How to Save 5% on Heating Bills in Less Than One Minute
Simply turning your thermostat down by 1 degree can save as much as 5% on your heating costs.
In the summer, increasing the temperature by 1 degree saves 5-8%.
Lower your water temperature to 120 degrees and see more savings.
Install low-flow showerheads to save the cost of water and energy.
Insulation around gaps can save as much as 20% in energy costs.
Installing a programmable thermostat, especially in rental properties, keeps bills from spiking, and keeps utilities low.
These tips provided by David, Lowe, with ControlTemp Thermostats, providing tamper-proof programmable thermostats. Check out ControlTempThermostats.com for more information.
See our Green Forum for more energy savings tips.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Friday, August 28, 2009
Current Market Conditions by Howard Bell
Current Market Conditions
Apartment Vacancy Rate Hits Two-Decade Record
by Howard Bell
The economy’s decline leveled off significantly from April through June, confirming that the worst is behind us. GDP declined at an annualized rate of 1% in the second quarter, after shrinking an amazing 6.4 % earlier this year.But consumer spending, 70% of economic activity, continues to fall as Americans continue to save and reduce debt. Economists express concern that our basic spending habits have been permanently altered by this great recession. This is also having an effect on rentals as renters downsize or insist on rent reductions.With this as a backdrop we looked at rental rates which are a prime factor in evaluating a property. We clearly have a long way to go. The Dept. of Commerce chart indicates we are at a fragile beginning of a recovery. The key to successful property ownership now will be to keep it occupied and ride this out.Apartments.com StudyRent reductions at a 22 year highIn the second quarter the vacancy rate of 7.6% was an increase of 1.5% YOY. Landlords have been facing rising opposition to rent rates agreed to during the boom years. Tenants everywhere are asking for and getting rent reductions. Rents are in decline in every market nationwide in the current quarter with three with marginal exceptions, Tampa, Kansas City and San Antonio.According to an Apartments.com study: For the first time in six years, rents are down nationwide and vacancies are up.
Adding to this market pressure is competition felt from the shadow market or a surge of investor owned homes and condos that account for almost half of the rental stock, expanding the national rental supply.
Despite these recent obstacles, a national Apartments.com survey found that an overwhelming majority of renters are still looking for a new place to live this year and more than half are planning to pay the same or more in rent. (via Reuters) What To Do About Rent ReductionsTenant RetentionIf your are facing rent reductions and you want to retain the tenant, then ask for a new lease. In the 2001 recession, unemployment didn’t really recede for 18 months after the recession was technically over. Tenant retention locked in with a new lease is good strategy and will help you ride out this great recession.How to Rent it FasterStage it. Home staging for a rental plays the same role as staging for a sale. Painting the interior a light neutral color, is an inexpensive way to get a new and clean look and feel. Tired looking places take longer to rent. Leave lights on in each room, and leave blinds open to make rooms look brighter and larger.Sell it. Renting your unit or home is a sales process. Walk through the house as if you were a renter. Consider the negatives and be ready with answers that overcome its shortcomings. Be ready to talk up its features. Create a checklist of the things you like about the house. Use it to sell potential tenants. Check comparable rents with listing sites such as apartment.com or Craigslist. Consider consulting with a professional property manager to determine the right rent range if you still have difficulty.Focus Your AdvertisingUse Print TooConsider the profile of the people you are trying to reach and then advertise in the places where they would be likely to look for a rental unit. If you are renting that basic apartment or studio, you have a good chance of attracting people in need of a lower monthly rent. Think students or people starting out or starting over.Targeting your advertising you will save days on market. University campuses, free neighborhood papers, postings in local supermarkets or coffee houses might be the best place to reach that person.Of Course, the InternetIf you don’t have a professional website you could use the blogs. Sites such as blogger or even Facebook have become so easy to use that you might consider a page for your rental property that features a slide show of vacancies as they come up.As you receive phone calls you might ask them to go to your marketing page slide show and create an interactive conversation right there.Howard Bell PFP CCRM is the founder/editor of Your Property Path.com, featuring over 450 articles on property management, Your Property Path SF, trade talk for the San Francisco real estate industry, Your Property Path News Brief, snap news updates and real estate market info, and Your Property Path Amazon Store. Howard is a property manager in San Francisco and holds a certification in financial planning.See Howard Bell’s feature, New Home Equity Mortgage Available.
