On March 29-30, Yardi hosted the second Yardi Senior Living Forum, focused specifically on the needs of our senior living clients,  in Santa Barbara, Calif. The two-day featured speakers, classes, roundtable discussions, computer lab time and more. In advance of that event, Ray Elliot, vice president of senior living, joined us to share insight on the Yardi Senior Living Suite. An end-to-end solution that tracks senior living residents throughout their housing journey, the suite includes Yardi EHR for health care records, numerous offerings from Yardi’s ancillary product line, and continues to expand. Senior living is a rapidly growing segment of the multifamily housing market, and Yardi is developing new and improved technology offerings that cater specifically to this client base. Read on for insight on the Yardi Senior Living Suite. What is your mission on the senior living team? Elliot: Our mission is to help senior living providers provide better care to their residents through software and technology. We aim to streamline both the property management and care services on a platform that is efficient, mobile and adaptable. What does the Yardi Senior Living Suite look like? Elliot: Our greatest strength s our single solution stack. I do not believe any other vendor can take you from the initial contact that starts the resident relationship, all the way through the resident lifecycle. RENTCafe Senior Living can be used to market the communities. Prospect and mass marketing is done in CRM. From there, our clients manage their communities, health care records, medical care and other resident services from a single database. RentCafe Senior Living augments the resident relationship by allowing the resident and family to make payments online and view care related information. Added together, this level of functionality is unique in the market space. Many other technology providers address just one segment of...

The British retail investment market joins the rest of the United Kingdom’s business community in facing a host of unknowns in 2017.  Chief among them is the timing and impact of the UK’s exit from the European Union following the outcome of the referendum in June 2016. Yardi caught up with one its partners, NewRiver REIT, a specialist retail and leisure investor, asset manager and developer whose convenience-led positioning means it is uniquely placed to navigate these uncertain times. NewRiver’s £1.3 billion portfolio includes 33 community shopping centres, 22 retail parks, 16 high street assets and 350 pubs. The portfolio provides consumers up and down the UK with its daily essentials – those items essential to daily life, the things consumers require, opposed to what they simply desire. Fundamental to the success of the business over the past seven and half years has been how NewRiver has engaged with and satisfied all the stakeholders within its chain, from store customers, retailers, peers, advisors and local authorities all the way to its institutional investors and shareholders. “At the heart of the retail sector is the customer and our business begins with building and retaining consumer loyalty,” says Emma Mackenzie, a Director at NewRiver who manages assets in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the north-east of England. “At the local level, we make sure our shopping centres satisfy the needs of the towns they serve. Its about providing a variety of products and services at a price the customer can afford. Furthermore, we work hard to ensure the environment is fit for purpose – and that includes such basic factors as the centre being clean and accessible as well as bright and attractive and providing somewhere to sit down or get a cup of tea.” Brexit has triggered...

Each year, more than 4,000 households rely on the services of Everett Housing Authority (EHA) of Snohomish County, Wa. The new Pivotal Point community reflects the importance of new beginnings for residents as well as for the space that they occupy. Old Site, New Purpose The site of Pivotal Point is the former Oswald US Army Reserve Center. It closed as part of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) operation. Rather than sitting vacant, construction on Pivotal Point gave the space a new purpose. Fulfilling that new purpose, though, took longer than many anticipated. Financing and permits required the approval of numerous governmental organizations and stakeholders. Ashley Lommers-Johnson, Executive Director at Everett Housing Authority, recalls the challenges. “When you deal with multiple federal agencies, local agencies, the military–it’s just a lot of hands involved in getting all of the funding lined up. That was a significant achievement, getting the funding,” he smiles. In 2014, the property finally reached completion. Pivotal Point now serves as long-term housing for participants in the Domestic Violence Services (DVS) of Snohomish County program. All signs of its military past have been replaced with fresh, modern, and welcoming residential features, in a sense “a conversion from swords into ploughshares,” according to Mr. Lommers-Johnson. A private entryway and a cozy front porch adorn each of the 20 units at Pivotal Point. Shared stairs leading to the second-floor units open to reveal a courtyard speckled with greenery. In the center of the courtyard stands a protected playground. Parents can watch their children play from the covered benches nearby. Back on the main level, residents share a laundry facility. The adjacent meeting rooms are used for private and community gatherings. The project and its design have received national praise. Pivotal Point won the National...

