Feed: Multifamily Insiders Blogs - AggScore: 87.4

Google+ Neglect - by: Tashina Wortham

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Alright. Confession time: How many of you haven’t touched your Google+ profile since 2011? Go in Peace. You are forgiven. *Unless* that is, you have neglected your Google+ Business Page. The opportunities awaiting you in Google+ are far too great to be forsaken.

Recent changes at Google have broad SEO implications, openin...

How To Handle An Abandoned Property - by: Buildium LLC

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By Carla Toebe, New Century Realty, Kennewick, WA

They say that abandonment is a landlord’s or property manager's worst nightmare when dealing with a tenant. How do you know it is really abandonment? Sometimes it’s obvious when everything is gone, the place seems perfectly empty, and the tenant's keys are lying on the counter. But what if the place is full of furniture, the food is still in the cupboard, and you can't get a hold of them? They haven't paid their rent, they h...

Developing a Crack Team without Cracking your Budget: Top Ten Tips - by: Jim Baumgartner

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You can spend thousands of dollars and hours on marketing and advertising but one negative interaction will undo all that hard work.

The front-line team is the public face of your organization. If they are frustrated, harried, not knowledgeable, incompetent or rude you will alienate your customer (plus her circle of influence). Numerous r...

Put away the pitchforks: Acceptance of reviews getting stronger - by: Chris Brown

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The social media panel discussion I participated in at the 2012 TransUnion Property Management Summit last week in Denver was astonishing for what did and didn’t happen.  What did happen: The audience of multifamily professionals seemed surprisingly – if not a tiny bit begrudgingly – accepting of property ratings and reviews. They’re here to stay and there’s nothing we can do to stop it, was the prevailing attitude.  Begrudgin...

Applying Green Principles In Property Management - by: Buildium LLC

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A guest post by Samantha Harvey, General Waste Collection, Lancashire, United Kingdom

With sustainability becoming more important to the general population, there is an ever-increasing necessity to provide eco-friendly properties. The rise in popularity of green technologies has led an industry that was once seen as expensive and niche-based into one that has competitive prices for many aspects of the building process. With the decreasing initial price disadvantage combined with the al...

Please “Shop” Me! - by: Brent Williams

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This blog is intended for on-site teams who work for companies that use mystery shops.

We often talk about mystery shops from a corporate level – asking whether they are used for training or for evaluation of our leasing teams.  But I remember the feeling of mystery shops when I was a leasing consultant, and there was a definite sense of fear from the team.  What if I get thrown off and forget to ask for a commitment?  What if I mess up the question when they try t...

Name-Calling: Getting on your Residents' level - by: Nikki Cole

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Sometimes when you have been doing a job for so long, you forget sometimes to go back to basics. In the property management field, one of those basics is getting to know a little about the people we work with day in and day out. What better way to show your residents that you know a little more about them than just their unit number and rent amount than by calling them by their name when you see them out and about?

It seems easy to say you know your residents. Sure, you may know wh...

Oh, Poo(l) - Going Off the Deep End - by: Nadeen Green

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It may be more difficult than ever, even if you can swim, to keep your head above water in the deep end of the swimming pool, at least from a legal perspective. I am aware of at least three States (North Carolina, California and New Hampshire) where state/local authorities are attempting to apply the Americans with Disabilities Act to non-public areas of apartment communities. The ADA applies to places of public accommodation (think restaurants, ...

Sell me that apartment across the street. - by: Christopher Higgins

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People on the other side of the world are no better at selling apartments than we are. Just in case you were wondering. At a property in Fremantle, a suburb of Perth, I was greeted by an enthusiastic sales agent who was eager to show me around and explain her property’s admirable features. But when I began to ask her about the other communities on her major road, she was perplexed. You could almost see behind her eyes how much she wanted to say “I don’t know, I work HERE, no...

Never Put Off Till Tomorrow - by: Buildium LLC

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By Linda Day Harrison, theBrokerList, Chicago, IL

Touch It Once is a mindset, a philosophy, and a management style. It is the antithesis of procrastination coupled with a smart way to work by stopping redundant behavior dead in its tracks; both of which are the enemy of any efficient and well run organization.

The concept is simple – Touch It Once (TIO). Did you ever notice that each month the cycle is the same? Collect rent, send out 5 day notices, process accounts payabl...

The Two New Words in Your Fair Housing Vocabularly: "Uh Oh" - by: Nadeen Green

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A few weeks back I posted here at MFI about the two most important words in Fair Housing for this year – disparate impact.  I shared that the Supreme Court would be hearing a case (Gallagher v. Magner) this spring (it was actually scheduled for arguments on February 29th)  and would rule on whether disparate impact should be part of fair housing law.  Well, now that ain’t going to happen – the S...

Attract New Residents with Cross-Promotions on Facebook - by: Brittany McBride

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Add value for your residents, while creating lasting relationships in the community.

 

Social Media Playground — Time to play foursquare? - by: Tashina Wortham

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Four square was never really a popular game during recess. Tether ball, red rover, and mutilate-other-people’s-snowmen were the playground fads when I was a kid. Several years and many ill-conceived wardrobe choices later, foursquare has finally reached popular acclaim; well, its title at least — I’d be surprised if 3r...

"It’s business, not personal.” If that is true, then why does it feel so personal? - ...

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A memorable line from one of the Godfather movies — “It’s business, not personal.” turns out, is one of the most important and yet the most ironic things I have learned in my career. As a manager, I find myself forced to make unpopular decisions almost every day. And so, I deal with the impact or perceived impact that my decisions make on my employees on a regular basis.  I try to follow the mantr...

LGBT and Roommates.com - Do they really matter? - by: Nadeen Green

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Well, the past several days have been interesting for those of us who follow fair housing issues.  Some big decisions were made, one by HUD and one by the courts.  I geared up to write some really pithy and eloquent material for my various postings and articles.  I wanted to give tons of helpful information to those of you in property management.  And then I came to the realization that things really should not change much for you.  Here’s why:

Effective Ma...