Tag: linked

Going Dark on Social Media

30 Jan Going Dark on Social Media

Weidner Apartment Homes, the 15^th largest owner of apartments in the US, announced in December of 2019 that it will suspend it’s use of Facebook to better protect the privacy and data of its residents and business operations. They will be looking at new in-house options that are safe, secure and easy to use. (Source: Multifamily Press) That’s why Central Media Solution added Call Assist 24/7 to their suite of print solutions for Multifamily.

Many companies are starting to “go dark” with their Google Maps Marketing in the past few years. They believed that people would prefer using the internet versus reading a magazine. This was another example of a bold decision. Who takes the time to read any more? Lots of folks.  Print does not require another new password or leave a trail of cookies with every page that you turn. It provides a story through content and pictures.  Central Media Solution is a publisher of many targeted magazines such as Apartment Magz and  New Homes Monthly and their latest pub, The Vender Guide. People are craving for print once again. Especially our seniors who prefer print than Internet as the Boomer generation downsizes to look for an apartment home.

Fake news has been an ongoing concern and alternative facts are now accepted as commonplace. (Source: The Guardian) Facebook has suspended about 400 apps associated with developers.  Many people are returning to conventional venues for information such as newsprint, radio and TV. Weidner is looking for simple and easy to use solutions to communicate with their residents. But can we just disconnect from social media? And why are we as consumers so easily addicted to “likes” and “shares”?

Technologies improved our daily living.  It can be used to enhance our lives. Social media gives people a forum to express their opinions and connect with companies, family and friends. At first the multifamily industry was very cautious of social. Then we dipped our big toe in the Facebook ocean to see what would happen. Negative and positive reviews poured into our profile pages. These negative reviews were scary, but we learned that they are an opportunity to show how we respond to our residents and solve their issues. That’s telling a positive story. We focused on increasing our followers, post likes and linked our websites to channel our leads in-house creating SEO. Is Social media a monster to be tamed or another solution in our leasing toolbox?

Each company will have to NAVIGATE their way through the fake news and concerns of data safety. Is Weidner being a visionary by “going dark” on Facebook? Planning to look for simple, safe and easy technology is a very smart decision indeed. That’s why Central Media Solution has created Call Assist 24/7 . Its simple, easy call management platform designed with feedback from on-sites in multifamily. It has no Apps, snap photo feature and uses the native tools our cell phones to communicate in real time. And all info is easily updated and stored in the cloud. Call Assist 24/7 is a game changer for call management… just what you are looking for now!

Published at Thu, 30 Jan 2020 13:51:22 +0000

When making arrangements for your Valencia apartments for rent, why not start your journey of discovery at the beginning in Xativa, the capital of commerce of La Costera? This fortified village has a castle set on the town’s highest point protected by a Roman and Iberian fortress that has become one over the centuries. This now protected precinct contains thirty towers with four fortified doors.

With this all around you, take a walk through the market where the San Pedro and Moncada streets cross. At this point, you can almost feel the grandeur of the court life that must have taken place here those centuries ago. The townhouses from that period still have their aristocratic shields on the entrance that is further enhanced by the Gothic fountains in this little village. As you roam around the castle hill take note of the town hall and church that are constructed in part with inscribed Roman masonry along with a number of Panama city houses for rent from the Moorish era. Among the many churches and convents in the collegiate church, once a cathedral from 1414 only to be rebuilt in a Renaissance style a century later.

The next region on our itinerary is Albaida, the white city. This area with contrasting landscape due to its location between the Grossa and Creu Mountains to the north and the Mariola and Benicadell Mountains in the south forms the Albaida valley with the Clariano and Albaida Rivers running through it. Also located here besides the village of Albaida are the Ontinyent, Bocairent and Lolleria villages making up the community of the Albaida Valley.

Be sure to bring your swimming suit with you from your Valencia apartments for rent on this sojourn to Bocairent as the access road is the beginning of the Clariano River. On a hot summer day there is nothing better than a swim in the cool spring water. The area surrounding the river with its natural landscape is known as Pou Clar which is where the walls have been excavated for a cave dating back to prehistoric times. This is apropos for your entrance into the village of Bocairent with some parts carved from rock. In addition to this, there are two rivers that emanate from this area creating ravines and cliffs surrounding the city. This medieval city is a must-visit on this journey of discovery.

