Join us here anytime to find out what’s happening in the world of social media, advertising, lead generation, mobile marketing, business operations & more

We want to keep our clients informed of news that impacts their careers, operations & bottom line!

SEO isn't the big money maker many people believe, with many SEOs serving a small number of clients and earning smaller revenue. Bright Local has done a refresh of their 2011 Local SEO Industry Survey and there are some surprising results.

The last few years, we have seen the rise (and collapse) of some very large SEO companies, yet the vast majority of SEO companies are working either solo or with five or fewer other SEOs. A startling 82 percent of respondents have 1-5 SEOs in the company, with 36 percent being single SEOs.

What does an average customer pay...For Full Article, *CLICK HERE*

Done Reading

Mark Knowles
Search Engine Watch

Every now and then, a little perspective helps when it comes to the value of a website design. Template-driven or custom webs design both have several phases or steps they go through before completion. Most of the steps are invisible or produce a single piece of the finished product.

So, how do you decide which is best for you – a free website design or services you invest in?

If your needs are on the lower side of any of the 12 factors discussed in this article, you may be fine with a free web design or blog template.

As the factors we'll discuss increase in importance and have more influence on your goals, you may want to consider custom design and professional specialists for certain areas of the design.  Full Article...

Done Reading

A soft light filters through the vibrant green leaves of a nearby tree branch, while a clean but natural color scheme creates the perfect backdrop for the new Nutmeg Woods website.  All of the pieces of the puzzle are here.  The practical, user-friendly layout of the site, the easy-going feel of New London from page to page, the clear unit pricing and colorized floor plans, and the list goes on.  Any prospect can easily envision themselves relaxing poolside at this community, and thanks to the full array of online leasing information and applications, that dream is only a few key clicks away.

Experience Nutmeg Woods at http://www.NutmegWoods.com!

Done Reading

The complete virtual experience is available at the Woodcliff Estates new website www.WoodCliffEstates.com !  Clean floor plans, in-depth community information, sweeping landscapes of the area, and a serene color palette pull the visitor in, but the simplicity and navigability of the site itself win over even the most tech savvy prospects.  Once inside the site, viewers will love the intuitive layout of pricing and leasing information.  Best of all, the site is versatile.  Features like the thorough online services for residents and the inviting mobile format for the "on the go" apartment shopper set http://www.WoodCliffEstates.com apart from the rest.

Done Reading

The home page for Treetops at Chester Hollow guarantees that "Life's Better at the Top", and with their striking new website, the Treetop experience is just a click away.  Virtual guests are encouraged to try out the interactive community sitemap and select from available units in the community.  They can test their interior design skills with the Interactive Room Planner and design the apartment of their ideal layout.  They can peruse the neighborhood's preferred nearby restaurants and businesses, and if they're in a hurry, the mobile website serves Apple and Android devices for all services, including online rent payment, so they can tour and apply from their phone.

Visit the Treetops at Chester Hollow at www.TreetopsApts.com!

Done Reading

Done Reading

Done Reading

Becca Wilson, Spherexx.com, Stephanie Burg-Brown, CPM BSA Management and Nextage Diamone Realty, Cynthia Clare, CPM Kettler Management, AMO, Marla Maloney, CPM  and Cassidy Turley, AMO, are speaking today in DC on “Women in Real Estate Management Changing the World at IREM’s 2013 Legislative Summit. IREM Prsident Elizabeth Machen, CPM will be conducting the session.  Subscribe to this blog and we will update you when the video is available! 

CLICK for more information.
 

Done Reading

You walk into a Starbucks and see two deals for a cup of coffee. The first deal offers 33% extra coffee. The second takes 33% off the regular price. What's the better deal?

"They're about equal!" you'd say, if you're like the students who participated in a new study published in the Journal of Marketing. And you'd be wrong. The deals appear to be equivalent, but in fact, a 33% discount is the same as a 50 percent increase in quantity. Math time: Let's say the standard coffee is $1 for 3 quarts ($0.33 per quart). The first deal gets you 4 quarts for $1 ($0.25 per quart) and the second gets you 3 quarts for 66 cents ($.22 per quart).

The upshot: Getting something extra "for free" feels better than getting the same for less. The applications of this simple fact are huge. Selling cereal? Don't talk up the discount. Talk how much bigger the box is! Selling a car? Skip the MPG conversion. Talk about all the extra miles.

There are two broad reasons why these kind of tricks work. First: Consumers don't know what the heck anything should cost, so we rely on parts of our brains that aren't strictly quantitative. Second: Although humans spend in numbered dollars, we make decisions based on clues and half-thinking that amount to innumeracy.

Here are 10 more ways consumers are bad at math, with an assist from historian and author William Poundstone.

(2) We're heavily influenced by the first number. You walk into a high-end store, let's say it's Hermès, and you see a $7,000 bag. "Haha, that's so stupid!" you tell your friend. "Seven grand for a bag!" Then you spot an awesome watch for $367. Compared to a Timex, that's wildly over-expensive. But compared to the $7,000 price tag you just put to memory, it's a steal. In this way, stores can massage or "anchor" your expectations for spending.

(3) We're terrified of extremes. We don't like feeling cheap, and we don't like feeling duped. Since we're not sure what things are worth, we shy away from prices that appear too high or too low. Stores can employ our bias for moderation against us. Here's a great story:

    People were offered 2 kinds of beer: premium beer for $2.50 and bargain beer for $1.80. Around 80% chose the more expensive beer. Now a third beer was introduced, a super bargain beer for $1.60 in addition to the previous two. Now 80% bought the $1.80 beer and the rest $2.50 beer. Nobody bought the cheapest option.

    Third time around, they removed the $1.60 beer and replaced with a super premium $3.40 beer. Most people chose the $2.50 beer, a small number $1.80 beer and around 10% opted for the most expensive $3.40 beer.

In short: We are all Goldilocks.

(4) We're in love with stories. In his book Priceless, William Poundstone explains what happened when Williams-Sonoma added a $429 breadmaker next to their $279 model: Sales of the cheaper model doubled even though practically nobody bought the $429 machine. Lesson: If you can't sell a product, try putting something nearly identical, but twice as expensive, next to it. It'll make the first product look like a gotta-have-it bargain. One explanation for why this tactic works is that people like stories or justifications. Since it's terribly hard to know the true value of things, we need narratives to explain our decisions to ourselves. Price differences give us a story and a motive: The $279 breadmaker was, like, 40 percent cheaper than the other model -- we got a great deal! Good story.

(5) We do what we're told. Behavioral economists love experimenting in schools, where they've found that shining a light on fruit and placing a salad bar in the way of the candy makes kids eat more fruit and salad. But adults are equally susceptible to these simple games. Savvy restaurants, for example, design their menus to draw our eyes to the most profitable items by things as simple as pictures and boxes. Good rule of thumb: If you see a course on the menu that's highlighted, boxed, illustrated, or paired with a really expensive item, it's probably a high-margin product that the restaurant hopes you'll see and consider.

(6) We let our emotions get the best of us. In a brilliant experiment from Poundstone's book, volunteers are offered a certain number of dollars out of $10. Offers seen as "unfair" ($1, let's say) activated the insula cortex, "which is otherwise triggered by pain and foul odors." When we feel like we're being ripped off, we literally feel disgusted -- even when it's a good deal. Poundstone equates this to the minibar experience. It's late, you're hungry, there's a Snickers right there, but you're so turned off by the price, that you starve yourself to avoid the feeling of being ripped off. The flip-side is that bargains literally make us feel good about ourselves. Even the most useless junk in the world is appealing if the price feels like a steal.

