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Please take a minute to read this. I work in affordable housing, my waitlist is LONG ~~ maybe a year wait! When we work in our field, in Multifamily, we are providing more than an apartment ~~ it is a home. We never truly know what others are going through! Be kind, be compassionate.
 

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Leah Love This is the entire premise of the book Evicted and I think everyone should read it.
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Guest Insider Happens more than we know 😢
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Mike Powers While I agree we need better resources for those in need, a few other things also apply besides better access to affordable housing.
Judges rarely evict single moms for temporary setbacks. Sadly, once the falling behind hole is dug, it is almost impossible to catch up. What is the allowed delinquency ? 3,6,9 months ?
I've seen multiple families in 2 and 3 and 4 br homes. Two single moms sharing expenses. Two mom/dad plus kids sharing expenses.
Reduce the # of single mom events. Sorry. It has to be said.
Finish high school. Learn a trade. Gain skills which are value added and rewarded. Again. Sorry. Cashier, floor stocker entey level jobs were never expected to be primary bread winner positions.
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Guest Insider Bottomline….be compassionate, openminded and patient. Everyone has a story, struggles, generational traumas, etc. Help where you can. Be genuine and kind.
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Guest Insider And we can be a great resource for anyone who comes into our offices. I had to create a resource brochure for older adults at my other job. I keep those and a local housing list on hand along with food resources. We can't make referrals but we can provide resource information particularly for those people whom we may not be able to serve at our sites.
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Guest Insider Hey Gerry Hunt, In my 45-Years at Apartment Operations, Evictions were the absolute toughest part for me, as once we had the Writ in hand, the contact from the bailiff was just a couple days away. I did make it a point to personally knock on doors, and speak directly to the Resident being evicted, 100% of the time, so that they knew, The bailiff was coming, and they would be locked out with their belongings on the street. At least that gave them a couple days to react. As a course of business, we never did "Payment Terms", Rent was due on the 1st & late on the 2nd, 7-Day Notices went out on the 5th, and Evictions typically occurred within 45 days. That said, some Residents, many that were being evicted are clueless, mostly because they bury their head in the sand. I will also say, many Evictions are the fault of the management company for poor oversight of the Approval Process as a short term gain for physical occupancy, completely ignoring Economic Occupancy. We clearly have an... Show more
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Guest Insider While this is true we must remember it's called survival of the fittest. That's when you get a second job or work your ass off to move up etc. Been there done that.
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Guest Insider I’m in Denver with a property that has a 6 figure delinquency. I have never seen so many people abuse the system like I am now. The same people get $5-20k for months worth of back due rent in rental assistance only to immediately default the very first month again and just repeat the same cycle. The general public wants to gripe about food stamp or SNAP usage while I watch the same lazy entitled destructive people syphon tens of thousands in rental assistance because they don’t want to work. So many of these people have point blank asked me to my face to file eviction on them so they can collect the money from assistance. Denver ran out of funds in October, over $30 million worth. I try to keep a positive thought towards the people who genuinely need it. But the abuse of our support systems is rampant.
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Guest Insider Thank you ms gerry. I needed to read that today
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Guest Insider I agree, it's really sad, it's hard to make it in the real world when you have kids no child support, no one to help you. When you have been in this business for a long time, you have that one person that messes it up. You hear every excuse in the world that's not true. Then you have that one person that does everything they are supposed to do, and they get that $600.00 light bill. Working with HUD Sec 8, affordable. You do for one you have to do for everyone. So you can not help, or give extra time to get it back on.
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Chris Finetto You want affordable housing, look at your balance sheet and see where cities can help. Taxes, Utilities, Insurance, Pay Roll, Loan Guarantees. There’s lots our elected officials could do, but don’t - because you Mr. Owner are one vote and for the most part, renters generally don’t turn out for elections. So we offer little benefit, and the neighbors who do vote don’t like apartments.
At the end of the day, we have to operate a business. Most of us are compassionate, no one wants to put a single mom or a family out on the street. But this is a two-way street.
Rule No. 01 for my residents - Call me when a life changing event occurs (loss of employment, job change, divorce, death). I will gladly work with you to keep you in your home and or help you locate new housing. Some follow that rule, and it always seems to work out. Those that don’t, think I’m just some greedy bastard, trash my buildings because of their own despair - out you go.
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Katherine Earle I actually agree with you Chris. It takes a lot to get all the way to the point of being in front of a judge. What did the tenant do in the meantime when they realized that they couldn't pay for the high bill? There are ways to work with the electric company before it gets shut off. There are community services that can help you cover high utility bills. Hell, contact the landlord and say what is going on and see if there is something that can be done before the utilities get shut off. Not after the fact. At the end of the day, if the tenant can't fulfill their obligation to pay the rent and keep the utilities from being shut off, then they need to leave at the move-out date on their eviction notice. If they don't, they are now stealing from their landlord. They should be evicted. Am I just a greedy bastard? Nope! I am running a business.....and have experienced homelessness, mental health issues, job loss, being a single mom, etc. When I lost my income, I moved into a shelter and... Show more
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Guest Insider Could not agree more on learning a trade and moving on from entry level jobs.
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Exploring the Perception Divide Between Pet-Friendly and Pet-Inclusive Rental Housing In recent years, the relationship between humans and their animal companions has evolved dramatically. Pets are no longer just animals; they're valued members of the family, deserving of love, care, and accommodation. This shift in perception has significant implications, particularly in the realm of rental housing. Owners and property managers are no longer fac ...