Apartment Vacancy Rate Hits Two-Decade Record
by Howard Bell
The economy’s decline leveled off significantly from April through June, confirming that the worst is behind us. GDP declined at an annualized rate of 1% in the second quarter, after shrinking an amazing 6.4 % earlier this year.But consumer spending, 70% of economic activity, continues to fall as Americans continue to save and reduce debt. Economists express concern that our basic spending habits have been permanently altered by this great recession. This is also having an effect on rentals as renters downsize or insist on rent reductions.With this as a backdrop we looked at rental rates which are a prime factor in evaluating a property. We clearly have a long way to go. The Dept. of Commerce chart indicates we are at a fragile beginning of a recovery. The key to successful property ownership now will be to keep it occupied and ride this out.Apartments.com StudyRent reductions at a 22 year highIn the second quarter the vacancy rate of 7.6% was an increase of 1.5% YOY. Landlords have been facing rising opposition to rent rates agreed to during the boom years. Tenants everywhere are asking for and getting rent reductions. Rents are in decline in every market nationwide in the current quarter with three with marginal exceptions, Tampa, Kansas City and San Antonio.According to an Apartments.com study: For the first time in six years, rents are down nationwide and vacancies are up.
Adding to this market pressure is competition felt from the shadow market or a surge of investor owned homes and condos that account for almost half of the rental stock, expanding the national rental supply.
Despite these recent obstacles, a national Apartments.com survey found that an overwhelming majority of renters are still looking for a new place to live this year and more than half are planning to pay the same or more in rent. (via Reuters) What To Do About Rent ReductionsTenant RetentionIf your are facing rent reductions and you want to retain the tenant, then ask for a new lease. In the 2001 recession, unemployment didn’t really recede for 18 months after the recession was technically over. Tenant retention locked in with a new lease is good strategy and will help you ride out this great recession.How to Rent it FasterStage it. Home staging for a rental plays the same role as staging for a sale. Painting the interior a light neutral color, is an inexpensive way to get a new and clean look and feel. Tired looking places take longer to rent. Leave lights on in each room, and leave blinds open to make rooms look brighter and larger.Sell it. Renting your unit or home is a sales process. Walk through the house as if you were a renter. Consider the negatives and be ready with answers that overcome its shortcomings. Be ready to talk up its features. Create a checklist of the things you like about the house. Use it to sell potential tenants. Check comparable rents with listing sites such as apartment.com or Craigslist. Consider consulting with a professional property manager to determine the right rent range if you still have difficulty.Focus Your AdvertisingUse Print TooConsider the profile of the people you are trying to reach and then advertise in the places where they would be likely to look for a rental unit. If you are renting that basic apartment or studio, you have a good chance of attracting people in need of a lower monthly rent. Think students or people starting out or starting over.Targeting your advertising you will save days on market. University campuses, free neighborhood papers, postings in local supermarkets or coffee houses might be the best place to reach that person.Of Course, the InternetIf you don’t have a professional website you could use the blogs. Sites such as blogger or even Facebook have become so easy to use that you might consider a page for your rental property that features a slide show of vacancies as they come up.As you receive phone calls you might ask them to go to your marketing page slide show and create an interactive conversation right there.Howard Bell PFP CCRM is the founder/editor of Your Property Path.com, featuring over 450 articles on property management, Your Property Path SF, trade talk for the San Francisco real estate industry, Your Property Path News Brief, snap news updates and real estate market info, and Your Property Path Amazon Store. Howard is a property manager in San Francisco and holds a certification in financial planning.See Howard Bell’s feature, New Home Equity Mortgage Available.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Social Networking Sites Report More Baby Boomers/Written by Jeremiah Owyang
Social Networking Sites Report More Baby Boomers
“Baby boomers aren’t technology Luddites. More than 60 % of them consume socially created content. You’ll find them leaving their opinions on Web sites and joining social networks.”- Jeremiah K. Owyang (@jowyang), researcher with Forrester Research
There is this perception that adults over 50 only dabble on the Internet, but research is finding that they are spending more time online and interacting in robust social networking communities. Baby boomers using social networking sites such as Facebook™, MySpace™, LinkedIn®, Twitter and YouTube™ are not as uncommon as you may think.
According to The Pew Internet and American Life Project, boomers now account for 35% of all Americans online. A consumer survey of U.S. consumers, from the NPD group, Inc., a leading provider of reliable consumer research, shows that 61% of baby boomer Internet users (age 44 to 61) had visited sites that offer streaming or downloadable video, while 41% had visited social networks.
