The SocialRent team's first product, a Facebook app, is only addressing one small part of the apartment search, but it seems like a solid start toward tackling a larger set of problems. Read article at SOCIAL RENT.

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Rents climbed, but data firm Reis Inc. said the increase was less than expected.
Landlords of properties intended for lower-income renters found it more
difficult to raise prices, according to Reis.

READ ARTICLE

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http://www.apartmentexpert.com/ has a casual, inviting, ambiance packed with lots of calls to action at every turn. The website is a virtual welcome mat. Lisa's blog centers the home stage.  Visitors can see Lisa in action by subscribing to her YouTube.com channel. Her topics are readily available under the Seminars tab: leasing performance: telephone appointments, prospect follow-up, closing techniques, overcoming objections, market analysis, dodging concessions, generational leasing, and advancing into new markets. She also teaches On Site Programs.

Moving on to Consulting, web guests can view how Lisa offers another realm of services directly to owners and management leaders. The website design glides the visitor through her high-powered product repertoire: creative design, underperforming asset, repositioning, and new construction lease-up to mention a few. Behind the scenes, Ms. Trosien and her staff members can access their administrative functionality and update the blog, calendar, resources, schedule, articles, groups, topics and even change the background image.

She is delighted with the website's affability, connectivity and visual appeal. "Spherexx.com has done a most excellent job in designing an amazing website for us! They made the entire process very easy for us. Everyone was very helpful and insightful with recommendations."

Spherexx.com, a four-year Goldline Preferred Provider designate, has been developing websites for the multifamily industry for over 10 years. Established in 2000, Spherexx.com has offices located in Tulsa, Dallas and Houston.  

Spherexx.com offers a wide selection of professional services including web design and development, touch-screen kiosks, Internet lead generation tools, online advertising, advanced mobile technology, and search engine performance. They provide branding services, video/multimedia production, print media, and copywriting as well as website and email hosting, database solutions, pay per click, e-commerce solutions and custom programming.

The company has developed CRM (customer relationship management) products and lead generation and management tools that allow clients to better manage and convert leads to leases and sales. These applications are branded under http://www.iloveleasing.com/,  http://www.marketsurveytools.com/, http://www.leadseeds.com/ and http://www.sweetspot.ws/. Spherexx.com provides web-based prospecting, marketing, advertising management, and support services. 

Spherexx.com has provided services to innovative real estate companies like Allison-Shelton, Lincoln Property Company, Forest City Enterprises, JMG Realty, Greystar, and ZRS Residential Services. The company represents a collective seventy years of direct, executive level property management experience that readily identifies with the challenges and solutions of multi-family property management professionals.

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(Reuters) - Brian Keith is busier than ever as the architecture firm he works for rushes to wrap up work on a 300-unit apartment complex in Dallas.

The project is one of dozens the firm, JHP Architecture, has on its hands -- a surge of business driven by a rise in demand in the United States for rental properties.

The increased demand has forced JHP to expand, and it expects to keep hiring at least through the first quarter.

"We're seeing overall work come back and there's a backlog of contracts to go through," said Keith, director of urban design and planning at JHP. "There's strong interest in multi-family units and plenty of pent-up demand."

With U.S. unemployment at a lofty 8.6 percent, home foreclosures rising and property prices under pressure, more and more Americans have given up the dream of owning, opting instead to rent, a shift that is remaking the face of the U.S. housing industry.

The percentage of Americans who own their home dropped from a peak of 69.2 percent in late 2004 to a 13-year low of 65.9 percent in the second quarter. It edged up to 66.3 percent in the third quarter of this year.

On the flip side, the percentage of rental properties that are empty fell to 9.8 percent in the third quarter from 10.3 percent a year earlier.

In a recent report, Oliver Chang, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, dubbed 2012 "The Year of the Landlord."

"Rents are rising, vacancies are falling, household formations are growing and rental supply is limited," the Morgan Stanley report stated. "We believe the demand for rental properties will continue to grow."

Groundbreaking for new housing jumped 9.3 percent in November to the highest level in 19 months, fueling optimism that the battered housing market was regaining its footing.

The gains, however, were almost solely in multifamily housing. Groundbreaking for structures with five or more units shot up more than 30 percent from October to now stand at nearly double the year-ago level.

Prices reflect the shift in demand. Rental costs are up 2.4 percent over the last year, compared with an increase of just 0.6 percent in 2010.

Steve Blitz, senior economist at ITG Investment Research, says the lure of higher returns is spurring the development of apartment buildings. He argued the next "boom" in residential construction has already started.

"The reason rents were rising is that through the past 15 years there has been an under-building of rental properties because typical renters were increasingly able to garner cheap financing to buy a house," he wrote in a research note.

While the rise in demand is great news for builders and developers, it remains unclear what the pick-up in homebuilding will mean for the economy as a whole.

"Residential construction will be a plus to GDP in 2012, but house price declines will be a negative. So net, net housing will be neutral or a small drag on the economy," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics.

At its peak at the end of 2005, homebuilding accounted for about 6.2 percent of overall economic activity. Now, it is only about 2.4 percent.

U.S. housing starts in April 2009 hit their lowest level on records dating to January 1959. While multifamily starts have given them a lift, 2011 may be the weakest year ever for construction of single-family homes.

"Business is slightly down from last year," said Bill Zach, a third-generation homebuilder. His family business, the Zach Building Co. in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin, area, is mainly focused on single-family units.

To Zach, that his firm is still in business when so many of his competitors have gone bust represents some success.

"It used to be my competition was every guy that owned a pick-up truck and called himself a builder. Hundreds of them," Zach said. "That's no longer the case, those guys are dropping by the wayside."

But there are signs of a turn and signals that the housing market may be close to finding a bottom.

The Architecture Billings Index, a gauge of future construction, picked up last month, breaking above the 50 level to signal growth in billings.

And the stock of homebuilders, as measured by a Dow Jones index, has shot up more than 30 percent since early October.

"Residential construction is finally beginning to rise from its post-recession lows," said Joseph Lavorgna, chief U.S. economist for Deutsche Bank. "The true test for starts and (building) permits, as well as most of the sales metrics, will come during the spring buying season."

(Reporting by Margaret Chadbourn; Editing by Tim Ahmann and Leslie Adler)

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“Multifamily investments have received a lot of good press over the past several years, and this has attracted more money — and more investors — into the mix,” says Jeff Siebold, CCIM, MAI, owner of Siebold Group Consulting in Caswell Beach, N.C.