(7) We're easily made dumber by alcohol, time, decisions. When you're young and drunk at a bar, you're more likely to do stupid things with strangers. "Am I fully assessing this complex romantic situation?" is a difficult question to answer on seven glasses of wine, so we're more likely to ask ourselves a simpler question: "Is s/he hot?" When we're drunk, stressed, tired, and otherwise inattentive, we're more likely to ask and answer simple questions about buying things. Cheap candy bars and gum are situated near the check-out at grocery stores because that's where exhausted shoppers are most likely to indulge cravings without paying attention to price. Boozy lunches are good for deal-making because alcohol narrows the range of complicating factors we can hold in our heads at once. If you want somebody to take an under-examined risk, get him boozed, tired, or ego-depleted.

(8) We're pained by transaction costs... In a personal finance column here, Megan McArdle implored her readers to give up recurring payments like gym memberships and subscriptions to papers and services they don't use. "Don't buy stuff you don't consume" seems like obvious enough advice, but Megan had a great point. We're drawn to subscriptions and memberships and bundles partially because we seek to avoid transaction costs. We'd rather overpay a little than suffer the psychological pain of pulling out a wallet and watching our money go to each gym season/movie/etc.

(9) ... but we're weird about rebates and warranties. Now that I've just told you that consumers try to avoid additional payments, I should add that there are two additional payments we love: rebates and warranties. The first buys the illusion of wealth ("I'm being paid money to spend money!"). The second buys peace of mind ("Now I can own this thing forever without worrying about it!"). Both are basically tricks. "Instead of buying something and getting a rebate," Poundstone writes, "why not just pay a lower price in the first place?'

"[Warranties] make no rational sense," Harvard economist David Cutler told the Washington Post. "The implied probability that [a product] will break has to be substantially greater than the risk that you can't afford to fix it or replace it. If you're buying a $400 item, for the overwhelming number of consumers that level of spending is not a risk you need to insure under any circumstances."

(10) We're obsessed with the number 9. Up to 65 percent of all retail prices end in the number 9. Why? Everybody knows that $20 and $19.99 are the same thing. But the number 9 tells us something simple: This thing is discounted. This thing is cheap. This thing was priced by somebody who knows you like things discounted and cheap. In other words, 9 has transcended the status of charm price to become a cable of silent understanding between buyer and seller that a product is being priced competitively and fairly. Putting a 9 on a shell-fish platter at a high-end restaurant is ridiculous. Nobody spending $170 on lobster is looking for a discount. But the same person shopping for underwear is (research has shown, again and again) more likely to buy a product that ends in 9. Remember: Shopping is an attention game. Consumers aren't just hunting for products. They're hunting for clues that products are worth buying. In the number 9, the bargain-hunter/discount-gatherer corner of our brain spots a pluckable deal.

(11) We're compelled by a strong sense of fairness. I've already explained how our brains light up differently based on seeing a bargain vs. a rip-off. The shopper's brain is motivated by a sense of fairness. Again, it comes back to the idea that we don't know what things should cost, and so we use cues to tell us what we ought to pay for them. An experiment by the economist Dan Ariely tells the story beautifully. Ariely pretended he was giving a poetry recital. He told one group of students that the tickets cost money and another group that they would be paid to attend. Then he revealed to both groups that the recital was free. The first group was anxious to attend, believing they were getting something of value for free. The second group mostly declined, believing they were being forced to volunteer for the same event without compensation.

CLICK HERE for rest of the story.....

Done Reading

The website at OverheadDoorTulsa.com features both commercial and residential garage door products and services provided by a well established family business that has served the Tulsa area since 1962.  We want to thank Frank Sanders at Overhead Door for allowing us the opportunity to work alongside his awesome team.

Done Reading

Done Reading

by Pete Prestipino   |   Posted on 03.07.2013

The response in “responsive” Web design provides a clue about how to think about the practice. It’s essentially a set of actual techniques – and yes, sometimes tools too – that move elements of the page (e.g. images, navigation, text) based on the capabilities of the device it is being viewed upon. Responsive design enables websites to obtain information about the device and then display a version appropriate for the layout. There are actually quite a few digital moving pieces, so if you’re using responsive design right now – ask these six questions of yourself or your designer before making anything digital come alive. 

You likely need no further explanation of why going responsive is the best design choice for your digital presence, but you’ll also need some practical guidance – just the kind of information that subscribers expect from Website Magazine. Here’s a quick guide for those interested in using responsive design, some things you should and need to know, and more importantly ask, about responsive techniques and tools, today and in the future. 

A quick note, if you’re reading this on a desktop version you’ll quickly notice that WebsiteMagazine.com is not actually “responsive” per say. Aren’t we practicing what we preach? Well, sort of – we are mobile compliant. Responsive design is terrific for lots of things (like our Web 100 project) but not for every enterprise in every single scenario. Website Magazine, for example, opted for a mobile website over responsive layout as it provided us greater control over the complexity of information we publish and some unique opportunities related to our mobile applications. So yes, Website Magazine is mobile compliant, just not responsive (and it works!). 

OK, enough defending our business decisions! You want to know as much as you can about responsive design… and you’re about to. The following outlines several guiding principles as you design (or redesign) your consumer-facing websites for modern desktop, mobile and tablet experiences.

Is the Code Simple or Complex?

Remove/Reduce Interfering HTML

Many might believe that responsive design will limit the amount of information (it does, at least in appearance) that can be made available, but responsive design demands nothing more than a thoughtful approach to the user experience. The way to achieve that is to ensure that the layout is kept as simple as possible. 

Are you prioritizing the elements correctly for optimum consumption? Take a moment now to test – remove all styling CSS and styling information from your email or Web design and display it in a browser. If the content is easy to read and ordered appropriately, you’re on the right track. If not, you’re likely engaging in some poor HTML practices, such as the use of inline styles or unnecessary absolute or float positioning. 

Another option is to use a one of the many testing tools to see how your responsive designs hold up. One of my personal favorites is Responsi, a very straightforward design-testing tool, which provides drag-to-resize viewport and several standard device presents. Designers will find tools such as Responsi and others very useful in their day-to-day design tasks.

Are Media Queries In Place?

The IFTT of Modern Digital Design

If you’ve read anything about responsive design you have come across the term media queries; the code that queries the users device to understand how the site is best viewed and then providing an appropriate response for the width conditions. Essentially, depending on the client-side response, designers will load the right style sheet and even have the ability to add specific styles in different scenarios. Think of media queries as “if this, then that” statements.

Are Optimal Resolutions Targeted?

Know the Common Breakpoints

In order to create and use media queries however, it is important to know which are the most common resolutions used to view your digital assets. A business’ mobile efforts are best focused on the most popular devices, which fortunately makes quick work of the development process for designers. To work with these devices, designers must essentially just account for the minimum and maximum widths – 480, 768 and 1024 (in both portrait and landscape). Using a free tool like Responsi (listed above) or Screenfly helps to understand quickly if everything is appearing in an optimal way.

Is the Layout Flexible?

Adapt Quickly to the Viewport

When it comes to responsive design, layouts (obviously) need to be flexible, which means you’ll need to leave those pesky tables alone. The best option is to use a flexible, fluid grid (which uses columns to arrange content) and relative instead of fixed width to adapt to the right viewport size. If you’re using the right media queries in conjunction with a fluid layouts, you’ll have most if not all devices covered. To speed development on this front, consider the use of grid systems such as those listedhere and here.

Are Images Acting Responsively?

Adaptive Sizing of Images

The use of pictures and images on a responsively designed website or email can cause headaches for designers – and if you’re not....

Done Reading

by Ray Fisman  |   2:15 PM March 11, 2013

Before you read the rest of this post, go to Google and try searching for "Amazon." You'll probably notice that the top two listings are both for Amazon's website, with the first appearing on a light beige background. If you click on the first — a paid search ad — Amazon will pay Google for attracting your business. If you click on the second, Amazon gets your business but Google gets nothing. Try "Macys," "Walgreens," and "Sports Authority" — you'll see the same thing.