It’s true that hard work pays off, and as the Yardi Canada team based in Toronto has discovered, that hard work can also be rewarding in unexpected ways. In summer 2016 Yardi introduced a collaboration with payment processing solutions provider BluePay to enable electronic rent payments in Canada that make the lives of property managers easier (and funds flow faster), and soon MasterCard credit card payments will be another convenient option. Peter Altobelli, vice president of sales and general manager for Yardi Canada, commented, “This collaboration joins Yardi’s property management solutions with BluePay’s experience in processing billions of dollars of transactions annually for thousands of organizations. Working together represents a giant step toward making electronic payments the secure, efficient rent payment method of choice in Canada.” And while serving their customers better than ever, Yardi Canada has enjoyed collaborating with their U.S.-based Yardi Payment Processing team members. Working together to create not only a superior product offering but also a stronger team has been a truly positive experience. That’s the experience that Rosa Mota, a technical account manager on the Payment Processing implementation team, has happily shared. Rosa elaborated, “I’ve been assigned to help the cash management team in Canada get up to speed on the exciting developments with Payment Processing. Our electronic payments collaboration with BluePay eliminates the lengthy process our clients used to endure to receive their monthly rent payments. Now they get their funds within hours. I spent two weeks in the Toronto office working to build implementation documentation, and showing product demos.” Rosa also completed a client implementation while in Toronto, which afforded a valuable hands-on experience for the account manager. Culture of Camaraderie Yardi Canada includes three locations in Toronto, Saskatoon and Vancouver, each with different areas of product...

The story of Janice Hill reflects the dilemma of many managers in the affordable housing sector: she wades through an endless stream of work while juggling several responsibilities at once. All this is done while dealing with, what seems to be, fewer hours in every day. “My title this week is business analyst,” chuckles Hill. She follows with a telling sigh. Also like many others in the industry, she loves her job. Hill has worked with New Directions for 18 years. She takes pride in helping people secure housing, giving them a stable foundation upon which they can build their dreams. But the demand for affordable housing continues to grow. Staffing and other resources can’t keep up. That’s why she and the small, dedicated staff at New Directions Housing Corporation are exploring how to help more people using fewer resources. The organization turned to Yardi for help. In 2000, New Directions implemented Yardi Advantage before upgrading to Yardi Voyager® property management platform in 2002. The web-based platform facilitates operations management, leasing execution, and easy analytics. The team recently updated to Voyager 7S with enhanced functionalities. Voyager 7S runs on any device using any browser. It also hosts user-friendly mobile apps and add-on products that allow New Directions to improve efficiencies and deliver competitive services to residents. Hill explains, “We chose Yardi Voyager because it was Windows-based and it had everything we needed it to do: management, maintenance, affordable, payroll. Everything was in one place. We got rid of a database and [two competitors] for the financials. Voyager got rid of all of these different programs that we were using to run New Directions. Voyager simplified it.” Voyager has helped New Directions do more with less. Streamlined and automated workflows promote efficiency, accuracy, and transparency...

Yardi is a place where learning and creativity are encouraged. Internships are a vital part of our company culture, offering a fun and informative way to introduce graduating students to the technology industry. The Yardi internship program offers hands-on work experience, professional development and networking opportunities. Our interns can be found working on everything from programming and eLearning to client support and marketing. We asked a few of our current interns and recently hired team members about their experiences. Below, they provide insight into what types of projects, skills training and career opportunities an internship can offer graduating students. Applying According to Jason Rollman, Manager in Client Services at Yardi, “Interns apply and are interviewed in the same manner as someone who is looking for full-time employment.” College students majoring in Math, Finance, Economics, Statistics, Computer Science or Accounting are preferred. After being hired, flexible weekly scheduling allows students to prioritize academics while typically working a minimum of 15 hours per week. Silvana Keiling, a former intern and current software development engineer, applied for the Yardi Romania internship program after learning about it at her university. “If you wanted to apply for an internship, it was pretty hard not to choose Yardi Romania,” she reflected. As a global company, we support a technical internship program at our offices in Cluj-Napoca, Romania and internships across our offices in Canada. In the United States, Yardi works closely within the University of California and California State University systems and recently expanded internships to the East Coast. Yardi culture Our company values collaboration, customer service, innovation and fun. We are looking for individuals who are driven, have a desire to learn and enjoy a laid-back team environment. When asked about his experience as an intern, Cody Underwood, a fourth year Business...

