MyNewPlace Blog

San Francisco's Mayor Gavin Newsom and Supervisor Chris Daly

Yesterday, Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco announced that he plans to veto a set of renter protection laws authored by Supervisor Chris Daly and passed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors last week. The Renters Economic Relief Package includes:

• Prohibiting rent increases that puts a tenant's rent over 33 percent if the tenant is unemployed, has had his or her wages cut or is living on a fixed income.
• Makes the San Francisco Housing Code the final authority on how many roommates may occupy a given rental property based on square footage and number of bedrooms, allowing renters to add roommates to help pay the rent.
• Limit the amount of “banked" annual rent increases that a landlord may impose to 8 percent.

These measures were offered by Supervisor Chris Daly as a way to help renters who have lost their jobs, or have had their benefits or wages cut keep their apartment homes. Mayor Newsom, however, promised to veto the measures, prompting a rally on the Capitol Steps yesterday at noon.

San Francisco has an unusual rental market. The city itself has a high rental population (about 2/3) and consistent low vacancy rates. Demand is kept high by a steady stream of new residents from around the nation who move to a city that is located at the tip of a peninsula that is only 7×7 miles. However, San Francisco also has a long history of being a very tenant-friendly city, with very strict rent-control measures and a tenant friendly rent board. Without rent control and a prominent tenant's union, the unregulated San Francisco rental market would be very different; Rents would be higher, apartments would be nicer and neighborhoods would be much more ‘economically defined.'

The Renters Economic Relief Package passed by the Board of Supervisors was watered down from its original version, which extended the 33 percent of income cap to all renters. 30 percent of income is about the recommended percentage of income that people should spend on housing. The federal Section 8 housing voucher program works on that supposition. Low income families pay 30 percent of their income toward rent and the federal government pays the difference between that and the market rate. The proposed measure would place that cost of that difference on the backs of rental property owners and landlords instead of on the entire taxpayer base (as with the Section 8 Housing Voucher Program).

The second measure allows renters to invite as many roommates as the San Francisco Housing Code will allow without allowing the landlord to raise rent. If this were enacted, landlords would lose the ability to regulate the number of tenants in their own apartments.

The third measure prohibits rental property owners from saving up their annual rent increase allowances and imposing them all in one year. This is designed to prevent landlords who have not raised rents over the past ten years to all of a sudden jack up rents on tenants (this year especially). However, rent control, which was enacted in 1979 to combat high inflation spurred especially high by the Bay area's property prices, is only about 2 percent a year and therefore would require that landlord had saved up their allowable percentage increases for many years.

All perspectives considered, the measures protect the most vulnerable renters, but does so at the expense of rental property owners and landlords, but in doing so, may be more of a band aid solution.

What do you think? Is the proposed Rental Economic Relief Package necessary? Is it fair?

If you're like us, each month you wait anxiously for the postman to arrive with the latest copy of Units, the National Apartment Association's magazine. This month, Jeffrey Lee wrote a great piece called “Revving Up Online Marketing," about why getting your apartments listed on an ILS like MyNewPlace, for example is the best way to fill vacancies.

Jeffrey writes for about the multifamily industry for a living, so we'll defer to his words: “Ask marketing directors at many apartment management firms about their top source of leads and they'll give you the same answer: Internet Listing Services." What's so great about ILSs? Well, according to Lee, there are a few things:

• Huge viewership on the web
• Potential for great exposure with featured listings, photos, floor plans, and real-time pricing and availability
• Cost-effectiveness because ILSs make it easy to track leads and whether they turn into leases

The measurability of this cost information, in turn, makes ILSs a great way to maximize spend where it's most needed or most effective. “Controlling costs by measuring the performance of lead sources ensures that marketers' spending provides them with the greatest return," Lee writes.

Darcey Forbes, Director of Marketing and Communications for Essex Property Trust, uses the flexibility that ILSs provide to drive leads where they're needed most. According to Lee, Forbes will frequently “utilize a featured listing for a lease-up community, or for a community with heavy competition."

If some of this sounds familiar, it's because our CEO, John Helm, has written two white papers on the subject, “Multifamily Marketing in the Internet Age" and “Cost-Effective Resident Acquisition," and has been giving workshops around the country explaining how savvy internet marketing can help property managers cut marketing costs without sacrificing leads. In fact, Lee quotes Helm throughout the article because of his expertise on the subject.