If you search for eBay, though, you'll find only a single listing — an unpaid one. Odds are, after marketers at Amazon, Walgreens and elsewhere catch wind of a preliminary study released on Friday, their search listings will start to look a lot more like eBay's. The study — by eBay Research Labs economists Thomas Blake, Chris Nosko, and Steve Tadelis — analyzed eBay sales after shutting down purchases of search ads on Google and elsewhere, while maintaining a control set of regions where search ads continued unchanged. Their findings suggest that many paid ads generate virtually no increase in sales, and even for ones that do, the sales benefits are far eclipsed by the cost of the ads themselves.

Companies spend enormous sums on marketing their products. Yet it's notoriously difficult to measure the impact of ad expenditures. Companies advertise heavily at times when they hope to sell a lot — like Christmas Eve and Boxing Day — and in areas where they expect to see their sales grow. So a naïve examination of the relationship between ad expenditures and revenues will of course find they move in sync, even if customers don't pay the ads any mind.

Advertising has also traditionally produced a lot of waste — I see ads for Brioni suits when I open up the morning paper, even though the last time I wore a suit was on my wedding day. The study's authors quote 19th century retailer John Wannamaker: "I know half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, but I can never find out which half."

The internet promised to change all that. Google, Yahoo, Bing, and others gave sellers the opportunity to target their pitches to customers who were plausibly interested in their products. That's why paid ads for Amazon come up in response to a search for books, but not life insurance. Further aligning the interests of companies and consumers, advertisers only get charged for paid search listings that actually get clicked on, ensuring that they pay for attracting genuinely interested customers.

But what do companies actually get for the billions they now spend on search marketing? The eBay team began by examining whether there's any benefit to buying search ads that contain the word "ebay." In these cases, it's possible that in the absence of paid listings, customers would simply click on the unpaid — or "natural" — listing, which would appear at the top of the search anyway. So in March 2012, eBay conducted a controlled trial to see what would happen if they shut off this "branded keyword advertising" by halting their purchases of search ads containing the word "ebay" on Microsoft and Yahoo search engines, while continuing to purchase search ads on Google as a control. There was no change in eBay sales via Yahoo and Bing, relative to those that came through Google — consumers simply substituted clicks on the unpaid search listing for the now-absent paid ones.

Encouraged by these findings, eBay management agreed to run a controlled experiment where they shut off all Google search ads in a third of the country, while continuing to buy ads everywhere else. In contrast to branded keywords — where it's inevitable that the company will end up as one of the top unpaid listings — there's a good chance that if you try searching for "used les paul guitar," a guitar reseller will appear ahead of eBay's search listing. So in order to drive a customer to eBay for his guitar purchase rather than, say, Guitar Center, it might be worth the cost of placing a carefully targeted ad.

But in aggregate, that's not what the eBay team found — overall, there was no appreciable decline in sales of eBay listings in the part of the country where Google ad purchases were shut off. People who thought to buy guitars via eBay were finding their way to the site anyway, either by clicking on natural listings, or by going directly to eBay's site without using a search engine at all. Search ads did generate a modest increase in the likelihood that internet surfers with little recent history of eBay transactions would end up making purchases on eBay. So paid search ads serve an informational function, letting a sliver of potential eBay customers know that they're in the guitar business. But by the time you get to customers who have had three prior eBay transactions in the last year, the effect of paid search on sales drops almost to zero. Overall, paid search turns out to be a very expensive way of attracting new business: The study's authors estimate that, at least in the short-run, paid ads generate only about 25 cents in extra revenues for each dollar of ad expenditures. (For branded keyword searches, the additional revenues are close to zero.)

People buying search ads aren't idiots — they've looked at the correlation between keyword purchases and subsequent sales and no doubt found it to be strong. But this study suggests that marketing departments should be more careful in confusing causation and correlation in assessing the returns to their ad expenditures, to avoid the equivalent of concluding that marketing works because you advertise and sell a lot in December.

The study's authors note that paid search may be more profitable for other companies than it's been for eBay. For example, as Stop and Shop tries to get a foothold in the crowded New York online grocery marketplace, they might sensibly buy some ads to compete with Fresh Direct. Paid search may also be worth it for smaller companies that lack the name recognition and high Google page rank that make paid searches less valuable for the eBays and Amazons of the world — some of Google's own research indicates that this is likely the case. Caveats aside, eBay's experiences suggest that all companies should look carefully at how much bang they're getting for their search marketing dollars.

Done Reading

Done Reading

The Madness Of Crowds

For example, though I praised her in my last column for sharing her mobile SEO process, and in general, I think she provides good information on mobile SEO, Aleyda Solis also provides this flowchart in her process as a way of helping businesses understand their options for developing mobile sites based on what is preferable for SEO:

Flowchart represents the myth of responsive web design’s superiority for SEO.

In fact, Google never introduced such a hierarchy when they announced their preference for responsive Web design last June. All they said was they prefer responsive Web design, and if it’s not best for your user, then they support dynamic serving and mobile URLs. The one URL argument for dynamic serving and responsive design’s superiority is moot with the introduction of switchboard tags, as Google can now understand which site should appear when, regardless of URL structure.

Let me say that again, as those who write about these issues don’t seem to be getting it otherwise:

The one URL argument for dynamic serving and responsive design’s superiority is moot with the introduction of switchboard tags, as Google can now understand which site should appear when, regardless of URL structure.

Not just doing that for Aleyda’s benefit, as Aleyda presents mostly good information, and many others are making the same honest mistake.

In a recent poll of SEO firms and MBAs, 100% of respondents said that responsive Web design is preferable for SEO than separate mobile sites. Really? Always?

Really, it seems these days everywhere you turn there’s someone somewhere claiming that responsive Web design is preferable to separate mobile sites for SEO because all of the links go to one URL. To this I say…

For example, in the otherwise excellent new book Mobile Marketing an Hour a Day by industry veterans Noah Elkin and Rachel Pasqua, Covario’s Nick Roshon states his preference for responsive Web design for SEO, citing consolidated link equity as evidence of responsive Web design’s superiority for SEO. He even gives this curious statement: “While Responsive Web Design may be harder to implement, and there may be user experience reasons to go with alternative mobile web design standards, the benefits of going responsive are undeniable.”

Actually, they could be deniable, depending on the site that’s going responsive. In fact, the benefits of responsive Web design are often negated by the cons. If mobile URLs or dynamic serving provides a better user experience, then Google does not suggest that you make your site responsive, but instead provides options to give you the same benefits of consolidated link equity on mobile URLs.

Unfortunately, Google did not mention any of the instances when responsive Web design provides an inferior user experience, leaving it up to individual webmasters. They’re very concerned with confusing webmasters, it seems, and didn’t want to confuse the issue, I assume, by getting into those scenarios where responsive Web design would not be preferred.

When I reached out to them for this article, Google has officially declined to comment. However, based on the limited information they have provided, empirical evidence of what’s working in SERPs, and my twelve years optimizing content professionally, this is a list of five things that will make mobile URLs or dynamic serving a more attractive option for you for mobile SEO.

1.  When Desktop Website Does Not Contain Categories Mobile Searchers Are Looking For

In the example I used on the Stone Temple blog in January, Mercedes has serious information architecture issues that are preventing it from connecting to searchers in general. Their content for car types is not accessible, let alone optimized, and making that site accessible to smartphones and tablets is not going to solve these serious information architecture issues. Mercedes could redesign their site, and then make it responsive, and that would solve some of their problems, but if they make their current site responsive, they will have the same issues that they do now.

Similarly, the desktop website doesn’t have information on mobile content like mobile wallpaper or apps. Why should it, in fact, when desktop searchers by and large aren’t looking for those things? Yet, mobile searchers are in droves, and if Mercedes simply makes their current site responsive, they will miss out on all that traffic.

Mercedes would miss out on traffic from the categories in green if they made their current site responsive.

Responsive Web design advocates: missing out on relevant traffic is not optimization.

2.  When Desktop Website Does Not Contain Keywords Mobile Searchers Are Using

As I explained in last month’s mobile keyword research guide, context can change the keywords searchers use and the frequency with which they use them.