Of course, this trend is the result of more than just the media frenzy. “The key [to multifamily’s success] in today’s market is net income or dividend to investors with upside potential, which is creating solid risk-adjusted returns,” says Kenneth P. Riggs Jr., CCIM, CRE, MAI, CCIM Institute’s chief real estate economist and president of Real Estate Research Corp.

And, compared with other sectors, apartments have shorter lease terms that allow for rent bumps as the economy grows. These factors, coupled with a large number of former homeowners entering the rental market, are making multifamily the go-to investment product right now, Riggs says.

For the last few years, apartment investment activity has mostly been concentrated in primary markets. And, in terms of volume and pricing, they’re still leading the pack. New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, and Dallas saw a combined 1H2011 transaction volume of more than $7.9 billion, according to Real Capital Analytics.

The increased competition has pushed average class A capitalization rates in primary markets down to the 4-percent-to-4.5-percent range, with some markets reporting cap rates below 4 percent, according to Marcus & Millichap.

The star sector’s overexposure, manifested in the cap rate compression and the pricing rebound, has kept all but the largest institutional investors and real estate investment trusts from competing for assets in primary markets. And even these investors are now searching for alternatives.

“Some REITs are buying land to build apartments,” says Ben Thypin, RCA’s director of market analysis. “It would be more common if more land were available in markets like New York and San Francisco.”

But since land is a limited resource — especially in densely populated primary markets — multifamily investors have been forced to look for opportunities elsewhere. This is the story behind the story. It might not be garnering a lot of headlines, but it is good news for CCIMs.

Small Markets See Influx

Siebold, whose company works in nine states in the Mid-South region, has seen many regional markets bounce back relatively quickly after the downturn. “With many major cities strengthening and institutional investors paying premium prices for the best multifamily assets, there are a number of investors and developers looking at secondary and tertiary markets,” he says. “Cities like Little Rock, Ark., Jackson, Miss., Mobile, Ala., Wilmington, N.C., and others have seen renewed interest over the past several years.”

In 1H11, institutional investors accounted for a large share of purchases in secondary markets such as Charlotte, N.C., Orlando, Fla., Austin, Texas, and Seattle, as well as some tertiary markets in the Mid-Atlantic and West regions, according to RCA. REITs and equity fund managers looking for yield are also beginning to target secondary markets, Thypin says. “The general movement is a reaction toward competition in primary markets,” he adds.

But even in secondary markets, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to dodge the falling cap rates. “Oklahoma City has seen the trophy assets trading at 6 percent cap rates as more buyers are being priced out of the core markets,” says Andrew Joseph Burnett, CCIM, investment adviser with Sperry Van Ness/Strange & Associates in Oklahoma City. “The solid class B properties are beginning to trade at cap rates approaching 2007 values, though C properties are still not trading as Fannie and Freddie have been reluctant to enter that asset class.”

Capital is key. And for many small investors, which are more likely to consider class B and C properties, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been the only source for the last few years. But other lenders are beginning to give them a run for their deals. Multifamily loan originations increased 47 percent from 1Q11 to 2Q11, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, and a significant portion of those loans were from regional and local banks, as well as life insurance companies.

“Financing is very competitive,” says Shahid Abdulla, CCIM, vice president of Broadway National Bank in San Antonio. In Abdulla’s market, which is attracting out-of-state investors searching for relatively high yields, it’s not uncommon to see pricing at 200 basis points over the London interbank offered rate, or LIBOR, with burn-off guarantees. “Strong banks and life companies all have issues with placement of their cash, so the spreads of have come down significantly and will continue to be trimmed until development picks up,” he says. “We’re also seeing life companies get pretty skinny on pricing and gain traction in replacing the GSEs for pricing and structure.”

Credit unions, which all but vanished during the downturn, are also re-emerging as a potential funding source. “At least two of our largest credit unions have been extremely aggressive in their attempt to expand their lending portfolios,” says Erik Olson, CCIM, senior adviser with NAI Maestas & Ward in Albuquerque, N.M. “We are seeing 70/30 LTVs and 4.75 percent fixed rates for five-year loans for multifamily and commercial assets.”

Olson is working with an investment group that’s considering 75-plus-unit, class B and C apartment properties with a 7.5 percent cap rate return for purchase. “The interesting component is that a 7.5 percent cap rate has generally been the trading rate for institutional, class A properties,” he says. “The lowering of investor expectations on the class B and C assets is pushing up returns for sellers, and higher demand is setting in.”

The Niche Is Back

Danny Zelonker, CCIM, SIOR, broker associate with Mizrach Realty Associates in Miami, markets himself as an industrial specialist, but lately he’s spending a lot of time at community banks looking for real estate-owned apartments. “All of the South American buyers want multifamily,” he explains. “It gives immediate returns, and, because many of the rental properties were converted into condos in our market, there’s a shortage of affordable rentals.”

Zelonker recently listed a 27-unit apartment property in Miami’s central business district that was in foreclosure. With the heightened competition among South American buyers, who tend to pay cash, he expects this class B property to transact at a cap rate near zero. “The purchaser would have to buy on the per-square-foot price going up and probably rent at a break-even or a loss,” Zelonker says.

Nationally, inbound foreign investors doubled their share of multifamily acquisitions in 1H11 from 3 percent to 6 percent, according to RCA. Canadians, Germans, and other Europeans led the pack. While they tend to focus on primary markets, cross-border buyers are also active in smaller Southeastern markets, accounting for 51 percent of the acquisitions in Palm Beach, Fla., in 1H11, for example.

In markets that aren’t seeing an increase in foreclosures, other high-yield niches are leading the way. Garden apartments accounted for two-thirds of total multifamily investment activity in July, according to RCA, capping a strong run through the first half of the year. MPF Research notes that the niche saw a 165 percent year-over-year increase in sales volume in May.

“We’re seeing recently built garden-style apartments go with a flair toward very low percentage costs,” says Skip Duemeland, CCIM, chief executive officer of Duemelands Commercial in Bismarck, N.D. Tax deferrals, garden-style construction, and tenant utility payments help many investors realize costs of 14 percent to 21 percent on these assets in Duemeland’s market, compared with the sector average of 35 percent to 39 percent.

