Metro (Portland, OR ) Rental Housing Journal August 2014 by Professional Publishing, Inc

Rental Housing Journal Metro

August 2014 12. Dear Maintenance Men:

2. Campus-Style WiFi Systems: The Amenity for Today

14. Fed Chair Says a Mouthful to Property Owners and Managers

3. The Joys of Technology Integration

15. The Post-Dated Notice to Vacate

4. Help, My Time’s Been Hijacked

16. C23 Property Management Tips for Mastering E-mail ©

6. RHOA President’s Message: 10. Ask the Energy Expert: PropertyManager.com a Service of AppFolio

WWW.RENTALHOUSINGJOURNAL.COM • PROFESSIONAL PUBLISHING, INC

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Published in association with: METRO Multifamily Housing Association; Rental Housing Association of Oregon; IREM & Clark County Rental Association

3 Tips for Low, Middle & High Net Worth Peerto-Peer Investors ‘You Need to Learn Enough to be Dangerous,’ says P2P Pioneer

fter the economy crashed in December 2007, nascent online peer-to-peer lending platforms quickly grew. They’ve since evolved into an increasingly popular investment alternative to Wall Street and other traditional options. Peer-to-peer lending isn’t new and it’s no passing fad, says P2P pioneer Brendan Ross, president of Direct Lending Investments LLC, (www.dirlend.com), which runs a short-term, high-yield small business loan fund. “It’s a rebirth of the simplest and oldest way of making money: one individual loaning money to another and getting paid back with interest,” Ross says. What makes this new incarnation different is accessibility. “Online lenders like IOU-Central and Prosper.com make it easy for prospective lenders to find and fund borrowers through a website,” Ross says. “These platforms have automated the underwriting process, including checking credit and looking at applicants’ bank accounts, so they can vet borrowers based on reliable information.” Each online lending platform operates differently, but all vet applicants. The lender posts qualifying continued on page 11 Professional Publishing Inc. PO Box 6244 Beaverton, OR 97007

Straw, Sticks, or Bricks… What is Your House Made Of?

hen the big bad wolf, better known as online reviews, comes knocking at your door, how solid is your community’s reputation? Think back to the children’s bedtime story, The Three Little Pigs. Each pig decided to leave home and seek their fortunes. Before leaving, their mother told them, “Whatever you do, do it the best that you can because that is the way to get along in the world.” The first pig decided to build its house of straw, because it was the easiest, leaving him more time to play. Is your community built of straw? Are you doing just enough to get by? Residents living at a straw community may feel as though all they are to you is an apartment number and a monthly check. Walking into your office, they may be second in priority to prospects, a ringing telephone, or even a conversation among co-workers. Straw commu-

Do You Have Insurance on Your Retirement Plan?

Financial Planner Shares Tips for Protecting Your Savings

ou have insurance on your home, your car, your health. How about your retirement

plan? “People have homeowners insurance to protect against fires and floods,” notes independent financial planner Stephen Ng, founder and

Current Resident or

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president of Stephen Ng Financial Group, (www.stephenngfg.com). “They buy insurance to replace their car if it gets wrecked and they buy health insurance to protect themselves from medical costs. “But for many people, their biggest material asset is their retirement

portfolio. When I look at a new client’s portfolio and ask, ‘Where’s your insurance?’ They look at me like I’m crazy!” Insure your retirement fund by taking steps to safeguard at least a portion of it, Ng says. As you get continued on page 7

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Campus-Style WiFi Systems: The Amenity for Today

partment residents have long held in high regard such amenities as a fitness center, a patio, a washer/dryer and a pool, but now of equal importance as those features is having high-speed community-wide Internet service. Having high-speed communitywide Internet service is now among the most desired amenities according to a 2013 survey by the National Multi Housing Council. More than 70 percent of respondents said that it was important or very important. Easy enough, right? Practically every restaurant and coffee shop you visit has wireless Internet service. Most libraries have it. Many college campuses do too. If the corner Starbucks (and mid-block Starbucks and other corner Starbucks) can pull this off, surely you can too. Is it as simple as expanding the WiFi you already have running in your business center or around the pool area? It’s not. As many an apartment manager has discovered, there are a plethora of significant hurdles to setting up a WiFi system that provides consistent, fast and full coverage across a number of buildings and in open spaces. It would be hard to design something that would be tougher to bring WiFi to than an apartment commu-

nity. Concrete. Stucco and wire framing. Metal duct work. Hot-water heaters and washers and driers. Fireplaces. And any number of devices in each unit trying to connect to the Internet. In fact, everything apartment communities have in quantity interfere with the microwave level frequencies that WiFi uses. The vastness of the area to provide coverage is yet another challenge. Most WiFi access points (AP) have an indoor broadcast range of between 25 to 100 feet, so dozens if not

hundreds of AP units are required to create complete coverage. These AP units need to be installed with great care and must operate in coordination so that all areas get coverage but that each signal doesn’t interfere with the other. In most urban areas, all the other devices operating on the license-free radio frequency cause interference

with WiFi systems, which weakens the signal and can cause interruptions. These devices include mobile phones, baby monitors, radios, twoway radios and other WiFi systems. Couple that with the small antenna most consumer devices have and you have connectivity issue. Security is increasingly one of the biggest issues in setting up a WiFi system. Hackers target public WiFi systems that are weakly defended or are poorly designed, snooping about for sensitive information to exploit. With the high-profile security breaches in the past few years, users are more conscience than ever of the need for top-quality security. Perhaps the greatest hurdle in installing community-wide WiFi in apartment communities has been the cost. The electronic hardware and cost of installing the equipment can easily top $100,000 (not to mention on-going maintenance), too great a price tag for most apartment community owners to justify installing, leaving residents to each get their own Internet service. continued on page 8