From your holiday lodgings, you have started on your journey of discovery covering the realm of monuments. While you are out in the countryside you will enjoy a taste of nature. This is a good time to explore the possibilities of cycling, canoeing, rappelling, horseback riding, rock climbing and paragliding on offer in this rural setting.

Many apartments for rent available are in our city. The standard rent may vary from $400 per month up to $1500 for a luxury suite. This price is for a one-bedroom apartment with a fully fitted kitchen and a full bathroom.

Usually, you have to put a security/damage deposit in as well. Such a deposit normally is equal to half a month rental price. In some cases, utilities are included in the price, and in others, they are not. If paid separately utility costs vary depending on usage.

One of my sisters was very fortunate to find a nice apartment for rent in a very quiet building for only $550 per month. And it is only a few blocks away from where I live. In fact, she’s paying a bit more as there is an additional fee of $35 per month that goes for using the indoor underground parking. In her building, there are also some additional extras like cable TV, air conditioning and an indoor pool, that are available to tenants’ families.

Another popular type of apartment for rent that is widely available are the so-called bachelor apartments or studios. Their rent varies between $250 and $600 per month because they only consist of a large room with a modest kitchenette and bathroom facilities. And as you can guess they are really only suitable for a single person. Usually, the lowest range ones are in fact old damp and dark basement, and most of them are in such a condition that living there is a real danger. All the bugs and vermin they often host create such health hazards that it is not rare at all, the City to close them down and warn the public about such inhuman dwellings.

Unfortunately, there is another type of apartment for rent offered in our town that is even worse. In fact, they are not apartments at all, they are only rooms, usually situated in an old ex-boarding house. Places like these do often attract prostitutes, drug addicts and all types of underground world members. Apart from being very filthy and unsanitary, such dwellings are also extremely dangerous because of the people who stay there. Murders in such types of dwellings do happen on a regular basis.

Of course, there are great apartments for rent too – situated in the most prestigious areas of the city and are often with bigger size than some homes. They do usually offer top quality and of course feature additional facilities like saunas, spas, and gyms available for their tenants. Laundry and dry-cleaning along with concierge services are not a rarity at all. And all that comes at the corresponding price, that’s usually in the $2000+ per month range.

There are also people who do offer apartments for rent situated in their own Houses for Rent in Ocean Springs. In case the house is way too big for one family only there is nothing bad in converting it into a duplex or triplex and renting out. And many people have done so. But the most important downside of those is that being in fact one house they have very thin inner walls that allow noise to spread easily to the other units and no one actually has any privacy there.

So as expected, there is such a wide variety of apartments for rent offered in the City, that they can suit any rental range or family situation possible. Actually anybody can find one that suits him.

High Resolution Pricing: Agents and Broker Edition

One of our Y Combinator batch mates way back in Summer 2009 was a company called InstantQ, founded by Dana Levine and Jeff Shi. They were an early version of Groupon, allowing restaurants to fine tune pricing specific to certain customers, day of week, time of day, etc.

At the time, Paul Graham called it High Resolution Pricing. I’ll confess, I didn’t get it back then – I was just interesting in getting discounted pizza. Only later did I realize a meta-theme in PG’s philosophy on how the world was changing, even in the traditionally opaque world of fundraising. Markets CAN be more efficient when prices are allowed to adjust to match supply and demand.

In the low resolution world, restaurants have a lunch menu and dinner menu. Vegas buffets have weekend and weekday prices. Unfortunately, some hours the restaurant is jam packed with a long line, while other times many seats are empty. Hotels figured this out a long time ago – higher resolution pricing, meaning the manager can zoom in and adjust the price every single day, based on upcoming demand, events, and seasonality.

Now we apply the high resolution tweaking to finding apartments in Everett WA with a broker! In the low res world, landlords have all generally decided a broker will receive 1 month of OP.

Say an agents know she needs to show on average 10 apartments to close a deal (honestly, for many price points it’s MUCH more). That’s a lot of appointments, time, and money gone to previewing, sourcing, and scheduling the tours. It’s even more frustrating when each showing requires a significant amount of travel and preparation.