Expiring tax-credit properties are also beginning to surface as investor targets. “From a buyer perspective, these assets are typically in good condition with low vacancies and don’t require a high level of experience in affordable housing,” says Thomas J. Cooper, CCIM, founder of Minnesota Brokerage Group in Minneapolis. “At this stage, compliance is less restrictive and can be managed in-house or through an outside resource.”

Trouble Ahead?

With investor interest spreading to smaller markets and riskier niche product, the multifamily sector seems poised to continue generating glowing headlines. But several potential roadblocks loom.

The first is job growth — or the lack thereof. Apartment absorption is still closely tied to employment. Nonfarm payrolls saw no monthly change in August, and July and June numbers were revised down by 58,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Additional contraction in the labor markets could have a significant impact on multifamily occupancy.

At the same time, healthy markets tend to have more homeowners. “Areas with stronger housing markets or lower unemployment rates should generally see higher vacancy and lower rents for multifamily,” Riggs notes.

But Riggs, for his part, sees overpricing as the greatest potential detriment to investor enthusiasm. “Forecasts for supply additions are low, suggesting that competition for multifamily properties will remain intense,” he explains.

A flood of single-family rentals could also cut into multifamily absorption in foreclosure-ridden markets. In August, the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced that it was considering renting out homes owned by Fannie, Freddie, and the Federal Housing Administration. The government’s single-family portfolio totaled approximately 250,000 properties at the time of the announcement, but hundreds of thousands of more homes could be added in the coming years. This effort to bolster property values, then, might end up creating vacancies and dampening rent growth in certain multifamily markets.

“The impact will be felt in commodity markets and submarkets, especially on class B and C assets,” notes Karsang Sherpa, senior vice president with Caldera Asset Management in Denver, referring to rentals of foreclosed single-family homes controlled by any investor, including the government. Unless significant employment growth returns, he adds, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, and other commodity markets could see the fallout from this trend soon — perhaps before the end of the year.

The GSEs might also pose a problem from a financing angle. Fannie and Freddie have been a source of cheap capital for many multifamily investors during the market downturn. “Thirty-year fixed-rate mortgages wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for these lenders,” Thypin says. If the GSEs were modified or shut down, the cheap capital that investors have come to rely on might become extremely difficult to find.

Could other lenders fill that void? Perhaps, Abdulla says. “The life companies will need to significantly pick up their volumes and HUD will need much larger allocations,” he explains. “Regional and national banks may play a larger role; however, they will keep maturities short and may not have the stomach for nonrecourse structures.”

But changes to Fannie and Freddie are not expected to materialize before 2013. In the meantime, multifamily investors can take solace in what seems to be a fundamental shift in Americans’ attitudes. “We believe the homeownership picture in the U.S. has changed,” Burnett says. “More people will choose to rent than buy in the near future due to the difficulty in obtaining a new mortgage for most prospective home buyers.”

The numbers — and the headlines — bear this out. According to a survey conducted by Fannie Mae in July, fewer Americans said they would buy their next home (down 5 percentage points from June) and more expected to rent (up 3 percentage points from June).

A home, it seems, no longer requires a house.

Rich Rosfelder is associate editor of Commercial Investment Real Estate.

Development on the Horizon

At first glance, the multifamily market doesn’t seem to be experiencing a building boom. CoStar forecasts that only 30,000 units will come online this year in the 54 largest U.S. markets, which amounts to approximately one-third of the average annual apartment unit deliveries from 2003 to 2008.

But in markets with sustained household growth and dwindling supply, multifamily development is coming back in a big way. The proof is in the permit data. There were more than 70,000 construction starts in 1H11, according to CoStar. And if owners and developers are going to avoid the fallout from the glut of new apartments set to come online in many markets from 2013 to 2015, they should act fast.

“We closed on two multifamily development sites in the previous six months and have three more under contract,” says T. Sean Lance, CCIM, managing director with NAI Tampa Bay in Tampa, Fla. “Apartment developers have been shut out of the game for the last several years and it will take 24 to 36 months for these properties to come out of the ground, so the time is now to fill the void in the market.”

Niche multifamily properties are also seeing new construction starts. For example, in Albuquerque, most recent multifamily developments have been University of New Mexico student-housing projects, says Erik Olson, CCIM, senior adviser with NAI Maestas & Ward in Albuquerque. However, given the MSA’s shortage of entitled multifamily land sites, 97 percent apartment occupancy rate, and steadily rising rents, Olson expects multifamily development to ramp up across the board soon.

Who’s funding all of these projects? For now, the government is still carrying the bulk of them. “Almost every new multifamily development we’ve seen in the past four years has been financed through the HUD 221(d)(4) program,” says Jeff Siebold, CCIM, MAI, owner of Siebold Group Consulting in Caswell Beach, N.C. Last year, HUD insured $11.5 billion in loans for new development and refinancing, up from about $5.5 billion in 2009, Siebold notes. HUD expects to match or surpass the 2010 mark this year. “The trick,” Siebold says, “is to identify markets with the demand components that match up with the HUD financing criteria.”

For some types of multifamily development, HUD financing needs to be supplemented. In West Texas, for example, HUD is financing some affordable-housing developments, in addition to market rent and rehab projects, explains Tim Treadway, CCIM, managing director of multifamily for The Gerald A. Teel Co. in Houston. “However, the tax credit deals often require a mezzanine lender to fund the construction, as HUD takes too long and developers chance losing their tax credits,” he adds. In other markets, alternatives to HUD are beginning to surface. “New Mexico’s credit unions have provided a welcome breath of fresh air with multifamily and commercial financing,” Olson says. “And I envision that they will continue to be a strong lending source in the ground-up construction area.”

Limited construction is even driving competition among lenders in healthier markets. Development starts in San Antonio’s CBD, western corridor, and military base areas are all attracting attention, according to Shahid Abdulla, CCIM, vice president of Broadway National Bank in San Antonio. “We recently competed with five other lenders on a 300-plus-unit development in the western portion of the city with an institutional equity partner and a long-term successful developer,” Abdulla says. “The final terms came down to pricing, which was committed to at 2 percent with only a completion guarantee.”

As lenders and investors clamor for these projects, however, overbuilding will become more of a danger. It’s up to developers to watch the market and pursue projects accordingly.