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The Full Spectrum Residential Services & Apartment Maintenance Institute’s Dana Brown & Zach Howell send a huge “Thank You” to the Golf Committee for their commitment & dedication 1st Annual “Really Fun” Golf Tournament Possible due to a passionate group of industry professionals. Lynne Whitney - Real Estate Roofing Trina Latshaw - Squires Electric Matt Korshoj - Paul Davis Restoration of Greater Portland Liz Albright - Lovett Services AJ Sheppard - Uptown Property Management

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The Joys of Technology Increase Your Laundry Room Capacity Integration by as much as 50% And Save Up To 50% on Utility Costs

By Mary Girsch-Bock Once upon a time there was a woman we’ll call Jill. Jill worked in a fairly large property management company that handled both commercial and residential property management, so Jill was kept busy. When Jill became a property manager, she was trained on the company’s property management software. The software was adequate, but didn’t perform many of the tasks that Jill had to utilize in order to run

her property smoothly. So Jill used the primary software product exclusively for move-ins and move-outs. But the software was unable to run the reports that her management team at headquarters wanted, so they purchased reporting software for her to use. Without proper training, Jill was unable to run reports on the new system, so she simply started using Excel. Her primary software didn’t support her maintenance department staff, so Jill began to use yet another software product continued on page 13

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Help, My Time’s Been Hijacked

Does it feel like you manage your schedule or does your schedule manage you? I’ve started days focused, with my task-list in front of me ready to tackle the day. Then I opened up my email, received some phone calls, had people walk into my office needing instruction, and before I knew it I had completely lost focus on my task list allowing my day to be hijacked. We can’t always control the hours we work, the interruptions or additional tasks we have to complete but there is a way to manage it more successfully and to focus on the right things. I’m going to share ten tips that have helped me over the years to have more balance in my life and to take control of the busy chaotic demands of my career. 1. The first step is to consciously set your priorities. This includes priorities for work and for life. Determine what is most important to you and what your goals are. Pick your top 5 (keep it simple) and stay focused on these. Take time each

morning to review your priorities reminding yourself to block out time each day that will focus on what is important to you. Live a life that reflects the priorities you have set. 2. Track your time for one week. Look for time wasters that suck up your day without being obvious. These may include social media sites, news feeds, personal calls, shopping online, or a gossiper in the office. You may notice that in addition to wasting your time, they drain your energy too! Identify times in the day that you are more productive and schedule more challenging tasks during those times. 3. Use Microsoft Outlook or other electronic calendar programs to schedule out your month as much as possible in advance. Organizing your schedule puts you in a proactive frame of mind. Schedule one thing you look forward to doing every day. These are the items in your day that reenergize you and give you the energy and focus you need to accomplish the other tasks in your day that you don’t like as much. Keep your commitments to personal

appointments on your schedule. If you have something fun on your schedule (for instance making it to your son’s baseball game) then you will work harder and stay focused so you don’t have to cancel or show up late. 4. Make health a priority. Getting up earlier in the morning is not always the easiest thing for most of us to do but the benefits of taking time to exercise are proven. Studies show that you deal with stress much better when you regularly exercise and you also have more energy and focus. Make sure you get enough sleep every night. This can have an impact on your focus during the day and also helps maintain a healthy weight. Plan out your meals for the week to ensure you have healthy snacks and lunches throughout the day. I hear a lot of people say “I haven’t eaten all day” and they wonder why they are so tired. Drink plenty of water to stay hydrated. Drinking water can give you that boost of energy and focus you are looking for in the middle of the afternoon. Make space in your life for

quiet time. This is a great time to reflect on life and if you are living your priorities. 5. Learn to say “no”. I admit this is not something I am good at but over time I have learned that there is not choice, I can’t do it all. One of my mentors taught me that it is important to say “yes” to the right things and equally as important to turn down projects that are too much to handle at that time. Over committing will spread you too thin and then you aren’t great at anything. 6. Ask for support. Asking for help on projects is not a sign of weakness but shows you know when you need help. Be sure to have people in your life that are positive and help to support you. Delegate. This empowers your teams when they know you trust them with responsibility. If you think no one can do it better than you then you need to reevaluate your perspective. Hiring smart people that you can develop and delegate to is a positive reflection of your abilities. 7. Dale Carnegie says “About Continued on next page

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c A.M. c P.M.

UNIT #

MAINTENANCE DEPARTMENT IS WORKING IN YOUR UNIT NOW

DATE

TIME

c SOMEONE HAS BEEN IN YOUR UNIT REASON: c MAINTENANCE______________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________

c EMERGENCY_________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________

WHO ENTERED___________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________

ACTION TAKEN____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

FUTURE ACTION REQUIRED_______________________________________

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Rental Housing Journal Metro • August 2014