Baby boomers are finding social networking sites appealing for the same reasons most people do- to stay in touch with people. They are interested in reconnecting with old friends and classmates whom they haven’t talked to in more than 30 years. They enjoy sharing photos with family and friends and staying connected to their children and grandchildren. High school and college reunions are also being organized via Facebook. Nielsen Reports that moms (aged 40-50 with 3+ children) are heavy online shoppers who stay connected via social networking more so than mom’s 39-54. Some are even replacing e-mail with social networking sites for staying in touch with people on an ongoing basis. In addition to sites like Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn, they are also using boomer-specific sites like eons.com, boommj.com, boomertowne.com and the aarp.org social network. According to Facebook, women over 55 remain the fastest growing group on the site, and growth among the teen and college-age set has been relatively paltry. In absolute numbers there are now even slightly more members between the ages of 45 and 65 than there are 13-to 17-year-olds. Analytics company iStrategyLabs has examined the demographics stats from Facebook’s Social Ads platform, and they have found staggering results. Interestingly, they found that the number of users aged 25-34 has grown 60.8%; the number of users aged 35 to 54 has grown 190.2%, while the number of users older than 55 years has grown a tremendous 513.7%.
Baby boomers are making themselves known in the social media space of the online world. Marketers who neglect to speak to them in the language they are now adapting to will miss out on a rewarding opportunity!
Tags: after 55, Baby Boomers, baby boomers social media, communities, community, Facebook, forrent.com, interests, leads, marketing, media, myspace, online, senior outlook, Seniors, seniors online, Social Networking, Twitter, videos, women, youtube
This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 at 8:42 am and is filed under Property Managers & Owners, Senior Housing-An After 55 Housing and Resource Guide. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
“Baby boomers aren’t technology Luddites. More than 60 % of them consume socially created content. You’ll find them leaving their opinions on Web sites and joining social networks.”- Jeremiah K. Owyang (@jowyang), researcher with Forrester Research
There is this perception that adults over 50 only dabble on the Internet, but research is finding that they are spending more time online and interacting in robust social networking communities. Baby boomers using social networking sites such as Facebook™, MySpace™, LinkedIn®, Twitter and YouTube™ are not as uncommon as you may think.
According to The Pew Internet and American Life Project, boomers now account for 35% of all Americans online. A consumer survey of U.S. consumers, from the NPD group, Inc., a leading provider of reliable consumer research, shows that 61% of baby boomer Internet users (age 44 to 61) had visited sites that offer streaming or downloadable video, while 41% had visited social networks.
Baby boomers are finding social networking sites appealing for the same reasons most people do- to stay in touch with people. They are interested in reconnecting with old friends and classmates whom they haven’t talked to in more than 30 years. They enjoy sharing photos with family and friends and staying connected to their children and grandchildren. High school and college reunions are also being organized via Facebook. Nielsen Reports that moms (aged 40-50 with 3+ children) are heavy online shoppers who stay connected via social networking more so than mom’s 39-54. Some are even replacing e-mail with social networking sites for staying in touch with people on an ongoing basis. In addition to sites like Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn, they are also using boomer-specific sites like eons.com, boommj.com, boomertowne.com and the aarp.org social network. According to Facebook, women over 55 remain the fastest growing group on the site, and growth among the teen and college-age set has been relatively paltry. In absolute numbers there are now even slightly more members between the ages of 45 and 65 than there are 13-to 17-year-olds. Analytics company iStrategyLabs has examined the demographics stats from Facebook’s Social Ads platform, and they have found staggering results. Interestingly, they found that the number of users aged 25-34 has grown 60.8%; the number of users aged 35 to 54 has grown 190.2%, while the number of users older than 55 years has grown a tremendous 513.7%.
Baby boomers are making themselves known in the social media space of the online world. Marketers who neglect to speak to them in the language they are now adapting to will miss out on a rewarding opportunity!
Tags: after 55, Baby Boomers, baby boomers social media, communities, community, Facebook, forrent.com, interests, leads, marketing, media, myspace, online, senior outlook, Seniors, seniors online, Social Networking, Twitter, videos, women, youtube
This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 at 8:42 am and is filed under Property Managers & Owners, Senior Housing-An After 55 Housing and Resource Guide. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Reporting a Tenant to the Credit Bureaus/Written by the Landlord Doctor Bill Gray
Reporting Previous Tenant Debt to Major Credit Bureaus
What happens if you do not pay your doctor, cell phone, or utility bill? You will not only receive some less than friendly phone calls, but your debt will also be reported to Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. These major credit bureaus will then ding your credit report to show that you owe money, and most debts will remain as a collection account for up to seven years!
Why do companies go to the trouble of reporting these debts? They do it because reporting the debt to the credit bureaus makes it difficult for the debtor to obtain credit, thus increasing the possibility they will get paid the money they are owed. It may also lower FICO scores. If it did not work, trust me, they would not bother reporting.