For example [nearby] and [download apps] are two keywords that are likely used a lot more on mobile devices than they are on desktops and laptops (if they’re used on desktops and laptops at all).

Desktops and laptops lack GPS, so if a searcher asks Google for restaurants nearby on their laptop, they’re likely to get results based on IP address if they’re not logged in (which in the case of my laptop, the server in New York city, 800 miles away), and if they are logged in, results based on the city they’ve specified in their registration.

If a searcher asks her smartphone for restaurants nearby on the other hand, the results are much more accurate as they’re based on the position of her phone at the time of the query.

It’s likely because of this that many more people use the keyword nearby in mobile searches than they do in desktop searches. As you can see from this mobile % of total volume chart, most of these searches are coming from mobile phones. The two that don’t come from mobile phones specify a location, which Google desktop search needs if it’s going to provide accurate search results.

Certain keywords, like “nearby” are primarily used by mobile phone searchers, and can’t be used in a responsive design.

You can take this information into account and use these keywords in adaptive content on a responsive site, but it’s going to be more effective from an SEO standpoint to optimize both sites with different keywords depending on the platform.

Look, Google may have announced their preference for responsive Web design, but they also tell webmasters in their Webmaster Guidelines, “Think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure that your site actually includes those words within it.”

In cases where mobile searchers and desktop searchers are using different keywords, the best option for SEO is the option that brings more qualified traffic: separate sites with targeted keywords.

3.  When Responsive Layout Increases Load Time Significantly

We already know that speed is a ranking factor for SEO, but we also know that Google wants to send searchers to the best possible experience. Sites using responsive Web design, which by nature include more code than mobile websites, generally take longer to load.

Apart from the ranking factor of page speed, this could increase your bounce rate and/or decrease your conversions. According to Google research, mobile searchers are a fickle group, and won’t stick around if you make them wait.

Recent research presented on http://www.howtogomo.com/en/d/why-go-mo/#reasons-mobile-matters shows the dangers of making mobile searchers wait.

Now of course, if you were just providing a desktop site that makes a user pinch and zoom to perform simple actions, providing a responsive site is a step up from that. But it’s not the ideal in this situation, which would be serving fast clean code with dynamic serving or separate mobile URLs.

Of course, there are ways, as covered by Sherwood Stranieri last year, that webmasters can speed up responsive sites, but they’re still unlikely to load as quickly as separate mobile sites.

4.  When Target Audience Primarily Uses Feature Phones

Don’t go responsive if you want to be visible to the red countries on this map, as they primarily use feature phones to access the Web.

This one, I didn’t have to speculate on, as Google has guidelines for developing for feature phones and smartphones that do not include responsive Web design. So, if you’re developing for an audience that uses feature phones (i.e., non-white, non-US-based, not affluent, and/or older), responsive Web design is not the best option for SEO.

5.  When It Prevents Product Innovation That Improves The User Experience

Google Now wins the Popular Science Innovation of the Year Award in 2012, as a direct result of not following Google’s own advice about responsive web design.

Yes, Google may have stated a preference for responsive Web design, but they also say this in their Quality Guidelines: “Think about what makes your website unique, valuable, or engaging. Make your website stand out from others in your field.”

Some businesses have taken this to heart with mobile, and have created products that can only be used on mobile devices that help their user do what they need to do faster.

Take banking, for example. JP Morgan Chase could have reformatted their desktop website for mobile visitors and called it a day. Instead they thought about the specific properties of mobile devices that they could use to make their customers’ lives easier. And for them it meant creating a separate mobile website, allowing for SMS banking, and creating a mobile app.

The mobile app has a feature called Quick Deposit which uses the device’s camera to allow users to take pictures of checks for deposit. It’s mobile-specific content, as it’s only available on tablet and smartphone, and it has been a huge success for Chase.

According to a recent press release, since launching Quick Deposit in 2010, consumers have used it to deposit more than $4 billion, and the number of active Chase mobile customers increased 42% between 2011 and 2012. The app now has 15 million registered users, and several awards including a 2011 Webby Award. And those 15 million registered users have expressed their gratitude with 4.2 out of five stars in Google Play with over 70k reviews as of this writing.

Had Chase not considered the unique characteristics of mobile devices and the utility that they could bring to consumers, but instead only reformatted adaptive content to appear in a mobile context, they wouldn’t have been able to have the success they’ve had, and wouldn’t have been able to serve their users as they did.

Or, take Google, for example. Their stated preference in responsive Web design hasn’t stopped them from making mobile-only content. One of these features is called Google Now. Released just seven months ago, it’s now a big differentiator for Android over iOS, with reviewers saying things like “But the jewel of Android 4.2 is absolutely Google Now, and its brilliance overshadows the still lacking aspects of the OS as a whole;” and “This latest Google Now ad has me hating Siri.”

Google Now has been such a big innovation for Google that it won them Popular Science’s Innovation of the Year, putting it in the company of such innovations as former award winners like the iPhone, the fluorescent lamp and the Mosaic Web browser.

Google could have made their content adaptive and responsive and not considered the mobile context. But they didn’t, and their business is better for it.

In fact, Google itself is an interesting organization; although they have stated a preference for responsive Web design, and the CEO has made disparaging remarks about mobile content, they also develop for mobile, tablet and desktop search separately, and on the mobile ads side, they have advocated strongly for experiences in which mobile context increases the relevance of the ad. Regardless of which side you’re on here, it’s possible to use Google viewpoints to justify your own. Think, instead, of your user, as that’s ultimately what will serve your business (and Google) best.

You may be making a responsive site because it’s easier to maintain, but is it preventing you from creating mobile-only content that your users will love, and that will differentiate your site from your competitors’ in the marketplace? If so, think twice about responsive Web design or adaptive content, as it’s not going to help your business — or your SEO — as much as mobile-specific content.

Granted, the two aren’t mutually exclusive, and the preferred method for mobile SEO that I detailed last year is still a hybrid of responsive pages and mobile-specific content.

A Revised Decision Tree

The message: if you’re thinking about mobile SEO, throw away the decision tree I mentioned earlier. Apart from the one URL fallacy, one of the decision points isn’t even SEO-specific, as it is more about the businesses’ resources than optimizing their content for search results.

Replace it with this. It’s not perfect, as deciding the proper configuration for your mobile content is a nuanced process; but it should get you closer to optimal than what’s been provided in the past.

Don’t Be A Responsive Bandwagoneer

Not everyone thinks responsive Web design is best for SEO, though it can sometimes seem that way to those of us who know better. Adam Audette and George Michie of Rimm-Kauffman Group said in their classic post on marketing as applied science, “Mobile websites: Responsive design helps, but smartphone users have fundamentally different needs and only a site designed to meet those unique needs will produce the best outcome for the user and for the business.”

This is a similar message offered by GigaOM Pro recently, which cites unique mobile use cases and speed as reasons why they advocate separate mobile sites. Likewise, when I interviewed veteran mobile SEO expert Cindy Krum for .Net Magazine, she said that she also advocates a hybrid approach: “I have been recommending a mixed solution for most of my clients – leveraging Responsive Design when it makes sense, and special mobile-only landing pages when keywords or use-cases cannot be appropriately addressed with a Responsive Design approach.”

Finally, Forrester Research, in their 2013 Mobile Trends for Marketers report, said that “Responsive design will be hyped once again in 2013.” Responsive design is not a “magic elixir” they say, because “1) The consistency of experiences across devices is only one small element of the overall picture; 2) companies will need divergent app and Web strategies as well as mobile content and service curation; 3) not every portable/mobile device will have a browser; and 4) supporting different use cases across devices requires a process to implement responsive design principles.”

If you’ve read this post and you still think responsive is best for SEO, that’s your prerogative; but your competitor who provides a better user experience with mobile landing pages might be getting more traffic from search.

TL;DR Recap

• It’s a popular myth that responsive Web design is always the best choice for SEO
• The one URL argument for dynamic serving and responsive design’s superiority is moot with the introduction of switchboard tags, as Google can now understand which site should appear when, regardless of URL structure.