You can request a copy of both MyNewPlace Whitepapers here.

Thanks for the great article, Jeffrey!

*UPDATE- House Passes HR 2454 219-212, will now head to Senate*

Today the House will vote on HR 2454, (at press time, House Minority Leader John Boehner was filibustering the House by reading selections from a 300 page amendment, you can watch live here) the American Energy and Security Act; this bill has many implications and has been supported by liberals as a necessary measure and derided as “Cap and Tax" by conservatives and. It is the centerpiece of the Democratic environmental policy and its effects, (if passed, which looks likely) are predicted to be quite far reaching.

The goal of this omnibus energy bill is to move the entire country to more sustainable, more environmentally friendly methods of producing and consuming energy. The official statement from the Chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce and main co-sponsor Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA) emphasized the benefits of HR 2454, stating, “the legislation will create millions of new clean energy jobs, save consumers hundreds of billions of dollars in energy costs, promote America's energy independence and security, and cut global warming pollution."

The main provisions are include requiring utilities to generate an increasing percentage of their power from renewable sources, establishing a cap and trade system for greenhouse gas emissions for businesses, establishing a Carbon Storage Research Corporation, revamping current power grid and transmission guidelines to update infrastructure and finally–and this part majorly affects the apartment industry–establishing new energy conservation standards for buildings.

It is indeed interesting to note that a majority of funds are allocated for “Consumer Protection," which means that consumers will be provided with federal money to defray any spike in energy costs that the bill causes.

According to the analysis from the NMHC, the building code mandates that the Secretary of Energy establish a National Energy Efficiency Building Code that is 30 percent more efficient that the 2004 version of AHSRAE Standard 90.1, and by 2014 the national code is required to be 50 percent stricter than current standards (this would apply only to buildings built after the pending legislation becomes law).

The NMHC has been alerting legislators to the fact that some regions of the country, these new codes would be impossible to meet, therefore, a strict federal one size fits all policy is not a good solution. Locations with extreme temperature changes such as apartments in Minneapolis, would have a much more difficult time meeting standards than would apartments in Los Angeles.

MyNewPlace has developed a tool to make it easy for our clients to post ads for their apartments, or even specific unit, to Craigslist. Currently, posting to Craigslist can be a cumbersome process and is vulnerable to human error. The goal of our Craigslist tool is to make it as easy as possible for apartment management companies to post consistent and accurate information to Craigslist.

The Craigslist tool is a very simple concept: all it does is automatically pull the information on any property or unit listed on our site into an HTML or text only Craigslist ad. This will help property managers and leasing specialists by substantially decreasing the time it takes to create a Craigslist ad as well as guaranteeing that your ad contains complete and up to date information consistent with all online listings.

Now, a few things about Craigslist; our tool creates an ad which can then be copied and pasted into Craigslist. There is no API or feed submission (which keeps out automated spam) so there cannot be a “submit" one button solution.

So, let's take a closer look at this new tool and how it works. All MyNewPlace clients that do not have monthly lead caps lower than 15 are eligible to use the post to Craigslist tool, however, apartments must contact MyNewPlace so that we may enable the feature. Sign in the MyNewPlace Manager Center to enable this feature now.

Post to Craigslist from the Manager Center

To post an ad to Craigslist, sign into the MyNewPlace manager center, and select “Post to Craigslist" under the Advertising section of the Navigation bar. Then, select a property ad or unit ad with a certain floorplan (below is a screenshot the “Post to Craigslist" page with an inset of an HTML property ad.

2 Choices - Property or Unit and HTML or Text

By selecting “Generate Post," the below screen will appear, which provides either code for an HTML post or a simple text ad to post in Craigslist. The entire contents of the HTML box need to be copied and then pasted into Craigslist.

On the same page that generates the ad, we provide an iframe of Craigslist.com, to make everything run as smoothly as possible. Once here, select your city, hit “post to classifieds" select “housing offered" and then apts/housing for rent, select the neighborhood (optional) and then paste in either the HTML code or text into the “property description" section of the Craigslist ad editor.

To complete the ad, supply an email address, (anonymized, displayed or hidden) an ad title and hit continue. This will generate a preview, bring up a Terms and Conditions agreement and display a reminder that an ad will only be displayed at Craigslist after the email addressee clicks on a confirmation email.

Craigslist, a nationwide classified website, organized by city, has just about 40 million unique visitors in the United States every month; a good portion of those visitors are looking for their next apartment or rental home.

