Round-Up: Multifamily Insiders

Posted on February 18, 2010 by Chris Hogan

If you own or manage apartments in South Jersey, I encourage you to check out Multifamily Insiders, which is a site dedicated to the Apartment Industry.  There are a variety of resources on the site, including job and vendor listings as well as blogs and discussion threads.  I seem to always find some useful/interesting information + there is a real sense of "community" building on the site.  (Full disclosure: I have signed up to be a member of Multifamily Insiders but have no ownership interest or other financial interest in it and absolutely no involvement in running it.  I just find it to be a useful site.)

Anyway, I wanted to pass along some recent blog posts from Multifamily Insiders which I thought you might find useful/interesting:

  • Pablo Paz, National Safety and Maintenance Instructor for NAA Education Institute, warns that apartment properties will be subject to the EPA's new Lead-Based Paint Renovation, Repair and Painting (RRP) Rule which takes effect April 22, 2010.  For those unaware, among other things, the new Rule requires employees and contractors who perform any renovations, repairs, and painting in homes built before 1978 to be certified by an EPA-accredited training provider as to regulations and guidelines on how to work safely with lead-based painted surfaces.  The training has to be completed by the April 22/2010 deadline.  The post includes useful links to further information from the NAAEI and the EPA about the Rule and compliance.
  • Brent Williams has an excellent series of posts about the ugly, the bad, and the good (somewhat) that he was subjected to during the lease renewal process at his apartment complex.  The posts contain excellent analysis and food for thought for all managers or owners.  MORAL OF THE STORY: customer service and attention to detail add value to a property and are worth the effort.
  • On the topic of customer service, Eric Brown of the Urbane Lab has an excellent post on what he calls "Partnership Marketing" which, in this case, involves working w/ several businesses -- including local restaurants -- to provide custom shuttle service to residents at no cost to the property!  (You may recall Eric Brown/Urbane Apartments from an earlier post on marketing via social media.)  The free bus service clearly adds value to the property and it sounds like a real "win-win" for all involved.  What kind of "Partnership Marketing" opportunities might be available to your properties that would help add value?
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D.C. Commercial Landlords Start Posting Energy Costs

Posted on January 16, 2010 by Chris Hogan

According to the Washington Post, the time has come for Washington, D.C., commercial landlords to begin complying with the District's Clean and Affordable Energy Act.  Under the Act, which was passed in 2008, starting in 2010 landlords overseeing more than 200,000 square feet of office space are required by law to record energy and water usage rates in accord with the benchmarks established under the EPA's "Energy Star" program and, by the end of 2013, all buildings over 50,000 square feet must be compliant. 

Under the Energy Star program, buildings are assigned a rating from 1 to 100 based on how their energy efficiency compares with similar buildings in the country.  A building's rating will eventually be posted online, but there is a 2-year lag so landlords that must start reporting in 2010 will not see building ratings posted until 2012.  The lag in posting is intended to afford landlords the chance to install energy-efficient technologies, if they wish.

According to Cliff Majersik, Executive Director of the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Market Transformation, D.C. was the first area in the U.S. to enact such a law.  However, in December/2009 New York City passed a law that takes D.C.'s legislation even further by also requiring multi-family dwellings to record energy consumption rates.

Am I crazy for thinking that the required reporting and posting of energy ratings could be a good thing?  I am mindful of the cost involved, especially for older buildings.  However, if done right, can't some if not all of the money spent on improving energy efficiency eventually be recouped?  I would think that a good Energy Star rating would be yet another way to distinguish a property from its competitors and add value.

Like most things "green," I suspect that more municipalities are eventually going to jump on this trend.

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