Social housing providers in Ontario strive to improve efficiencies and remain compliant while providing the best outcomes for residents and their communities. As non-profit organizations, achieving those goals on limited resources can be tough. But with innovative software, achieving success in social housing management is revolutionized.  Yardi Voyager Social Housing leverages tried-and-true best practices to offer secure and powerful software with a single, integrated database. Intuitive workflows, convenient automation, and industry-specific tools make subsidized housing management simpler. Voyager Social Housing empowers providers to save time, save money, and thrive. Empower Staff for Success Staff efficiency is essential to success in social housing. Peter Altobelli, vice president and general manager of Yardi Canada explains, “Yardi understands the demands and changes within this industry. ONPHA serves more than 700 non-profit housing providers over 400,000 people in 163,000 homes within Ontario. It’s important work and they’re doing a great job, but turnover is high and resources are limited for providers.” To make the most of available resources, Voyager Social Housing facilitates optimal operation of Canada’s non-profit housing. In addition to robust accounting tools, Voyager Social Housing helps manage RGI (rent-geared-to-income) reviews, Rent Supplement programs and facilities management. The cloud-based software equips staff members with the fundamental tools needed to work confidently and efficiently in the office and offsite. With the integrated general ledger, staff avoids repetitive data entry and costly errors. Streamlined workflows make it easier to obtain consistency, reduce inaccuracies and coordinate efforts among team members. Staying compliant is also simplified with easy-to-follow workflows. With redundancy and discord minimized, staff is free to focus on more critical tasks. Simplifying Rent Voyager Social Housing offers features that simplify RGI reviews: Provincial requirements can be readily updated in Voyager, making it easier to calculate rents using the most...

If you’re currently using Yardi Voyager as your property management platform, make sure you’re taking advantage of all the great features designed to make your job easier — and help your organization meet its goals faster. One of Yardi’s own Voyager gurus, Amy Walston, shared some helpful tips about five Voyager features you might not be using, but probably should. To find out what they are and what they can do for you and your business, keep reading.   Amenity-based pricing What it is: An amenity is an included, non-optional feature of a unit that increases or decreases its market value above or below the unit type rent. You can view units according to premiums that increase value such as cabinet upgrades or a desirable location.  An example of an amenity that decreases a unit’s value is a view of a parking lot. Benefits of using it: Pricing rental units only by number of bedrooms and bathrooms doesn’t always deliver the best results since other factors affect desirability. Attracting the right tenant at the right price is key. This tool allows you to control individual unit pricing based on the features of each unit, and lets you easily change unit pricing by updating amenity values. This tool includes user-based security to allow or restrict updates to amenity values and unit pricing.   Leasing specials What it is: Leasing specials are deals or offers that prospects can choose when they apply for units and that residents can select when they renew leases. Specials can be created to occur only once, such as a bonus for renewing a lease early, or they can repeat monthly, such as a rent discount for signing a 14-month lease. Benefits of using it: To improve occupancy by converting more prospects and retaining good residents,...

Yardi Voyager Residential consolidates property management and financial accounting into a single platform. The fully-integrated suite of multifamily and marketing products makes it easier to manage the entire real estate cycle. Is Voyager Residential Right for My Organization? That depends on several factors. Are you a large organization looking for scalable solutions? Voyager grows and diversifies with you. Users gain access to real-time performance analytics across their entire portfolio, regardless of size. Organizations with smaller portfolios, such as family holdings, may benefit from Yardi Breeze. Do you seek a compliant, accurate and efficient way to manage your portfolio? Voyager financial management features meet all applicable accounting standards and regulatory requirements. Property management features streamline workflows for leasing, move-ins, move-outs, work orders, purchase orders, and everything in between. Would you prefer to leave software management to the tech pros while you run your business? Yardi’s award-winning cloud services manage data storage and updates on your behalf. You can focus on growing your business while Yardi handles the minutia of the software. Does a comprehensive suite of software seem more appealing than a piecemeal combination of products? Yardi Voyager Residential integrates with the Yardi Multifamily and Marketing Suites as well as Yardi Elevate. You benefit from a unified entity for marketing, customer relationship management,   procurement, facilities management, energy management, and business intelligence. Do you value flexibility? With Voyager, you aren’t stuck to your desk. Voyager comes mobile-ready and browser agnostic, keeping your team members connected whether they are in the office or in the field. Raising the Bar Yardi is an established company with a proven track record. For more than 30 years, Yardi has supported client success with quality real estate management solutions. Though established, Yardi continues to evolve. Ongoing improvements ensure that client feedback...

