The City of Los Angeles, California is a famous home for celebrities, traffic jams, and earthquakes. Looking down on the life of the city, sky scrapers stand in defiance of the tremors that rock the seismic area they are built on. If you take a trip outside the city limits and look back at Los Angeles, you’ll see a sprawling metropolis of buildings. Jutting up from that mass of life, seven sky scrapers dominate the city skyline. This is their story, starting with the tallest: (more…)
A quick rundown of basic drywall repair techniques will put you well on your way to being a plaster-encrusted drywalling expert. One of the most common types of damage left by tenants is holes, both minor and enormous, that must be repaired. Save the cost of hiring a professional drywaller by following these steps
?photo?credit:?d70focus
On the list of things most aggravating to a property manager, an angry tenant comes second, if not in a dead heat for first with lazy staff members. Tenants can sound angry about many things. The more quickly you can find out what they’re truly angry about, the faster you’ll be able to find a solution. Most tenants get angry for the following reasons:
Founded on the shores of Lake Michigan in 1833, Chicago is the industrial and commercial hub of America’s Midwest. The construction of railroads and a canal connecting the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River rapidly inflated the business taking place in Chicago and the city grew quickly. With the growth of commerce came a need for dramatically increased office space. Builders and architects responded to this need by creating enormous structures, many of which still stand today, as long-term solutions to the real estate needs of a busy city. Reflecting its strength as a business center as well as a place where design and function come together, Chicago’s landmark buildings and historic skyscrapers: (more…)
Managers of High-end condos in downtown areas often use photos, videos, 3D walk-thru’s, and music to promote rental listings online. As more people move toward database searches and free listings like Craigslist, knowing how to effectively use media as part of your listing will put you miles ahead of the competition. What can you learn about media promotion from the purveyors of posh?
A simple $50 digital camera is all you need. Make sure you use the photo editing software (often included with most cameras) to optimize your photos for the web. Photos will load much faster if optimized. You don’t want a prospective tenant waiting to view your photos.
Take the time to name each media file and create a folder for each listing. You’ll want to know where you’ve stored the photos and video if you need to list a property again. They can also prove invaluable in dealing with a dispute over property damage.
An inexpensive camera, a few minutes, and a bit of creativity are all it takes to set your listings apart from the rest.
Classic landmarks are valuable far beyond the everyday business of giving hurried visitors something to take photos of. Each landmark has gained its status because it demonstrates an important part of the culture that surrounds it. In a small town, inhabitants may give directions that include “turning by the CVS” and perhaps, “take a left before the bronze sculpture of the general on a horse.” As a population grows and changes, landmarks take on an even greater importance. They serve as the embodiment and guardians of a people’s heart, strength, and ingenuity. (more…)
You probably know the names Mortimer Zuckerman and Sam Zell. They’re real estate magnates who buy sky scrapers like the rest of us buy duplexes. A Bloomberg.com?article?by Bob Ivry reveals that Zuckerman’s company, Boston Properties, Inc. is reporting a $165million loss on three Manhattan skyscrapers purchased in ?May of 2008. To put the number in perspective, Zuckerman also owns the $2.8billion GM building on 5th Avenue. Sam Zell has received massive credit for selling his 500+ buildings in February, 2007, right at the peak of the real estate market.?
You’d think Mortimer Zuckerman would feel pretty badly. You might be feeling badly about purchasing a property at the peak of the housing bubble. But Zuckerman doesn’t feel badly. “We do expect to get somewhat less rent in those buildings than we thought we would, but it doesn’t mean the buildings are worth less,” replied Zuckerman to a question in a recent interview.
His position seems to make sense. Real estate is about long-term planning and ups and downs won’t greatly affect your position provided you’re not burdened by too much short-term debt. As long as income of a piece of property is enough to sustain its maintenance and ownership, Zuckerman seems to think that property values will bounce back in the long term. Hold onto that and if it isn’t enough, consider what recently happened to Sam Zell. The brilliant real estate mogul who sold out of the business during the market’s peak, privatized Tribune Co., which is currently seeking bankruptcy protection.
Even if you had sold out at the peak of the market, there’s no guarantee that you would have put your money into a safer investment. Zell’s made billions in real estate and even he is left wondering “what did I do wrong?”
If you or your company chose to stop investing in new properties as a response to recent uncertainty in real estate markets, at what point will you continue investing toward long term goals? According to Ronald Oral in MarketWatch, the US Government is hoping that you’ll restart spending soon.
In a move Presidential economic advisor Lawrence Summers hopes will go a long way to sparking economic renewal, plans are being submitted for a federal “bad bank” that picks up toxic mortgages from other banks. The hope is that such a bank will remove much of the uncertainty in the mortgage and loans sector, inspiring private investors to pour money into banks that will then offer loans to eligible buyers.
For many large property investors, the recent downturn has been taken in painful stride. For smaller, more personal ventures, tightfisted banks have brought investment projects to a screeching halt. By offering banks a way to free up funds, the Treasury has found a way to assure newly risk-averse bankers that the financial world is going to keep turning. You will continue to hear talks of the “next great depression” and “endless recession” for some time, but there is tremendous value in being able to look back at how banks failed in the past in the hope of making them work for the future.??photo?credit:?epicharmus
The idea of using any sort of media to encourage your tenants to communicate with each other might be terrifying to you. This need not be the case. It is a simple matter of understanding where you stand with your tenants and acting accordingly.
If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you’ll want to work on changing your business approach before attempting to build community among your tenants.
If you think you do a pretty good job at meeting the needs of the people you provide housing for, consider incorporating some new media into your community approach.
Opening new lines of communication doesn’t mean you need to commit to talking all the time…just that you’re open to the idea and willingly fostering a community. Your tenants will appreciate the effort and you’ll reap the rewards.
The New York Times gets wind of it and plasters?the mistake across the globe.
According to the article, a young couple was not offered a new lease when their current lease ran out. This was a decision made by a upper-level manager who determined that the money brought in by leasing an apartment to the couple was not worth the trouble caused by that couple. The couple had a history of being difficult tenants and the building manager decided it was better to worry about leasing an empty apartment than to deal with the couple spreading their discontent.
There was no legal issue as a landlord is not required to offer a new lease to any tenant nor required to disclose why the lease is not being offered.
But the staff couldn’t keep quiet and the employee who had direct contact with the male tenant, David Griffiths, referenced remarks made on a tenant discussion board and told him “Dave, we understand that you’re not happy living here, so we made the decision for you”. With just a few words, a simple process was transformed into a media-chased discussion that promoted a stereotype of the landlord as being a cruel and unfeeling entity.
Whether your rental property is letting a room to your brother or leasing millions of square feet, it is important that you define how you will deal with specific problems before they happen. That way, when a tenant is being evicted, a sewer pipe breaks, or somebody discovers a cockroach in their living room, you and your staff will already know what to say.
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