Arriving at the Rittenhouse Claridge in Center City Philadelphia on a cold winter’s night in January, the first thing you might notice is a charming string of white holiday lights over the lobby door. Stepping out of the cab into sub-freezing temperatures with wind chill, ducking inside the warm and welcoming lobby felt like stepping into the apartment of a dear friend. We were visiting Philadelphia to see first-hand how Yardi client the Kaiserman Company uses Yardi’s Procure to Pay platform to optimize its procurement process, streamlining ordering and delivery and making invoice approvals easier than ever before. Procure to Pay has helped Kaiserman save $60,000 annually, reduce paper use by 50 percent, and redirect staff time to other important tasks. The company uses the Yardi Voyager platform for its multifamily and commercial portfolios, and after implementing two years ago, has found the cloud-hosted solution to be invaluable. “We love it. I have been in the industry for awhile, used many different platforms, and Yardi is by far my favorite. Our leasing teams, our management teams and even our corporate office have access to Yardi. It just makes doing everyday tasks simpler,” said property manager Eric Schulz. The Rittenhouse Claridge One of just two apartment buildings located right on Philadelphia’s iconic Rittenhouse Square, the Rittenhouse Claridge was built in the 1950s by its current owner/operators, the Kaiserman Company. Over the last several years, an effort to restore the property to its midcentury roots has been underway, with charming results. On the building’s second floor, a sprawling common area with comfortable seating, fireplaces, reading nooks, game tables, a kitchen and private meeting spaces overlooks the Square. In one corner is the spacious gym, where a line of treadmills looks directly over the park. The vibe...

A leading property management company requires a software company that is able to accommodate the management of its developments. McCormack Baron turned to Yardi property management solutions to facilitate growth and improve efficiencies across its diverse portfolio.   Yardi Voyager Project Manager Karen Pruiett has been with McCormack Baron for nearly 30 years. She ushered her company through its first Yardi Voyager® implementation in 2004. Since then, she has seen McCormack Baron flourish and adopt new Yardi software to meet its needs. “We chose Yardi Voyager because of its excellent accounting background and the property management capabilities in the software,” says Pruiett. “We looked at different companies and you guys have the best accounting background. Also, the number of property types that you all support is amazing. That was a necessity for us.” Yardi Voyager is a web-based platform that enables clients with larger portfolios to smoothly manage operations. It is ideal for clients like McCormack Baron that manage a spectrum of properties. With Voyager, McCormack Baron executes leases, runs analytics, and issues innovative resident, tenant, and investor services. The software automates workflows and permits controlled transparency that enables the firm to collaborate with greater accuracy and efficiency. “Voyager has definitely improved our efficiencies,” Pruiett says. Yardi PAYscan Pruiett recalls notable savings with Yardi PAYscan™, a Voyager ancillary product that automates invoice processing. “PAYscan has totally saved our lives. We were doing a lot of manual invoice processing. Now that we can scan our invoices into PAYscan, it’s absolutely wonderful to have the image attached to the invoice, especially for auditing purposes.” Before PAYscan, the accounting team had to dig through file cabinets to find invoices during audits. Now, auditors receive limited access to PAYscan and they are able to pull images of invoices...

