Blog
What Renters Want with Jessica Fiur: Why You Should NOT Use Facebook at Your Community
It seems like everyone uses Facebook. You use it. I use it. Your weird aunt who still plays Candy Crush and keeps sending you requests to join for some reason uses it. So, it’s been pretty much decided in the apartment industry that it’s necessary to have a community Facebook (and Twitter, and, for some enterprising communities Instagram) page to communicate about what’s going on at the apartment. In fact, many people view this as not just necessary, but, essentially, mandatory. But what if it’s not? Think about it. When you use Facebook, sometimes posts get buried, or people just…
What Renters Want with Jessica Fiur: Property Management Lessons from the Golden Globes
Did you watch the Golden Globes last night? If you missed it, you missed out. There were gorgeous movie stars, gorgeous dresses, flowing champagne, George Clooney in a tuxedo and property management lessons. Seriously. In case you missed it, here are some property management lessons I gleaned from watching the awards show. Go for mass appeal. Unlike the Emmys or the Oscars, the Golden Globes give awards for both movies and television. And they also have separate categories for comedies and dramas. There’s pretty much something for everyone, unless you’re one of those people who only likes the book, but even…
What Renters Want with Jessica Fiur: Goodbye, 2014: Apartment Trends We’re So Over
As a real estate editor, I see my fair share of apartment trends. Some are pretty awesome—guest suites! package management systems! Frozen sing-alongs! [insert some pun here to ‘let it go.’ I’m not feeling creative]. But for some trends, well, can’t we just “let them go” already? (Yes! Nailed it!) I’m sure some people still love these things we see over (and over, and over) again at apartments, which is why we’re still seeing them. But, it’s almost 2015, and I personally am ready to see what the new year has in store for apartments. So, while we’re all making resolutions…
‘The Accidental Economist’ with Jack Kern: Oil Prices Slip Sliding Away
I think in many respects being an economist means you look at things the same way an urban planner does but with a much longer time horizon. A planner thinks about what initiatives make the city better today. An economist thinks about what is happening now that will affect what the city will look like, but much further into the future. I have been amused by the national punditry that keeps talking about how great it is that oil prices have declined (a polite word when in fact prices did what David Caruso did when he left the show NYPD…
What Renters Want with Jessica Fiur: The Importance of Package Management
Packages. They’re not something we normally think about, until we’re waiting to get one. (And, since it’s the holiday season now, it seems like all the time.) It doesn’t seem like that sexy of an amenity. I mean, give me a virtual golf simulator, a concierge that can get me restaurant reservations, hell, even a standard pool sounds sexier than “package storage area,” amiright, folks? But, no. Packages are the thing. This was a huge topic at the recent NMHC OpTech conference (read the transcript from our recent Twitter chat that addressed some of these topics). Rick Haughey, vice president, industry…
What Renters Want with Jessica Fiur: Celebrating Thanksgiving at Your Student Housing Communities
It’s that time of year. Time for turkey, stuffing, and young adults coming home to their parents’ house with a mountain of dirty laundry. Around Thanksgiving, many students head home, which will probably leave your student housing community pretty empty in the coming week. Before everyone clears out for the holiday, here are some things you can do around the community to make the holiday easier. Offer shuttles to the bus/train station. The week of Thanksgiving, since many of your student residents are probably going to be traveling, a great feature you could offer your residents is a free shuttle bus…
Guest Blog: Canada vs. The United States: Comparing Student Housing Markets
By Darren Vanecko, President, Places4Students.com Over the past decade, the student housing market in the United States has been rapidly expanding with the boom of purpose-built student housing. With each passing year, the number of student housing bed deliveries seems to be increasing alongside enrollment rates. The same, however, cannot be said about Canada. Yes, enrollment rates are increasing in Canada, but student housing isn’t advancing in conjunction with these rates. There are a variety of potential reasons why Canada is lagging behind USA, such as smaller population, regional disparity, lack of market research, unwillingness from major REITs to invest…
What Renters Want with Jessica Fiur: Should Your Community Have a Guest Suite?
There are amenities, and then there are amenities. Sure, gyms and car changing stations and swimming pools are all well and good. But what about a guest suite? An amenity that will prevent that weirdo friend from college (whom you haven’t talked to in 15 years but is going to be in town and wants to catch up, which you just know will involve lots of tequila on his part while you can maybe have one or two, but, seriously, there’s work tomorrow, and you have to get the kids to school and oh my god, when did you get…
Guest Blog: How to Prepare your Rental Property for a Safe and Fun Halloween
By Nicoleta Iudean Halloween—the most fang-tastic celebration of the year—is just around the corner. Most of your residents, both kids and grownups, will keep busy these days with choosing the spookiest costumes, buying sweets, carving pumpkins and putting up creepy decorations in their apartments. On the other hand, you—as a landlord or property manager—face some serious concerns: the safety of your residents and of your rental properties during this festival of mischief. So, should you “trick” or should you “treat”? There’s a fine line between being too strict (by issuing specific property regulations for October 31st in order to ensure…
Guest Blog: Fighting Fire with Planning, Preparation and Communication: What Multifamily Managers Need to Know
By Brian Taylor, Executive Director, Talega Maintenance Corporation, Managed by FirstService Residential Managers of multifamily properties face critical challenges every day. They perform multiple tasks simultaneously, proactively assessing and enacting strategies to improve property features and systems, developing and implementing marketing plans and reacting to the troubles that surface on any given day. Inevitably, managers are likely to spend at least some time putting out fires, regardless of the amount of time spent planning and organizing. Of course, we are talking about the figurative kind of fire here, but managers need to be ready to combat the real ones as well….