“Historically, we have typically developed new product unabated, overbuilt, and waited for the market to catch up,” Treadway says. His market currently has proposals totaling 13,000 units, but he expects that the tight credit markets will help stagger the flow of new product. “As long as we don’t start developing ahead of our absorption horizon, we will be OK,” he adds.

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U.S. home building climbed to the highest level in 19 months during November and construction permits grew, with most of the increase in housing starts coming from multifamily construction.

Home construction last month increased 9.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 685,000 from October, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. The results were better than forecast. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires expected housing starts would rise by 0.3% to an annual rate of 630,000.

The increase in November was driven by a 25.3% increase in multi-family homes with at least two units, a volatile part of the market. Construction of single-family homes, which made up about 65% percent of the market, rose only 2.3%.

Compared with the same month a year earlier, overall new-home starts in November were up 24.3%. They were still well below healthy levels, considered to be a pace of around 1 million to 1.5 million.

The Commerce data showed newly issued building permits, a gauge of future construction, rose 5.7% from a month earlier to an annual rate of 681,000, the highest since March 2010. Permits in November had been projected to fall 1.7% to an annual rate of 633,000.

The housing market is one of the key reasons economic growth in the U.S. has been sluggish. High unemployment, a glut of foreclosures and falling home prices have discouraged consumers from buying newly built homes. As a result, builders kept construction to a minimum during the housing bust.

However, the building industry has been getting a bit more optimistic of late. A survey this week showed builder sentiment climbed a third-straight month in December.

"As more people believe they can qualify for a mortgage on sensible terms, pent up demand seems to be emerging," said Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, in a note to clients Monday.

Yet the National Association of Home Builders' housing market index, which came in at 21 in December, is far below the reading of 50 that would mean more builders view conditions as good rather than poor. The last time the gauge was in positive territory was April 2006.

Economists at Goldman Sachs predict U.S. home prices will fall by another 3% through the middle part of 2012 before stabilizing in 2013. After that, they predict prices will rise just 5% over the next five years.

While new-home sales are 8.9% above their level in October 2010, they amount to about a quarter of their peak before the bubble began deflating around five years ago. Sales are far below healthy levels, considered to be an annual rate of around 750,000.

The Commerce Department data showed that housing starts rose in three out of four U.S. regions. They surged 53.8% in the Northeast and 22.6% in the West and rose 4.1% in the South. They fell 18.2% in the Midwest.

Actual housing starts, calculated without seasonal adjustments, fell to 51,800 in November from a downwardly revised 53,100 in October. Lumber and commodities markets watch those numbers closely to gauge demand.

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Last year, both mobile and print accounted for 50 minutes of an average user's time. The year before print accounted for 55 minutes and mobile for 39 minutes.

A key unknown in the report is how much of the growth in mobile use is coming from reading stories from newspapers and magazines online using tablets and mobile phones.

TV and video are No. 1 and have grown in the amount of time being spent by users, going from 267 minutes to 274 minutes.

The Internet is No. 2, growing from 146 minutes to 167 minutes.

Radio is No. 3 but dropped from 98 minutes to 94 minutes.

The report also said that despite the trend toward daily mobile use, the percentage of ad spending on the medium is less than 1 percent.

Print is No. 2, behind only TV and video, in that regard with nearly 25 percent of ad spending.

The Internet is close behind at No. 3 with nearly 22 percent.

TV and video account for about 42 percent of ad spending.

Written by Cromwell Schubarth. Contact him at cschubarth@bizjournals.com or 408.299.1823.

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Why is this?  Simply because PPC can be expensive.  You most likely want to use PPC in a lease-up situation or during a low occupancy period to quickly shrink vacancy.  It is generally not used for everyday advertising, but many apartment operators will use PPC regularly in a weak market.

Typically, apartment keywords range from $.50 to $5.00 every time a prospect clicks your advertisement.  A click on your PPC ad doesn't even get you a name and phone number of a prospect - so the "click" is just the beginning of driving that prospect to give you their information.  Note: the Insurance Industry can pay more than $54 a click.  A cost per lead (CPL) averages around $50.00.  Here are some articles on how PPC works: check out Wikipedia and Google Adwords for more detailed information.

What if my site already ranks well on Search Engine pages?
If it does that's great.  But let's think for a second about how search engines make money with advertising money from PPC ads.  For example, Google makes $3 billion a month (yes, billion) on these ads.  So Google wants their ads to be clicked on first.   Even if you rank #1 on page 1 for your keyword, there can still be three PPC ads right above your listing. It also allows you to target keywords you probably could not win with just organic SEO efforts.  You can always benefit from PPC when you need it. 

Should I do PPC myself or hire out?
Of course you can do it yourself, but remember how Google make it's $3 billion a month with PPC.  If you aren't an expert on search engine optimization it is easy to lose a lot of money and quickly. What about landing pages, setting up tracking, call leads?  And don't forget the time it will take you to educate yourself on best practices, and of course monitoring the account itself.

What if you contract your PPC campaign?
Who should you hire?  This is where it can get tricky.  Let's look at two philosophies for PPC methods.

Traffic Producing Philosophy
The first and most prevalent system is this: we will get you lots and lots of traffic. 
There are lots of large national companies that claim to have the best "algorithms" in the market.  They send all that traffic to your website and hope it will produce leads. These companies will get you lots of impressions and will do a really good job at getting you a low cost per click (CPC).  This works well for some industries, but not so great for the apartment industry.

Lead Producing Philosophy
The second system of thought is to optimize the campaign to target quality prospects and thus produce highly qualified leads.  These providers will produce quality, lead-generating landing pages and track the customer from the landing page to your website.  The CPC is much higher when applying this philosophy, but the amount of leads produced and the cost per lead (CPL) is significantly lower, thus giving you a much better ROI than the traffic-producing philosophy.  
In a three month comparative case study (same budget, same keywords) between two companies using these two philosophies, the lead-producing philosophy prevailed. 

Note: Company A is traffic producing, Company B is lead-producing.

Company A produced 21 leads a month with a $52.16 CPL (Cost Per Lead)
Company B produced 33 leads a month with a $30.31 CPL  (Cost Per Lead)

Company B (lead-producing) had:
   57% more leads
   42% less cost per lead

Look for a company with a lead-producing philosophy.
Ask these questions:
Do they produce a lead generating landing page?
What is their tracking method: can they track all the leads, even the ones that come back later?
What about phone call tracking, make sure it is included in the package.
How much are their fees?   Most companies can't or won't tell you.  So pick someone that is honest about their fees, even if it may seem a little high to you; you may not know how much an undisclosed bidder is actually taking.

