Do you remember when learning was fun? So fun that you didn’t realize you were learning because it just felt like playtime? I grew up playing “mad scientist” with my older brother, replicating his school experiments in our kitchen. My neighborhood friends and I played Jurassic Park as we trekked through the woods exploring plants, insects, and animal tracks. Those days of childhood play are at risk for many of today’s kids. kidSTREAM is a non-profit dedicated to preserving the art of effortless learning through play. Yardi Oxnard team member Wendy Aceveda-Solis serves as a board member with kidSTREAM. I spoke with her to learn more about this innovative organization. kidSTREAM: education through play kidSTREAM is founded on the basic principle that learning should be fun and engaging. The organization provides an interactive environment where kids explore, play and discover. Each experience aims to inspire and empower kids to become critical thinkers, innovators and life-long learners. Acevedo-Solis began working with kidSTREAM two years ago. In addition to being a board member, she assists with the fundraising and programs committees. She’s passionate about museums and is excited to share interactive learning with children. “I’ve been fascinated by museums since I was a child,” she shares. “I have shared this passion with my children, and it is incredible to see the curiosity and desire to explore through their eyes! Most children’s museums are outside of Ventura County, so when I heard about kidSTREAM, I wanted to help bring something to our community.” Since becoming a nonprofit in 2016, kidSTREAM has helped to educate more than 30,000 children and families around Ventura County. The non-profit focuses on experiences in science, technology, reading, engineering, arts and math. A team of dedicated staff and volunteers host lessons where kids hang out the most: classrooms, parks, libraries and their (increasingly) their...

Yardi client Bozzuto recently announced its expansion into the west coast! With the right people and technology in place, Bozzuto positions itself for growth and success in the new frontier. Bozzuto: spring heralds growth for the property management company In 33 years, Bozzuto has grown into one of the largest property management companies in the United States. The company currently has a presence in 11 markets along the East Coast as well as a properties in Chicago and Milwaukee. In total, Bozzuto manages 85,000 apartments and 2.5 million square feet of retail space. Moving forward, the Greenbelt, Md.-based property management company is setting its sights on the Pacific Coast. Bozzuto’s first West Coast projects will take place in Washington and California. Read how the Bozzuto Group increased online prospect engagement with RentCafe. Expansion requires the right people and the right tools. The property management leader recently hired Heather Wallace as the managing director of Client Services. Wallace brings 20 years of experience in operations, acquisitions and development for real estate firms. She previously served as a senior executive with Sares Regis Group. Bozzuto Management Company president Stephanie L. Williams says, “The addition of Heather Wallace ensures that Bozzuto will continue to grow through thoughtful and strategic relationships.” Williams continues, “We hold ourselves to the highest standard of delivering the exact same extraordinary experience our customers have come to expect, across our portfolio.” For tools, Bozzuto relies on scalable property management technology by Yardi. Bozzuto + Yardi, growing together As a foundation for its sustainable growth, Bozzuto sought technological solutions that facilitated efficiency, innovation and scalability. Bozzuto turned to Yardi for property management, accounting, procurement, business intelligence, asset management and marketing solutions. Through nearly 20 fully-integrated products and 17 years, Yardi and Bozzuto have grown...

Many senior living community operators are finding creative new ways to broaden their residents’ entertainment and activity options. In fact, Forbes reported in November 2020, entertainment has emerged as a marketing differentiator. “Many [seniors] are sharpening their focus on independent-living communities that not only provide creature comforts and an aesthetically pleasing brick-and-mortar living environment, but hospitality-inspired entertainment, trips and outings enabling highly-sought connections. Saying, in effect, ‘Let us entertain you,’ is good business for senior living communities.” That’s why “savvy senior communities are emphasizing the delivery of socially focused programming to bring mature adults together in fun, entertaining and educational ways once they’re safely able to drop the masks and rub shoulders again.” Even before the lockdown, “many retirement communities [were] stepping up to the challenge and redefining what fun looks like,” according to Denver-based Spectrum Retirement Communities. “If you were used to hosting get-togethers with friends and family, there’s no reason for that to change after moving to a senior living community,” said Brad Kraus, the company’s president and chief executive officer. “Those of us in charge of planning entertainment need to focus on designing activities that are elevated, purposeful and the entire family can experience.” Spectrum once sponsored a nationwide gingerbread house design competition with residents, team members and family members. One community in Texas came up with 3-foot-tall creation made of 600 sugar cookies, six buckets of frosting and 30 pounds of candy. Another in Colorado created  Pike’s Peak facsimile. Spectrum residents have also participated in volunteer activities involving pet shelters, waste reduction programs and homeless support, among others, “Why not make it possible for residents to continue giving back to the community with their family by their side?” Kraus says. “It’s our job to create that possibility. We want to...

