Blog
‘What Renters Want’ with Jessica Fiur: 5 Things to Put in a Welcome Basket for Student Housing [For the Parents]
It’s August, which means the time for commercials for school supplies has officially commenced (and even though many of us have—thankfully—been out of school for some time, this is very depressing. Probably because we are just realizing that we didn’t take any vacation days to go to the beach like we promised ourselves we would. Summer slips by so quickly when you don’t get a mandatory three months off). And college freshman are getting ready to leave the nest and live in student housing—either on campus or off. And once the housing is picked out or assigned, and everyone is…
‘What Renters Want’ with Jessica Fiur: How to Protect Your Apartment Community’s Brand (By Not Following Ryan Lochte)
I’m not a fan of watching sports, but by that I mean baseball, basketball, football…pretty much anything that has my husband hogging the TV and preventing me from watching reruns of How I Met Your Mother. That doesn’t include the Olympics. I love the Olympics, especially the Summer Olympics (excluding baseball, basketball, and football—which I’m not even sure if they play). My favorite sport is swimming, because I was on the swim team back in high school. Oh, and also because the U.S. men’s team, as a whole, is really, really ridiculously good looking. Anyway, everyone is super into the Michael Phelps/Ryan Lochte…
Guest Blog: Developing Integrated Pest Management Strategies for Management and Residents
By Rose McMillan Educating residents about pest mitigation strategiesCreating an integrated pest management strategy (IPM) for any multifamily housing setting requires a collaborative effort by the management company and the residents alike. By establishing a long-term strategy of pest elimination and working to educate the residents in developing their own successful cleaning strategies, the facility can ensure that pests do not become established within the housing units. Effective pest control strategies cannot be successful without the informed participation of the residents. For this reason, the management must ensure that all residents are aware of how best to avoid attracting pests. They…
‘What Renters Want’ with Jessica Fiur: How to Appeal to Different Groups of Renters (And Why You Should Want To)
This past weekend my husband and I went down to D.C. to visit some friends, and they took us to a Nationals game. I’m not a fan of baseball, but I don’t like to cause waves, so I went. Plus, they were my ride. Anyway, after the game and after all the players left the field, stadium workers began wheeling out a portable stage, and soon after we all got to watch a free Wallflowers concert. (I’ve said it before: The ’90s are totally back.) Now, I love concerts. Love them. (You probably wouldn’t be able to tell by looking…
‘What Renters Want’ with Jessica Fiur: How To Get That Tiny Apartment Rented
It’s a common joke that if people want to move to Manhattan, or some other large city, they’d only be able to afford something the size of a shoebox. (OK, so maybe that’s not the funniest joke out there. Picture I said it with Steve Martin’s arrow on my head. Wakka wakka.) But according to an article on Yahoo, it turns out, that’s sometimes true. Well, not literally true. You’d have to be some sort of contortionist or Barbie doll to live in a shoebox. But the couple featured in that article lives in an apartment that’s 240 square feet….
‘Gimme Shelter’ with Daniel Gehman: Ambivalence
Today I was gently dressed down for being a “highly educated, articulate, upper middle class white person” who “didn’t pay taxes to support L.A.’s crumbling infrastructure.” Huh? I guess I earned the epithet, but let me explain. For some time now, California has allowed certain vehicles to drive in the car pool lanes with a single occupant if they met a certain environmental standard, which typically required super low emissions and high mileage. Both the Prius and the Honda Civic hybrid qualified. This program came to an end in California about a year ago, and all the folks with the…
‘What Renters Want’ with Jessica Fiur: Reasons Millennials DO Want to Buy
Oh, no they didn’t. I am an avid reader of the RENTCafe Blog, which has all sorts of interesting entries about apartment living. And recently I read a blog on their site called “Why We Rather Rent Than Buy,” which posed the idea that members of Gen Y would rather rent then buy, citing reasons such as more mobility, the unstable job market and the fact that people are marrying and starting families later in life. Fair enough, and all good reasons. But I beg to differ. If Millennials had the money, they totally would buy. And if constant checks to…
‘The Accidental Economist’ with Jack Kern: Forecasting in an Age of Uncertainty
“The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.” (c) John Kenneth Galbraith, noted writer and economist I recently had the pleasure of meeting with the Dallas Fort Worth Real Estate Research Forum and presenting some thoughts on being a real estate forecasting practitioner. In some ways, it’s a lot like being a weatherman in the middle of storm where everyone knows it’s raining and all you can talk about is how long it’s going to come down. In some sense, whether you’re concerned about Basel III or the change in cap rates on apartments or other…
‘What Renters Want’ with Jessica Fiur: How Tom Cruise Can Help Bring New Life to Your Apartment
I had pretty much written off Tom Cruise. Sure, in the ’80s he was amazing. I mean, whenever you are home alone, you are almost required by law to put on Ray Bans and play air guitar in your underwear to “Old Time Rock and Roll” (or do the Home Alone scream, but that doesn’t really help my example). And, I guess you can throw in Top Gun as another example of good vintage Tom Cruise, although I’m doing that kicking and screaming because I think I’m literally the only person on the planet who does not like that movie….
‘The Accidental Economist’ with Jack Kern: What Women Really Want
“I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives.” (c)― Jane Austen, Persuasion There has been a lot of press about Gen Y and the media has declared this group of young people the darlings of the future. With one pronouncement after another, this cluster has been seen as the coming savior of everything from retail boutiques, to shopping online to apartment rents. Up until now, most of the judgment coming out of the business press has been…