So why don’t landlords report previous tenants that owe them money to the credit bureaus? It cannot be a matter of cost or a lack of time because reporting is very inexpensive and easy to do. Either landlords don’t know they can report, or they are apathetic about it.
Don’t assume because you sued the tenant and received a money judgment that the money you are owed will show up on one’s credit report. Many simply do not, due to simple clerical errors. You would be surprised at the number of evictions that don’t show up either. Make sure the debt is entered on the credit report as a collection account by putting it there yourself.
In today’s economy, we need every penny of profit we can find. I promise you there are millions of dollars in uncollected tenant debt just sitting in filing cabinets. I bet you have some yourself. This is lost profit, a percentage of which is recoverable.
Up to 50% of tenant debt is recoverable if it is reported to the credit bureaus. Of course, none of it is recoverable if you leave it in your desk drawer. So dust off those old files of previous tenants who owe you money. Report them to the credit bureaus and begin collecting some much needed profit.
To begin reporting tenant debt to all three credit bureaus click here: Start Reporting Now!
What happens if you do not pay your doctor, cell phone, or utility bill? You will not only receive some less than friendly phone calls, but your debt will also be reported to Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. These major credit bureaus will then ding your credit report to show that you owe money, and most debts will remain as a collection account for up to seven years!
Why do companies go to the trouble of reporting these debts? They do it because reporting the debt to the credit bureaus makes it difficult for the debtor to obtain credit, thus increasing the possibility they will get paid the money they are owed. It may also lower FICO scores. If it did not work, trust me, they would not bother reporting.
So why don’t landlords report previous tenants that owe them money to the credit bureaus? It cannot be a matter of cost or a lack of time because reporting is very inexpensive and easy to do. Either landlords don’t know they can report, or they are apathetic about it.
Don’t assume because you sued the tenant and received a money judgment that the money you are owed will show up on one’s credit report. Many simply do not, due to simple clerical errors. You would be surprised at the number of evictions that don’t show up either. Make sure the debt is entered on the credit report as a collection account by putting it there yourself.
In today’s economy, we need every penny of profit we can find. I promise you there are millions of dollars in uncollected tenant debt just sitting in filing cabinets. I bet you have some yourself. This is lost profit, a percentage of which is recoverable.
Up to 50% of tenant debt is recoverable if it is reported to the credit bureaus. Of course, none of it is recoverable if you leave it in your desk drawer. So dust off those old files of previous tenants who owe you money. Report them to the credit bureaus and begin collecting some much needed profit.
To begin reporting tenant debt to all three credit bureaus click here: Start Reporting Now!
Monday, August 24, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
Mobile Tipping Point: Beyond Voice
Mobile Tipping Point: Beyond Voice
Your cell phone is evolving into a business productivity tool…
In the early days of cell phones, they were used merely for talking. Today, cell phones have a myriad of other applications. For many people, their cell phone is their daily organizer, music player, camera, GPS system, and news and weather device. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. In the very near future, cell phones will also be people’s banks, credit card, keys, remote control, and video conferencing platform, just to name a few. Clearly, today’s cell phones are much more than phones, and tomorrow’s will revolutionize the business world.
In order to stay competitive and ahead of the curve, businesses need to look beyond what the cell phone is today and anticipate where it will be tomorrow. You have to ask yourself, “How is the cell phone changing my customers?” “What new service could I deliver on a mobile platform?” Or, “How are these beyond-voice-capabilities changing my customers’ customers?”
The fact is that if you don’t change with your customers, they won’t be your customers for much longer. For most businesses, their customers are changing rapidly. Are you changing and learning as fast as your customers are?
Because today’s technology is rapidly evolving, you have to go beyond keeping up. Merely keeping up will cause you to always be behind. Rather, you need to jump ahead based on what you know will happen.
What do you know will happen? We know there are three driving forces that create exponential technological change: 1) Processing power doubles every 18 months as it drops in price, 2) Storage capacity doubles, and 3) We get faster speeds and higher bandwidth. Because of the processing power being faster, your cell phone can go online and perform searches faster. Phone companies are continually upgrading their network so the 3G network becomes the 4G network. In less than a year processing power, storage capability, and speed have all doubled, and next year they will double again, making the cell phone as powerful as your current desktop computer.
Additionally, businesses need to look at other countries to see what they’re doing. As Americans, we tend to think we’re the first with technology, but that isn’t always the case (and it’s definitely not the case with cell phones). Whereas we have multiple standards for cell phone technology, many other countries have one national standard so everyone’s phone works the same way. As such, they can roll out new cell phone innovations much faster than we can.