RENTAL HOUSING JOURNAL METRO

Help...continued from page 2 90% of the things in our life are right. Make sure you don’t overlook the 90% that is right because you are focusing on the 10% that isn’t.” Do you waste a lot of energy focused on the things that are going wrong? Ask yourself “how much of this is in my control?” It isn’t worth your time to focus on the things you have no control over. Spend your energy coming up with solutions on the things you actually can have an impact on. 8. Take vacations. Plan your

vacations in advance. Schedule you vacations at the right time of the month to avoid critical deadlines or meeting. Make sure you are choosing adequate coverage during your absence and give everyone the tools needed to handle any emergencies that may arise. Learn to let go for that week and turn off your email. If your team can’t handle things while you are gone then you may need to reevaluate your hiring and training skills. If you have done your job well

you should be able to leave for a week without any problem. 9. Find a mentor. This can be a formal or informal arrangement. Look around you for someone that has their time management and work life balance figured out (or at least they appear to). Ask them to help you to review your habits and work style to improve your efficiency. Glean from them as much as you can and adopt their good habits. 10. You will have to put in extra hours when learning a new skill or taking on a new project but it if it related to achieving your bigger career goals it is worth it and will pay off. Successful people will put in the time when needed and aren’t focused on punching a clock. These ten tips are the tools that best helped me to manage my sched-

ule more effectively. But I have one last tip that sums it up for me. Be passionate about what you do. When you find your drive and passion for what you do at work and in life it will give you more energy to keep going. Be sure to surround yourself with smart, positive people who are passionate about what they do. They are energizing and will rub off on you. In turn pass along your passion for life to others. Be the person that leaves a positive impact on everyone around you. Make an impact!

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RENTAL HOUSING JOURNAL METRO President Elizabeth Carpenter • President Elect John Sage • Past President Phil Owen • Vice President Robin Lashbaugh • Secretary Lynne Whitney • Treasurer Elaine Elsea • Office Manager Cari Pierce 10520 NE Weidler Portland, OR 97220 (503) 254-4723 • fax (503) 254-4821 info@rhagp.org • www.rhaoregon.org.

hat do an Irish cook, a hot summer, and RHA have in common? A lot! Since the early years, committed volunteers have run the Rental Housing Alliance. Certainly people with an interest in the rental housing industry, but also people who have a built in need to serve others. In 1969, leaving Ireland to join the US Air Force, Tony Kavanagh became a cook. He saw first hand how serving people their most basic need not only kept our forces going, but also how something so simple changed someone’s outlook on life. With knowledge of stoves, Tony landed at G & C Distribution in Portland. In 1986, he joined the RHA and served as a RHA board director from 2001 to 2012. His humor, his

President’s Message: delightful way, and that Irish accent that never quite left has always been an important part of RHA. What makes RHA, a collection of community-minded people who are drawn to serve, so special is that it never stops. Tony, one of our best, has shown the way. Though he recently stepped down from serving on the board, Tony continues to serve! He now cooks for the less fortunate and those who need a hand finding housing through JOIN, the non-profit we at the RHA support. He is still changing peoples outlooks for the good. Tony, on behalf of RHA and the Rental Housing community, we thank you. Since it is summer and we are on the theme of food this month, I want to invite everyone to our traditional

Summer Picnic. Wednesday, the 13th of August, come join your friends at the Rental Housing Alliance for our family picnic. We Barbeque, we bingo, we have rides, laugh, and share what makes RHA truly unique: Our people. And guess what? Tony will be cooking hot dogs. Yes it’s true, August is always the hardest month to focus on business. The sun is out, kids have only a few weeks before school starts, and vacations have been planned. The list goes on and on, but the RHA keeps everything going with our tenant screening and our popular “Understanding your Decision Point” webinar classes. Can’t wait to see everyone in a few weeks at our Picnic. Join us at

Liz Carpenter RHAOregon President

Oaks Amusement Park August 13th in Area 1, registration desk opens at 2pm. Sincerely, Liz Carpenter, Rental Housing Alliance Oregon President Since 1927, the Rental Housing Alliance Oregon has set the standard for community participation by landlords providing affordable and quality housing.

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Rental Housing Journal Metro • August 2014

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Insurance...continued from front page closer to retiring, the amount you safeguard will be what you need to rely on for your retirement income. “Your retirement income should be derived from guaranteed sources, such as Social Security benefits and your pension plan,” says Ng, a licensed 3(21) fiduciary advisor, certified to advise companies about their 401(k) and other retirement plans. “It’s the amount you need to pay the bills and do the other things you hope to do in retirement, so your retirement income needs to be a guaranteed source of income. “Then you look for your ‘play checks.’ That’s the money you don’t absolutely have to have, so you can still try to grow it, and take risks with it, in the market.” Ng offers these tips for insuring your retirement plan: • Invest a portion of your portfolio in annuities. Annuities are long-term investment options through insurance companies that guarantee you payments over a certain rate of time, which could be the rest of your life or the life of your spouse or other survivor. Note: The guarantee is subject to the financial strength and claimspaying ability of the issuing insurance company. • If you leave your job, quickly roll your employer-sponsored 401(k) into an IRA. While 401(k)s are a great tool for saving, particularly if your employer is providing matching funds, if you were to die, the taxes your survivors would pay on your 401(k) would be much higher than on an IRA. That’s because they would have to inherit the money in a lump sum – that could easily take 35 percent right off the top. The lump-sum rule does not