Owners who have apartments or homes for rent use Craigslist because it is an easy way for them to reach out to many prospects in their area. Craigslist has established a certain amount of legitimacy due to its overwhelming popularity.

We have designed this tool to help our apartments reach those prospective tenants by taking advantage of Craigslist. We are also aware that apartment management staffs are very busy, so we streamlined the process to help leasing specialists be as efficient as possible while filling their vacancies.

Let us know what you think or if you have any questions at all!

REITs

CNN Money's online edition clues investors in on the disproportionately high dividend yields offered by REITs. While the average stock dividend from the S&P was about 2.6 percent, the average REIT dividend averaged 7 percent. [CNN Money]

HUD

HUD announced today that they would be releasing $58 million for housing counseling; the funds will be made available to “HUD-approved counseling agencies and State Housing Finance Agencies that offer a variety of services including how to purchase or rent a home, how to avoid foreclosure, how to improve credit scores, and how to qualify for a reverse mortgage." HUD will distribute 400 grants for this purpose (which averages out to $145,000 per grant) based on applications that are due by July 17th. [HUD]

This money is part of HUD's stimulus cash. Last week we explained how of the $ 4 billion HUD was granted, $3 billion was deployed by preexisting formula, leaving $1 billion available for competitive grant processes.

HUD is subdividing this money into 4 categories: energy efficiency (receiving by far the lion's share with $600 million) financing stalled projects, public housing transformation, and housing for the elderly and persons with disabilities. It is unclear from which category the above mentioned housing counseling will be taken.

HUD is certainly pushing energy efficiency for PHAs across the country, putting two thirds of its competitive money toward that cause. Applications are due in 5 days! [HUD]

The GREEN Act Reintroduced

According to Multi Housing News Online, Colorado Representative Ed Perlmutter has reintroduced legislation (H.R. 2336) that would bring energy efficiency to the single and multifamily housing markets. Mr. Perlmutter's district, located on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains, gets about 300 days of sun every year(and a whole lot of wind), so Denver apartments are sure to be prime candidates for renewable energy sources.

From the Congressman's floor statement:

“The GREEN Act would take steps toward addressing energy consumption within housing by establishing minimum energy efficiency standards for HUD and providing incentives to the private sector to move our housing and building stock to energy efficient standards."

HUD announces Funding for Energy Efficient Projects

Additionally, it sounds as though HUD has already responded to demands for greater energy-efficiency. HUD received 4 billion in stimulus money; $2.95 billion was allocated by formula (according to state and city populations and needs) and $995 million will be distributed by a competitive grant process, whereby public housing authorities will compete for grants. (10 million goes to HUD for administrative costs, a little something for the effort)

The revised Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA), which is HUD's guidelines on how to apply for grants and summary of those projects that are eligible, includes a 4th section, for the “creation of Energy Efficient, Green Communities." (page 12 of NOFA) This will allow Public Housing Authorities to use stimulus money to make low income apartments and other public housing more energy efficient.

Even if Rep. Perlmutter's perseverance does not yield higher standards for PHA's housing (like last year's attempt) at least the government is pushing a green apartments agenda.

Editor's Note: This is a guest post from our friends over at Relocation.com, who will be providing us with information on how to gracefully handle relocating.

Entire books could be written on mistakes people make when planning their move.

Thankfully, we've distilled it down into 5 of the major ones.

1. Packing Panic

OK, more alliteration: people who panic often up procrastinating. Then they throw everything together quickly, and things get lost or broken in the move, and you get majorly stressed. A simple plan entails gathering together all of your moving supplies before your move and setting them aside in their proper rooms, labeling your boxes in a way that lets you know what you should unpack first, and keeping a detailed inventory of what's in each box. Don't put it off.

1. Procrastinating

Many things can be done well before your move — you can change your address, switch your utilities, get all your medical reports ready to be transferred, and pack items you won't need for the next months. Do them now — you'll feel better about your move, and you'll have less stress on your moving day.

1. Misunderstanding Options for Insurance

Hey, it's a move: Things can go wrong. Your household items likely won't be covered under your homeowners insurance policy, and the default insurance from your moving company is minimal. So check out options for higher coverage, either through your moving company, or a third-party insurer. And remember this: if you pack your own boxes and suffer damage, your insurance probably won't cover you.