Done Reading

1. Establish Messaging Hierarchy
Hierarchy is just a fancy way of saying "order of importance." It can be found nearly everywhere, from your own numbered to-do list to the old
U. S. of Agriculture's food pyramid. It's an organizational tool that tells your brain how to prioritize informa-tion - a tool that when used correctly, can increase the effectiveness of your exhibit graphics. It directs your eye where to go, giving your brain mental cues on the amount of time to spend ingesting each bit of info. And when it comes to exhibit graphics, that direction is imperative as you have only a limited time to capture your audience's attention.

"Hierarchy dictates what the primary, secondary, and tertiary messaging will be, and as part of the exhibit-design process, it determines where each of those elements are located within the space," says Mark Pearlman, design director at Alameda, CA-based exhibit-design firm Group Delphi. It's the reason you see large banners overhead featuring a company name instead of, say, its mission statement. Exhibit graphics are the physical embodiment of making small talk with an attendee - there's a beginning, a middle, and an end to that conversation. First, you introduce yourself.

Then, you briefly discuss a new product or service, and finally, if the attendee is interested, you enter into a deeper conversation about that product. According to Pearlman, the formula for crafting the nonverbal version of that conversation through your exhibit graphics goes like this:

• Primary Level - Visible from 50 to 100 feet away, this level is the intro and contains company identification (such as a logo) and main messaging (such as a tagline). It attracts people to the space and hopefully hooks them within five to seven seconds as they walk by before something else catches their eye.
• Secondary Level - Visible from 10 to 50 feet away, this level enables people to determine what they want to explore in the space. It usually comprises large static graphics and/or dynamic video associated with a company's products and services to keep people interested and in the exhibit.
• Tertiary Level - Visible from one foot to 10 feet away, this level is for qualified attendees who are genuinely interested in the company and its offerings. It should include graphics identifying demonstration areas, defining product displays, and promoting in-booth presentations.

2. Identify Effective Color Combinations
Once you have determined your messaging hierarchy, turn your attention to color. Your palette is likely dictated by corporate identity or an internal style guide. If that's the case, your color options may be limited, but there are still guidelines for usage that you should follow, regardless of the hues you choose. "Contrast is key when it comes to color, especially if you're placing text on a colored background," says Brendan Dooley, senior graphic designer at the San Francisco office of exhibit house MC². Obviously, you want to pair light-colored text with a dark-colored background, and vice versa. But beyond that, there are certain color combinations that are more pleasing to the eye than others.

To identify optimal pairings, consult a color wheel divided into primary (red, yellow, blue) and secondary (green, orange, purple) color wedges. The color wedges opposite each other - called complementary colors - have the highest contrast, while the colors next to each other have the least contrast. For example, if your back wall is a shade of blue, and you want to overlay copy, choose a shade of orange to ensure your text is legible and your message pops.

If you don't have an internal style guide, Dooley recommends using other marketing pieces as inspiration. "Stay consistent with the colors used in your marketing collateral, print ads, product packages, websites, business cards, brochures, and so on," he says. "This will help clients and potential customers recognize you on and off the show floor and across multiple marketing platforms."

3. Select a Functional Font
With thousands of fonts at your disposal, it's easy to get lost in a sea of Comic Sans and Papyrus. Think of fonts as a tone of voice - they have the power to change your message, just as a person's inflection can mean the difference between sincerity and sarcasm.

So how do you choose the right font for your exhibit graphics? Start by deciding if you want to use a serif or sans serif font. "Serif fonts are great when reading the newspaper or a book, but unless they are an integral part of your brand identity, stay away from them in your exhibit graphics,"
Dooley says. "They are harder to read in a trade show environment and may be lost altogether from a distance." The legibility issue is mostly attributed to the fonts' serifs, which are like tiny tails that punctuate the letters. Examples of popular serif fonts include Times New Roman, Adobe Garamond, and Goudy.

On the other hand, sans serif fonts, such as Helvetica, Arial, and Futura, are much more legible in larger graphics because of their streamlined appearance. Sans serifs are a great choice for wayfinding signage and any directional info, and are easier to decipher from a distance, making them the perfect choice for exhibit graphics. "Futura, Helvetica, and Univers are very clean, simple, and easy to read," Pearlman says. "But they're also an obvious choice for many companies. I like to find a font that differentiates the booth from the other exhibitors."

In addition to serif and sans serif, there are also script and ornamental fonts, both of which are best suited for use as graphic elements versus informational text. Script fonts often feature exaggerated flourishes and sometimes resemble handwriting, making them hard to read on a small scale. Examples include Edwardian Script and Brush Script. Ornamental fonts are, as the name suggests, ornamental and should generally be avoided in exhibit graphics. "These fonts are often filled with a unique personality that can be very helpful when designing logos or a themed event," says Eli B'sheart, vice president of creative and innovations at EWI Worldwide, a live communications company based in Livonia, MI. "But remember that legibility is key for any communication. If attendees can't read your message, they are unlikely to comprehend it."

4. Determine Appropriate Density
Think of how many times you've walked the aisles of a show and spotted a back wall laden with paragraphs of text detailing everything from product specs, testimonials, and company history to info about the exhibitor's in-booth giveaways. Now consider how many times you stopped to read it all. Chances are, that number is around zero. "Exhibit graphics, like the space itself, need to support the brand experience and not overwhelm attendees with competing messages," B'sheart says. "Thus, the most important rule of thumb is ‘less is more.'" That rule, as B'sheart explains it, comprises three tenets:

• Size - Break down text into bite-size chunks. A wall of text is useless (unless it's being used as a design element), and does a disservice to the importance of the information that needs to be conveyed. If you can't shorten the text, use bullet points to differentiate longer lines of copy.
• Position - Keep text at eye level, between 3 and 6 feet from the floor.
• Format - The clearest way to communicate large amounts of copy may be to develop print or digital pieces that attendees can explore in greater depth. The booth staffer can also help disseminate detailed information, negating the need for copious amounts of copy on your graphics.

5. Integrate Imagery
When it comes time to select photos, images, and supporting visual elements for exhibit graphics, balance is key. "Imagery, like messaging, should be used to support your overall brand and enhance the experience," Dooley says. "When used together, images and text should complement each other and tell a much more engaging story." But image selection should not be done independent of the hierarchy, color, and font decisions you've made.
A good example of text that supports imagery and vice versa is the iconic Absolut Vodka print campaign created by New York-based ad agency TBWA Worldwide. The campaign, which boasted more than 1,500 iterations, featured an Absolut bottle (or outline thereof) somewhere on the page, accompanied by a short phrase across the bottom of the image that always started with "Absolut" and ended with a noun that pertained to the graphic. The font chosen matched the libation's logo, and the phrase - typically two words - paralleled the construction of the product name.

Granted, that example is the stuff of Don Draper's dreams, but the traits that made the ads successful can be applied to exhibit graphics. The ad was easy to read and comprehend, and the brand identity was so strong that it became recognizable as an Absolut ad even in installments that didn't feature the company's logo.

In addition to choosing imagery that supports your message and brand identity, think about copy placement, a consideration that comes into play long before graphics are designed and produced. "Consider how your image will work with copy in it," Dooley says. "If custom photography is out of your budget, many of the online stock-photo websites allow you to search for imagery with ‘copy space' as a criterion. These images will have empty or clean areas to accommodate text and logos."

However, if text has to be placed on top of the image, follow these three dos and don'ts: First, ensure text is legible and doesn't compete with the image for attention. Second, don't overlay text on top of a busy image. If the image lacks an open area, use transparencies or color, such as a tinted text box, to separate the text from the image. Finally, don't use special effects or additional artwork that conflicts with the image, your brand, or your message.

Click here to read the full article!

Done Reading

Apartments-and those living in them-contributed $1.1 trillion to the national economy in 2011, even in the midst of a weak economy. In other words, the industry contributed more than $3 billion to the economy on a daily basis. The sector also supported 25.4 million jobs.