Yardi Voyager Single Family Homes simplifies property management without the need to expand payroll. Its property management, accounting and maintenance features are tailored to each clients’ needs. Manage Wisely Get a quick overview of operations each time that you open the Voyager Single Family Homes dashboard. Skim the latest updates on occupancy and availability, resident charges, receipts, property traffic and maintenance. Drill down into details as needed. Leverage the power of the industry’s most widely adopted accounting system. Generate and export custom reports to paint a clear picture of your financial standing. As your company continues to grow, you maintain control over access to that data. Set up users with read-only access to specified features and reports. Regularly issue reports to individual investors with a convenient report scheduler. Paperless cloud storage facilitates access to data from any location on any mobile device. Streamline financial management with Voyager Single Family Homes. The comprehensive systems meets IFRS and GAAP requirements. Expand Effortlessly Voyager Single Family Homes is more than accounting. The system empowers you to automate resident and home management from guest card to move-out. Store property brochures and quote sheets within the system. When multiple parties are interested in your properties, you can create a waitlist by market. As prospects turn into residents, automatically populate the resident records from the data on their guest card. Ensure that your units are in optimal condition with maintenance and work order tracking. Voyager Single Family Homes seamlessly integrates with other Yardi solutions that help your business operate smoothly. Tools for maintenance and inspections, marketing and leasing, procurement, energy management, resident screening and  renters insurance unite under the Voyager umbrella. RentCafe Single Family Homes and RentCafe CRM Single Family Homes incorporates marketing, mobile leasing and customer relationship management and...

The Gulf Cooperation Councill (GCC) has witnessed significant growth in the number of real estate investment trusts (REITs) across the region, with over seven publicly listed REITs established to date. Since 2006, regulations have perm itted REITs in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), but previous market downturns delayed any real progress within this particular sector of real estate. The first REIT in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was established in 2010. More recently in the UAE, ENBD REIT and the Emirates REIT were listed on NASDAQ Dubai with market capitalisations of $261 million and $289 million respectively. In other GCC countries, such as Bahrain and Kuwait, there are now private REITs with total sizes of $80 million and $100 million, respectively. The introduction of REITs in Saudi Arabia by the Capital Market Authority (CMA) in 2016 was part of the National Transformation Program (NTP) and Saudi Vision 2030. This included a regulatory framework with a minimum of 100 million Saudi riyals ($26.67 million) capital for REITs, and borrowing not rising above 50 percent of the fund’s total asset value. The market in Saudi Arabia is divided between two REIT investment strategies, the mixed-asset and the specific-asset class approach, with a tendency towards the specialisation of REITs, along with a focus on asset classes that are common to the region, such as office, retail, education, healthcare and logistics. The making of the REIT The goal of the REIT is to provide investors with access to high-grade, low-risk, income-generating real estate assets. About 45 percent of investment professionals in the region see the GCC’s real estate market as mature enough for REITs to surge. Although tax efficiency has less impact on the REITs in the GCC, it offers liquidity and flexibility for investors and real...

Building your property management business can feel like you’re aiming at a moving target. Changing industry expectations and trends may leave you clamoring for solutions. These five, timeless tips for excellence in property management can help you take your organization to the next level. Offer competitive conveniences for renters. Residents and prospects expect flexibility. Whether they prefer to interact with you online or in person, have systems in place to accommodate them. Enhance your website with online leasing, digital payments, and online maintenance requests. For those who embrace person-to-person interaction, build positive relationships with customer relationship management tools. Improve efficiencies with end-to-end property management software. When you operate efficiently, you can offer stellar services at lower costs without decreasing your profit. Begin with a software suite that automates back office tasks like accounting, reporting and compliance. Achieve efficiency with Yardi Breeze for small and mid-sized properties or Yardi Voyager for larger residential and commercial portfolios. Empower employees through education. The best software is powerless without a team that understands how to use it to its fullest potential. Online learning encourages your team members to learn at their own pace. Staff will also be able to access classes and review as needed, without costly and time-consuming training. Optimize revenue opportunities. There are several ways to boost profits without increasing rent. Some methods will require the property owner’s involvement while others you can pursue alone. Once you’ve explored your options, you can use the improved profitability of one property to pursue similar changes at other properties that you manage. Be proactive about your online reputation. Make it easy for tenants and prospects to get in contact with your team to intercept issues before they appear online. When negative feedback arises, address it promptly. Be sure to...