Culture also plays a big role. The Japanese culture, for example, loves their devices and prefers using them over face-to-face conversation. So they have more cultural incentive to unveil the next cell phone use.
The bottom line is smart businesses will start seeing the certainty of technological change of cell phones and will recognize the opportunities that lie within. Following are some current and coming cell phone uses you need to be aware of and using.
Current uses:
· Mobile travel: Currently, some airports allow you to use your cell phone as your boarding pass. You simply download your boarding pass to your phone.When you approach security, you pull up the barcode of your virtual boarding pass and swipe your cell phone under security’s scanner. You can then go through security and board your plane without a paper ticket. Such technology saves your employees’ time when traveling and eliminates the last minute “where did I put my boarding pass” search.
· Mobile media: You probably already have music on your cell phone, and you may even have television programming. But now businesses can disperse training and education to employees as part of that mobile media. So while an employee is waiting in an airport for a flight, she can download the latest training information right from her phone.
· Mobile management: Need to know where your salespeople or delivery drivers are at all times? We all have triangulation or GPS as part of our cell phones. There are programs, such as Looped for the iPhone that allow you, with permission, to bring up a map and see where your employees are located right now. Granted, this program was developed for personal use, so that friends and family could see where each other are, but there’s no reason why a business couldn’t use it to locate employees, drivers, or anyone else who leaves the office for extended periods of time.
Future uses:
· Mobile finance: In the near future, you’ll be able to do banking on your cell phone, such as doing money transfers to other people. How do we know this? Because other countries are already doing it! For example, in Kenya, where we assume everything is behind the times, they have a mobile phone system where if someone owes you money, he can use his cell phone to transfer money from his account to yours. As the technology makes its way to the States, cell phones will become a vital part of people’s banking.
· Mobile commerce: There are places in the world where you can pay for your restaurant, auto service, groceries, parking meters, or any other item with your cell phone - without using a credit card. You’re simply using your mobile phone to pay for the transaction. To prevent fraud, cell phones will have biometric ID capabilities that can detect everything from the user’s fingerprint to voice pattern and facial recognition. Such measures are actually far more secure than using a credit card.
· Mobile customer service: As mega stores dominate the landscape, shoppers need more access to customer service personnel. Imagine a customer being in a huge warehouse type store and being able to use her cell phone to pull up a map of the store and locate the nearest customer service person. Or, even better, imagine that customer being able to touch an icon on her cell phone screen, which automatically lets the customer service rep know where she is and that she needs help. The technology to do this exists today; it’s simply a matter of businesses applying it to this scenario. Imagine the competitive advantage you’d gain if you were the first to roll this concept out.
Opportunity is Calling
The possibilities for tomorrow’s cell phones are limitless: Mobile data … mobile media … mobile finance … mobile commerce … mobile health … mobile marketing … mobile security … mobile location services - these are just the beginning. Over the next few years, cell phone apps (applications) will grow exponentially as well. We’ll see apps for specific segments, such as doctors, lawyers, real estate agents, etc. To stay ahead, your company needs to develop internal tools or apps for your employees that can give your organization competitive advantage, such as an app so salespeople can access key data right on their phone. Developing an app is relatively inexpensive and can work on iPhones, Blackberries and Smartphones.
Ultimately, as we move into the future of cell phone technology, the goal is to get businesspeople to not just crisis manage in the present, but to opportunity manage for the future. When you can start viewing your cell phone in that capacity, you’ll be connected to a whole new world of business that can make a significant impact on your company’s bottom line.
About the Author:
Dan Burrus is considered one of the world’s leading technology forecasters and strategists. He is the founder and CEO of Burrus Research, a research and consulting firm that monitors global advancements in technology driven trends to help clients better understand how technological, social and business forces are converging to create enormous, untapped opportunities. Dan has developed the first cell phone business application that allows the user to generate a business plan; the “Competitive Advantage Business Strategy Builder” will be launched in September 2009. For more information, please visit: http://www.burrus.com/.
Your cell phone is evolving into a business productivity tool…
In the early days of cell phones, they were used merely for talking. Today, cell phones have a myriad of other applications. For many people, their cell phone is their daily organizer, music player, camera, GPS system, and news and weather device. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. In the very near future, cell phones will also be people’s banks, credit card, keys, remote control, and video conferencing platform, just to name a few. Clearly, today’s cell phones are much more than phones, and tomorrow’s will revolutionize the business world.