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Hello! Would love to hear ideas on different naming conventions for a floor plan with an additional area currently referenced as “Den” that is not enclosed, so no door or closet (picture on this post). Some options on the table 1 bed Flex, 1 bed XL….. now you go! Thank you.

Hello! Would love to hear ideas on different naming conventions for a floor plan with an additional area currently referenced as “Den” that is not enclosed, so no door or closet (picture on this post). Some options on the table 1 bed Flex, 1 bed XL….. now you go! Thank you.
Guest Insider 1 bedroom with Bonus room
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Renae Maisano The obvious is home office area but it could also be another sleeping area for a small child or infant. Put up a privacy screen and add a small armoire for one another option. Try staging this, might help visually.
It could also be a storage area for someone who needs a place for extra furniture or wheelchair storage.
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Guest Insider Flex space
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Guest Insider The possibilities are endless; home gym, office, reading nook, craft room... I'd go with flex as well.
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Amy M Baker My thought was Office Nook/Flex Space or Creative Space and market it so they are in charge of what it is....maybe even Freestyle/Lifestyle Space.
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Guest Insider 1-bed 1-bath Plus
1-bed 1-bath Deluxe
1-bed 1-bath with Suite
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Guest Insider Bonus room is what I've typically heard in real estate terms. Since it cannot technically be called a bedroom, another term for that is "non-conforming bedroom". I do like flex space.
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Guest Insider Lovely open floor plan/space
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Does anyone have recommendations for a utility management company.
Trying to find someone who doesn’t charge fees for every little thing.

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Ursula Gerson The ones I'm familiar with is RealPage RUM or YES Energy which is part of Yardi.
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Guest Insider Hi there, I work for Zego and utility management is a big part of our business. If interested, I am happy to connect you with our team who can speak to the product and share pricing insights.
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Guest Insider We use Argen out of the Atlanta area
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Guest Insider Depending on where you are possibly, I’ve used Minol and NES
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Megan Goodmundson Conservice. Or multi family utility solutions
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Guest Insider Depending on city . Why can't you just add flat fees for services?
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Can you refuse to add someone on the lease just because they are disruptive?

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Guest Insider You have to treat every equally.
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Anamaria Perales-Lang The person that is on the lease is responsible for the behavior of their household and guest , that who I be communicating with
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Allie Gartside Sadly but also not sadly - we have fair housing for this reason.
Otherwise I’d have turned away lots of applicants over time.
If they are being a disruptive guest though, then you should have been issuing lease violation notices to the resident. You’d need some sort of paper trail.
But I’d consult with your attorneys first as well. I’ve never had to ban a guest from the property before. Let alone one who’s potentially going to be a future resident.
If you do add them to the existing lease though, you could always non-renew them?
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 Doesn't the Covid-19 pandemic seem like it happened a lifetime ago?I remember at the very beginning of the pandemic, when no one had any information and everyone was freaked out, my husband went out in the early morning (to avoid crowds) to go grocery shopping. He was of course wearing rubber kitchen gloves but no mask, because at the time everyone thought Covid might be spread by touch. He got a huge haul, because who knew if the grocery s ...