Yardi client Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Association (RRHA) recently broke ground on the expansive Churchill North/East End Revitalization project. East End Revitalization will include the demolition of the 504-unit Creighton Court public housing community. It will be replaced with a mixed-income community of nearly 1,000 energy efficient homes and apartments. Residents can choose between more than 40 townhomes, 240 market rate rentals, and public housing. The new neighborhood will include more than 500 public housing units to replace those demolished at Creighton Court. All units will be converted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Rental Assistance Demonstration program. The vacant Armstrong High School, the site of the project groundbreaking, is also being demolished. Upon completion, the 21-acre site will receive infrastructure redevelopment in preparation for housing. Construction may take a decade or longer to complete but the momentum and enthusiasm are growing. Mayor Jones says, “From this building will rise a phoenix of new possibility and transformation of persons who will be able to have better lives and better environments to live in.” Tammy Grubb, Housing Choice Voucher Program Supervisor with RRHA shares the Mayor’s enthusiasm. “We’re revitalizing the entire corridor,” she says. “We’re looking forward to a beautiful transformation. We’re so excited about the new housing. For Grubb, the housing is more than a shelter. She sees the new homes as stepping-stones towards a brighter future. “It’s like our mission at Richmond Redevelopment, to assist in finding housing, to encourage our clients who use housing as a stepping stone to build themselves up and take advantage of the programs that they need to step up and become more self-sufficient.” “We are also excited for the new opportunities that residents will have, personally and professionally,” says Grubb. The highly anticipated...

Amanda Smeltzer, executive director at Banyan Living, reports, “Yardi Resident Screening streamlines our screening process with easy to read reports and automatic renter approvals. The solution makes life easy for our staff, while it provides convenience for our customers.” As part of our mission to keep delivering solutions that help our Yardi clients succeed, enhancements to the popular Yardi Resident Screening module were recently released. Clients already know that approving quality residents automatically as part of their leasing workflow with Yardi Resident Screening saves time and money. Now, the system includes even more features to help clients not only easily select low risk residents who improve their bottom line, but also get more detailed analytics about individual applicants, local area renters and overall property performance. Single sign-on and better UI: now with a single sign-on from Yardi Voyager, a fully responsive UI and an enhanced Executive Dashboard, clients can work more quickly, access needed data instantly and navigate the entire system with greater ease. Fee Manager functionality: a new “fee manager” compatibility feature conveniently shows all of a fee manager’s Yardi Resident Screening analytics under one account, even if they operate from multiple owners’ Voyager databases. Criminal conviction details and improved accuracy: when an applicant is rejected based on the criminal background check, the system now provides detail about the type of conviction(s) that resulted in the rejection. And to continue to ensure and improve accuracy, applicant middle names will be required for all screenings starting in early 2017. New reports and deeper insight: to make the daily lives of property managers and owners easier than ever, more reports are available, and a new property performance feature provides a snapshot of application volume and demographic information. And to discover which local employers provide the...

Editor’s note: Jim Young is the Founder and CEO of Realcomm. At a recent Yardi Executive Briefing, he spoke about CRE 5.0. In this guest blog post, he further expands on the subject. The commercial and corporate real estate industry has many moving parts. Change is the only constant as companies around the world continually add and subtract from their organizations and portfolios. A merger today and a disposition tomorrow requires a complex network of individuals and processes to keep up with the changing real estate needs of a company. The people and processes involved in keeping a real estate portfolio moving smoothly require a significant amount of technology, automation and innovation. It is no longer possible to keep asset, lease, utilization, energy, operations and other data in spreadsheets or other disconnected information silos. In addition, there are four primary categories of technology associated with commercial and corporate real estate, 1) Real Estate Operational Information; 2) Transactions; 3) Smart, Connected, High-Performance Buildings; and 4) Next Generation Space. Over the course of the last 30 years, there have been five major phases of automation that have impacted the commercial and corporate real estate industry. Following is an overview of this CRE Tech evolution: CRE Tech 1.0 started over 25 years ago. Companies like Manhattan, Tririga, Yardi, MRI, CTI, J.D. Edwards, Argus, Angus and others, were the first to enter the real estate technology space. Their primary functionality was targeted on lease administration, asset management, accounting and property management. CoStar, which was founded in 1987, emerged as an industry giant, although the company has focused more on transactional and market data. Comps Inc., another market data company (acquired by CoStar), was also an early pioneer as were DataQuick, Damar, MetroScan and others. On the smart building...