The study is based on research done by Stephen S. Fuller, an economist with George Mason University's Center for Regional Analysis. It covers the economic contribution of apartment construction, operations and resident spending on a national level plus all 50 states. The report also looks at construction and operations data for metro Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Philadelphia, Seattle and Washington, DC.

"Although attention is usually focused on homebuilding and the single-family sector, the annual construction and operating outlays for apartment buildings with five or more units are major sources of economic activity, jobs and personal earnings," says Fuller. "In addition, the residents of apartment buildings constitute an important source of local, state and national economic activity as their spending for goods and services is recycled through the economy. Like the operating outlays for apartment buildings, the spending by renters recurs annually thereby supporting local economies on an ongoing basis."

NMHC chairman and Bozzuto Group chairman Thomas S. Bozzuto adds, "With up to seven million new renter households forming this decade-almost half of all new households-the dollars and jobs we add to the economy will only grow in magnitude."

On construction alone, the apartment segment spent $14.8 billion in 2011- a year in which only 130,000 new units were delivered, compared to the average pre-recession count of around 270,000 completions. Add to that figure operations, which cost $67.9 billion in 2011, more than four times the amount spent on construction. Altogether, these aspects of the multifamily industry contributed $182.6 billion to the economy, supporting 2.3 million total jobs. ?

Meanwhile, the country's 35 million apartment residents contributed handsomely to the economy, spending $421.5 billion on goods and services in 2011. Seventy percent of that total remained within the local economy, and those expenditures created a total economic impact of $885.2 billion supporting 22.8 million jobs across the country.

Click here to read the entire article!

Done Reading

In case you missed it, here's what happened:

1. Applebee's customer writes a snide note referencing God and leaves no tip for waitress.
2. Waitress posts receipt on Reddit, with visible signature.
3. Reddit readers respond, overwhelmingly in favor of the waitress.
4. Applebee's fires the waitress.
5. Social media explodes. Applebee's takes a public beating.

You want to avoid this type of thing. There is no guaranteed way to do so, but here are eight tips to help you avoid the pitfalls that Applebee's fell into.

Identify the right "bad guy." Applebee's decided it was the waitress. The Internet decided it was the customer. This was a huge mistake for Applebee's. The company should have asked itself, What is more important? Happy employees or a single cheapskate customer?

Your social-media manager (and yes, you need one) should read Reddit (and other sites). Your company may not want to have a Twitter account, a Facebook page, or write a blog. But that doesn't mean you can just ignore what's being said on those sites. Somebody needs to be responsible for being aware of and responding to things on the Internet. Your company may never end up being called out for its behavior by the Internet community, but if it does happen, you need to be aware of the right way to respond.

Your social-media manager needs to be in the know and totally loyal. The former is easier to find than the latter, but both are critical. Applebee's isn't the only company to make this mistake. HMV ended up with its mass layoffs being live tweeted. Tweets like "We're tweeting live from HR where we're all being fired! Exciting!!!" and "Just overheard our marketing director (he's staying, folks!) ask 'How do I shut down Twitter?'" went viral. Layoffs happen. Some person not being fired should have taken control of the account long before the first person was notified. The last thing you want is someone with the keys to your Facebook account being caught by surprise.

Remember, the Internet is forever. Wouldn't it be nice if you could just pull down a tweet and have it disappear forever? But you can't. The HMV debacle was stopped fairly quickly. But once something like that is up, long enough for one person to retweet it or save a screen capture, it's forever. And keep in mind that you can set up your Twitter account to automatically retweet other accounts. So, realizing even three seconds later that what was posted was a bad idea, is 3 seconds too late.

Social-media followers cannot stand hypocrisy. Applebee's came out with an official statement, saying, "We wish this situation didn't happen...Our franchisee has apologized to the Guest and has taken disciplinary action with the Team Member for violating their Guest's right to privacy." Sounds like a good, solid reason for firing someone. The waitress clearly violated a company policy by posting a receipt with the guest's name clearly visible. But remember that thing about the Internet being forever? Not long before, the official Applebee's social-media person had posted a nice comment from a guest, with name clearly visible. Sigh. (Journalist R. L. Stollar has all the screen captures from this historic social-media meltdown.) Applebee's took down that post, but by then it was too late. If your policy says, "No customer identities should be published on the Internet," then no customer identities should be published on the Internet.

You need a clear, legal social-media policy. This is not easy. You cannot prevent your employees from speaking to one another (and "speaking" includes posting to one another on Facebook) about working conditions. So you cannot ban people from complaining about pay, for instance. But you can make a policy that prohibits posting customer information. Just apply it equally.

Click here to read the entire article!

Done Reading

My theory about the reviewers on sites like Yelp, Urban Spoon, Zagat (disclaimer: I'm a Zagat reviewer), and the like is this: people tend to complain more about an experience they disliked than praise an experience they liked, so I tend to think that those sites are skewed on the negative side. When I see a business like a restaurant or a salon that has many, many positive reviews and few negative ones, I think it must be a superior business and I'm more likely to try it out.

I read something today that blows my theory right out of the water. There are people out there who use the threat of a poor online review to get better service, discounted prices and preferential treatment. If they get what they want, they promise a positive review.

I suppose this shouldn't surprise me, but it does. The Los Angeles Times has a piece on the ReviewerCard, a card that can be purchased for $100 if you're deemed an influential enough reviewer. The owner of the black plastic card can whip it out at a business before receiving any service to let it be known, as it says on the card, "I write reviews."

Click here to read the full article!

Done Reading

Low home prices combined with a strong rental market means cash-flow prospects for investors have improved, and now is a great time to take advantage of this opportunity.

Buffett recommended that investors buying a single-family home go with a 30-year mortgage. If interest rates go down, you can always refinance. If they go up, you've just made a great deal for 30 years.

He said. "It's a leveraged way of owning a very cheap asset now and I think that's probably as an attractive an investment as you can make now."

CLICK HERE to watch the interview video.

Done Reading

CLICK HERE to read the full article.

Done Reading

Done Reading

Boston Business Journal | December 31, 2012

Forest City Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE: FCEA and FCEB) and the Arizona State Retirement System (ASRS) have created a strategic capital partnership and a $400 million equity fund that will invest in multifamily development projects primarily in five core markets: New York City, Washington, D.C., Boston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

Funding for the venture will be 75 percent from ASRS and 25 percent from Forest City.

Forest City estimates that more than two-thirds of its equity contribution to the fund is already represented by entitled development opportunities on its balance sheet. Equity from the fund will be paired with conventional project financing for an estimated aggregate development investment of approximately $800 million to $1 billion.

Forest City will serve as fund manager.

Done Reading

Get your family or a group of friends together online - even if you aren't in the same place. You just need internet access, a microphone and a camera on your computer or tablet to create a digital "hangout," then sign in with a Google+ account. If you use Gmail, Android or sign into YouTube, then you already have an account you can use.

 

Done Reading

Capital Commercial Investments Inc., which bought the office portion of the 800 Brazos building a year ago from Bank of America, hopes to create a new reputation for it as an inviting space for Austin's creative-minded companies.

In its heyday, 800 Brazos was the chic Commodore Perry hotel, which catered to the monied set of the 1950s. Over the ensuing years, however, the building's fortunes and reputation faded.

The past five years have been especially cloudy. One developer's vision for redeveloping the property mostly failed, condo units ended up at auction, and the rest of the building was repossessed by the lender in foreclosure.

Today the building includes 74 privately-owned residential condos and 100,000 square feet of office space. The office space is valued at about $3.9 million by the Travis County Appraisal District.

Ken Crouse, vice president of asset management for CCI, declined to say what the firm paid for the office side of the building - it also owns the Perry Brooks building across the street - nor how much has been invested in rehabbing the site. Nevertheless, he said, the property fits the company's general business model of buying older, well-priced buildings that have the potential for attractive upgrades.