Yardi Aspire gives senior living community operators the tools to train their staffs in everything from software skills and compliance to company policies and career development. The system’s convenient on-demand course content and documents help teams work more productively and efficiently. What training topics can be covered through Aspire? Everything from clinical skills, safety, new employee orientation and health records compliance to leadership, time management, software applications and more. As an added benefit, users seeking to customize training can build their own content and add pre-built videos. Equally important, users can create, maintain and administer courses without adding IT resources. The system also accommodates courses from other learning management systems while offering convenient esignature and employee survey capabilities as well as collection functionality for other types of surveys. “Aspire projects energy, forward focus and confidence. When employees feel those emotions at work, they are positioned to gain career skills and make a difference in their organizations. That’s exactly what Aspire brings to our clients through its broad scope of features,” says Terri Dowen, senior vice president of sales for Yardi. Learn more about how Aspire can pave the way for better community management for residents, operators and family...

Property marketing — once constrained to classified ads, flyers and yard signs — has largely gone digital over the last two decades. And while most multifamily property management companies market their properties and vacancies online in one way or another, many aren’t using digital marketing to its fullest potential yet. Done well, digital marketing is part of a comprehensive strategy that attracts renters no matter where they search. It creates a cohesive customer experience that helps turn more leads into leases. And it gives you the data you need to keep building on your success. Let’s take a closer look at digital marketing for property management, what it entails and how you can benefit, as well as how you can get help when you need it. What is digital marketing? Per the American Marketing Association: Digital marketing refers to any marketing methods conducted through electronic devices. The includes online marketing efforts conducted on the internet. In the process of conducting digital marketing, a business might leverage websites, search engines, social media, video, email and similar channels to reach customers. Digital marketing can also be referred to as online marketing and search marketing. What does digital marketing include? A holistic digital marketing strategy includes multiple channels that complement each other, creating a consistent brand and customer experience everywhere prospects encounter your business. Digital marketing practices evolve as the way we use the internet changes, but these are some of the most common methods: Search engine optimization (SEO): SEO is the process of improving ranking with major search engines to increase unpaid online traffic to owned websites. Search engine marketing (SEM): SEM is the use of paid online advertising to increase website visibility within search engines. It’s often used together with SEO to create a stronger...

As a company grows, it can be challenging to maintain a personal connection with the communities that it serves. When two international chains and a national housing provider behave like good neighbors, communities take note. CVS, Walgreens and EAH Housing have teamed up to provide in-house immunizations for seniors and other vulnerable groups. Rapid changes in senior living communities Seniors have faced unique challenges during the pandemic. To protect vulnerable residents, senior housing providers were required to cancel conventional family visits, group excursions and most daily outings. With ample creativity, staff members helped seniors thrive during quarantine. But undoubtedly, seniors missed time with their families and trips outside of the community. Additionally, seniors had to embrace technology in new ways. Seniors are a tech savvy bunch, and technology adaptation comes with health benefits. The new approach to health care, however, replaced many in-person office visits with telehealth options. Seniors again found themselves on unfamiliar terrain. The COVID-19 vaccine could save lives. It would also provide a safe way for seniors to resume a somewhat normal lifestyle. But with cases on the rise, venturing outside of their communities to access the vaccine posed risks of its own. Senior housing providers such as EAH Housing sought means to bring vaccinations to residents. CVS, Walgreens, and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) answered the call. Walgreens and CVS answer the call to serve seniors Yardi client and affordable housing provider EAH Housing recently announced that residents are receiving Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccinations. The initiative is part of an immunization clinic provided by Walgreens and CVS. Residents and staff of Reflections at Barbara Ann in North Hollywood were among the first recipients of the vaccine in January. This month, the site completes the second dose of the program. Reflections...