Rekha Rao, Co-Founder of SOHARA, was born and raised in India. She grew up surrounded by the country’s rich heritage of visual arts, classical music and dance, all of which shaped her perspectives and values and an ongoing involvement in the cultural arts. It’s a time in her life that she remembers fondly. Rao relocated to America more than 40 years ago when her husband was finishing his Ph.D. in the United States. “We grew up in India and although now settled in the U.S., we go back often and continue to maintain strong ties to India,” says Rao. “Our children and now our grandchildren are born here and their ties to India are a little different than ours. We want all of them to be exposed to India’s rich arts and take pride in their heritage.” That yearning sparked the birth of SOHARA. The root word, “sohar,” represents traditional songs that were sung at the birth of a baby in the Mithila region of ancient India, current day Bihar. “It was perfect. SOHARA is the birthing of a small non-profit organization. We were inspired by our children, to share our passions with them in a more formalized way. The name was perfect and, at the time, SOHARA website was available, too!” Unfortunately, someone purchased the domain name shortly before the organization formed. (“I should have grabbed it when I had the chance,” laughs Rao.) Unfazed, the nonprofit marched forward with its mission. “Our mission, basically, is to bring the best of India’s arts and traditions here as opportunities come our way and share them with the audiences locally especially the younger audiences. We look to collaborate with other organizations involved in cultural arts, whenever feasible,” says Rao. To date, SOHARA has hosted events in...

When Farris Haj moved to Santa Barbara from Israel in 1984, he wasn’t sure what the future might hold. But he had heard from his cousin, who was living in Santa Barbara at the time, that it was a beautiful coastal city with warm people and strong educational opportunities. At age 18, Farris decided to take a leap of faith. So, he packed his bags and moved, knowing he would undoubtedly encounter language and culture challenges. “I wanted to pursue my higher education here in America, but financially speaking, my family couldn’t  possibly afford to put me through school here. So it was up to me to work hard with complete focus and dedication and come up with the funds to finance my education,” he recalled. It was no easy task, as he spent those college years working thirty-five hours a week whilst taking 16 units a quarter. Thirty years later, Farris reflected on moving from his country to attaining U.S. citizenship after being inspired by Yardi CEO Anant Yardi’s end of the year address to the company, in which Anant outlined a new community outreach effort. “I am a walking example that success can still be attained in America, and I want to share my life experiences with others in hopes of helping them understand and achieve their goals,” Farris stated. “One of the reasons that I wanted to tell my story is to express my gratitude to America and to Yardi. I feel that I owe this country so much,” Farris said. After attending SBCC for two years, the math and computer science major transferred to UCSB, where he worked numerous campus jobs to pay for his studies. His commitment to building an American life was quick – in 1990, he became...

Many Americans are unaware of the prevalence of domestic violence in our communities. Domestic Violence Solutions (DVS) strives to educate the public while creating a pathway of hope for those who experience domestic abuse firsthand. DVS is Santa Barbara County’s only full-service domestic violence agency, committed to ending the intergenerational cycle of domestic violence through prevention and intervention services. DVS provides the county’s only 24-hour shelter service, as well as the county’s only transitional housing program for domestic violence survivors. The necessity of these life-saving resources remains vastly unacknowledged. During corporate outreach events, DVS Executive Director Charles Anderson often asks, “Do any of you know someone who has been a victim of domestic violence?” Audience members often shake their heads. Yet without fail, after the meetings, someone discretely approaches Anderson or his staff. They carry their secrets in tow. “After one session, a woman came up and touched my arm,” Anderson recalls. “She said, ‘I was in your program eight years ago. If it wasn’t for you, I’d be dead.’ She worked in the office with all those people and none of them knew the struggle that she went through. People don’t tell anyone because they just want to move forward. Escaping can be hard enough.” Escaping domestic violence can often be an arduous and dangerous journey for the victims. Many take the first step towards liberation after a tragic incident that requires police intervention. Until recent years, law enforcement focused solely on securing the aggressors. Victims were left without resources to move forward safely or confidently. At times, victims were  even blamed for their role in their abuse. In response, DVS applied for a was awarded a three-year Domestic Violence Emergency Response Team (DVERT)  grant from the California Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES)....