In Conclusion:
PPC campaigns will impact your traffic, so use them when you need a traffic surge.
Don't try it yourself, leave PPC strategy to the professionals.
Pick the right company that will send you leads that you can convert to leases. 

For more information visit CASE STUDY .

by Bryan Mitchell, Search Engine Marketing, Spherexx.com

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Spherexx.com, a leader in web technology and Internet marketing software for the multifamily management industry, welcomes Lauren Allison as Executive Assistant to Becca Wilson, President and CEO. Ms Allison will also provide legal services for Spherexx.com.

"We are so honored to have Lauren join our team at Spherexx.com," states Wilson. "One of our long standing goals is to fill our ranks with designated, professional leadership and Ms. Allison is a natural fit." 

Spherexx.com, a 2010 INC.5000 designate as one of the fastest growing companies in America, provides consulting, web development, marketing tools, branding services, data storage and software as a service (SaaS) to property management leaders like Lincoln Property Company, Greystar, Allison-Shelton, Forest City, JMG Realty and ZRS Residential Services, along with many mid-sized management companies as well.

Lauren Allison will also serve as General Counsel for the rapidly expanding web technology firm. Ms. Allison is an honors graduate of the University of Tulsa College of Law. She earned her BA in Law and Society through accelerated studies at the University of Tulsa, graduating Cum Laude in 2004. She has served as the Coordinator of Academic Achievement and Bar Support at the University of Tulsa College of Law. Her private practice included real estate, civil and business litigation.  She was elected President of the Creek County Bar Association and as Delegate to the Oklahoma Bar Association House of Delegates-the youngest member to ever serve in such capacity.  Ms Allison was appointed to serve on the Professional Responsibility Committee by the president of the Oklahoma Bar Association; and she was a judge-nominated member of the inaugural class of the Oklahoma Bar Association Leadership Academy.

About Spherexx.com®-Ad Agency | Software Development | Data Centers

Spherexx.com was founded in 2000 and has offices in Tulsa, OK, Dallas, TX and Houston TX.  Spherexx.com fuses marketing, branding, and technology to increase sales and market share for their clients.  Spherexx.com maintains a national footprint and specializes in the real estate industry; however, the company serves healthcare and financial industries as well.  Core services include website design & development, touch-screen kiosks, marketing and design (logo design, branding, video/multimedia production, 3D animation, copywriting), print media, website & email hosting, remote backup storage, database solutions, lead tracking and closing tools, advanced mobile technology, search engine positioning, pay per click, e-commerce solutions and custom programming. 

The company has developed CRM (customer relationship management) products and lead generation and management tools that allow clients to better manage and convert leads to leases and sales. These applications are branded under www.ILoveLeasing.com,                   www.MarketSurveyTools.com, www.LeadSeeds.com and www.SweetSpot.ws. Spherexx.com provides web-based prospecting, marketing, advertising management, and support. Request additional information at: http://spherexx.com/pages/request-a-quote.asp.

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Spherexx.com, developer of GotNoVacancy.com Apartment CRM, announced last week that they are renaming and rebranding their five-year-old prospect engagement and advertising analysis application to keep up with the software's expanded functionality.

"It's not just about reducing vacancy anymore. ILoveLeasing.com has become a sophisticated system of Internet marketing tools that touches on all aspects of property management," says Becca Wilson, President and CEO of Spherexx.com, web and Internet advertising agency. READ ARTICLE

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by Terry Jackson, Training/Marketing and Management Specialist 

Brought to you by Spherexx.com, creator of multi-family Internet marketing tools that increase revenues, reduce expenditures and defeat competition. For Free WHITEPAPER and Article click HERE.

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Stat of the Day: The Rise of the Renter

Millennials Outnumber Boomers, but They've Been Slow to Form Households

By: Peter Francese Published: August 29, 2011

 One surprise from Census 2010 was the skewed distribution of household growth by age. Except for a small increase in millennial renters, virtually all of the 11 million unit household growth from 2000 to 2010 took place among baby boomer and older households. Towards the end of the decade leading up to the Census, millennials sharply slowed their rate of household formation. Adverse economic conditions meant that millions of them just remained living with their parents.

Therefore, we expect big changes in the age distribution of households over the next 10 years as leading-edge boomers become senior citizens and millennials form new families or other types of households in large numbers. The 2010 Census found that the millennials, who will form those households, number 84.7 million compared to 81.5 million baby boomers. Every year from now on, Census Bureau estimates will find slightly fewer baby boomers due to mortality, but likely more millennials, due to immigration.

The 2010 Census found that the millennial households (those 23.5 million under age 35) plus the Gen X households (the 21.3 million ages 35 to 44) together number 44.6 million and represent 38% of all 116.7 million U.S. households. However, they don't yet outnumber baby- boomer households, who at 46.2 million constitute 40% of all US households. Households of today's senior citizens age 65 or older number just 25.8 million, or 22% of the total.

The lingering effects of the housing bust and widespread foreclosures can be seen in the fact that renters increased faster than homeowners in every cohort of the age distribution.

Looking at the chart of owner and renter growth by age tells us three things.

First, millennials will soon start forming households. They have to because, sooner or later, with very few exceptions, young adults must leave their parents' home. That will reverse the declining number of households under age 45 and possibly revive the ailing housing market.

Second, the most rapid growth of households from now until 2020 will happen as baby boomers age into their late sixties and early seventies. As a result the age cohort 65 to 74 years old will probably grow at least 5% per year. If large numbers of those leading-edge boomers decide to sell their home and downsize to a smaller one, or if more decide to buy a second home someplace, the impact on the housing market would be substantial.

Third, this decade will certainly be another one of double-digit growth in households ages 75 or older. This suggests there will be continually rising demand for senior housing of one kind or another, including continuing-care retirement communities. Since fewer of these seniors will be driving, taxi or van services will flourish along with home care and home-maintenance firms.

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The days when a company could simply un-friend social media - hiding it behind a firewall so employees couldn't access it - are disappearing faster than yesterday's "Trending Now" topics on Twitter...COMPLETE ARTICLE

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In a post and accompanying YouTube video on Google+, Product Manager Christian Oestlien says that the Google+ team is working on creating a unique experience for businesses that includes deep analytics and the ability to connect to products like AdWords. See VIDEO

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The use of white space in a web page layout is vital. There has to be a refined balance of screen space used versus white space. White space, though empty, is still an important part of the design of a website.