It’s 2020 and there are still plenty of multifamily properties that are missing out on the benefits of electronic payments. If you’re still not sure if electronic payment processing is worth it, below are five great reasons to make the switch. Show prospects that you are not a dinosaur. Today’s renters expect electronic payments. A study by the NMHC/Kingsley reports that 92 percent of respondents consider online rent payment an important resident portal feature. If you’re operating under an outdated paper system, you’re making your neighboring competitors more appealing. Vendors will dig your modern ways, too. Vendors want to know that they will receive prompt payments for their services. Electronic payments eliminate the “check is in the mail” delay which can improve your relationship and promote faster service in the future. Make it easier for residents to give you their money. Electronic payments offer convenience, versatility and instant confirmation. That’s why 78% of renters prefer to pay electronically! You can also eliminate lost check disputes. All electronic payment transaction can be easily tracked. Automatic record keeping benefits you and your residents. Receive more payments on time. When residents can pay by ACH, debit or credit card, text, and WIPS they are more likely to pay on time. (Who wants to pay late fees?) Yardi client Roscoe Properties’ Mariana Estrada, Vice President, Operations explains, “We collected 95 percent of payments due — on time and electronically — thanks to Yardi Payment Processing. In the first week of the month we collected $9 million across our portfolio. That’s money in the bank without staff intervention.” Make bookkeeping easier. Automated payments save time and improve accuracy. Each transaction is organized and automatically entered into Yardi Voyager. There are no bank runs or batches to mail to corporate....

“The ROI using Voyager has been huge,” said Jason Hoffman, COO and vice president at Alliance Property Systems, about running its business on the mobile Yardi Voyager platform. Led by a father-son team, Alliance provides comprehensive HOA and condominium management services along with commercial real estate management throughout South Florida. A longtime Yardi client, Alliance has always invested in technology and started with DOS-based Yardi Professional in the early 1990s. To meet new challenges in a changing industry and move its business forward, Alliance switched to the cloud-based Voyager platform in 2015. As a result, Alliance has gained automated workflows for tasks that previously required time-consuming manual processing, and accommodates a business model of “roving property management” with integrated online services and mobile tools. Winning in a tight market Alliance has a portfolio of 70 properties and 6,000 units in South Florida and only 13 employees. To succeed and be profitable in a competitive market with tight margins, the company must streamline and optimize internal processes, according to Leigh Hoffman, Alliance’s president and CEO (and father half of the father-son team). A key way Alliance achieves this is by leveraging Yardi’s leading-edge technology across its business. For a true end-to-end solution, Alliance has added products from the Yardi® Condo Suite to its Voyager platform. Integrated online services and simplified workflows for payments, procurement, invoice processing and more increase productivity and reduce costs for the company. When asked if Alliance’s investment in technology sets the company apart, Jason commented that the Voyager platform “100% helps us win business.” And according to Leigh, “We are more competitive and succeed because we’re offering options to our customers to do more things online, including payments.” Empowering a lean team This biggest line item in Alliance’s budget is employee costs....