In order to stay competitive and ahead of the curve, businesses need to look beyond what the cell phone is today and anticipate where it will be tomorrow. You have to ask yourself, “How is the cell phone changing my customers?” “What new service could I deliver on a mobile platform?” Or, “How are these beyond-voice-capabilities changing my customers’ customers?”
The fact is that if you don’t change with your customers, they won’t be your customers for much longer. For most businesses, their customers are changing rapidly. Are you changing and learning as fast as your customers are?
Because today’s technology is rapidly evolving, you have to go beyond keeping up. Merely keeping up will cause you to always be behind. Rather, you need to jump ahead based on what you know will happen.
What do you know will happen? We know there are three driving forces that create exponential technological change: 1) Processing power doubles every 18 months as it drops in price, 2) Storage capacity doubles, and 3) We get faster speeds and higher bandwidth. Because of the processing power being faster, your cell phone can go online and perform searches faster. Phone companies are continually upgrading their network so the 3G network becomes the 4G network. In less than a year processing power, storage capability, and speed have all doubled, and next year they will double again, making the cell phone as powerful as your current desktop computer.
Additionally, businesses need to look at other countries to see what they’re doing. As Americans, we tend to think we’re the first with technology, but that isn’t always the case (and it’s definitely not the case with cell phones). Whereas we have multiple standards for cell phone technology, many other countries have one national standard so everyone’s phone works the same way. As such, they can roll out new cell phone innovations much faster than we can.
Culture also plays a big role. The Japanese culture, for example, loves their devices and prefers using them over face-to-face conversation. So they have more cultural incentive to unveil the next cell phone use.
The bottom line is smart businesses will start seeing the certainty of technological change of cell phones and will recognize the opportunities that lie within. Following are some current and coming cell phone uses you need to be aware of and using.
Current uses:
· Mobile travel: Currently, some airports allow you to use your cell phone as your boarding pass. You simply download your boarding pass to your phone.When you approach security, you pull up the barcode of your virtual boarding pass and swipe your cell phone under security’s scanner. You can then go through security and board your plane without a paper ticket. Such technology saves your employees’ time when traveling and eliminates the last minute “where did I put my boarding pass” search.
· Mobile media: You probably already have music on your cell phone, and you may even have television programming. But now businesses can disperse training and education to employees as part of that mobile media. So while an employee is waiting in an airport for a flight, she can download the latest training information right from her phone.
· Mobile management: Need to know where your salespeople or delivery drivers are at all times? We all have triangulation or GPS as part of our cell phones. There are programs, such as Looped for the iPhone that allow you, with permission, to bring up a map and see where your employees are located right now. Granted, this program was developed for personal use, so that friends and family could see where each other are, but there’s no reason why a business couldn’t use it to locate employees, drivers, or anyone else who leaves the office for extended periods of time.
Future uses:
· Mobile finance: In the near future, you’ll be able to do banking on your cell phone, such as doing money transfers to other people. How do we know this? Because other countries are already doing it! For example, in Kenya, where we assume everything is behind the times, they have a mobile phone system where if someone owes you money, he can use his cell phone to transfer money from his account to yours. As the technology makes its way to the States, cell phones will become a vital part of people’s banking.
· Mobile commerce: There are places in the world where you can pay for your restaurant, auto service, groceries, parking meters, or any other item with your cell phone - without using a credit card. You’re simply using your mobile phone to pay for the transaction. To prevent fraud, cell phones will have biometric ID capabilities that can detect everything from the user’s fingerprint to voice pattern and facial recognition. Such measures are actually far more secure than using a credit card.
· Mobile customer service: As mega stores dominate the landscape, shoppers need more access to customer service personnel. Imagine a customer being in a huge warehouse type store and being able to use her cell phone to pull up a map of the store and locate the nearest customer service person. Or, even better, imagine that customer being able to touch an icon on her cell phone screen, which automatically lets the customer service rep know where she is and that she needs help. The technology to do this exists today; it’s simply a matter of businesses applying it to this scenario. Imagine the competitive advantage you’d gain if you were the first to roll this concept out.
Opportunity is Calling
The possibilities for tomorrow’s cell phones are limitless: Mobile data … mobile media … mobile finance … mobile commerce … mobile health … mobile marketing … mobile security … mobile location services - these are just the beginning. Over the next few years, cell phone apps (applications) will grow exponentially as well. We’ll see apps for specific segments, such as doctors, lawyers, real estate agents, etc. To stay ahead, your company needs to develop internal tools or apps for your employees that can give your organization competitive advantage, such as an app so salespeople can access key data right on their phone. Developing an app is relatively inexpensive and can work on iPhones, Blackberries and Smartphones.
