Seen (and Heard) on the NAA 2012 Show Floor
New introductions seen on the show floor
Earn LEED Credits with Rubber Mulch
Pinnacle Rubber Mulch can help multifamily properties reduce mulching costs—save up to 65 percent over five years—while contributing to U.S. Green Building Council LEED requirements. Whether it’s used in playgrounds as a safety surface or in sustainable landscaping, Pinnacle Rubber Mulch can earn LEED credits in three categories: Materials and Resources, Site Stewardship and Water Efficiency. It resists blowing and wasing away and it allows the passage of moisture directly into the soil and to plant roots. Because this product is non-organic, it discourages rodent, snake and rodent infestation. When used for playgrounds, rubber mulch provides a safer environment than concrete since a six-inch layer provides 16 feet of critical fall height protection.
Yardi and G5 Announce New Digital Marketing Solution
Coinciding with the opening of the 2012 NAA Education Conference & Exposition in Boston, Yardi and G5 announced an alliance that will provide an end-to-end leasing and resident lifecycle offering for multifamily property managers, prospects and residents. Yardi Resident Portal™ and Yardi Online Leasing™ now integrate seamlessly with G5 SEO-Optimized Websites, as well as other G5 services that drive more visitors to properties. G5 SEO-Optimized websites have proven to be the industry’s best in search engine optimization, maximizing exposure through primary and long-tail keyword optimization. G5 SEM Manager includes a multifamily-specific managed pay-per-click advertising strategy. G5 Google+ Local Optimization is a managed service optimizing placement in Google+ Local, an important marketing channel given Google’s recent changes. G5 Reputation Manager allows a property to take ownership of its digital reputation on Google+ Local, Yelp, and ApartmentRatings.com as well as social media sites Facebook and Twitter. Full integration with Yardi Voyager™ provides real-time pricing, unit availability, guest cards, applications and paperless online lease execution. Once prospects become residents they can pay rent online, enter maintenance requests and renew their leases. Yardi Resident Portal and Yardi Online Leasing are supported by Yardi PopCard™, a lead tracking and CRM solution that provides automated tracking of prospects with alerts to ensure timely response; furthermore, it closely ties prospect activity to marketing sources to maximize leasing and marketing efforts. Yardi Online Leasing, Yardi PopCard, Yardi Resident Portal and the leasing dashboard in Yardi Voyager are all accessible via Yardi Leasing Pad, Yardi’s newest mobile solution that enables leasing agents to perform the entire leasing cycle from a tablet.
How to Dress Up Your Asset’s Doors
Bring the beauty and warmth of natural hardwoods into your interiors with SelecTrim® premium millwork products. SelecTrim’s unique system of grooved moldings and interchangeable decorative inserts allows unprecedented design versatility, ease of installation, and affordability. The SelecTrim® system offers innovative solutions to interior millwork challenges, and includes everything needed for distinctive and functional interiors. From traditional to contemporary, from crown to base, SelecTrim can fill a variety of custom woodwork needs. Steel frames often present an obstacle for designers who want continuity in interior woodwork. SelecTrim® wood door casing for steel frames conceals the steel frame while providing a smooth transition to other woodwork. Naturally, the door casing for steel doors coordinates with the entire SelecTrim® line and is easily integrated with other components of the system.
Grace Hill Announces New Multifamily Learning Management System
Grace Hill, Inc., a provider of online education and learning management solutions for the multifamily housing industry, introduced the next generation of its Learning Management System, Vision LMS. Designed to advance the power of property management education programs and results of clients’ training departments across the industry, Vision LMS is aims to improve skills and productivity, while providing multifamily companies with a manageable, scalable system that continuously measures organizational competency and skill level. Vision LMS clients can customize the system with their brand, color scheme and employee photos to create a private university for their company; offer, assign and track a variety of training, learning object or content by adding them to the system with a pre- and post-test or employee acknowledgement requirement; create custom learning paths from the education offered by group, location, position or individual employee within the company; and access, schedule and automatically deliver the desired reporting to company executives and managers who need it most.
Western Union and Neighborhood Pay Services Announce Prepaid Card Program
Neighborhood Pay Services, LLC announced an agreement with The Western Union Company to offer Western Union Prepaid MasterCard products to renters across the U.S. Starting in the second quarter of 2012, NPS will offer the Western Union MoneyWise Prepaid MasterCard through the NPS Rent Assurance payment platform, a management solution that enables property clients to effectively expand credit acceptance terms to prospective renters. In addition to providing renters with improved access to professionally managed apartment housing, this agreement aligns with the NPS mission to provide consumers with the opportunity for improved financial independence. The NPS Rent Assurance program is available exclusively through apartment leasing offices and rent payments are reported for each enrolled resident to a national credit bureau. Neighborhood Pay Services offers the only program in the multifamily industry that enables properties to accept prospective residents based on their willingness to put safeguards in place for reliable rent payment as a condition of lease signing.