In a high resolution world, the same agent realizes there is an incredible deal that won’t last the day. In fact, she is confident the first reasonable, qualified client who sees the listing would jump to take it. She could easily offer to rebate $500 to the renter as a vote of confidence that the apartment is worth seeing. What she loses on this deal, she makes up for in volume of deals closed.

Rebates can also help an agent specialize efficiently. An agent is much more willing to show apartments in a neighborhood close to where they live or already have other showings. By becoming a neighborhood expert, it’s much less hassle for an agent to batch and group multiple clients for the same area in one day, and therefore they can deliver better service at lower “cost”, hence the OP rebate to the renter.

Published at Wed, 27 Nov 2019 01:16:00 +0000

How will you possibly find the apartment that is right for you when there are several to choose from? Allow me to share five things to consider that should assist with this process.

What part of town is most attractive to you?

This kind of sounds like a no brainer, but it is imperative to know the town or city that you are planning to live in. Be sure you research the area thoroughly and then select the part of the town where you prefer to live. By simply doing the research on a particular place in advance of time, you become acquainted with the area and find the section that is merely right for you.

A couple of areas more prone to crime than others? You would naturally want to avoid these.

Are some areas more pedestrian-friendly? Where is the offer?

Where are shopping and entertainment options?

Where are the parks located?

Are some regions of town cheaper to are in than others?

The set of things to consider can seem to be endless, but knowing the answers to questions will help you distinguish in which the exact part of town is that best matches your lifestyle.

Installment repayments on your Where can you afford to have?

Much more goes into your living costs than just what is needed for rent every month. Along with this preset expense, things like electricity, water, heat, internet, and cable must be considered in as well. Many apartment complexes will also charge an additional every month payment on top of your rent if you have a dog or a cat.

It is recommended that you spend only 20 to twenty-five percent of your online income on housing. In the event that you discover beforehand that you cannot afford to are in a particular place, it makes it that much easier to cross it off of your list.

What types of amenities are you interested in?

Apartments for lease are typical over the place when it comes to the types of amenities they offer. Some stadiums have pools. Some do not. Some have exercise facilities along with field hockey and tennis courts. A few do not. Incidents where provide car washing bays, game rooms, clubhouses, saunas, and racquetball courts. Upon the flip side, there are other apartments that may well not even provide you with a free car parking space. You have to decide what you need in conditions of amenities and what you can live without.

See the latest listing Sunset Terrace Apartments for Rent at Van Nuys

What sort of building do you want to call home?

Apartments for hire come in all sizes and shapes. There are massive processes that house hundreds of tenants, small Pensacola Houses for Rent that are home to a single-family, and fairly much everything in between. Larger complexes generally provide more amenities, nonetheless, they also tend to could prove costly money. Smaller homes and duplexes tend to offer more private outdoor space. The question is, so what do you want your living environment to be like over a day in, day out basis?

How long of a time commitment do you want to make?

At the time you get started the process of renting your brand-new home, you will most likely have to sign a lease contract with the landlord. Several landlords only use one-year leases while some may offer three or six-month obligations. Other folks may even allow you to rent on a month to month most basic, simply needing you to give a one month notice before you plan on moving out. In the event that you know that you would like to stay in your apartment for some time, then the one year lease may be fine for you. In the event, on the other side, you may have to move quickly, a month to month option is probably the best choice.

My Next Dream Kitchen

If you don’t follow Apartments in Bala Cynwyd, than you might have missed the exciting announcement that official This Old Victorian – aka my five year renovation saga – is about to come its close. Domino Magazine announced its first ever Renovation Issue and I’m thrilled to announce that office tour of our house is included. If you want your first sneak peak into the our before & afters (and they’re rather dramatic), click here.

But I think once you try your hand at renovations, you catch the bug. And so I’m already designing my fictional future dream house in my hand. And I think I already found my dream kitchen.

This epic kitchen is another product of design savant Amber Interiors. She has figured out the magic mix of California casual, old world grandeur, and what I like to call elevated rustic style that combine to create warm, welcoming but also dramatic spaces.