Knowing what not to do is as important as understanding what should be done. That’s a key takeaway from a new Yardi ebook designed to help senior living communities market their offerings effectively. “8 Do’s & Don’ts for Senior Living Community Websites” offers tips for sprucing up digital curb appeal, maximizing the impact of a website’s most visited pages and more. The list of “dos” includes showing multiple views of a floor plan, helping prospects identify the unit that meets their needs and boosting traffic by sharing images on social media. The “don’ts” address rising above a bad user experience, avoiding inferior photography, not expecting photos to speak for themselves and resisting the impulse to mimic competitors. Looking for new ways to use your marketing website to make your senior living community both more visible and more appealing to prospective residents? Read the ebook for all the do’s and don’ts of getting those prospects to your page and into your...

Industrial real estate continues to see strong rent growth and high demand, driven by pandemic-prompted online shopping trends. Industrial rents averaged $6.44 per square foot in January, a 5.1% increase over the last 12 months, according to a new CommercialEdge Industrial National Report. Even as vaccinations ramp up and more people return to more normal-looking lives, demand for industrial is expected to stay strong. New leases signed in 2020 often included premium pricing, with the average rental rate for new leases signed in the last 12 months at $7.50 per square foot. The average vacancy rate was 6.0%. Continued demand for industrial space will sustain rent growth and drive vacancy rates lower. “We expect that demand will continue to increase even if e-commerce does not match its blistering 2020 growth rate. E-commerce has a continued role to play, and last year likely signaled a structural shift in consumer preferences more than temporary changes in behavior. Retail as we knew it has changed, and in its place warehousing and distribution have increased in importance,” say analysts. An improving global economy, ramped up trade volume and inventory replenishment for retailers will be additional drivers. Sector investment activity is healthy and growing as well. The fourth quarter of 2020 now has the highest sales volume of any quarter since Yardi Matrix began collecting industrial data, with $11.9 billion of sales completed. Properties fetched an average price per square foot of $100, an 18.2% increase year-over-year. Find more trend and data insights in the latest national industrial report from CommercialEdge. CommercialEdge provides extensive property data that includes transaction, ownership and debt information, offering nationwide coverage across all commercial real estate asset types. Use the platform to uncover vital market data and get insights with the latest lease and...

Lindsey Hacker is the CFO of Tampa, Fla.-based Validus Senior Living, which manages facilities for independent living, assisted living and memory care in Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. Hacker joined Validus in 2017. Here she offers insight into the twin challenges of providing exceptional care while innovating. The following is excerpted from an interview published in Multi-Housing News. How have you been ensuring the safety of residents and staff since the onset of the health crisis? What changes do you expect to be temporary and what is here to stay? Hacker: Like most of the world, our entire operating model needed to shift very quickly to ensure the safety of our residents and teams. Mask usage, hand hygiene, social distancing and personal protective equipment are now second nature. We screen all associates and any vendors or visitors and take their temperatures prior to allowing entrance to the building. Our cleaning process and solutions changed to using nontoxic chemicals against COVID-19 and performing more frequent cleaning. We added ultraviolet light technology, which is not common in assisted living. These UV light cabinets give our teams the ability to sanitize and disinfect items in less than 5 minutes—perfect for high-touch items like keys, phones, eyewear and our iCare technology devices. I think the pandemic has made us have a stronger focus on all aspects of infection prevention, so although we are hopeful we will not have to remain 6 feet apart, many of the other precautions will remain. Now that vaccines have become available, how is Validus approaching the vaccination process? Hacker: We are approaching it with education, positive reinforcement and role modeling. For our residents, we are seeing very high participation rates, which is very encouraging and not completely surprising since this generation saw polio...