Straws, Sticks...continued from front page

apply to IRAs. While your spouse would have the option to inherit your 401(k) as an IRA, your children would not. So, take advantage of your employer-sponsored 401(k), but if you leave the company, convert to an IRA or ROTH IRA. You can also begin transferring your 401(k) funds to an IRA at age 59½. • Consider converting your IRA to a ROTH IRA. For protection from future income tax rate increases, you should consider slowly converting your tax-deferred IRA funds into a ROTH IRA. Yes, you’ll have to pay the taxes now on the money you transfer, but that will guarantee that withdrawals in your retirement are not taxed – even as the money grows. If you plan to leave at least part of your IRA to your children, they’ll benefit from a fund that continues to grow tax-free. About Stephen Ng Stephen Ng is the founder and president of Stephen Ng Financial Group™ (www.stephenngfg.com). Since 1992, he has helped pre-retirees and retirees preserve and increase their wealth by, in part, helping them avoid common mistakes. He regularly holds financial management, retirement investing and insurance planning seminars at businesses, churches and non-profit organizations. Ng is a Chartered Life Underwriter, Chartered Financial Consultant and a Certified Estate Planner. He is also an Investment Advisor Representative with SagePoint Financial, Inc., member FINRA/SIPC. He brings a national and international perspective to his financial advice, with professional and educational roots in Australia and Asia, and certifications in 19 states.

nities are defenseless to the big bad wolf because cutting corners and indifferent service are surefire triggers for negative reviews. The second pig built its house of sticks. While stronger than the straw, this material had its own shortcomings. The second pig chose sticks because he could fashion a sturdy structure quickly and still have the rest of the day to play. Stick communities have great intentions when it comes to their residents however, consistency and longevity are often a challenges. By not providing a stellar level of service day in and day out, the big bad wolf has no problem lurking outside your door, waiting for an opportunity to pounce. This brings me to the third little pig. While its brothers teased him because of the playtime he was missing, this pig never wavered in his quest to build a solid structure. The third pig had a “one and done” mentality. Building his house correctly the first time and preparing for the unforeseen proved to be beneficial for this little pig. The wolf tries to blow the house down and when that doesn’t work, the wolf decides to climb to the roof and enter the house through the chimney. Oh but the third little pig, always prepared for the unforeseen, had a huge kettle of boiling water to meet the wolf as he came down the chimney, putting an end to the big bad wolf.

Brick communities, although resilient, are not immune to the big bad wolf. The wolf knows the community is strong and well-built, but can’t resist trying to take a shot at its reputation. Knowing that a strong online reputation begins with a first-rate onsite experience, brick communities put forth the effort to make the most of every resident interaction. They sacrifice the easy to make residents top priority on a daily basis. And when the wolf does try to get it, they are prepared with a ready response. Protecting your community’s online reputation starts with having the right attitude (work hard, build it right, prepare for anything) along with facing the negative head on with a counter attack. As the mother of the three little pigs said in the beginning of the story, “Whatever you do, do it the best that you can because that is the way to get along in the world.” Straw, sticks or bricks… who’s afraid of the big bad wolf? BY Lia Nichole Smith | VP – Education and Consulting | SatisFacts Research and ApartmentRatings.com

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WiFi ...continued from front page But a few wireless internet service companies have developed new equipment, software and delivery methods that solve the issues that have long prevented apartment communities from installing campus-like WiFi. A growing number of apartment communities are installing the service and marketing the much-desired amenity. Residents of the Emparrado Apartments, a 154-unit community in Mesa, have been receiving highspeed Internet service since the spring. In addition to faster speeds, resident are most excited about being able to unbundled service from cable providers, saving money, and in the flexibility of service, said Debbie Achs, property manager. “I live here and I am dumping the Internet portion of my cable service,” she says. Most residents don’t want a land line phone, and a good portion want to drop cable TV service, given the increasing cost. Having campus-style WiFi has made the property more attractive to potential residents, Achs said. “It's been the one amenity that every single potential resident has asked about,” she said. “It's been a huge influence. It just opens the door to new and better things.”

How have wireless Internet service companies overcome the difficulties in having campus-style WiFi in apartment communities? First, they’ve taken advantage of the high-speed and high-capacity data packages available directly from data center operators. By eliminating the cable or satellite dish companies from the equation, end users get Internet service at a fraction of the prior cost and the apartment community owners can establish a new profit source. Installation costs are typically borne by the Internet service companies, who earn a return from the monthly charge to end-users. “The technical solutions were difficult; we tried many designs that just didn’t perform,” said Rory Conaway, a well-known radio frequency engineer and owner of Phoenix-based Triad Wireless, which designed and installed the campus-style Wi-Fi system that was installed at the Emparrado Apartments. “But we knew the market demand for campus-style WiFi was strong and worth the engineering and technical effort.” At the behest of Red Hot-Spot Company, a start-up Internet service provider, Triad Wireless spent more than a year in R&D creating a continued on next page

Rental Housing Journal Metro • August 2014

RENTAL HOUSING JOURNAL METRO

WiFi ...continued from page 8 proprietary Wi-Fi design for apartments. Access points are where end users connect to the Internet. Triad’s design uses access points that are a third the size of the smallest access point previously on the market. The small size and increase in power made it possible to design and build a campus-style WiFi system that overcomes stucco, steel, firewalls and a geographically spread community, Conaway said. Concurrently, Red Hot-Spot developed a proprietary software system that manages each account separately, blocks external sharing, allows each household to have multiple devices connected at any one time, manages gamers, and manages the revenue and service components. “It seems like a simple task – having multiple users and multiple devices trying to connect from one apartment unit – but it was quite a challenge to develop the software to allow that to happen without connection and security issues,” said Red Hot-Spot President Zach Spain. Security for end users was also addressed in designing the campusstyle WiFi system, Spain said. Rather than users having to rely on the security filter on their home computer and devices, which are often outdated or over-matched, users of campus-style WiFi are protected by a commercial security system that filters out threats and dangers before

Rental Housing Journal Metro • August 2014

they ever get reach users' computers. “This is a level of security typically found at Fortune 500 companies,” Spain said. “We knew we had to offer that kind of peace of mind on a WiFi system, given that it’s viewed as a shared system and because of the increasing level of threats on the Internet.” The Phoenix-based company, which is just two years old, has installed campus-style WiFi in a number of communities in Phoenix and Tucson, and expects to start construction on dozens of communities throughout the Southwest by fall.