After 184 years in business, Irish life assurance company Friends First knows how to provide high-quality service and meet emerging business challenges. Established in 1834 to provide life assurance to the Society of Friends (Quakers), Friends First now offers a wide range of life protection, investment and pension products to more than 281,000 customers. It is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. Friends First, which has €4 billion ($4.93 billion) of assets under management as of December 2016, operates a number of complex property investment structures that split properties across different funds and receive data from multiple external sources. Seeking a New Foundation The challenge Friends First faced in 2015 was finding a single connected platform that could house financial and operational data from all of the investment structures and execute portfolio-wide accounting, management and performance reporting. The company found the solution it needed in Yardi Voyager. “Yardi Voyager is the foundation of Friends First’s interactions with property accounting, fund management, property management and external agents,” says Alan Pollard, senior investment specialist for Friends First. For example, performance reports generated from Yardi Voyager data allow the company’s property and fund managers to monitor and manage portfolio and fund performance. Automated accounting for complex split property ownerships and non-standard investment structures relieves Friends First staff of manual data entry and processing, significantly reducing risk. Another key benefit Friends First receives from Yardi Voyager is the ability to map the general ledger to another system’s account codes. “This allows us to extract the data from Yardi Voyager easily and post it to another system. It also simplifies reconciliations and audit trail tracking between systems,” Pollard says. The platform also gives Friends First new capabilities for system-based accruals, which accrue charges collected as a percentage of...

Yardi Construction Management is adding features to address project management tasks. A new, customizable dashboard permits users to access subsets of the core data available in Yardi Voyager. Penny Bailey, Project Manager, Construction at Yardi explains several new functionalities that further improve the efficiencies and interface of the software. Document Organization Whether it’s an essential contract or a quick side note, the planned enhancements to Construction Management make it easier for project managers to stay organized and in control. When project managers need to access documents created in Yardi Document Management, they can now click a link on the Construction Management dashboard. “With jobs, there are thousands of documents and drawings and contracts. It’s a pain to get docs in an accessible, central repository. The link to Orion permits multiple users see documents related to that specific job without bouncing between programs,” says Bailey. Construction Management capitalizes on Yardi Document Management’s advanced search capabilities. Users can search document texts in entirety rather than titles or identification numbers alone. Sometimes, it’s the small things that have a major impact. “We’ve added a quick note icon that floats on the right side of the screen,” says Bailey. “Project managers can make notes and then quickly slide the note aside.” With this feature, users can effortlessly add, edit, and delete notes without using a separate application or uploading multiple documents. Budget On the dashboard, users can now see a real-time budget summary for multiple jobs at once. “Quick access to the current budget and actual cost numbers at a glance is invaluable in determining the status of a project,” says Bailey. The integration for Construction Management and Yardi PAYscan is now more seamless than ever. Project managers can issue approvals for contracts, address change orders, revisions and...

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...

Developing financially successful retail centers is a challenging task anywhere in the world.  Investors and managers involved in retail assets must be sound strategic planners who can successfully assimilate a number of disparate factors, such as demographics, macro and micro economics, as well as cultural and political circumstances.  Rising e-commerce makes a competitive business environment even more acute. Successful strategies require engaging shoppers with the right product, creating a tenant mix that suits geographic and regional trends, and accommodating local culture, demographics, regional economics and other factors.  Many malls are adding themed restaurants and attractions to attract more customers. As consumers start to buy more of their clothing items online, dancing fountains, amusement park experiences, and themed restaurants are almost as important to attracting footfall as an anchor tenant’s spring clothing fashions or new video game boxes. A mall can be regarded as an ecosystem that needs full financial, maintenance and leasing information to be meaningful and easily accessible. Across all markets—the Americas, Asia, Europe, Australia, the Middle East—the tendency toward large malls mean operators must be able to handle large tenant counts. For example, due to the sheer size of the shopping area, instinct and walk-throughs are insufficient for detecting inefficiencies and troubled tenants.  Only reliable data and metrics will serve that purpose. Single Platform Global ‘Glue’ With the retail sector generating more data in a single month than many other vertical real estate markets do in a year, and with investors expecting strong returns for their money, the imperative to store, maintain, manage and utilize retail property data bonds the industry like glue.  These operations are as important as inventory, location and demographics in determining the success of a retail center. As a result, retail owners and operators around the world are turning...