Ultimately, as we move into the future of cell phone technology, the goal is to get businesspeople to not just crisis manage in the present, but to opportunity manage for the future. When you can start viewing your cell phone in that capacity, you’ll be connected to a whole new world of business that can make a significant impact on your company’s bottom line.
About the Author:
Dan Burrus is considered one of the world’s leading technology forecasters and strategists. He is the founder and CEO of Burrus Research, a research and consulting firm that monitors global advancements in technology driven trends to help clients better understand how technological, social and business forces are converging to create enormous, untapped opportunities. Dan has developed the first cell phone business application that allows the user to generate a business plan; the “Competitive Advantage Business Strategy Builder” will be launched in September 2009. For more information, please visit: http://www.burrus.com/.
Landlord too Lax on Noise Enforcement
Landlord Too Lax on Noise Enforcement
Is poor management a valid reason to break lease?by Robert Griswold
Q: I have a question about noise. I live on the ground floor of a four-story “luxury” apartment community. We have a “quiet hours” clause written in all of our leases that states residents must be quiet from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. The tenants who just moved in above me, a family of four, make a lot of noise between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. almost every night.
I’ve informed the landlord and even bought a video camera to record the noises along with the times. I’ve shown several tapes to the landlord and he agrees that the noises (which include children screaming, running around, thumping, thuds and loud banging noises, in addition to foot traffic) are excessive. However, the tenants have continued virtually unabated with their noise-making.
What do I do if the landlord is unwilling or unable to stop them from waking me up in the middle of the night? I usually have to call security three nights a week. I have more than six months left on my current lease, but do I have grounds to break my lease early? Can I ask that they be given an eviction notice? Do I have grounds for breaking the lease early without penalty? For the last two months I haven’t been getting much sleep and I don’t know what to do.
A: One of the most prevalent complaints received by landlords is about the noise level created by another tenant. Such complaints are very challenging and a source of frustration for both landlords and tenants. A certain amount of noise is expected and must be tolerated when living in a multifamily apartment community. However, tenants need to be courteous and considerate of their neighbors.
Noise complaints are one of those issues that I believe require an escalating level of response. Ideally, just contacting your neighbor directly and asking them to be courteous should resolve the matter. But if that doesn’t work, then you were correct in contacting the landlord to see if he can intervene. The landlord already has a “quiet hours” policy so he certainly is aware of this issue and seems to agree that excessive noise is unacceptable.
The first step by the landlord or onsite property manager would be to make a phone call and ask the tenant directly but politely to be sensitive to others and keep the noise down as much as possible. If that doesn’t work, then the landlord should make a written formal request of your upstairs neighbor to cease and desist from any activity that could be disruptive. This written notice should be on a proper legal Notice of Breach of Lease form and cite the failure of the tenant to abide by the “quiet hours” policy.
If all else fails, you may want to contact your local municipality to see if it has noise ordinances, and make a formal written complaint. Many times these policies will require more than a single incident of excessive noise before they will take action. I have also seen municipal policies requiring that at least two or more neighbors be willing to file a formal complaint before the municipality will formally investigate the alleged noise violation.
If you are not able to resolve the issue with any of the above methods and are still interested in breaking your lease, then you should talk to your manager and point out that you believe the landlord has breached the lease agreement by failing to enforce their own “quiet hours” policy. You may find that the landlord is agreeable and will let you mutually agree to break the lease. However, if the landlord takes the position that you cannot break the lease, I would suggest you contact a local tenant-landlord attorney who can review your lease and will know the local laws and can advise you on the best way to proceed.
A lease is a formal legal document and you should be very careful and get proper legal advice before deciding that you will simply not honor this legally binding contract. I know that many tenants will just move out and are thoroughly convinced that the landlord has breached the lease but could find that the landlord disagrees and takes them to court seeking the balance of the lease payments — and then the tenant has to prove that the lease was indeed breached, and it can be difficult unless you have proper evidence.
I know you have video-camera evidence but that could be questioned in a court of law, so I feel it is much better if you have third-party verification of the noise complaints from either local law enforcement or a local municipal agency that handles noise complaints.
You indicate that you have contacted the apartment community’s security department several times per week so you can also see if they have been documenting your complaints in writing and see if you can get copies of these reports.
I have also heard that some tenants have successfully pursued small claims court actions directly against the other tenants for excessive noise. While this may be appealing on some level, it is certainly confrontational and could create a very stressful living environment. I would not recommend it, as you shouldn’t have to take the action yourself but should get the cooperation of your landlord or local code enforcement.