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Ask the Energy Expert:

New property manager alerts streamline move in, move out Q: Is there a way to simplify managing electric utility service when tenants move in and out? A: If you’re a Portland General Electric customer, we have good news! We now can send you emails to alert you that a tenant has contacted PGE to start or stop service. By setting up this convenient self-service feature on your accounts, your move-in and move-out process becomes more streamlined. Benefits of property manager alerts Property manager alerts are simple. When a resident cancels service with PGE, you receive an automatic email from us so you know the exact date the account will switch over to you. Similarly, when a tenant opens an account, you are notified of the date service will switch to that resident’s new account. These alerts benefit property managers in several ways: • Let you know when tenants plan to start or stop service Larisa Seibel, Business Services Team

• Keep you in the know on exactly when you will be responsible for power charges • Eliminate unnecessary calls and faxes to PGE. If

your records match what’s on the alert, no further action is necessary. • Help prevent errors or misunderstandings about when billing transfers to you • Help you better manage move in and move out on multiple accounts Call us to sign up for property manager alerts In the Portland area, call us at 503-228-6322. In other areas, call 800-822-1077. We’re available Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. When you call, please have the following information for each property: • Property manager agreement signed by the property owner • Property address • PGE account number(s) for the property • Mailing address and phone number of property manager • Email address where PGE will send alerts for each property. Because personnel may change in your property management company, PGE recommends you set up a unique and generic email address for property manager alerts, such as alerts@ABCpropertymanagement.com. Nothing changes for your tenants Please remind tenants that they also need to contact PGE when they move in or move out. They can do this easily online at PortlandGeneral. com/StartStopMove or by calling PGE customer service. If you have questions you’d like to have answered in future columns, please e-mail Sarah.

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3 Tips ...continued from front page requests on its website, and private investors decide which to fund, either in their entirety or in part. At Lending Club, for instance, investors can choose to lend the entire amount requested by a borrower, or as little as $25 to multiple borrowers, which adds protection if one defaults. Investors can manually choose which loans to fund, or they can ask the platform to choose within certain parameters. Yields on a portfolio of loans can be 10 percent or more, Ross says. He offers these tips for investors in three tiered financial levels: • Investing $10,000 to $24,000: Visit the Lending Club and Prosper.com websites, and choose the one that most appeals to you, Ross says. “Open an account in a tax-deferred IRA and shift a portion of your investments out of stocks and into lending,” he says.

The reason for that is interest income is taxed at a higher rate than the capital gains from stocks. Deferring those taxes until you begin spending from the IRA will help keep a lid on your current tax bill. • Investing $25,000 to $100,000: At $25,000, you have enough money to start getting professional advice about which loans to choose and how much to invest in each. “I recommend going to www.lendacademy.com/invest because it’s run by Peter Renton, who’s very knowledgeable,” Ross says. “You choose between a conservative or balanced portfolio – I recommend balanced for higher yield -- and they’ll choose the loans for you and put them in your account.” The fee is just 0.95 percent.

for private fund pools, Ross says. “As P2P matures, borrower categories that have always had the highest yields, such as small businesses, become available as private fund pools that are managed to deliver the highest yields,” he says. These pools form mutually beneficial relationships with the P2P lending platforms, allowing the platforms to serve a larger volume of borrowers. The private funds get well-vetted borrowers from the platforms and manage the funds to the maximum benefit of all their investors. “Everybody wins,” Ross says, “including the borrowers, who get fast loans at reasonable rates.”

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Dear Maintenance Men: By Jerry L'Ecuyer & Frank Alvarez

Dear Maintenance Men: By Jerry L'Ecuyer & Frank Alvarez Dear Maintenance Men: I am a firm believer in doing interior and exterior inspections at my properties. However, as I’m getting older, I find I am spending less time at the buildings, so I need to use my time constructively. What should I include in an inspection report to help me decide what work to do now or later? Fred Dear Fred: You are thinking ahead and that is a good thing! Just because you visit the property less, does not mean the building requires less maintenance and as you know, routine maintenance issues evolve into costly repairs that could have been avoided. Here are some of the things we pay special attention to: 1: First and foremost, we look for potential hazards. Broken sidewalks, poorly lit stairs, missing handrails; anything that can potentially cause an injury for a resident or a guest. And, of course,

we make sure those fire extinguishers are functional and fire escape areas are clear of clutter. 2: It is important to check building exteriors for cracks in the foundation, open crawl spaces and any places in brick work or stucco where water might get into the walls during heavy rain. This includes making sure that caulking around vents and piping is sufficient. We do a similar inspection of the roof, looking for spots were leaks might occur. 3: Make sure that all of the property's windows close smoothly and securely and identify any broken panes. Windows that leak or collect condensation on the sills can create major problems down the road. 3: Fire Hazards such as dryer vents should be inspected to make sure they are clear of lint and debris. Chimneys are inspected for cracks and proper ventilation. Both gas and electric water heaters pose fire and water hazards. Electrical connections are checked as are gas lines along with water pipe connections and venting.