The Housing Authority of the County of Kern, headquartered in Bakersfield, Calif., will implement Yardi’s Rent Relief cloud-based software to support its Emergency Rental Assistance program. As an administrator of federal stimulus funds directed towards helping households and landlords recover from the economic impacts of COVID-19, Kern expects to disburse millions in funds over the coming months. The emergency rental assistance program is designed to prevent loss of housing by supplementing rent payment for households impacted by the pandemic and by helping landlords keep current with mortgage payments. Kern County weighed the merits of several software providers before selecting Yardi. “Centralizing emergency rental assistance onto an end-to-end, single platform that tracks everything from initial application to executing payments will make us more efficient and enable us to operate with complete transparency. Yardi has a documented history of processing millions of monthly financial transactions as well as creating cloud-based interfaces for end users and housing staff. I expect Rent Relief will leverage that experience for the benefit of our community and staff,” said Stephen Pelz, executive director of the Kern County Housing Authority. Rent Relief powered by Yardi is a new solution that leverages decades of technology development and client support. Rent Relief offers portals for households to submit applications for assistance including easy upload of supporting documentation. Kern County housing staff will be able to log on to view and process applications, disburse funds to renters and landlords and easily produce the data for state and federal oversight offices. “Yardi is committed to help agencies keep renters housed as we endure the pandemic. We have nearly four decades of experience developing this type of full-service technology,” said Chris Voss, vice president of affordable housing at Yardi. Learn more by visiting RentRelief.com or attend an upcoming webinar. State and local...

Fintech emerged in the 21st century and the term was applied to the technology employed at the back-end systems of established financial institutions. These days, it includes multiple industries including education, retail banking, fundraising and the nonprofit realm, among others. Additionally, it includes the development and use of cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, and describes various financial activities including money transfers, depositing a check with your smartphone, applying for credit, raising money for a business startup and many other, generally without human assistance. The use of technology has increased significantly in the past years, but especially last year as the need for touchless interactions grew. As of now, businesses rely on technology for payment processing, e-commerce transactions and accounting. Contactless payments are now the norm. According to a report by KPMG, financial institutions have invested more than $27 billion in digital innovation and fintech since 2015. Tech giants such as Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple started with digital payments and moved on to more serious business. In 2019, Apple launched its credit card with Goldman Sachs which eliminates processing fee and also provides a layer of privacy and security. Last year, Google launched a checking account product in partnership with Citigroup, which will be available through the Google Pay app. As part of stepping up its fintech game, Amazon offers mature financial services across payments and lending to 100 million Prime customers, and in India the company offers Amazon Pay credit card with ICICI Bank. Earlier this year, Walmart announced that is launching its own fintech startup in a joint venture with Ribbit Capital. This partnership combines Walmart’s retail knowledge with Ribbit’s fintech expertise with the end goal of providing tech-driven financial experiences for customers and associates. The retail mogul already offers some financial products such...

Adaptability bolsters the longevity of any organization. Yardi commercial market experts have observed that many urban and suburban office owners are transitioning to more flexible site models. The smoothest transitions occur when they are supported by integrated technology. Brian Sutherland, vice president of commercial sales at Yardi notes, “We will continue to see a lot more flexibility in the future of office. There is increasing demand for flexible workspace. Clients seek asset management and construction products as their urban and suburban offices convert into more versatile, mixed-use spaces.” Office spaces embrace the transition to more flexible workspaces Among office spaces, suburban sites have remained steady during the pandemic. Though they were not as vulnerable as their urban neighbors, many suburban office owners are exploring flexible spaces to adapt to tenant demand. As many tenants implemented remote work policies for employees, the daily demand for office space declined. Months later and moving forward, many tenants have announced hybrid office models that permit occupants to share socially distanced workspaces on a staggered schedule. Common areas are expanding to accommodate healthy and flexible work conditions. Some urban offices are taking the shift to adaptable spaces even farther. “To leverage current conditions, owners transform office assets into mixed-use facilities including traditional offices, flexible workspaces, retail and even multifamily,” reports Robert Teel, vice president of global solutions at Yardi. Technology tools to support the transition to flexible workspaces The transition to more accommodating spaces has resulted in an increased demand for technology. Solutions for construction management provide visibility into projects and cost management as owners transform buildings to meet the changing needs of the market. Short-term leasing and space management solutions help owners drive revenue in any space while promoting occupant safety. Vendor management, vendor compliance and procurement systems...