This column on issues confronting tenants and landlords is written by property manager Robert Griswold, author of “Property Management for Dummies” and “Property Management Kit for Dummies” and co-author of “Real Estate Investing for Dummies.”
E-mail your questions to Rental Q&A at rgriswold.inman@retodayradio.com. Questions should be brief and cannot be answered individually.Copyright 2009 Inman News
See Robert Griswold’s feature, Is $450 Cleaning Charge Legal?
Is poor management a valid reason to break lease?by Robert Griswold
Q: I have a question about noise. I live on the ground floor of a four-story “luxury” apartment community. We have a “quiet hours” clause written in all of our leases that states residents must be quiet from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. The tenants who just moved in above me, a family of four, make a lot of noise between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. almost every night.
I’ve informed the landlord and even bought a video camera to record the noises along with the times. I’ve shown several tapes to the landlord and he agrees that the noises (which include children screaming, running around, thumping, thuds and loud banging noises, in addition to foot traffic) are excessive. However, the tenants have continued virtually unabated with their noise-making.
What do I do if the landlord is unwilling or unable to stop them from waking me up in the middle of the night? I usually have to call security three nights a week. I have more than six months left on my current lease, but do I have grounds to break my lease early? Can I ask that they be given an eviction notice? Do I have grounds for breaking the lease early without penalty? For the last two months I haven’t been getting much sleep and I don’t know what to do.
A: One of the most prevalent complaints received by landlords is about the noise level created by another tenant. Such complaints are very challenging and a source of frustration for both landlords and tenants. A certain amount of noise is expected and must be tolerated when living in a multifamily apartment community. However, tenants need to be courteous and considerate of their neighbors.
Noise complaints are one of those issues that I believe require an escalating level of response. Ideally, just contacting your neighbor directly and asking them to be courteous should resolve the matter. But if that doesn’t work, then you were correct in contacting the landlord to see if he can intervene. The landlord already has a “quiet hours” policy so he certainly is aware of this issue and seems to agree that excessive noise is unacceptable.
The first step by the landlord or onsite property manager would be to make a phone call and ask the tenant directly but politely to be sensitive to others and keep the noise down as much as possible. If that doesn’t work, then the landlord should make a written formal request of your upstairs neighbor to cease and desist from any activity that could be disruptive. This written notice should be on a proper legal Notice of Breach of Lease form and cite the failure of the tenant to abide by the “quiet hours” policy.
If all else fails, you may want to contact your local municipality to see if it has noise ordinances, and make a formal written complaint. Many times these policies will require more than a single incident of excessive noise before they will take action. I have also seen municipal policies requiring that at least two or more neighbors be willing to file a formal complaint before the municipality will formally investigate the alleged noise violation.
If you are not able to resolve the issue with any of the above methods and are still interested in breaking your lease, then you should talk to your manager and point out that you believe the landlord has breached the lease agreement by failing to enforce their own “quiet hours” policy. You may find that the landlord is agreeable and will let you mutually agree to break the lease. However, if the landlord takes the position that you cannot break the lease, I would suggest you contact a local tenant-landlord attorney who can review your lease and will know the local laws and can advise you on the best way to proceed.
A lease is a formal legal document and you should be very careful and get proper legal advice before deciding that you will simply not honor this legally binding contract. I know that many tenants will just move out and are thoroughly convinced that the landlord has breached the lease but could find that the landlord disagrees and takes them to court seeking the balance of the lease payments — and then the tenant has to prove that the lease was indeed breached, and it can be difficult unless you have proper evidence.
I know you have video-camera evidence but that could be questioned in a court of law, so I feel it is much better if you have third-party verification of the noise complaints from either local law enforcement or a local municipal agency that handles noise complaints.
You indicate that you have contacted the apartment community’s security department several times per week so you can also see if they have been documenting your complaints in writing and see if you can get copies of these reports.
I have also heard that some tenants have successfully pursued small claims court actions directly against the other tenants for excessive noise. While this may be appealing on some level, it is certainly confrontational and could create a very stressful living environment. I would not recommend it, as you shouldn’t have to take the action yourself but should get the cooperation of your landlord or local code enforcement.
This column on issues confronting tenants and landlords is written by property manager Robert Griswold, author of “Property Management for Dummies” and “Property Management Kit for Dummies” and co-author of “Real Estate Investing for Dummies.”
E-mail your questions to Rental Q&A at rgriswold.inman@retodayradio.com. Questions should be brief and cannot be answered individually.Copyright 2009 Inman News
See Robert Griswold’s feature, Is $450 Cleaning Charge Legal?
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