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4: Biannual furnace filter inspections at the end of fall and spring will keep your HVAC systems operating at peak performance, while ensuring dangerous conditions are not present. 5: The most costly and damaging of all deferred maintenance is water related. Plumbing throughout the building must be inspected to make sure that seals are secure, faucets are not leaking and pipes are in good condition. Residents should be encouraged to report leaks and drips. A small leak under a cabinet can create serious damage if left unchecked. 6: Inspect breaker boxes and all electrical equipment: 7: Include washing machines, garage door openers and other mechanical devices such as garbage disposal units and re-circulation pumps etc. in your inspections. Check for loose wires, water leaks and unsafe conditions. This is only a partial list and individual buildings may differ in their needs.

Dear Maintenance Men: It is currently summer time and that is when we get the most vacancies. How do I keep my residents from moving? Denise Dear Denise: According to the 2011 national resident study, "Getting Inside the Head of the Online Renter," the number one factor in a resident's decision to renew a lease is "Quality of Maintenance Services." Additionally, the current SatisFacts Insite® Index for Work Orders indicates that 18% of all service requests are not completed right the first time. And of those, only onethird of residents received notification that there would be a delay in completing the request. What the above means is poor maintenance service can lead to higher vacancies. It does not matter if you have 10 units or 100 units; maintenance is a critical tool in the physical well-being of your property and the happiness of your residents. Think of it this way. A service call and parts may cost $250 to service ... continued on page 19

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The Joys ...continued from page 3 to track maintenance requests and equipment warranties. Jill was also unable to track leasing agent activity using her current software, so she simply wrote the leasing detail down on a piece of paper every time one of her agents leased a unit and sent it to headquarters, so they could pay the commission. And while Jill used one of the most popular customer resource management database programs to manage applicants, the program truly didn’t fit the property management industry well; forcing Jill to enter applicant data several times in order for it to show up in all the necessary places. Years ago, most of us were in Jill’s position. Many software programs were built to solve one of our problems; two – if we were lucky. Today, with fully integrated software systems, the days of four or five different software systems running in the same property management office should be over. But they’re not. A surprising number of offices continue to purchase products separately; with none of those products designed to integrate together. While very small offices may not suffer as much as larger operations; a company experiencing rapid growth or the addition of another residential complex can suddenly find themselves in the middle of a technology nightmare.

It’s easy to tell if your office has fallen victim to muddled technology. Have you experienced? Lost or ‘overlooked’ maintenance orders Tenants entered multiple times into your system with several variations on their name Inaccurate reporting due to manual accounting manipulation Missed commissions because the manual form was never processed Two or more employees working on the same task because there’s no way to track what has and what has not been done If you’re currently going through any of these issues, you may want to take a look at an integrated software system.

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Fed Chair Says a Mouthful to Property Owners and Managers By Marc Courtenay

n Tuesday July 15 Fed Chair Janet Yellen said more than Congress and most managers were anticipating. Her carefully prepared comments are a big insight into how those who control America’s monetary policies are thinking. According to a report by USA

Today Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen told Congress the economy is improving but still needs the central bank’s support, refusing to provide a specific timetable for raising shortterm interest rates. “There’s no formula or mechanical answer I can give you,” Yellen said when pressed by Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, ranking member of the Sen-

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ate Banking Committee. She added, “The economic outlook is very uncertain.” That is a plain spoken way of saying that the Fed needs to continue its accommodating monetary policies. This includes keeping interest rates low. The benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield fell to 2.54% which will lower mortgage rates in the weeks ahead. Now’s an auspicious times for property managers to remind their clients to refinance loans while rates are down and lenders are likely to have more funds to lend. With inflation rising and the government’s unemployment rate falling some economists and lawmakers have suggested the Fed should prepare to raise its benchmark short-term interest rate sooner than planned. Although the Fed is steadily eliminating its bond buying stimulus program, Fed policymakers have indicated only that they plan to be able to begin raising interest rates sometime in 2015. Ms.Yellen said that several labor market indicators, like the share of

the population in the workforce, remain low. She said the ranks of the long-term unemployed are still at “unprecedented levels historically.” The Fed Chair also downplayed concerns about inflation, which has been picking up, but at 1.8%, remains below the Fed’s 2% target. Noting that wage gains are improving, she said they’re “not rising to the point where they can give way to inflation.” No doubt about it, The Fed knows the economy still faces headwinds as a result of the Great Recession. Noting low productivity growth, Yellen told lawmakers: “We have seen false dawns” before. As for the housing market, the Fed chair noted that the housing sector “has shown little recent progress.” “While this sector has recovered notably from its earlier trough, housing activity leveled off in the wake of last year’s increase in mortgage rates, and readings this year have, overall, continued to be disappointing.” While also speaking to the Senate Banking committee, Ms. Yellen set a powerful precedent. She spoke directly about her con-