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Hi All. One of our properties is going to have a handful of more college students (townhome units). Was wondering if anyone has an addendum with regard to noise/parties? Our lease is already very detailed but I'm just looking to see what others do. We are not all student housing, but we have a property closely located to a private college and out of 61 units, we have about 6-10 or so with students. Normally there have not been too many issues, but I... Show more

Guest Insider Maybe you will have only the good kids living there
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Guest Insider I would think that you don’t want noisy parties, no matter who might have them whether they be students or not. Draw up the rules of expected behavior that you want from each and every one of your residents and apply them across the board.
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Kathi Marie Of course, i have a non standard, several of them in the lease. Maybe i'll just include something for them in the new move in letter. I don't have issues with anyone except the students. In the 8 years iv'e been here, the only noise/partiesparking concerns that get brought to me have been for the college students. who overall are great, but I want to be proactive.
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Guest Insider In addition to the lease, we made up a “community rules and guidelines” form for residents to sign when they move in! Maybe something along those lines could work, make a copy for yourself and they keep one too
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David Troup Seems like your lease and maybe house rules might already have all the necessary prohibitions, so what you are looking for is something to make those restrictions a bit more “in your face.”
I think putting them in a welcome letter isn’t a bad idea, or even summarizing the “respect your neighbors” rules on a separate form and require all residents to sign it on move in. You basically want them all to acknowledge the rules and perhaps the consequences of breaking them. Otherwise they will sometimes think they can claim ignorance and get away with it the first time.
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Guest Insider Having Community Policies as an addendum they sign and included in the move in packet is a great way to address these types of issues. I have both multi-family and student living in my portfolio and the Community policies are pretty much the same for all. We include fines for noise violations and other violations after the first warning so that always helps as well. Great feedback from all the comments above!
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Random question ~~ when remodeling a kitchen with new counters and sink, would you remove a working disposal? I mean, take it out and not replace it.

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Miles Scruggs Depends if you wanted a disposal there or not. The fact that it is there or isn’t shouldn’t impact the goals for the property or the remodel.
So if you are asking if we put disposals in…depends. Some properties yes of course. Some other would end up being more hassle than worth it and wouldn’t impact income.
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Jordan Else No. We put a disposal in every Reno possible.
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Gerry Hunt Jordan does that bring in more money?
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Jordan Else Gerry, probably not but we’re more quality and comfort than profit
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Guest Insider Gerry, our owners require us to remove them due to the constant maintenance issues caused by not all residents using them properly.
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Guest Insider Everywhere I’ve been they have added them. Personally think they shouldn’t. People use them as trash cans and there’s always so many work orders associated with them. They can’t possibly make money off having it. No one ever asks me during tours if there is a disposal. 🤷🏻‍♀️
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Wendy Burkle  The residents do use them though! All homes have one, multifamily is really no different. It's helpful and cuts down clogged drains.
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Linda Campbell We are removing them as they stop working. When we renovate kitchens, we’ll remove them.
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Guest Insider If it works don't replace it just reinstall it
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In today's high interest rate environment, interest only platforms may be the only answer for refinance for the short term. We are seeing several clients walking away from million-dollar buildings because the old interest rate was 2-3 %. Now the interest rate is 8-9%. Clients just cannot sustain the imbalance. Things are going to become quite desperate for many companies this year.

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While it’s almost become a meme to comment on how “backward” the multifamily housing industry is when it comes to technology, the reality is much more nuanced now than it was back in 1999 when I first started leading the work that eventually resulted in LRO, the industry’s first-ever automated rent setting application. I was blessed to work with perhaps the most technology-forward operator of the time. Archstone was the first major ...

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Property management is a multifaceted industry and as many successful property managers know you will need efficiency to scale and manage the business effectively. Property managers are the day-to-day lay level operators who are faced with a perpetual roller coaster of strategies that aim to to reduce operational inefficiencies. The uncomfortable part of such objectives is frequently overlooked by most property managers; namely, partnering with a ...