Obviously, the architecture of this space lends itself to its awesome dramatic feel, not to mention all that stunning natural light. But that is probably one of my biggest leanings from our renovation – that a space’s bones are everything. If you happen upon some a home with some good architecture, jump on it! You can be confident that even the ugliest of toads can be transformed.

The use of various both refined and rustic materials offers really beautiful juxtaposition in this kitchen. Honed Calacatta marble counters and backsplash feel sleek and fancy. But then the reclaimed French limestone looks as if you could be in a farmhouse in Burgundy. The mix and match continues with smooth plasters walls abutting a white brick pizza oven. Brass hardware offsets the custom white oak cabinetry, but the cup drawer pulls reinforce the more country, rustic feel. Finally, a rustic beam holds residence above a sophisticated Lacance range. Yet it all works.

This space would feel fitting should it be in middle of wine country, in Europe or in downtown LA. In fact it resides in Malibu, CA but you certainly wouldn’t say it has a beachy feel.

I love how Amber switched the far counter’s top to a dark limestone to anchor the space and mirror the dark range across the room.

If I could get my hands on this space I might have thickened the countertops (I still love that fat look), selected more modern cabinetry hardware and swapped out the antique pendant lights for something more minimalist and refined. But that’s fun thing with renovating. Once you get to play with the details, you just want to play more and more and more and more.

Good thing I have my yard project to keep me busy at the moment, because I’d be rather tempted to start housing hunting again! Don’t tell my hubs.

design by amber interiors, photography by tess neustadt 

Published at Thu, 21 Nov 2019 22:29:54 +0000

The trick to staying away from holiday snacks

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If there’s ever a time to indulge, it’s the holiday season. The nonstop family gatherings, workplace celebrations, and get-togethers with friends certainly provide ample temptations in the form of festive treats. And while it’s fine to nibble on something sweet at the occasional soiree, when you make a habit of it, you could enter the new year carrying some additional weight. Here’s how to avoid going overboard with the holiday snacks.

1. Preemptively eat a healthy snack.
   When you grab a healthy snack before you head out to a holiday party, you won’t be ravenous by the time you show up. This will make it easier to stay away from the festive spread, or at least to keep yourself from overdoing it. So nibble on some fruit or veggies the next time you’re getting ready for a holiday party.
2. BYO noshes.
   If you don’t think pre-gaming with healthy snacks will be enough to keep you away from the buffet table, here’s another way to avoid temptation: bring your own bites. Instead of chowing down on holiday cookies, chips, and other unhealthy snacks, bring along veggies and hummus, fruit and yogurt, or low-fat cheese and whole-wheat crackers to share with the crowd. Other health-minded partygoers will probably thank you!
3. Focus on balanced snacks.
   If you do intend to partake in the provided nibbles at a holiday bash, make smarter selections. Opt for a healthy balance of protein and carbohydrates, ideally with a small amount of fat. This combination will help to keep you full and avoid overeating.
4. Sip on tea or coffee.
   When you’re at the family holiday party, do you devour snacks because you’re actually hungry, or simply because they’re sitting on the table next to you? Many people will absentmindedly snack just for something to do. Distract yourself with a hot cup of peppermint tea or black coffee instead. Sipping on the warming beverage will keep your hands busy, but it won’t add any calories to your daily intake.
5. Chew gum.
   Another way to distract yourself from the snack spread is to chew gum. Most gums contain only a few calories, and they help to trick your brain into thinking you’re snacking freely. If you’re not actually hungry, just looking for a way to keep your teeth busy, pop a stick of gum instead of snacks.
6. Keep treats out of sight, out of mind.
   When you go to a party hosted by someone else, you don’t have control over the menu. That’s when the previous tips may come in handy. But when it comes to your own home, you can choose what you bring into it—and how you display (or don’t display) holiday treats. Try to avoid bringing candy, cookies, and other desserts into your Everett apartment altogether. When you can’t, at least keep them stowed away in the cabinet and showcase fruit and other healthy snacks on the counter. This makes it more likely that you’ll choose a light and healthy bite over a calorie-dense treat.

Published at Sat, 01 Dec 2018 20:52:20 +0000