MyNewPlace Blog

Earlier this week, we posted about how the continued growth of our company required us to go out and get a penthouse suite of a collocation area for our servers. Today, we are happy to announce two new developments on the personnel side of our business.

First, our Sales team has some very exciting announcements. MyNewPlace plans to devote a substantial amount of resources to account management. Our Sales team will now be supported by our Relationship Management group, whose chief duties will be to help our existing clients get the most out of their MyNewPlace accounts.

We were able to get a hold of Relationship Manager Damon Gacicia, who explained that “the goal of our group is t provide more proactive support for our clients to ensure that they are maximizing their results from MyNewPlace." This includes hosting welcome calls and providing training for new clients and providing monthly and quarterly reviews for each property.

Mr. Gacicia believed that having a dedicated group of Relationship Specialists will help apartments get better results and help them drive down their advertising costs. This group of MyNewPlace employees will be like in-house leasing consultants for our clients. With the expansion of the Sales team, we have a variety of MyNewPlace Jobs now available, ranging from National Sales Director to Relationship Managers and Specialists.

Second, Co-Founder Ken Cluff has been promoted from Vice President of Technology to Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Engineering. We were able to get a hold of Mr. Cluff despite his hectic schedule.

MD: Mr. Cluff, first of all let me just extend my thanks for agreeing to do this interview.

KC: Thank you; I'm honored to be appearing on the show tonight.

MD: Let me also congratulate you on your recent promotion from VP of Technology to Chief Technology Officer and VP of Engineering. In what ways will your responsibilities change?

KC: As MyNewPlace has grown and the Technology team has expanded and matured, my role has already been shifting. When we first started the company I was very hands-on in the push to get MyNewPlace.com built and launched. Now that we have built out a top notch development and web operations team, my focus is moving outwards to a more industry-wide perspective on how MyNewPlace can best meet our client's needs either directly through new technology initiatives, or in partnership with other companies in the multifamily space. It's an exciting and challenging shift.

MD: Are there any responsibilities associated with being VP of Tech that will be passed along to others?

KC: Not overnight, but my directors and mangers have already taken on a lot the things I used to do, and I imagine that process will continue. One thing that will never go away is the MyNewPlace passion for digging in the data. That's part of our corporate DNA. We encourage everyone from our entry level developers to the corner office holders to roll up their sleeves and dive into the data we collect and find ways to improve the apartment search experience and the value we drive to our clients. I may not have Java IDE on my laptop anymore, but my SQL client is never going away.

MD: When people ask you what you do, is it going to be way cooler to say “CTO" rather than the cumbersome multi-word polysyllabic Vice President of Technology?

KC: You bet! I'm not sure they'll have any more of a clue about what I actually do, but it sounds much cooler.

MD: That's awesome, Ken. Congratulations!

Last week, MyNewPlace performed what CTO and VP of Engineering Ken Cluff described as ‘open heart surgery' on our site, which involved the delicate task of moving all of our servers to one collocation at our datacenter, 365 Main.

Moving servers around is not exactly a risk-averse production; when a company is required to unplug the device that is the entire business, there is a certain amount of expected anxiety. Thus, the move was undertaken with the utmost care, spread over a few weeks time and under the close watch of Hitachi, a server manufacturer who sent some of their specialist to supervise.

When I asked our IT department why the move was necessary, I received a short answer and a long answer. The short answer was “power." The long answer was that it was necessary to consolidate our 2 existing server farm cages on two different floors of the 365 Main facility into one larger cage, all connected by a new cutting edge Juniper ‘virtual chassis' switch. Up until last week, we kept our server racks in two collocation areas at the 365 Main data center and have now moved our servers into one bigger collocation area.

So let's put this in terms that we can understand, by using an apartment allegory. Let's call a collocation area an apartment, a datacenter (365 Main) an apartment building, a rack a bedroom and a server a person:

A long time ago, MyNewPlace rented two apartments on different floors in apartment building. Each apartment had 3 bedrooms and three residents. Then, each of the six apartment residents went out, got married and had children, but no one moved out! Pretty soon, there was simply not enough room for all the apartment residents to be comfortable. Also, the apartment building began to ask questions as to exactly how many people were living in these apartments, since it was apparent that the electrical needs of both apartments had been rising steadily for a while. So finally, MyNewPlace talked to the landlord and said that they would like to end both 3 bedroom apartment leases and move into a brand new penthouse apartment, with enough room for everyone, as well as room for future generations of apartment residents.