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Key release’s are supposed to be simple. Yardi has an opt in for text communication which he is listed as yes. A friend comes in and needs a key. Knows resident by name, unit and phone #. We called resident twice and emailed. They called him, told us when they went to walk their dog, he left and may have thought they had key. After about an hour of them calling they texted him. He texts them back and says we have permission to give key. I see... Show more

Donna Blackman No one gets a key except the residents on the lease and person listed on the emergency contact sheet signed by the resident
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Guest Insider We don’t release keys to anyone, unless the resident sends us an email form from email we have on file, with a copy of their ID attached to the email, and last four of SSN are correctly filled out on the form. The form also has a field for the ID information of the person picking up the keys, and then they need to present ID to match the form info at key pick up time. We don’t do key releases over the phone and we also charge a key fee.
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Guest Insider Always have the person whose home it is, provide in writing you can give the key to XYZ and require an ID.
Even though you matched numbers and saw a text- you don’t have any of that documentation.
But look, if what he said was truly destroyed or taken- then he will actually follow up. When police get involved and they don’t follow through. Likely not true and he didn’t realize the depths you would go through to validate his story.
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Guest Insider Never release a key to anyone but the lease holder. Put the responsibility on them to provide access to anyone else.
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Guest Insider I don't even give a key to an emergency contact. I have to have direct permission from the resident.
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Mark Tanguay Key? I don't even confirm if someone even lives there. The only person ever allowed in the apartment, escorted, is the emergency pet contact, if the resident cannot be reached, to retrieve a pet, and most of the time I will require them to contact the local police to do a welfare check, where I personally unlock the door to let the police in while I stay outside, and I lock it afterward.
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Is your property management company drowning in reactive maintenance? Are surprise repairs, breakdowns, and frustrated residents eating away at your resources, budget, and bottom line? The good news is, there's a smarter way to manage your maintenance. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the way we approach maintenance, ushering in an era of proactive problem-solving and optimized operations.Embrace the Power of DataImagine having a c ...

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We audited one of our student housing portfolios a few months back (about 12 properties), and identified ~$50,000-70,000 / year in bloated ad spend. If you are looking to do the same and potentially cut ad spend, read on…We started by implementing a CRM to track things like lead source, and lead stage in the pipeline. Powerful optimizations begin with good data. Once we'd collected a year's worth of data, we were able to do some actual analysis o ...

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I have a client wanting to reduce fraud. (Isn’t everyone!)
I’ve used Checkpoint ID but had complaints with them manually verifying id’s (they did nothing) and the app not working when scanning id’s. Is there a good alternative?
Thinking of going with Snappt for POI verification. Are they the...

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Jamie Phillips Have you looked into Verifast?
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Debbie Nicholson-Erwin Payscore is the best solution out there!
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Guest Insider We use Snappt and it’s very good at catching anything fishy! They do their best to stay ahead of the “scammers”
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Guest Insider Look at Docuverus. Its a great product and has worked well for us
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Guest Insider We use snapped for ID verification and document verification
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Guest Insider RealPage just released their identity and income verification, IDVp or IV: ID Verification Premium or Income Verification. It’s as if checkpointID, Vero and Snappt were all combined. Definitely worth checking out!
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Anne Williams Docuverus
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Sharon Donley Approved Shield has been amazing. Reduced delinquency which reduced bad debt.
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Madeline Nash Umbrello!!
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Guest Insider Nothing is 100% we still need to double check everything.
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Guest Insider Verifast is amazing!
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This is very interesting article, in my opinion. I would imagine that most in this group would tackle things differently than Vienna, but the reality is that there are some very strong alignments, such as understanding that affordability is a supply-driven situation and that we need more development in many markets. For example:𝐴𝑛𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑘𝑒𝑦 𝑑𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑦 𝑉𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑛𝑎 𝑐ℎ𝑜𝑜𝑠𝑒𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑡𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑢𝑎𝑙 ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑏𝑢𝑑𝑔𝑒𝑡. 𝑀𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑖𝑡 𝑔𝑜𝑒𝑠 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑢𝑏𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔... Show more

Could Vienna’s approach to affordable housing work in California? | Housing | The Guardian

Housing costs and homelessness are on the rise in California. In the Austrian capital, people of all income levels live in subsidised housing – and…

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