Established in 1984, Ellis, Partners in Management Solutions, (EPMS) is one of the multifamily industry’s most respected providers of management and marketing consulting services. EPMS’ management mystery shopping reports have made it an industry standard in the performance evaluation of leasing professionals. EPMS scores are a very effective way to tell if your leasing staff is helping or hurting your properties. But what do you do when you consistently score in the 90th percentile in secret shopping reports? Some people might sit back and congratulate themselves. Not us. When this recently happened at our RentCafe Connect customer connection center, we decided to change the test. The Problem This sounds like an awesome problem to have, right? On the face of it, we agree. Everyone likes to be told they’re doing well. But we also knew that the scores were based on objective criteria about general telephone presentation and customer experience. Sure, we were providing really good general service as far as call centers go. But were we actually delivering the specialized support our clients deserved? RENTCafé Connect is an incoming communications center that exclusively supports residential Yardi Voyager users. Certainly we could do better. The Solution After listening to client feedback to better understand their expectations, we realized we needed to change our approach to better align with their needs, even if it meant initially scoring lower on our secret shopping reports. “Our team knew that we needed to customize testing and scoring to ensure that our customer connection agents provide the best possible support for our client’s properties,” said Joe Hendrix, vice president of RentCafe Connect at Yardi. So that’s what we did. In May of last year, we altered our EPMS form to match the criteria our clients are using. The new,...

Thornton Oliver Keller is preparing for anticipated portfolio growth by eliminating manual processes, streamlining budgeting, and improving client services and reporting. To accomplish these objectives, Idaho’s largest commercial real estate firm recently selected Yardi Voyager® 7S, a mobile-enabled Software as a Service platform for commercial property management and accounting, and products from the Yardi Commercial Suite™. “Replacing our legacy platform with the integration and automation available in Voyager will help us do a better job of managing the complex financial information of our portfolio of properties. For example, we’ll be able to report to clients easily and quickly, which is important in a business that relies on accurate real-time data,” said Josh Paul, director of information technology for Thornton Oliver Keller. Thornton Oliver Keller will shorten the cycle time of a key business operation—budget preparation—with Yardi Advanced Budgeting & Forecasting™, an automated solution that delivers accurate budget projections for revenue and expenses using tenant lease data drawn from Yardi Voyager. “We create about 160 budgets for our properties at year-end, which is a huge data-collection job. Advanced Budgeting & Forecasting will remove the manual steps and make the budgeting process significantly shorter and less labor-intensive,” Paul said. Referring to other Yardi Commercial Suite products, Paul said, “We’re excited to give our tenants an ACH payment option through Yardi Payment Processing™ and automate bank deposits with Yardi CHECKscan™ as well. One major benefit will be consolidating the entire portfolio to one type of scanner instead of using various ones that are often incompatible.” Yardi Procure to Pay™, an end-to-end, paperless invoice processing and procurement system, will similarly reduce manual processes for Thornton Oliver Keller by consolidating spend using online catalogs and eliminating paper handling with online invoice approval workflows. “Yardi is pleased to help Thornton...

Yardi Voyager is used by companies and agencies around the world. But a training session for Yardi’s flagship product had probably never been delivered in American Sign Language (ASL) until very recently. Thanks to the initiative of Yardi Public Housing Technical Account Manager Bill Hughes, a staff member of the Ventura County Housing Authority, who is deaf and depends on ASL and reading lips to communicate was recently trained on Voyager by Hughes, using ASL. A student of ASL for about four years, Hughes and his wife Rosa volunteer to work with members of the local deaf community through their congregation. But that volunteer work typically doesn’t involve real estate technology. Converting some of the technical details of the sophisticated accounting and record-keeping system was more than a little tricky, Hughes said. “There were industry signs I had never used, because that’s not what I have practiced. So I immediately I went to work researching certain terms,” Hughes said. “Most everything software related was an immediate challenge. I had to do a lot of online research and work with the client prior to the visit to establish signs related to industry concepts.” The advantage to having a Yardi expert fluent in ASL conduct the training, rather than using an outside interpreter, was pivotal. “The few seconds between interpretation and vocal training would be eliminated, making it easier for the recipient to interject questions,” Hughes wrote in an article about the training that was published in the company newsletter this month. The article generated tremendous response from his colleagues at Yardi, who applauded his effort and shared their own experiences with sign language and in some cases dealing with hearing disorders in their own lives. “It’s really nice to know that our company has taken...