There's no way to build a website that will utilize every piece of valuable screen space for every monitor in service. You can determine how much screen space is available for a given user via Javascript, but building an entire website for every different screen sizes just isn't going to happen. Take the lowest resolution you estimate is used by most people today as a point of beginning. Our company doesn't build anything greater than 1,000 pixels wide, leaving room for the scrollbar. The width comes in just under 1024 pixels wide on our sites, setting our norm for our lowest resolution.

Once you've determined the resolution you're going to build to specifications, you can start using the available space within that area. Therefore all screens above the lowest resolution you've chosen will have more white space-which is acceptable to most people.  You can build a website based on a percentage of the user's screen width, although our company uses a specified width. Personally, building a website based on a percentage isn't good in the long run (actually never). Users with small screens have the content of your site all crammed together. Users with a large screen will have to read across their 22" plus  monitor to view all your content.

Using every single pixel within your valuable screen real estate just isn't going to be possible, especially if your content changes (which it should to keep your site fresh). However, you can utilize that same area with the most important parts of content you want your user to see while keeping it organized and easy to follow. I've seen plenty of websites who think it's slick to have the entire website in an 800 x 500 box, giving the content an even smaller area in which to be displayed. Either the content is written to fit within that small area, or a scrollbar is inserted within that small area for users to see the rest of the content.  That way they don't have to  mess up this perfect, little 800 x 500 design. Ridiculous.

Content is a variable and will constantly change on any site. Along with choosing your lowest resolution width to build, you also have to determine where you think most users' fold will be on their screen. If you're building for a 1024px width, then it would probably be safe to assume the height would be around 768 px. Consider the toolbars and menus at the top of the browser that the user is going to access and you're looking at maybe 500 px height of area before the user has to start scrolling.

Your most valuable screen real estate is now determined to be 1024 x 500. You could try to fill every pixel possible within that area with something other than white space, but things could get congested quickly. I think most users would rather see what's important, in an easy-to-read fashion. White space can be a good thing if it's used in the right places (i.e. spacing between lines of text or padding around a block of content).

Mobile websites require the same kind of thought process, except working with a much smaller area. I don't think having to scroll is as much of a nuisance as it is with scrolling on a desktop because the user can just use their fingers to get where they want to faster than using a mouse and arrow. Our mobile sites (especially iPhone-compatible ones) do a great job of displaying the information to the user without having to scroll at all, or very little.

Huge blocks of white space in your programming code is annoying and the source of many headaches. You don't have to use up every piece of white space on every line, but formatting your code and indenting will go a long way for other developers to read and comprehend what goes with what. Opening an element and hitting the ENTER key 10 times before writing your next line of code is similar to counting cards- it's not illegal, but frowned upon by many.

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SB 658 was introduced on April 19 and referred to the House Standing Committee on Finance on April 20. Information about the bill can be viewed at www.ncga.state.nc.us/gascripts/BillLookUp/BillLookUp.pl?Session=2011&BillID=S658. READ ARTICLE

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Mountain View, Calif.-based Google (Nasdaq:GOOG) accounted for 65.7 percent of U.S. online searches in March, up from 65.4 percent in February. Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft's (Nasdaq:MSFT) Bing rose to 13.9 percent from 13.4. Both companies have a presence in Austin. Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo's (Nasdaq:YHOO) share fell to 15.7 percent from 16.1 percent the month before.

Ask Networks and AOL are next at 3.1 percent and 1.6 percent. Both Ask and AOL lost search share in March.

Reston, Va.-based ComScore (Nasdaq:SCOR) said more than 16.9 billion explicit core searches, or those conducted directly from search engine sites, were conducted in March.

When using its "powered by" criteria for measuring search engine use, or counting searches on both proprietary and partner sites, Google and Bing are much closer, with 68.2 percent of searches going to Google and 26.4 percent going to Bing.

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The accessibility of the Internet has changed more aspects of our everyday lives and our social and business interactions than we can begin to imagine.  Such a vast and quickly accessible wealth of information has generated a new kind of shopper, customer and client: one that simply will not wait.  On the other hand, leasing and sales professionals are inundated with so much "now happening" information that they are challenged to assimilate and interpret it quickly and effectively enough to the "not willing to wait" time-impoverished prospect. 

The inevitable outcome of such an ongoing exchange is narrowed vision: like counting the ties on a railroad track while the train, unperceived, is barreling down upon you.  That train represents the future of sales, quality of clients, well leveraged advertising investments, level of customer loyalty and your ride to a continuing paycheck. If there is no engineer at the lever, chances are the engine of future sales will never arrive at its destination.

Statistics show that 30% of companies don't have a formal Customer Relationship Management system in place.  CRM products are simple, affordable and effective as "accountable" technology that guarantees a return on your investment.  How can cultivating prospects, clients and referrals for the next season be ignored? Is it that the age of technology has produced an excess of qualified prospects so that it is no longer necessary to follow-up, problem solve and accommodate the company's only source of income: the customer.  Watch the winners that score big year after year and look at your own checkbook: who do you enjoy doing business with?  Find a model and follow that best practice: in it you will find a CRM system at work. 
 

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Developed to catch the eye of the discriminating renter in Dallas, The Avery on Southwestern has also attracted the attention of the National Association of Home Builders. The housing industry trade association recently announced its national Pillars Awards for 2010 and honored ZOM Inc., developer of the 422-unit luxury multifamily property, with its 2010 Best Garden Apartment Community Award. READ MORE

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Listen to broadcast HERE.

Characterizing real estate management as the rock of stability in these uncertain times, IREM® 2011 President Ron Goss, CPM®, and President-elect Jim Evans, CPM®, were guests yesterday morning on the internet radio program titled "Income Property Investment Talk," broadcast weekly on the VoiceAmerica Business Network (www.voiceamerica.com).  Among the broad range of topics they discussed:

-Why "back to basics" is the new norm across commercial real estate.
-Growing recognition in the industry that many financial players simply don't have the   knowledge and experience to proactively manage properties with their myriad needs.
-What owners and investors are looking for today when retaining real estate management services.
-Unrelenting pressure on real estate management professionals to increase NOI through cost controls and operating efficiencies...and how they are responding to this pressure.
-The challenges involved in finding the right people to fulfill important positions becoming available in real estate management.
-New business opportunities for real estate managers in the area of receivership management.
-And many more.