UK Think Tank: Insight from a recent real estate roundtable held in coordination with Property Week. Manchester is one of the UK’s most successful locations for large-scale private rented sector projects. But what are the drivers of success? Yardi brought together a think tank to discuss future developments in the sector. OUR PANEL OF EXPERTS Tom Bloxham MBE – founder, Urban Splash Matthew Howard – deputy fund manager, Hermes Real Estate Investment Management Antonio Marin-Bataller – investment executive, PATRIZIA UK Stefan Trebicki – project architect, SimpsonHaugh Paul Winstanley – partner and analyst, Allsop’s private rented sector and build-to-rent team Oliver Wolfryd – operations manager, Moda Living Claer Barrett – personal finance editor, Financial Times, and contributing editor, Property Week (chair) Why have you all chosen to invest and develop build-to-rent (BTR)schemes in Manchester? Antonio: Manchester scores highly from a demographic point of view, and the high level of interest from institutional investors makes the city a compelling story. The choice of city centre sites was relatively ample and it’s a very walkable city. Young people want to be in walking distance of transport, work, entertainment and friends, and Manchester has one of the highest retention rates for students following graduation in the UK. Matthew: Manchester was an obvious choice for us – it has all the drivers of urbanisation and the city centre has undergone a renaissance. Tom: When I first came to Manchester years ago, there were 200 people living in the city centre and you couldn’t buy a pint of milk. Now 30,000 live here, and I believe it’s only just started – there will be a lot more growth. BTR is very popular here – is Manchester going to have an oversupply problem? Tom: What I do worry about is that...

Maintaining a family-oriented company culture does mean limiting corporate growth. Westbrook Management of Milwaukee maintains the balance with Yardi Voyager. Westbrook Management supervises about 2,000 units, including 450 units of affordable housing. Anthony Franda joined Westbrook Management four years ago to serve as the Controller and CFO of the small organization. He quickly embraced the tight-knit office community. “It’s a small, family-owned organization. Because it’s small, we all wear a lot of hats. Everybody is valued,” says Franda (pictured, right). “I think having direct interaction with the owners allows me to see that I’m having an impact and that I’m valued and appreciated.” While the family-owned atmosphere was great for office culture, staying small wasn’t a long-term plan. Westbrook Management had the talent and will to grow. But Franda soon realized that an outdated software system limited the company’s capacity. Franda attended a National Apartment Association (NAA) conference in search of a solution to the outdated software. “We went to an NAA conference and saw everything that the industry was doing. Our system couldn’t handle anything, really, that the industry was moving towards. I realize that we had an antiquated system. Not only that, but the software company that we were with wasn’t investing in the product. They weren’t updating,” Franda says. “I realized that we were in the wrong system.” Westbrook Management thoroughly researched several software options before selecting Yardi Voyager. Franda explains, “Yardi is an industry leader and they invest a lot in new technologies. The one thing that I realized is that if you’re not constantly improving with all of the new technologies that are coming out, within a few years, you’re going to be antiquated. I needed to find a software company that is constantly improving their processes and investing...

For Yardi Matrix client John Azar, one of the most important aspects of any real estate transaction is rigorous due diligence. That means having the most comprehensive, up-to-date market information available to make a smart buying or selling decision. In 2016, Azar’s firm MACC Venture Partners began using Yardi Matrix for apartment market data, switching from their previous data source, one of the industry’s best known providers. “We kept looking at the disparity in cost and at the data being produced, and we really couldn’t find enough difference to justify the large cost difference between Yardi and our previous vendor,” Azar explained. “The integrity of the Yardi data is just as good and in some cases better, and Yardi offered much more competitive pricing. And Yardi is very responsive. Client services are always on point.” Ten-year-old MACC Venture Partners, which is closing in on almost 5,000 apartment units in the Southeast United States, has also made customer service a vital part of its success. The family-owned private equity firm is currently branching out into fund management – its first ever $25-$30 million fund will launch this month. “It is our first fund, a closed-end private equity fund. We are growing and making more products available to our investors. But we’re still a family owned company, so they are going to get the same service they would get from most real estate platforms, but with a family company touch to the relationship. We are very relationship driven,” Azar said. It has been a unique journey for Azar, who was born and raised in Aleppo, Syria, and emigrated to the U.S. at age 16. When his family arrived in the states, Azar spoke limited English and was wide-eyed as he experienced American culture in real life,...