Now that we have moved all of our servers to one big penthouse suite of a collocation area, our servers have access to all the power that they could ever need. Now that our site is housed comfortably, we can easily monitor all of our servers and add new ones as necessary.

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!

Some very important news for the apartment rental industry accompanies the beginning of an exciting week for us here at MyNewPlace. That important news, however, can wait until tomorrow as MyNewPlace is movin' on up.

Today marks our first day in a new office at 343 Sansome Street, which is located a little bit more downer town than our previous location at the corner of Bush and Kearny. Some beneficial amenities include a glorious rooftop garden (from which the above 180 degree shot was taken), the Pol Bury sculpted fountain, L'Octagon, in the foyer, not having Subway constantly baking bread one floor below, as well a more functional workspace for our growing company.

The new space is a bit overwhelming; the one or two times a day that I actual peel my eyes away from the computer screen, I can actually see more than 30 feet. The temptation to toss a frisbee is almost unbearable.

The feeling is very much similar to moving into a new apartment, instead of the old homey, cozy feeling one becomes accustomed to, it new office has an undeniably sanitary feeling, with a lot of awkward, unused space.

Just like that new apartment, we are excited to be in our new home, which puts our entire staff on one big floor. With the new office, we are looking forward to really being able to expand our business.

Today is a very special day for MyNewPlace, it is our third birthday. In honor of this landmark, today, we will reveal some of the untold lore surrounding the official launch, three years ago.

The legend, as passed down by MyNewPlace's Irish Uncle, Release and QA Manager Christopher Eastwood, tells of a high stakes bet between a member of the Board and a member of the Technology team, wherein the former preferred a more cautious launch date. However, the New York Times published an article on May 1st, which linked to MyNewPlace and discussed our upcoming entry into the online real estate vertical and, of course, all bets were off. It was now a crucial matter to have a functioning site on the other end of that New York Times link!

In response, our team put their heads down and powered through; shoveling coal into the furnace all day and all night, finally launching the site three years ago today, May 5th2006. Business Development guru Matt Teichmann remembers the launch party fondly, recalling CEO John Helm addressing a roomful of exhausted yet optimistic employees.

Mr. Teichmann, perhaps equally as fondly, also noted that the occasion was marked with refreshments apropos of Cinco de Mayo, including a full taco bar and a bottle of tequila, which, he said still remained in the kitchen, in honor of the day. Upon checking the contents of this legendary bottle, it became immediately apparent that someone, no one knows who, clandestinely replaced the contents of that Silver Tequila with water, an old trick presumably picked up during that person's high school years.

And, with that, we wish ourselves a Happy Third Birthday!

Tomorrow, we'll take a look back at some specific site developments and projects that our team has undertaken to make MyNewPlace the most innovative online marketplace for apartments for rent.

Today, we're happy to announce our partnership with OpsTechnology, a leading provider of spend management systems to the multifamily industry. MyNewPlace is the first Internet Listing Service to integrate with OpsTechnology's eBilling solution.

Participating companies can now receive their MyNewPlace invoices via the OpsTechnology platform and greatly streamline their accounts payable process. MyNewPlace already has five key clients on the system, representing more than 300 sites, and anticipates this number to quickly grow.

“With this solution, we send one electronic file directly to OpsTechnology. The system routes the invoices to each property which guarantees that they don't get ‘lost in the mail.' Our customer can quickly approve the invoice online and transmit it on to their accounting system for payment," said MyNewPlace VP of Technology, Ken Cluff.

Building best-in-class backend systems and partnering with industry leaders such as OpsTechnology are some of the ways that we try to add value to our marketing solutions. We're very excited about this latest addition to our panoply of solutions.

Visit the MyNewPlace press release page to read the full article.

