-->
The Mac-Gray Corporation (NYSE: TUC) has successfully tackled the human component in laundromat efficiency problems with innovative, connected-laundry technology. Tenants can even receive a text message when their wash or dry cycle completes.
Vacancy rates are up and as managers struggle to lease vacant units, the competition for prospective tenants is ferocious. Here we offer suggestions for green property maintenance, repairs and general practices that will attract and retain the uber-green tenant, a rapidly expanding class.
Homeowners’ Associations are raising dues to cover the high number of delinquencies, but an option-of-last-resort is a condominium association loan. Although there is no lienable real estate title – the common area is owned equally by the homeowners and has no lendable value – the loans are secured by the monthly homeowners’ association dues.
San Francisco currently has the nation’s toughest composting law and hopes to divert 90% of the city’s waste from landfills assuming citizens and businesses support the effort. Seattle charges participants for composting bin rentals. How soon will mandatory composting come to a city near you?
People have become accustomed to signs that ban smoking at work and in other public buildings, but it gets dicier when landlords start to restrict smoking inside and outside residential buildings. If current trends continue, however, they will be getting some assistance from their local municipalities. City officials across the country are attempting to address threats to public health and smoking cigarettes is on the hit list.
The lovely city of Seattle joined the big apple when its city council recently announced its unanimous approval of an Energy Disclosure Ordinance that requires the benchmarking of buildings. Benchmarking has been championed by the Department of Energy (DOE) with the EnergyStar slogan saying it all. ‘If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it’.
The new ‘smart’ phones help a young and/or restless population stay on the move, but they also create marketing barriers. If you want to reach them, provide what they like and go where they go.
The latest industry buzz suggests property owners are plucking some fantastic talent from the leisure and hospitality sector. Anyone who has been successful in this industry – at a minimum – has been trained to respond to guests in an engaging manner, maintain their cool and problem solve. Personality traits normally associated with that smiling concierge or front desk clerk can be highly transferrable to the multifamily housing sector.
In this third part of our five-part series on conserving water and increasing your net operating income, we examine the laundry room. While the advice I offer is simple, the execution may require patience and persistence on the property manager’s part.
An exclusive interview with James Barry, Manager of Program Development for the Thomas Shortman Training Fund and the innovative joint management-labor training program for 1000 NYC’s Residential Building Superintendents to eliminate ‘dirty’ practices in existing multifamily buildings.