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The Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM) has been the source for education, resources, information, and membership for real estate management professionals for more than 75 years. An affiliate of the National Association of Realtors®, IREM is the only professional real estate management association serving both the multi-family and commercial real estate sectors. With 80 U.S. chapters, 13 international chapters, and several other partnerships around the globe, IREM is an international organization that also serves as an advocate on issues affecting the real estate management industry.

Despite signs of an upturn in the economy, an informal survey of hundreds of attendees at the recently concluded IREM® iCon education and networking conference in Orlando  anticipate that they and their real estate manager colleagues will increasingly be pressured over the coming year to grow net operating income (NOI) through cost controls and operating efficiencies, continuing the trend that has been seen over the last 12 months.

Survey respondents observed that the ability to raise rents is very limited, making cost-control measures critical.  "As base rents decline and vacancies increase, we are looking under each and every rock for savings to offset the reduced receipts, especially in discretionary expense areas," said some respondents. Savings are being realized through lowering property taxes through appeal plus cutting man-hours, some observed. 

At least one respondent suggested that a new, second wave of receiverships is possible, which will add to this pressure.  Most vulnerable to foreclosure are Class B office properties and properties with vacancies or near-term vacancies, respondents said. They noted that the increase in receiverships could happen if rents do not increase substantially in the next two years. 

DEMAND INCREASING FOR PROFESSIONAL MANAGEMENT
Approximately 68 % of respondents saw an increase in demand for third-party professional management services over the last year from investors "inheriting" distressed properties who had not been educated to manage real estate assets and from owners who made the business decision to outsource their management.  A slightly higher number (70%), expect this demand to continue to grow over the next 12 months, with 24% saying it will stay the same, and 6% saying it will decline.

SOCIAL MEDIA A GROWING FORCE
Three quarters (75%) of those responding said that they had seen an increase in the use of social media to better manage their properties and promote their companies over the last 12 months, while 25% indicated no change. Nearly nine in 10 (86%) expect an increase in social media usage as a management tool in the next 12 months, especially in the multi-family sector where everything moves more quickly. Some 14% said usage would remain the same but no one said it would decline in the next 12 months.

One typical response was that residents are demanding that property managers get online because of the ease of access that comes with social media and smart phones. Many acknowledged that they need to learn to use social media more efficiently and effectively.

ENHANCED ABILITY TO HIRE AND RETAIN TALENT
Because the pool of potential employees has increased as other professions have suffered, 51% of the respondents said that their ability to attract and retain talented employees has increased in the current business climate, 32% said it has stayed the same, and 18% said it had declined.  Looking out 12 months, 57% said the climate for hiring and retaining talent will becoming increasingly favorable, 31% said it will remain the same, and 13% say it will decline.

Many talented individuals are applying for real estate jobs, the respondents agree. The applicants learn quickly and perform satisfactorily, say most. Some also mentioned that increased unemployment has resulted in qualified and experienced property managers being available, which can strengthen the depth and experience available at management firms for their clients.

The staffing outlook was tempered by some respondents saying that finding quality employees is still challenging. Finding qualified individuals, they said, is becoming harder while economic pressures have led some employees to look for better opportunities with better work/life balance.

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Read the full article here:

http://info.trulia.com/index.php?s=43&item=99

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Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software isn't just a tool to improve your marketing to customers.  It can actually track your leasing agents' communications with potential clients who have inquired about their properties--holding them accountable for the timeliness, effectiveness and quality of their responses. READ MORE.

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Become an IREM fan at www.facebook.com/InstituteofRealEstateManagement

 Twitter - follow @IREM_info

Visit our message board at www.IREMiCon.com/iConnect

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 Wall Street Journal:  As soon as he received his roommate assignment in the mail, Sam Brown did what any 17-year-old about to enter college would do: He looked him up on Facebook.

When Sam, who will be attending the University of Colorado at Boulder, couldn't find him, he turned to Google Earth. By searching the address the college provided, Sam could see aerial photos of his future roommate's house in Encino, Calif.-his lawn, his basketball hoop, the cars in his driveway, his pool.  MORE

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AMBER Apartment Alerts is updating daily and adding many missing children in multiple states where they may be located.

Please feel free to bookmark your state(s) from  http://amberapartmentalerts.web.officelive.com/default.aspx , for updates.

Associations and companies may also bookmark these sites on your internal websites.

An updates section is in the works for the home page to make this easier for you to search.

Thank you,

Jim White, Amber Apartment Alerts

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Mosaic at Mueller                 Lease-up Property of the Year Award Winner

Greystar South Congress      Emerald Property of the Year Award Winner 300 + Units

Museo                               Diamond Property of the Year Award Winner 299 - Units

Preserve at Travis Creek       Diamond Property of the Year Award Winner 300+ Units

Congratulations on for such overwhelming success!

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See full article at this link: http://bit.ly/9R03am

Trio Real Estate Services will be the new management company for this new development.  Visit them online at www.trioonline.com

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The winners are:  

Falcon Square - Luxury Property of the Year (second year in a row)

Falcon Square - Assistant Manager of the Year - Olga Kosterina

Corporate Support Personnel of the Year - Suzy Stork - JMG Palm Bay office

Bonita Fountains - Renovation of the Year

Bella Lake - Property of the Year

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See Article at The Orange County Register.

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The prestigious award was determined by excellence in customer service, occupancy, availability, collections, and annual income comparison.  Auston Grove accomplished superior goals while competing with three new properties within a five-mile radius.

The award was presented by Janet Riddlebarger and Jim King at the HHHunt Annual Awards Banquet in Richmond. Congratulations, Auston Grove Super Team!

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The  Connecticut Apartment Association has awarded Glenview House the NUTMEG Award for Community of the Year.  The award is granted as  recognition of  superior excellence and service.  Glenview House also received the  Lincoln Property Gold Medallion Award for the Mid-Atlantic Region.  The Gold Medallion is an annual, regional award given for extraordinary job performance and accomplishment. Congratulations to manager Matt Clickman and regional manager Jim Smith, and all the team members at Glenview House.

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We have used a wide variety of sources from around the Web. A full list of source references is available at the bottom of the post for those interested. We here at Pingdom also did some additional calculations to get even more numbers to show you.

