Industry on the Inside

I've just finished exploring the industry's newest online resource and must say, finally, we have a comprehensive network specifically for multifamily professionals. Need an employee? Post the job here. Looking for information on Social Networks? Pop into the discussion forum - your questions and comments will encourage lively, informative discussion. Want your voice heard? Blog it - right at the site. Visit now at http://www.multifamilyinsiders.com. There really is, (and will be - keep in mind the site is still pretty new), something for everyone. I will be there often.

The Tap is Back

It is estimated that 8 out of every 10 water bottles ends up in landfills.
If that is not bad enough, think about all the oil needed to make those bottles. According to the Earth Policy Institute, a Washington-based nonprofit, even if every bottle were recycled, the amount of oil needed to make those bottles equals about 15 million barrels a year, or enough to fuel 100,000 cars for a year.

Get glasses. Have them inscribed with “The Tap is Back”, or “We drink our H2O right out of the tap”. Serve them to your potential clients and residents. Be proud to drink tap water.

And next time you pass by a garden hose, do what you did as a kid. Take a good long swig.
Tap water is chic. Tap water is vogue. The tap is back.

Color My World

There was a great article in USA Today http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2008-12-07-holiday-gifts-color_N.htm about the use of color to stimulate retail and how new colors will keep people coming back for more of the same thing, even if technically, they don’t need it. Ipod and Dell offer their products in a myriad of colors and you can even buy a pumpkin colored Viking range. According to the experts quoted in the article, people, particularly in troubled times, will indulge in colors that appeal to them. Symbolically and psychologically, vibrant colors speak to the change people are craving.

So, it may be time to take a look at your models and clubhouse. Is the color palette fresh? Is there anything vibrant going on? Purple is really big right now, and as I know from reading my Feng shui book, is a symbol of prosperity. Is there a way to incorporate touches of purple into your décor’? I once did an entire model in fuscia, lime green and purple. Very “I Dream of Jeannie”. To this day, I can’t believe they let me do it, but it worked. The target, middle class women, 24 – 40, ate it up and we leased the product in record time.

Color can be an amazing persuader.

Click Those Coupons

I read today that coupon use, after a 15-year decline is on the rise again. I might be time to start offering coupons for a waived application fee, or discounted rent as a buying incentive on your websites, Internet listing providers and in print publications.

LOL

This morning, after perusing my usual news sources including, but not limited to, The New York Times, The Washington Post and USA Today, and ingesting row after row of horrifying headlines, a sampling of which include, “New Home Sales Fall to Slowest Pace Since 1991”, “Fed Warns of NYC Subway Terror Plot” “, and “Melamine Traces Found in US Infant Formula”, I found myself with two options: I could run out my back door, sink to my knees and begin wailing and gnashing my teeth, or I could add a little humor to my daily news repertoire. I chose the latter, and chose to spend a few moments reading The Onion. www.theonion.com There’s nothing like a little satire and tongue in cheek humor to put things back into perspective. Recently headlines include “New Pain Inducing Advil Created For People Who Just Want to Feel Something, Anything”, and “Denny’s introduces ‘Just a Humongous Bucket of Eggs and Meat’”. I have added The Onion to my daily list of required reading and find my mood improving and my outlook sunny. Sometimes humor is the best medicine. Make sure you get your daily chuckle.

Just Call Me a “Recessionista”

According to Business Week, the term “recessionista” is everywhere these days. The Irish Times recently used the word to describe a “modern sort of girl who is trying to survive the credit crunch the best she can.” Today’s recessionistas haunt thrift shops, fueling year-to-date sales growth of 6% to 15% at Salvation Army and Goodwill outlets. Goodwill’s San Francisco-area outlets will launch a blog for recessionistas in November.

Might be time to organize a rummage sale at your community.

As for me, I am adding the title to my business cards.

Pay Attention

This post is for all of you that are compelled to check your email via your Blackberry or IPhone devices while dining, socializing, during family gatherings, before going to bed, before getting up, during your child’s football/soccer/lacrosse/dance event and any number of places where you feel compelled to check your device for something far more interesting than my conversation with you. First, it is extremely rude. Second, you are an addict – you need help. Third, if you are trying to make yourself look important and extremely needed by your employer, the people with you are not impressed. They feel sorry for you and think that you are rude. When you are in a meeting where you feel compelled to hide your device under the table and secretly check it, understand that everyone knows what you are doing. They know that it is the oldest trick in the book and that you are paying absolutely no attention to what is being said at the moment. My son tried to check his text messages the other night at the dinner table. When I asked him a question and did not receive eye contact, only a view of the top of his head, I demanded he turn over the phone and I threw it out the back door. It is a shame the dogs didn’t chew it up.

Put the devices down. If the building is on fire, or there is an emergency, I promise, they will find you. It may be via an old-fashioned phone call, or in the case of a fire, smoke signals, but they will find you. Focus on the people in front of you and show them the same respect they show you as they pretend not to notice your compulsion. Life is short. Pay attention.