"We like property that can become creative spaces," Crouse said. "That's what's in demand, and we think it's what companies that are coming to Austin are looking for."

Amassing tenants

Among the current office tenants are Capitol Services Inc., which provides research for law firms; Wahooly, a business incubator; and Design Workshop, a landscape architecture firm.

An Austin-based commercial real estate investment firm has breathed new life into what once was among downtown's prominent buildings.

Capital Commercial Investments Inc., which bought the office portion of the 800 Brazos building a year ago from Bank of America, hopes to create a new reputation for it as an inviting space for Austin's creative-minded companies.

In its heyday, 800 Brazos was the chic Commodore Perry hotel, which catered to the monied set of the 1950s. Over the ensuing years, however, the building's fortunes and reputation faded.

The past five years have been especially cloudy. One developer's vision for redeveloping the property mostly failed, condo units ended up at auction, and the rest of the building was repossessed by the lender in foreclosure.

Today the building includes 74 privately-owned residential condos and 100,000 square feet of office space. The office space is valued at about $3.9 million by the Travis County Appraisal District.

Ken Crouse, vice president of asset management for CCI, declined to say what the firm paid for the office side of the building - it also owns the Perry Brooks building across the street - nor how much has been invested in rehabbing the site. Nevertheless, he said, the property fits the company's general business model of buying older, well-priced buildings that have the potential for attractive upgrades.

"We like property that can become creative spaces," Crouse said. "That's what's in demand, and we think it's what companies that are coming to Austin are looking for."

CCI scored a coup for 800 Brazos, also known as Brazos Place, in August when the startup social media company Mass Relevance Inc., led by industry thought leader Sam Decker, signed a lease for 12,000 square feet. And Mass Relevance wasn't finished tying up space, committing to occupy another 12,000 square feet in the past couple of weeks.

"We decided we needed to lock up that space now as we anticipate more employee growth," said Kevin Dasch, vice president of finance and corporate development for Mass Relevance.

Dasch said the company's workforce, which is at about 65 now, is changing constantly. In fact, Mass Relevance has grown so quickly in its first two years that it's already moved twice. Given the costs and headaches of relocation, company officials decided to take a calculated risk and sign on for double the amount of space.

Gutting a downtown dinosaur

Mass Relevance executives love the rough feel of exposed walls and ceilings, concrete floors and an expansive employee kitchen that includes a pingpong table, among other diversions.

"It's really a cool building when you get past the stupid stuff of past owners and tenants," Dasch said.

Some of the quirky details included bulletproof glass enclosures that once protected government prosecutors. Until recently, the Mexican Consulate was a tenant, occupying serpentine space that was a challenge to navigate.

So CCI took a sledgehammer to outer and inner walls, creating open spaces and ample natural lighting. Removing brick walls in favor of glass ones wasn't cheap, costing more than $250,000, Crouse said.

Although the real estate company is locally based, many acquisitions have been in other cities such as Houston, Boston, Atlanta, Phoenix, Dallas and Minneapolis.

The company stayed local, however, when hiring Equitable Commercial Realty, an aggressive team of young guns, to market the space.

"There's really a lot of excitement around Mass Relevance now," Equitable Commercial Realty Principal Matt Levin said.

Other high-tech and Internet-based firms want to be a part of Mass Relevance's synergies and are inquiring about space, Levin said.

Since Equitable took over the building's leasing, occupancy has gone from about 30 percent to more than 60 percent of the available 100,000 square feet.

Levin expects more success in 2013 with CCI investing in more improvements for the 7,000-square-feet sixth floor and a conference room on the second floor.

But not every broker sees a home run with Brazos Place.

"I have always believed that parking is the limiting factor at 800 Brazos," said Chris Skyles, partner with SkylesBayne Co., a tenant representation brokerage firm in Austin. "They did a nice job with the renovation. ... While the building offers downtown tenants a reasonably priced option for less traditional and more creative space, the building doesn't have parking."

Done Reading

Metro Tulsa was No. 24 on a list of the 25 areas with the most technology-employment growth in 2010 and 2011, according to Engine Advocacy, a tech-oriented political advocacy organization.

Specifically, Tulsa was estimated to have had a 7.6 percent increase in high-tech jobs in those years compared to growth of 2.6 percent for the nation as a whole.

READ FULL ARTICLE

Done Reading

SEPT/OCT 2012 Multihousing Professional Magazine

Residents and prospects can now compare actual rental rates at “RentHackr.com: the best way to find out if your landlord is ripping you off.” This Facebook application allows viewers to see what actual rental rates, as opposed to quoted, are being paid in an apartment community. It displays resident move-out notices before they give notice to their apartment managers.

“It genuinely makes sense to cut everyone else out of the equation. One renter sharing with another, bringing transparency to the hell that is apartment hunting,” writes Harrison Weber of TheNext Web.com. Residents are more savvy to computerized price-setting as hotel guests, car renters and airline customers have been for some time. 59.5 percent of apartment renters were planning to renew their leases in Q4 2011, which is an all-time low, according to the Kingsley Index. DOWNLOAD ARTICLE

Done Reading

StoneBridge has awarded to ZRS Management, LLC the management contract for the Marquesa, a 468-unit fractured condo deal in Pembroke Pines, Florida.  ZRS will manage both the unsold condo units, as well as the HOA.  WHY HIRE ZRS

Done Reading

Here is the Spherexx analysis on this article (FULL ARTICLE HERE). We believe there are several MAJOR obstacles that will keep HTML5 "in a box" in terms of acceptance across the industry:

1. Standards. HTML5 is a standard, and standards move slowly. You have to get all parties to agree, then all parties to support, etc. Native applications don't have this issue, they evolve much more rapidly.
   
   
2. Support. We can't even use 75% of what is in HTML5 because of inconsistent support across devices/browsers. Native applications have full support on their target platform.
   
   
3. The browser. Browser is a sandbox, and it is very limiting. Native apps get to play outside of the box. HTML5 apps will always be at the mercy of how much the browser gets integrated.

CLICK HERE to read the article at BusinessInsider.com

Done Reading

Done Reading

CLICK HERE to read more!

Done Reading

And one of the things I recently learned was a new oxymoron: a social media budget.

Because in most companies, it simply doesn't exist. They expect Fans, Followers, Likes and Pins to fall from the sky.

But that's not the worst part...

No, the worst part is when you see how companies actually spend a social media budget if they have it.

Because most of the time it's wasted on vanity metrics and hot trends.

And the problem typically resides with the HIPPOs (highest paid person's opinion), because the highest paid person is also (usually) the least knowledgeable and furthest away from the front-lines.

To read the rest of this article about three of the worst ways that companies waste money in social media, CLICK HERE.

Done Reading

Done Reading

While mobile devices have been around for years, 2012 seems like the year that designing web sites for mobile users has gone mainstream. New solutions to address mobile users such as responsive design - that weren't even part of the lexicon a year ago - are being adopted by leading brands (see our work with World Wildlife Fund, Timelife, and Colorado State University OnlinePlus). A keystone of our discovery process now includes a strategy discussion about delivering content and functionality for tablets and smartphones users.  READ MORE

Done Reading

Done Reading

The Apartment Association of Central PA held its annual Best of Living Awards on September 27, 2012. At this year's ceremony, The Residences at Seven Gables and Woodmont Place at Palmer were honored with several awards:

Seven Gables - 1st Place: Overall Community Excellence (repeat win!), Overall Maintenance Excellence (repeat win!); 2nd Place: Curb Appeal

Woodmont Place at Palmer - 1st place: Curb Appeal

Lincoln Property Company - 2nd Place: Website Excellence

Congratulations to these hard-working and well-deserving teams on their achievements!