1. Letting Expenses Get Away From You

Moving is like when you buy a house and all the costs associated with the home loans start adding up: Just like then, your moving costs add up, so prepare for them by drawing up a budget of likely expenses and have the funds to pay for them. Some of these include travel to your new home (lodging and gas expenses), auto transport, temporary living expenses, insurance, and any deposits to set up your new utilities.

1. Not Taking Care of the Pets or the Kids

When a mover is a moving a 200-hundred pound couch, you don't want small animals or children around. So either find someone who can watch them for the day, keep them confined for a room in your house, or use a kennel (for your pets, of course).

If you have more questions about moving, need some advice or trying to figure out whether it's worth it to move yourself, check out the MyNewPlace Moving Guide for more articles.

In college towns across the nation, there is always at least a little tension between students and town residents. College students are only residents of the town for a few years and therefore have much less of a long term stake in the neighborhoods that they inhabit. Combine this with the typical college students' nocturnal exuberance, and it is easy to sympathize with neighbors of universities.

To appease townsfolk, many local municipalities have begun to enact ordinances that try to curb the negative impact of college students living off campus.

For example, last year we reported a few times, on a roommate ordinance that was hastily passed in Boston at the urging of some citizens who lived in neighborhoods with high student populations. The original plan called for a roommate cap of 4 students per rental property.

By February of this year, that plan had been scaled back to require only that a college or university inform the city when more than 4 students are living in the same rental property. Boston City Council President Michael P. Ross has obviously tried to strike some kind of compromise after last year's failed attempt to impose a strict roommate limit on off campus apartments throughout Boston.

It is not obvious what exactly the ordinance would accomplish; Boston area colleges and universities would be charged with collecting and sorting the addresses of all of their students biannually and then submitting the names of any students who have more than 4 students listed at the same apartment.

The only tangible benefit of this seems to be providing police officers with a list of potential “party houses." Or it's just a really passive aggressive way for the city to put pressure on universities to get all their students on campus. [Berkeley Beacon]

Couple Scams HUD, Goes Directly to Jail (does not collect $200)

A couple in New Haven, Connecticut were arrested for devising a plan to scam that city's public housing agencies out of money that should have gone to needy families. While working for public housing agencies, the perpetrators were able to send HUD's checks to the account of a nonexistent landlord. The couple extracted close to $400,000 from this account over the past 6 years. The couple was fined for the amount they embezzled as well as sentenced to time in prison (one year for the wife, 46 months for the husband).[Hartford Courant]

Former Homeowners Seek Section 8 Apartments

The Nampa housing authority has seen a major increase in applicants for public housing vouchers from former homeowners. The recent influx of applications by 2 parent families with no renting history seems to indicate that the people are losing their jobs, not able to make their mortgage payments and are foreclosed upon and then eligible for federal public housing assistance.[Idaho Press]

The Vagaries of the Houston Rental Market

Houston apartments are now 11 percent cheaper than they were one year ago, according to Houston-based Apartment Data Services, which reports that an oversupply of newer buildings has depressed the average metropolitan average rent. Renters are finding the best deals, including the waiving the security deposits and three months free rent at newly opened apartments in Montrose, the inner loop and Galleria areas.

Western Houston, by contrast, has sustained demand because of job growth in the energy sector as well as newly available single family homes for rent in highly-rated school districts. [KHOU 11 News]

After examining last month's data, we found an interesting cyclical pattern in our browser report; the percentage of users who visit our site with Firefox increases every weekend, and then retreats every Monday to a percentage below Internet Explorer version 6.0.

In the chart below, IE 6.0 is the blue line, and FireFox 3.0 is red. The obvious trend is that every Sunday, IE 6.0 usage reaches its lowest percentage share of the week, while Firefox 3.0 records its highest. You can see that every weekend, (shaded blue) shows that the percent share of browser usage swaps on Friday and returns to normal on Monday.

Furthermore, though it is not included in this chart, the most popular browser, IE 7.0, dips slightly each weekend (about one percent). The percentage that IE 6.0 and IE 7.0 lose is made up by the uptick in FireFox 3.0 users.

So why does Firefox usage increase at the expense of IE each weekend? Our working hypothesis thus far is that many offices don't allow their employees to download Firefox or that people are more accustomed to using IE on their office machines.

Do you use a different browser at work than you do when you are at home? If so, is it because your office only uses Internet Explorer?