Yardi property management software is found both close to home and around the globe. You might guess that it helps manage the rent and residents for an apartment building on your street – or even one that you live in. But did you know that Yardi’s flagship system, Yardi Voyager, is also the software of choice for a ground-breaking shopping center in Abu Dhabi, Dubai? This week, Deerfields Townsquare Shopping Centre in Al Bahia, a suburb of Abu Dhabi, announced that it has chosen Yardi for its leasing and CRM needs. The mall opened to great fanfare and excitement on Sept. 28. “After an extensive review, we concluded that no other system offers a fully integrated solution like Yardi Voyager in a single application,” said Santosh Shetty, Finance Manager of Deerfields Townsquare Shopping Centre. “Partnering with Yardi will enable us to increase operational efficiency through all levels of our retail mall business, provide higher value client services, and allow us to focus on our growth forecast.” Deerfields Townsquare Shopping Centre (above) is a significant new project for residents of the Al Bahia, Al Raha, Al Rahba, Shahama, and Khalifa neighborhoods in Abu Dhabi. It’s 180 stores, including a Carrefour, a French retailer that sells many types of food and goods and is similar to Wal-Mart, are likely to be extremely popular. “Until now, the area’s retail offering has been limited to petrol station service shops and some small grocery and convenience stores,”  reported The National in an article about the project. “Yardi is delighted that Deerfields Townsquare has selected Yardi Voyager as its retail shopping centre operations platform. This is an endorsement to our continued investment in the Middle East and intense focus on the needs of retail shopping centre developers, owners and managers...

Here’s a trivia question for you: Without cheating and looking at your smartphone, can you name the top ten tallest buildings in the world? And for bonus points: do you know that one of the planet’s highest skyscrapers has a Yardi connection? Until not too long ago, the world’s tallest skyscraper, was the Petronas Towers in Malaysia. For six years, between 1998 and 2004, Petronas’ sky-scraping spires were the highest on record. Since then, a number of buildings have surpassed it. Here’s the top ten list of tallest buildings as recorded by Wikipedia: 1 Burj Khalifa Dubai  UAE 828 m 2,717 ft 2010 2 Makkah Royal Clock Tower Hotel Mecca  Saudi Arabia 601 m 1,971 ft 2012 3 One World Trade Center New York City  USA 541 m 1,776 ft 2013 4 Taipei 101 Taipei  Taiwan 509 m 1,670 ft 2004 5 Shanghai World Financial Center Shanghai  China 492 m 1,614 ft 2008 6 International Commerce Centre Hong Kong  Hong Kong 484 m 1,588 ft 2010 7 Petronas Tower 1 Kuala Lumpur  Malaysia 452 m 1,483 ft 1998 7 Petronas Tower 2 Kuala Lumpur  Malaysia 452 m 1,483 ft 1998 9 Zifeng Tower Nanjing  China 450 m 1,476 ft 2010 10 Willis Tower (Formerly Sears Tower) Chicago  USA 442 m 1,450 ft 1973   Its one-time status as the tallest is one of many interesting facts about the Petronas Towers. Here are a few more from PBS.org: The Petronas Towers are constructed of 36,910 tons of steel Even if you have never visited Malaysia, you may have seen the towers featured in the film Entrapment, which came out in 1999, just one year after construction was completed A high-speed elevator takes you from the basement to the top of either tower – 88 stories – in just 90 seconds A full round of window washing of the 16,000 windows on each tower...

L&B Realty Advisors has been named one of Dallas Morning News’ Top 100 Places to Work for the second consecutive year. The company received accolades for its stellar work environment and nurturing relationship with clients. The success of Yardi client L&B starts from within. The company’s culture statement reads, “There is a FORCE that drives L&B. It is the connection of our people, their careers and our clients.” That FORCE—flexible, ownership, relevance, connected, empowered—unites teammates to create an atmosphere that is professional, innovative, effective and fun; the FORCE reference naturally led employees to select Yoda as their mascot. Those who uphold the FORCE host a miniature version of the Star Wars sage on their desk for a few weeks. It’s a simple way to keep the FORCE alive among employees each day. Employees’ balanced approach to business and interpersonal skills has served them well thus far. Since 1965, L&B Realty Advisors has provided real estate and asset management services to institutional and private investors. Services assist clients with the acquisition, management, and disposition of assets as well as pension plans, public and private wealth funds, endowments, and foundations for investors. L&B prides itself on longstanding client relationships, many of which average 17 years with returns that exceed benchmark forecasts. Currently, the company manages more than $5.4 billion on behalf of its clients. One successful project, a series of new developments at Tyson Corner Center in Washington, D.C., is an L&B real estate holding with a promising future. The project consists of mixed-use facilities that furnish the neighborhood with over three million square feet of combined hotel, retail and residential space. The site has been propelled into the spotlight by the adjacent mall, which holds anchor tenants such as Nordstrom, Lord & Taylor, Macy’s, L.L....