Email

* 90 trillion - The number of emails sent on the Internet in 2009.
* 247 billion - Average number of email messages per day.
* 1.4 billion - The number of email users worldwide.
* 100 million - New email users since the year before.
* 81% - The percentage of emails that were spam.
* 92% - Peak spam levels late in the year.
* 24% - Increase in spam since last year.
* 200 billion - The number of spam emails per day (assuming 81% are spam).

Websites

* 234 million - The number of websites as of December 2009.
* 47 million - Added websites in 2009.

Web servers

* 13.9% - The growth of Apache websites in 2009.
* -22.1% - The growth of IIS websites in 2009.
* 35.0% - The growth of Google GFE websites in 2009.
* 384.4% - The growth of Nginx websites in 2009.
* -72.4% - The growth of Lighttpd websites in 2009.

Domain names

* 81.8 million - .COM domain names at the end of 2009.
* 12.3 million - .NET domain names at the end of 2009.
* 7.8 million - .ORG domain names at the end of 2009.
* 76.3 million - The number of country code top-level domains (e.g. .CN, .UK, .DE, etc.).
* 187 million - The number of domain names across all top-level domains (October 2009).
* 8% - The increase in domain names since the year before.

Internet users

* 1.73 billion - Internet users worldwide (September 2009).
* 18% - Increase in Internet users since the previous year.
* 738,257,230 - Internet users in Asia.
* 418,029,796 - Internet users in Europe.
* 252,908,000 - Internet users in North America.
* 179,031,479 - Internet users in Latin America / Caribbean.
* 67,371,700 - Internet users in Africa.
* 57,425,046 - Internet users in the Middle East.
* 20,970,490 - Internet users in Oceania / Australia.

Social media

* 126 million - The number of blogs on the Internet (as tracked by BlogPulse).
* 84% - Percent of social network sites with more women than men.
* 27.3 million - Number of tweets on Twitter per day (November, 2009)
* 57% - Percentage of Twitter's user base located in the United States.
* 4.25 million - People following @aplusk (Ashton Kutcher, Twitter's most followed user).
* 350 million - People on Facebook.
* 50% - Percentage of Facebook users that log in every day.
* 500,000 - The number of active Facebook applications.

Images

* 4 billion - Photos hosted by Flickr (October 2009).
* 2.5 billion - Photos uploaded each month to Facebook.
* 30 billion - At the current rate, the number of photos uploaded to Facebook per year.

Videos

* 1 billion - The total number of videos YouTube serves in one day.
* 12.2 billion - Videos viewed per month on YouTube in the US (November 2009).
* 924 million - Videos viewed per month on Hulu in the US (November 2009).
* 182 - The number of online videos the average Internet user watches in a month (USA).
* 82% - Percentage of Internet users that view videos online (USA).
* 39.4% - YouTube online video market share (USA).
* 81.9% - Percentage of embedded videos on blogs that are YouTube videos.

Web browsers

* 62.7% - Internet Explorer
* 24.6% - Firefox
* 4.6% - Chrome
* 4.5% - Safari
* 2.4% - Opera
* 1.2% - Other

Malicious software

* 148,000 - New zombie computers created per day (used in botnets for sending spam, etc.)
* 2.6 million - Amount of malicious code threats at the start of 2009 (viruses, trojans, etc.)
* 921,143 - The number of new malicious code signatures added by Symantec in Q4 2009.

About the Author: Website and web server stats from Netcraft. Domain name stats from Verisign and Webhosting.info. Internet user stats from Internet World Stats. Web browser stats from Net Applications. Email stats from Radicati Group. Spam stats from McAfee. Malware stats from Symantec (and here) and McAfee. Online video stats from Comscore, Sysomos and YouTube. Photo stats from Flickr and Facebook. Social media stats from BlogPulse, Pingdom (here and here), Twittercounter, Facebook and GigaOm.

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Here's the press release that triggered my rambling thought...you would get the power of two (2) groups because if you select a local vendor with a large following on Facebook combined with the apartment community facebook group then you could target a good group. You could grow your fanbase in the process.  Just something to think about...

Denver Business Journal | January 26, 2010

Colorado's Einstein Noah Restaurant Group Inc. is launching what it calls "the world's largest online bagel giveaway" for customers of its Einstein Bros. Bagels chain who become "fans" of its Facebook page.

The Lakewood-based company said Tuesday that anyone who registers to become an Einstein Bros. fan on Facebook (www.facebook.com/einsteinbros) will get a digital coupon good for a free bagel and "shmear" of cream cheese at participating locations.

The promotion is marketed as "The Free Bagel Bonanza," and is being supported with an online campaign, including a Facebook homepage "roadblock" and targeted sidebar ads, the first of its kind for the Einstein Bros. brand.

"The free offer will help drive restaurant traffic, while quickly building the Einstein Bros. brand on Facebook where the company is planning more customer engagement and future promotions," Einstein Noah said in a statement.

Einstein Noah (NASDAQ: BAGL) operates and licenses Einstein Bros. and Noah's New York Bagels outlets and franchises locations under the Manhattan Bagel brand. It has about 600 restaurants in 36 states and the District of Columbia as well as a dough production facility.

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Industry research reports that approximately 25% of apartment residents make rental payments with credit cards.  Spherexx.com and RentPayment's affiliation offer a great opportunity to provide online credit card and e-check payment options to clients and prospects that will not require special programming, forms, or qualifying criteria.   Spherexx.com is always searching for ways to reduce expense and increase value in their clients' daily operations, and RentPayment has created an excellent payment service that does just that. 

Apartment managers, owners, and operators can quickly establish a credit card and e-check payment account by visiting http://rentpayment.spherexx.com/.

Online credit card and e-check payments allow residents to pay their rent online anytime and from any location via Internet.  The option reduces delinquency, offers convenience for the payer, allows applicants to reserve an apartment via Internet without delay, and provides email payment options. Additionally, RentPayment is integrated with major property management software whereby payments automatically populate within the company's property management software.

About www.RentPayment-E-Payments for Properties

RentPayment, the industry leader in electronic payment processing to the property management industry provides credit card processing, ACH, and remote deposit capture (check scanning) services through their best of breed Integrated Payment Platform.   Founded in 1999, RentPayment processes billions of dollars in annual transaction volume and currently operates two offices across the US, headquartered in San Francisco. 

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