According to July figures from compete.com, MyNewPlace is now the 3^rd largest apartment search site on the web. We passed forrent.com with 18.4 percent monthly growth, far outpacing our competition. For the year, MyNewPlace traffic has increased 131.6 percent, with our closest competitor up only .8 percent. (According to compete.com)

We are always happy to see traffic graphs exhibiting an “up and to the right" trend, especially on such a trusted and public data center as compete.com.

Thanks to all of our users for continuing to use our site to find the best apartments for rent nationwide.

As we continue to upgrade and improve our site, let us know how we can make your apartment search easier and more effective by leaving us a comment or posting on our Facebook wall.

What kind of features and functionality would you like to see on our site? Give us a shout!

Feel free to ask us questions about your apartment searches and check out our apartment guide for tips on renting apartments and apartment living issues.

Today is a sad day for MyNewPlace. Tim Riedel, Product Manager extraordinaire, will be leaving us to attend business school in Boston. Since Tim is kind of a big deal around here, we are going to live blog his last day.

9:00 AM -Tim enters office, proudly wearing his ‘I have totally checked out of this place beard' and proceeds to start his computer.

9:04 AM- As is his custom, Tim begins the day in song. To get the blood pumping and to raise morale, we are usually treated to a melody. A typical song is dedicated to Bill Gates. It goes something like this:

“Oh Bill Gates,

Why is my computer so slow when I try to open Outlook in the morning?

Why don't you get my computer to process faster before you go bidding on Yahoo"

9:15 – We ask for Tim's cell phone number in case our traffic decreases. Tim tells us not to freak out. We are totally freaking out, man.

Stay tuned. We'll be checking in every hour to bring you the latest.

This morning, we were happy to see that an interview with our founder and CEO, John Helm, was featured at Inman News; John will be speaking this week at the Real Estate Connect San Francisco 2008. He will be on the panel for the discussion about Super Size Search on Thursday morning.

We are all getting geared up for this year's conference and are happy to be participating in the discussions.

The interview was quite broad in it's range and actually quite revealing. Apparently our fearless yet humble leader's accommodations are as spartan as this blogger's.

When asked “What style of home do you live in and when did you buy it?"

Mr. Helm replied cheerfully:

“I'm currently sleeping on a friend's sofa waiting to move into a new home in Tiburon. It's a fairly typical nondescript, overpriced Bay Area home, but with some great views!"

Check out the rest of the interview here and be sure to come say hello at tonight's Beers with Bloggers event at Cafe du Nord.

I'll be the guy with the broken arm, burnt hand and broken toe talking about apartments for rent.

According the Hitwise Monthly Category Report for Real Estate, MyNewPlace broke into the top twenty most visited sites in the Real Estate Category, after steadily climbing the ranks to number 19. We had ranked 40^th, 34^th, and 22^nd in March, April and May, respectively. The ranking is derived from market share based on a random sample of 10 million U.S. internet users.

The rankings consider websites that focus on residential and commercial real estate and property services such as agency websites, real estate databases, classifieds of properties to buy, sell, rent or lease in addition to sites designed for home buyers, sellers or renters.

This is primarily due to us totally killing it in the apartment rental market. More and more renters are finding how easy and effective it is to use our apartment finder and apartment guide to find the best apartments for rent.

All apartment rental ILS's in the top 20 showed growth this month, indicating an overall market trend towards apartments and homes for rent. As home prices and home sales continue to fall, the rental market is expected to remain strong for the second quarter, according to a report from Reis, Inc.

Reis, Inc. reports that vacancy rates for apartment rental buildings remained at 5.9 percent as the housing slump continued and the weakening economy kept people away from purchasing homes.

Sam Chandan, chief economist for Reis, predicted that “rent growth will moderate through 2009…the bias will be weighted toward rentals, in our view. People fear home prices will fall further."

Apartment rental rates haven't fallen since 2002, when the housing bubble began inflating exponentially as investment lopsidedly shifted toward homebuilding.  Demand was  created by the widespread availability of credit coupled with the fact that both lenders and borrowers were betting on the continued increase in home prices. Now that demand has dropped off, vacancies are rampant, prices have dropped and questions abound for the future of the for sale and rental market.

In any event, we are happy to see our continued growth and will look forward to keep on keepin' on. Next stop, top ten!