Federal and State legislation is targeting deceptive fee practices across industries, the rental housing industry being one of those affected. This includes the White House proposal for a Renters Bill of Rights (discussed further below) and weighing in heavily on the discussion of Junk Fees with the FTC’s proposed rule on “Unfair and Deceptive Fees”.
At the state level these measures are taken even further with California being among the loudest and most active. Additional states include Minnesota SF 2909 (discussed in our Q3 Compliance & Legislation Update blog post), Virginia HB 967 and HB 1519, and pending legislation with Illinois HB 4629.
Below we discuss the active and pending state level legislation in California and Virginia, as well as the federal level legislation as it applies to housing and the important legislative actions taking
The Problem | Maniacal Multitasking in the Leasing Office If multifamily apartment leasing had a middle name, it would be multitasking. So says Sarah Greenough, a leasing office veteran and now chief marketing officer for Lowell, Massachusetts-based Princeton Properties. Greenough calls multitasking the nature of the beast in high-touch leasing centers that involve hundreds of people and hundreds of things all going on at the same time.
Entrata recently hosted Daniel Berlind, a real estate executive and the CEO of Snappt, a data driven, fraud detection software that helps prevent financial fraud in the multifamily housing industry, as part of our Resident Experts Series. Below are some highlights from our conversation.
For CA Student Living, a Chicago-based provider of student housing for nearly 20 years, data is at the heart of every decision they make. As a result, it is imperative that they have access to all available data in one spot to speed up the decision making process. To accomplish this, they built a home grown platform called Unite that consolidates a number of data sources, including from Entrata, to provide them with transparency across the organization and actionable data that can be distributed at the property, regional, and organizational level.
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that renters must be compelled to carry renters insurance coverage. We all know that renters insurance is a good idea for residents and property owners and managers. But, the alarming reality of the situation is, if renters are allowed to execute their lease without showing proof of coverage less than 20 percent of residents in the country will procure renters insurance. This is the reason more than 2/3 of apartment properties in the U.S. require residents to carry renters insurance as part of the terms of their lease. Those who don’t require renters insurance risk significant loss and impact to the property, the resident, and overall profitability. Even if you already require renters insurance at your property, read on. There are some things you’ll want to consider:
Data is like oil to multifamily organizations, a valuable resource that takes a fair share of effort to acquire. And like oil, obtaining data is only half the battle, as both are of most value after being properly refined and processed.
*A Comprehensive Look at Resident Service Packages* Currently, there are 44 million renters in the US. With the recent volatility in the economy, 60% of the US is actually living month-to-month. In an ideal world, renters would have a rent-to-income ratio around 30%, which for many is difficult. This is especially true if you live in more expensive cities like New...
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