The Joys ...continued from page 13 request, it is frequently ignored. While large, catastrophic issues are handled fairly well, many ‘little’ requests never get funneled to the maintenance staff. Jill decides to email out a residential newsletter, but she’s found many of her tenants are entered into her CRM system multiple times. She has no idea which ones are correct, so she sends the newsletter out to all of the emails, resulting in several angry residents accusing her of ‘spamming’ them. Since Jill was never comfortable using the reporting software she has installed, she uses Excel to produce her monthly reports. During a long month end closing, she accidently transposes numbers to create a devastating loss of income. Now several of her superiors are questioning her ability to do her job. To make matters worse, she had two leasing agents quit because they felt they were being short-changed on their commissions. One of those employees has now filed a formal complaint with Human Resources. While using an integrated software system can eliminate many of the problems highlighted above, there are also several benefits that property managers like Jill can begin to reap immediately. They include:

than one time, they are free to concentrate on leasing more units • A more proactive maintenance department. Maintenance staff will no longer have to operate in ‘reactive’ mode, resulting in fewer lost maintenance orders, and a much better response time for all of your tenants • Quick, accurate report processing. Staff can process a report with a few mouse clicks. And while no system can guarantee that information is input correctly, you’ll no longer have to worry about transposing numbers, eliminating a line of data or inadvertently deleting a mathematical formula • An accurate database. You’ll have more confidence in your tenant database, and can communicate via email more effectively Today, Jill’s office uses a fully integrated property management software that combines their accounting system, leasing system, and maintenance system seamlessly. With the proper tools at her disposal, Jill can now do what she was hired to do; manage her property. from PropertyManager.com a Service of AppFolio

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Rental Housing Journal Metro • August 2014

RENTAL HOUSING JOURNAL METRO

The Post-Dated Notice to Vacate

ccording to urban legend, there are teachers who will address their students on the first day by stating “As of today, you all have F’s. It is your job to work your way out of the cellar to the grade you truly deserve.” Urban legend or not, I had such a teacher – AP English…senior year of high school. For fear of a 25-year grade reversal, I won’t mention said teacher’s name. Let’s just call him/her, The Professor. The Professor was a piece of work; hard, brash, and unyielding in every sense of the word. The Professor treated everyone as if we were already in college. Students with excuses were often ridiculed and those who outright lied were made to exit the class altogether. The Professor had extremely high standards and very little patience. Everyone dreaded their daily encounter with The Professor and thought of graduation more like prison release day. So, imagine the collective groaning when The Professor was tapped to represent the faculty and give a speech during the graduation ceremony. The Professor, really? In the past, the faculty representative was always the “popular” teacher, the one who got the most screams and cheers from the graduating

class. The year before, when my sister graduated, the faculty speaker quoted Run DMC. That’s what we wanted – not some long, drawn out soliloquy by The Professor. The Professor began with, “I want to open by stating three important facts. Yes, I was tough. Yes, I demanded a full effort from each and every one of you. And yes, you have become better human beings for it.” The Professor went on to explain the “work your way out of the cellar” philosophy tested a student’s motivation, tenacity and confidence. For a student’s grade go from an F to a B over the course of the year, purely based on effort, was more of a motivation than to tread water or to just get by with the minimum required to pass the course. Years later, I still remember his closing, “Whether you’re swimming or treading water, your arms and legs are moving. The big difference is swimming gets you to the shore. Treading water gets you exhaustion.” So how exactly does The Professor relate to our industry? Well, imagine a new resident arriving for move-in, happily looking forward to becoming a part of your community. Upon signing the final page of the lease,

they turn in a post-dated notice to vacate. What they’re saying is, “I have every intention of leaving after one year unless you can convince me otherwise.” If you knew a resident was on their way out at day one, would you throw in the towel or prove them wrong? It’s the same as the out of the cellar philosophy. Motivation, tenacJan,mean Mar, May, ity and confidence everything to resident retention. Make the most of every resident interaction, have

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by Ernest F. Oriente, The Coach {Article #220…since 1995}

ccording to a recent survey by Matrix Information, three billion people around the globe have access to Internet-based services and E-mail. In addition, this report expects electronic commerce to grow from $3.2 trillion in 2013 to $6.2 trillion by the year 2015. Is your property management company ready for these exploding communication and marketing trends? Is your leasing team ready to handle the Email just sent by 15 new prospects relocating from Paris or Moscow? Read the tips in this article and learn how easy it is to master E-mail and profit from it…it’s just a few keystrokes away!

Tips for using E-mail with prospective new residents: Ask your leasing teams to always use spell check before sending an Email to a future resident • Have your teams read each E-mail twice before they send it, just to make certain it conveys exactly what they are trying to communicate and it portrays the professional image important to your property management company

• When sending an E-mail, the subject line must clearly summarize what the body of the E-mail says

document signed by each person who will be accessing your E-mail software

• If your leasing teams are using the E-mail “reply” feature to respond to a future resident, make certain they reply by including the information the prospect sent in their original E-mail note. In addition, ask your leasing teams to include the name of the future resident throughout their E-mail reply.

• Explain to your leasing teams that deleting an E-mail does not remove it from their computer system nor from the system of the person the E-mail was sent to. During several recent lawsuits, damaging E-mails that had been deleted were used in the courtroom to the surprise of the individuals and their property management companies

Tips for using E-mail within your property management company: When your leasing teams are using E-mail to communicate internally, make certain they understand when to respond by E-mail and when to call the person who sent the original E-mail, depending on the tone or content of the E-mail

• Instruct your leasing teams about the extra care required if they receive an E-mail that has an attached document, as this is where most computer viruses are hidden. Many property management companies do not let their leasing teams send or open attached files

• Explain to your leasing teams how and when to use carbon copy {cc} and blind carbon copy {bcc} with E-mail • Have a written company policy regarding the use of E-mail, clearly outlining the rules and expectations of your company. Have this

• E-mail files can easily be opened and read so confidential information like salaries, financial reports, social security numbers or credit card numbers should not be sent by E-mail. Tips for using E-mail as a marketing tool:

E-mail can also be used as a powerful marketing tool to attract new residents or to better service your existing residents. Here are some tips: Aside from a small $15-$20 service charge per month, sending or receiving E-mail is free. When compared to other forms of marketing…having your leasing teams send E-mails to new or existing residents is their least expensive form of marketing • Imagine the marketing success your leasing teams will have if they had the E-mail address on the guest card of every future resident who visited their apartment community over the past 12 months… and your leasing teams can stay in touch with these potential new residents for free! • When your properties are using Email to handle resident questions or maintenance requests, a timely response is expected and required • Create two separate E-mail lists… one for future residents and one for current residents so you can send appropriate marketing information to each group Continued on page 18

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Fed Chair...continued from page 15 cern over what Reuters reported as …stretched valuations in certain corners of the U.S. equity markets, including the small cap, biotechnology and social media sectors. “The unusual comments from the Fed’s monetary policy report – the first time in 14 years that the Fed has commented specifically on valuation of a particular equity sector – that accompanied Fed Chair Janet Yellen’s semi-annual testimony to Congress, hit stocks in riskier sectors of the market” Reuters summated. Yellen said in her remarks that valuations across equity markets remain generally in line with long-term av-

erages, but the Fed’s report said the forward price-to-earnings multiples for smaller companies and those in the biotechnology and social media sectors appear “high relative to historical norms.” My takeaway is that the Fed Chair wants to cool down the stock market while noting that the housing sector still requires sufficient stimulus. Look for home prices to move higher along with rent rates.

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The Coach ...continued from page 16 • Create an E-newsletter which can be easily sent out on a weekly or monthly basis. Remember, since sending E-mail is free, your leasing teams will have lots more flexibility. In addition, E-newsletters portray a professional image about your property management company and are quick to be passedalong to others, thus expanding the reach and exposure for your marketing • When sending E-mail, have your leasing teams develop a five to seven line signature which is automatically placed at the bottom of

every E-mail they send out. This signature line will further promote their apartment community, your corporate website and can be changed on a daily basis, if necessary • Use E-mail to stay in touch with the media in your area, especially if your apartment communities have any exciting events or community projects to announce • The E-mail address at each of your properties should be included on every business card, every brochure, on any sales information and with all print advertising.

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Want to hear more about this important topic or ask some additional questions about how to use E-mail as a powerful marketing tool? Send an E-mail to ernest@powerhour.com and The Coach will E-mail you a free PowerHour invitation. Author’s note: Ernest F. Oriente, a business coach/trainer since 1995 [32,320 hours], serving property management industry professional since 1988--the author of SmartMatch Alliances™, the founder of PowerHour® [ www.powerhour.com ], the founder of PowerHour SEO [ www.powerhourseo. com ], the live weekly PowerHour Leadership Academy [ www.powerhourleadershipacademy.com/pm ] and Power Insurance & Risk Management Group [ www.pirmg.com ], 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 North America, executive recruiting, investment banking, national utility bill auditing, national real estate and apartment building insurance, SEO/SEM web strategies, national WiFi solutions [ www.powerhour.com/ propertymanagement/nationalwifi.html

], powerful tools for hiring property management SuperStars and building dynamic teams, employee policy manuals [ www.powerhour.com/propertymanagement/employeepolicymanuals.html ] and social media strategic solutions [ http://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 more than 8000+ 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 225+ articles for the property management industry and created 400+ property management forms, business and marketing checklists, sales letters and presentation tools. To subscribe to his free property management newsletter go to: www.powerhour.com. PowerHour® is based in Olympic-town… Park City, Utah, at 435-615-8486, by E-mail ernest@powerhour.com or visit their website: www.powerhour.com

Rental Housing Journal Metro • August 2014

RENTAL HOUSING JOURNAL METRO

Dear Maintenance ...continued from page 12 a broken washing machine or water heater, resulting in a satisfied resident. However, a resident having to live with a broken washing machine or intermittent hot water may elect to move rather than dealing with the hassle of calling in repeated service requests. That resident vacating will now cost the owner thousands of dollars in loss rent and rehab work to bring the unit back to rent ready condition. Good maintenance is a year round tool to keeping your investment healthy and your residents paying the rent month after month. Dear Maintenance Men: I have been hearing the term “Aging in Place” more and more lately. What does it mean and how does it affect my apartment building? Harold Dear Harold: Aging in place is defined as living in the community with a level of independence for as long as possible without the need of in home care. The biggest barrier to aging in place is our homes. Most homes and rental communities are ill equipped for long term aging in place residents. As an eye opening statistic, the Baby Boomer generation is 25 percent of the population and the first of the Boomers turned 65 in 2011 and the last will turn 65 in 2029.

As apartment owners and managers, we need to pay attention to this aging trend and not be caught off guard. Aging in place means bigger showers with wider doors, taller toilets, grab bars and bath sinks that will accommodate wheelchairs etc. As your units come up for rehab over time, think about these improvements; they might just be money in the bank for the long run. Bio: Please call: Buffalo Maintenance, Inc for maintenance work or consultation. JLE Property Management, Inc for management service or consultation Frankie Alvarez at 714 956-8371 Jerry L’Ecuyer at 714 7780480 CA contractor lic: #797645, EPA Real Estate lic. #: 01460075 Certified Renovation Company Websites: www.BuffaloMaintenance.com & www.ContactJLE.com www.Facebook.com/BuffaloMaintenance

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Rental Housing Journal Metro • August 2014

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RENTAL HOUSING JOURNAL METRO

Rental Housing Journal Metro • August 2014