New York City’s Central Park is a place where millions of memories have been made. The iconic mid-city oasis has captured the hearts and imaginations of New Yorkers and visitors from around the world. Whether rowing a boat across The Lake, observing Gus the polar bear at the Zoo, or enjoying a burger at the Ballplayers’ House, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation creates a visitor experience that is one of a kind. For the most visited park in the United States, just one part of the recreational portfolio of the NYC Parks Department, the property management and accounting side of its daily operations are of utmost importance. Continuing an 18-year business relationship with Yardi, the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation is now using Yardi Voyager for Government as its technology solution for these important records. “We concluded that Voyager is the platform with the versatility to manage the incredible number and variety of assets under our jurisdiction,” said David Cerron, chief accountant of Parks & Recreation’s revenue division. That variety is overwhelming and impressive. Here’s a look at the scope and size of the NYC Department of Parks and Rec and its offerings for visitors. -The department is responsible for 29,000 acres of land within its jurisdiction, which is 14 percent of the total acreage of New York City. That includes 14 miles of beaches. -Those acres are subdivided into 5,000 properties that include parks, recreation centers, community gardens, dog parks, swimming pools and more. -There are 800 athletic fields, 1,000 playgrounds, 550 tennis courts, 66 public pools, 48 rec centers, 17 nature centers, and 13 golf courses under the department’s oversight. There are also myriad fitness paths, boat launches, dog runs and skate parks. -The city’s history is...

Sniper Capital, an investment, development and fund management firm with a focus on assets in Macau and Southern China, has joined the Yardi client roster. Founded in 2004, Sniper Capital manages assets of over $500 million within three specialized funds: The Macau Property Opportunities Fund, Macau Leisure Income Fund, and Macau Sniper Fund. In the last nine years, the company has broadened its geographic reach port beyond Macau’s city limits to include the Western Pearl River Region of Southern China. Development projects include luxury multifamily apartments, retail, warehousing, and entertainment properties, with a focus on undervalued assets in emerging locations. The company will use Yardi Voyager to manage their diverse assets and investments. To learn more about Sniper Capital, visit their website.  Read more about Sniper Capital’s use of Yardi products at...

Have you ever thought about how planes, trains, cargo ships and automobiles are inextricably linked with the world of real estate? There’s no better illustration of this reality then the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the largest port complex on the East Coast, which recently chose Yardi Voyager for Government to handle tenant management, lease administration, property management, and much more. The most important work of a port authority is to keep regional trade and transportation systems moving safely and smoothly. But roads, rails, seaports and airspace all require extensive supporting infrastructure and real estate, and that’s where Yardi Systems can be of great help. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey will use Yardi’s commercial property management software solution for all of its real estate business, which ranges from office leases in One World Trade Center (Freedom Tower) to concession and fixed base operation leases at the nation’s three busiest airports (John F. Kennedy International Airport, LaGuardia Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport) to collecting tolls on the New Jersey Turnpike. More than 485 leases, 65M SF of buildings and 15,000 acres of property will be managed using Yardi Voyager. “Yardi can handle all of it, with our commercial off the shelf (COTS) system,” said Spencer Stewart, National Account Executive, Yardi Government Services, of the advantages of choosing Yardi Voyager. “We’re going to personalize it for you. We have all the tools to match your workflow and your terminology without the need to customize or modify.” Because governments are so unique, Yardi has created vertically integrated government services group. Yardi’s Government Services arm is ideally positioned to meet the needs of government clients, which frequently have diverse property management needs. The department includes a dedicated implementation staff for government...