Compassion takes on a lot of forms. Sometimes it’s the coworker who helps you troubleshoot an issue for a client. Other times, it’s like coworkers coming together to support a peer during their darkest hours. The Yardi Atlanta team recently celebrated a virtual Valentine’s Day that showcased compassion, love and camaraderie in their many forms. #YardiLove in Atlanta Organizers Michelle O’Neal and Carolyn Goldin encouraged employees to share their appreciation for their terrific teammates by visiting the office’s Confluence page. There, they could post Valentines “javascript style.” In the comments section, teammates left kind notes, GIFs and memes to brighten one another’s day. They could also post a picture of themselves with their favorite Yardi employee(s) or Valentine(s). The contest encouraged Yardi employees to celebrate togetherness even while they are apart. O’Neal explains, “I think we all are searching for ways to reconnect with our friends and colleagues.  Because Valentine’s Day is thought of mostly for love relationships, we thought we’d play off the relationship idea and swing it towards the relationships we have here at Yardi. We are a tight-knit culture that enjoys the social aspect.” The photo submissions showcased the creativity of Yardi Atlanta. They shared digital collages, screenshots of Teams meetings with fun backgrounds, wedding photos, as well as group pictures taken in past years. Each collaborative effort confirms that team spirit and Yardi’s corporate culture are alive and well, even in our remote work environment. Some employees opted to also share their images and kind words on social media under #YardiLove. Carolyn Goldin, consulting practices at Yardi said, “We wanted to share the #YardiLove especially because we haven’t connected with officemates who aren’t on our immediate teams in a while.” Participants were eligible to win Tango gift cards in a...

Who knew that the 2019 “Yardi Gras” celebration at YASC DC would be a prescient window to the future? This year, instead of typical Fat Tuesday revelry, the citizen of New Orleans are celebrating in a very different way: at home, due to the ongoing pandemic. It’s a theme we’re all familiar with at this point, after nearly a year of working, living life and celebrating milestones – all from home. Our yards may be very familiar at this point, but they are also a creative space for expression and fun. Nowhere is that more true than in New Orleans today. Historic Tradition, Reimagined “Since 1857, Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans have been called off only 14 times, because of war, mob violence, or labor disputes,” reports Bloomberg News. “This year will be the 15th. Much as the city came together after the devastation of Hurricane Katina, turning Carnival into a celebration of hope amid the mourning, Crescent City citizens are still letting the good times roll and supporting each other while they’re at it.” Originally, Yardi Gras, as city officials are calling it, began as a fundraiser. The Krewe of Red Beans was looking for a way to help the artists who create the city’s typically over-the-top parade floats. With no parades, no income was coming in. After the fundraiser as publicized, the idea gained grassroots traction – often on actual grass. As a result, this year there are more than 3,000 “house floats” at individual homes around New Orleans and beyond. A Spirit of Celebration “It’s a spirit of celebration just like that we had in Washington D.C. at YASC two years ago,” said Tim Hoover, creative director for Yardi. “We brought in Sierra Green and the Soul Machine to entertain...

Real estate companies in Asia have ramped up investment in technology in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, finds a recent survey of major real estate firms by independent news source Mingtiandi. The research, which was conducted in collaboration with global real estate technology provider Yardi®, finds 70 percent of real estate companies are scaling up investment in property technology (proptech). The results of the survey, Tech Adoption in Asian Real Estate, builds on a similar report from Mingtiandi in 2017. “Our latest survey results unearth a major shift towards proptech adoption in our region,” says Bernie Devine, regional director of APAC sales for Yardi. “Change was underway well before 2020, but COVID-19 has heightened the urgency and amplified the risks of inaction.” Proptech, innovative technology that improves core processes and business models, is turning real estate on its head. Metaprop, one of the world’s largest early-stage proptech venture capital firms, predicts that proptech innovation will deliver $205 billion of new value to the global real estate industry over the next five years. “Real estate leaders are rolling out technology to support more frequent and accurate reporting, deeper data analysis, and technology that underpins safety and efficiency,” explains Devine. A total of 180 real estate specialists – more than a third with assets valued at over US$1 billion – took part in the survey in August 2020. Thirty-nine percent of respondents were from Hong Kong, 26 percent from Singapore and 12 percent from China. Among the key findings, 35 percent of companies said Asia was still trailing the West in terms of tech adoption, down from 56 percent in 2017. Thirty percent said the region was leading the way – up from 12 percent three years ago. “There’s a growing perception that Asia is closing...