Done Reading

Done Reading

Done Reading

DALLAS, TEXAS September 27, 2012  The thought of student housing as reminiscent of cinder block walls and checked tile is a thing of the past.  Z Islander Apartments has forever broken that mold. From its idyllic, saltwater lagoon pool complete with palms, to the refined details of every spacious apartment room located in walking distance of Texas A&M University, Z Islander Apartments provides all possible comfort and convenience, along with quick access to neighborhood hot spots in the heart of College Station, Texas. Z Islander has also just been declared a winner in the Best of the Brazos Valley awards conducted by Bryan Broadcasting Corp.

http://www.zilasnder.com takes the prospective resident there in panoramic detail.  Website visitors can also surf the community via mobile telephone. The website provides detailed floor plans that show off the spacious common areas, generous kitchen and screened in patios.  The apartments are fully furnished, including queen platform beds, full-size washer and dryer, tall nine-foot ceilings, cable, limited access, and a 50" flatscreen living room television, plus a 26" flatscreen television in each bedroom. 

Prospective residents can request a roommate match from the Z Islander's new website by just submitting a form to the management team provided by Asset Campus Housing.  Parents have their own question and answer overview.  A student can select a favorite location from the website's prismic 3D site plan, request an appointment to take a tour,  or complete an application for residency on the spot.  Likewise, residents can pay their rent, request service, take a survey and refer a friend or acquaintance while relaxing at their favorite Internet hookup.

The photo gallery shares instant information on all the details of the student's new home as well as the gym, basketball and volleyball courts, theatre room, 24 hour cyber café, billiards, shuffleboard, poker rooms and car wash.  The only thing possibly lacking for an ultimate student lifestyle could be someone to do homework.

The management team at Asset Campus Housing also has website features that makes their busy days easier to manage.  ZIslander.com is equipped with a content management system whereby leasing and management team members can update the website and retrieve online applications without requiring the services of an IT professional.  They can update neighborhood points of interest, online coupon, office hours, floor plan prices and features, and review traffic statistics. The website is currently generating an average of 4,220 visitors a month.  MarketSurveyTools.com reports that Class A communities in the Z Islander area are reporting an average $1.05 per square foot rent.

About Equity Partners in Real Estate: www.E2MPartners.com

E2M invests capital on behalf of investors in real estate assets and real estate related debt throughout the United States and within every major asset class.
 
E2M is an innovative, relationship-focused private equity fund manager dedicated to acquiring, underwriting, structuring, managing, and selling complex real estate investments.

The Partners' personal and working relationships span multiple decades and valuation cycles beginning with Eiger Fund in 1995. The partners possess an average of over 20 years of experience in real estate acquisition, disposition, development, construction, leasing, investment, legal, or finance, and collectively have managed operations in most major United States markets within virtually every asset class. E2M's collective tenure and reputation in the real estate industry have produced a network of relationships with developers, financial institutions, and other key real estate players that assist in generating opportunities. This network, combined with the operating reputation of the team, often gives the team early access to investment opportunities.

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

Established in 2000, Spherexx.com is recognized as an established leader in the apartment industry website, Internet marketing, and software development services. With offices located in Tulsa, Dallas, Austin, and Houston, the company has been distinguished as one of INC5000's fastest growing companies.

Spherexx.com offers a wide selection of professional services including web design and development, touch-screen kiosks, Internet lead generation tools, online advertising, apartment leasing consulting, advanced mobile technology, apartment lease-up marketing consulting, and search engine performance. The company also provides 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.

Spherexx.com has developed CRM (customer relationship management) products, marketing and lead generation 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, and www.RentPush.com. Spherexx.com provides web-based prospecting, marketing, advertising management, and support services.

Spherexx.com has provided services to innovative real estate companies like Lincoln Property Company, Simmons Vedder, Cottonwood Capital, Forest City Enterprises, Graham Residential, and ZRS Management, LLC and Perry Reid Properties. The company represents a collective eighty  years of direct, executive level property management experience that readily identifies with the challenges and solutions of multi-family property management professionals.

###

Done Reading

Done Reading

In “The New Multi-screen World: Understanding Cross-Platform Consumer Behavior,” we discovered that 90% of people move between devices to accomplish a goal, whether that’s on smartphones, PCs, tablets or TV. We set out to learn not just how much of our media consumption happens on screens, but also how we use these multiple devices together, and what that means for the way that businesses connect with consumers. Below are highlights from our research:

Two primary ways we multi-screen
In understanding what it means to multi-screen, we discovered two main modes of usage: 

• Sequential screening where we move from one device to another to complete a single goal
• Simultaneous screening where we use multiple devices at the same time

Done Reading

Done Reading

Done Reading

Done Reading

Done Reading

"There is a huge misconception about the importance of online," Ms Smith says. "At least 90 per cent of the impact of advocacy and word-of-mouth campaigns happens in face-to-face environments. Online does play a really important role in the ecosystem of word-of-mouth but often it is just the trigger, which is then taken into an offline environment." READ ARTICLE

Done Reading

Done Reading

The Sooner State jumped to No. 1 out of 147 jurisdictions included in the Global Petroleum Survey 2012 after ranking fourth (of 135) in 2011. U.S. states dominated the top 10 rankings, with Mississippi finishing second (down from first last year), Texas third (up from fifth), North Dakota fourth (up from 10th), New Mexico seventh (huge leap from 41st), Kansas eighth (down from third), and West Virginia 10th (down from sixth).

Done Reading

The Scholarship includes complete round trip-airfare to the event; a three-night stay at the event hotel (Tuesday-Thursday of event week); complimentary coverage of the winner's Main Event Brainstorming registration; and one complimentary ticket to the Brainstorming Trends Lunch. 

For information on how to submit an application visit  SCHOLARSHIP.

Done Reading

Done Reading

Those rosy predictions come from a new semi-annual survey of 38 of the nation's leading real estate economists and analysts by the Urban Land Institute's Center for Capital Markets and Real Estate...

Vacancy rates are expected to drop in a range of between 1.2 and 3.7 percentage points for office, retail, and industrial properties and remain stable at low levels for apartments; while hotel occupancy rates will likely rise.

Rents are expected to increase for all property types, with 2012 increases ranging from 0.8 percent for retail up to 5.0 percent for apartments.  READ ARTICLE

Done Reading

Done Reading

You Want to Do What?

 Conquering the Challenge of Change by Terry Jackson of TrainToRetain.com

Most people, and organizations, would rather be comfortable than excellent.

If your company is going to stay in business, it has to change, and that can be scary.
For many people, change is more threatening than challenging. Humans are creatures of habit to be sure. Most of us like to sleep on the same side of the bed every night, right? But think of this, how many of us are doing things differently than a year ago? - 5 years ago? The proof is in the pudding...change is possible! The Multifamily industry has been witness to multiple changes in recent years, covering all aspects of the business from fair housing, to software management, and advertising.  Often we view change as the destroyer of what is familiar and comfortable rather than the creator of what is new and exciting. Most people, and organizations, would rather be comfortable than excellent. But these days, if you don't change, you stagnate and die. READ COMPLETE ARTICLE

Done Reading

Done Reading

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.

Done Reading

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

Done Reading

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.

###

Done Reading

(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)

Done Reading

“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.

Done Reading

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.

Done Reading

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.

Done Reading

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

Done Reading

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

Done Reading

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.

Done Reading

Done Reading

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.

Done Reading

Done Reading

Done Reading

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

Done Reading

Done Reading

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

Done Reading

Done Reading

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.

Done Reading

Done Reading

Done Reading

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

Done Reading

Done Reading

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.

Done Reading

Done Reading

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. 
 

Done Reading

Done Reading

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

Done Reading

Done Reading

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.

Done Reading

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.

Done Reading

Read the full article here:

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

Done Reading

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.

Done Reading

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

 Twitter - follow @IREM_info

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

Done Reading

Done Reading

 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

Done Reading

Done Reading

Done Reading

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

Done Reading

Done Reading

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!

Done Reading

Done Reading

Done Reading

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

Done Reading

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

Done Reading

See Article at The Orange County Register.

Done Reading

Done Reading

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!

Done Reading

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.

Done Reading

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.

Done Reading

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.

Done Reading

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. 

Done Reading