decisions, according to the release. Current economic macro data supports multifamily investments For instance, while the national va-

cancy rate for multifamily property is projected to increase to 5.6% in 2017 and to 5.7% in 2018, according to CoStar Group, these figures are still below the 15-year average vacancy rate of 6.1%. •

Meanwhile housing starts are at a historic low. Fewer homes are available for sale than in any previous cycle and the cost to build is climbing, especially with the recently implemented tariffs against Canadian softwood lumber imports. • Additionally, the recent and continued rise in interest rates make it more challenging for people to purchase homes. • All these factors will redirect prospective buyers back into the rental population, helping multifamily maintain its status as a safe and stable asset class. “In high growth markets, we check the apartment inventory data against fundamental economic drivers like growing industries and labor force,” Blatt said in the release.

David Blatt, CEO of Capstack Partners “We look to structure our clients’ debt and equity financing to be stable enough to handle momentary ebbs and flows in the cycle. This allows developers and operators to zoom out and focus on executing a fundamentally sound investment strategy based on drivers like jobs and population growth,” he said. Multifamily is largest asset class in real estate investing Multifamily is the largest asset class within real estate investing. When high profile institutions actively build then sell in the short-term, and lenders begin to murmur about too many apartments, it is important for private investors to remember that buying and building rental properties isn’t a market timing game. Rather, it is about managing and locking down your property operating and financing costs, increasing your rental revenue, and enjoying the appreciation of your investment over time.

CapStack Partners is a specialty investment bank focusing on the real estate, hospitality, infrastructure and energy industries. Founded and led by capital markets expert David Blatt, CapStack provides a full range of investment banking services including project financing, private placements, mergers and acquisitions, loan syndications, workouts and dispositions, and strategic advisory. CapStack’s diverse range of clients include private and publicly traded companies as well as universities, not-for-profit institutions and municipalities.

Dear Maintenance Men ...continued from page 10 mation on the water chemistry and hardness. Adding a water softener to the incoming water supply will help protect both the pipes and water heater. Reducing the water pressure with a pressure regulator will reduce stress on the pipes. If you have a recirculation pump for the water heater, it will help to install a timer to control the amount of time the pump is active. Moving water produces a lot of friction in the pipes. Set the timer to operate the pump only during high demand hours. Doing these easy fixes, may add life to your existing pipes. If poor construction methods are involved, re-piping may be your only solution in addition to the above solutions. Dear Maintenance Men: I install a new battery powered smoke & CO detector into each unit before a new tenant moves in. The tenants moving into the apartment unit must sign a smoke detector agreement along with the rental agreement. The smoke detector agreement requires the tenant to check the detector for operation and replace the battery once a year. Should I be doing anything else or am I covered? Bill Dear Bill: We are not lawyers and cannot answer as to your possible liability in the matter of smoke & CO detectors. However, our guess is the brand new battery you installed at the beginning of your resident’s occupancy is currently operating a remote control toy. Our thoughts on smoke detectors are sim-

ple: They are cheap, install more than one and check them yourself regularly. From the property management view, most insurance companies require that you keep a smoke detector log on each unit and that they are checked every six months or at least once a year. The log does not need to be elaborate. Our Smoke Detector Log has the property address at the top, with eight columns. We recommend you keep a similar log for each CO detector you install. 1: Unit#: 2: Number of Detectors: 3: Check Detector: split column with Good/Bad 4: Battery Replaced: yes/no 5: Detector Replaced: yes/no 6: Initials: the person who did the checking should initials or sign 7: The Date of Inspection: 8: Comments: such as whether the battery was missing or the detector was damaged, etc. As an added precaution, we check the smoke & CO detectors every time we enter a rental unit regardless of the reason we are there. We make a note of the impromptu inspection on the Smoke Detector Log. Be sure to include the date and the person who checked the units. It helps us sleep at night.

sultation for your building or project, please feel free to contact us. We are available throughout Southern California. For an appointment please call Buffalo Maintenance, Inc. at 714 956-8371 Frank Alvarez is licensed contractor and the Operations Director and co-owner of Buffalo Maintenance, Inc. He has been involved with apartment maintenance & construction for over 20 years. He is also a lecturer & educational instructor and Co-Chair of the Education Committee of the Apartment Association of Orange County as well as being Chairman of the Product Service Counsel. Frank can be reached at (714) 956-8371 Frankie@BuffaloMaintenance.com For more info please go to: www.BuffaloMaintenance.com Jerry L'Ecuyer is a licensed contractor & real estate broker. He is currently on the Board of Directors and Past President and past Chairman of the Education Committee of the Apartment Association of Orange County. Jerry has been involved with apartments as a professional since 1988.

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Rental Housing Journal Arizona · July 2017

Rental Housing Journal Arizona

Rental Housing Journal Arizona Âˇ July 2017