Appropriately for the “acceleration” theme of its global conference this week, Realcomm recently hosted a webinar in which several experts, including Yardi’s Alex Stanton, commented on the rapid pace of change in commercial real estate and new data management technology entering the marketplace. Stanton, regional director of commercial sales, said the movement toward an integrated concept of information management is so profound that it’s altering the very concept of the lease. “Client,” for example, no longer means a single entity but instead a broader category of people to be managed with increasingly granular information. “Space” encompasses coworking, parking and amenities as well as traditional offices. “Tenants” are morphing into “guests” whose service expectations require the collection and management of an expanding body of information including such non-real estate sources as weather and traffic information. Companies are creating digital twins of everything from their buildings to their tenants and the environment surrounding them. The best prescription for managing change, he said, is aligning IT resources with a company’s strategic direction. “When there’s a nice marriage of business and IT, there’s stronger direction and execution on investments, efficiencies and other actions,” Stanton said. Other participants and their thoughts on managing change included: Sam Wong, head of analytics and data science for global real estate manager QuadReal Property Group. When building its data platform from scratch, QuadReal focused on gaining insight and action, not just reporting, and its attention to the information management and database portions of the solution stack equaled that devoted to business intelligence and analytics. “We also sought a platform that could grow in capability and size so we don’t just worry about what we need to do in the next year or so,” said Wong, who managed both the business and technical teams...

Property owners and managers now have a new tool for making their communities safer places—VendorShield, Yardi’s new automated vendor screening platform. VendorShield lets property owners and managers define their requirements for insurance coverage, professional licenses and background checks. The system follows the custom rules for searching government watch lists and other national and local verification sources to ensure suppliers meet requirements. Regular auditing ensures ongoing compliance. With credential screening automated and insurance data auditing outsourced to the Yardi compliance team, property staff members have more time for their core responsibilities. VendorShield also simplifies management of Form W-9s, certificates of insurance, service contracts and other documents. “VendorShield helps facilitate safe communities for residents, tenants, vendors and staff,” said Terri Dowen, senior vice president of sales for Yardi. “The full integration of VendorShield with Yardi Voyager and VENDORCafé provides a convenient one-stop shop for vendor management.” Download a brochure to learn more about how VendorShield helps reduce risk and promotes a supportive community...

Collaboration. Community. Social responsibility. These might not be the first words that come to mind when talking about most global businesses, but for the people who work in the offices that comprise Yardi Canada Ltd., they come up often. Now celebrating 20 years in Canada, we talked to leaders in each office and asked them what it means to be “Team Yardi.” Beginning in Toronto “When I first started collaborating with Yardi to help establish the company’s footprint in Canada, our business was a four-person operation,” said Peter Altobelli, general manager and vice president of sales at Yardi Canada Ltd. Based in Toronto, Altobelli set up Yardi’s first office in Canada in 1998 which has grown to a staff of 200. With a vision of working to create a market in Canada through educating the industry about technology, Altobelli worked with Yardi to hit on a winning strategy. Through helping to establish new standards and best practices for real estate management companies, Altobelli is dedicated to helping Yardi clients in Canada prepare for and take advantage of the quantum changes brought on by tech disruption and innovation. And while helping clients grow and thrive is a key focus of Yardi’s mission, supporting staff to grow in their roles with increased knowledge and move forward on their career paths is also vitally important. Altobelli said, “We support our staff with learning opportunities and challenge them to grow into roles and expand their careers.” Synchronized in Saskatchewan The second phase of expanding into the Canadian market was Yardi’s acquisition of Point2 Technologies in 2010. With headquarters in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Point2 developed, marketed and supported web-based marketing software for real estate as well as inventory management, with customers in over 120 countries. About the transition to Yardi,...

Washington, D.C. (May 30, 2018) – Kicking off Yardi’s Advanced Solutions Conference (YASC) at the Washington Hilton, Yardi president and founder Anant Yardi shared his perspective on change. “For me, change is incremental. It’s not disruptive. Change is something we have to count on. If you are successful in making small steps over the course of time, you will be successful,” Mr. Yardi stated before more than 2,000 Yardi clients and employees gathered for the East Coast education and networking event. A West Coast YASC will be held in San Diego in September. In a 45-minute talk reflecting on the company’s development history and looking toward the future, the focus was on new lines of product development that Yardi has underway to help its clients meet their real estate and investment goals. The technology company’s goal is to help clients increase revenues and asset values while reducing costs and risk. Energy solutions, coworking management, and a full asset management suite were presented as ways to help achieve those goals. Mr. Yardi offered attendees a sneak preview of the Yardi Elevate Suite, an operational performance solution that includes in-depth operations data, deal management, market insight, predictive insights, budgeting, business intelligence and revenue forecasting. The product builds on the proven Deal Manager solution and will incorporate additional new tools, including Forecast Manager, Construction Manager, Retail Manager and Facility Manager. Another area of focus was Yardi’s growing commitment to coworking, including the leasing of vacant space for shared and temporary workers. The company has made two recent acquisitions in the area, including Wun Systems and most recently Phoenix Broadband, a Scottish company that created a platform for managing technology resources in a shared workspace. “It seems to us that this is a new category of asset type....

Required renters insurance is widely considered a best practice for multifamily managers to reduce property risk and protect asset value. ResidentShield Protection Plan works seamlessly with Yardi Voyager, with easy online signup for residents and automated program monitoring for property managers. It also offers coverage options to residents for their personal possessions. Read on for the latest enhancements to this “peace of mind” insurance program. More options ResidentShield’s forced-placed Master Policy program now invoices management companies by property for easier payment options. Pet-friendly apartments are highly coveted by all the animal loving renters out there, and ResidentShield has you covered. In addition to having several pet-friendly endorsements to offer, a notification is sent to a property if a resident has a pet but has not purchased pet damage coverage. Should pet damage occur, the Pet Notification feature can track which residents purchase a pet damage endorsement, which gives your property up to $500 to file after the applicable security and pet deposit have been exhausted. Better compliance ResidentShield policy holders now receive text notifications of changes to their policy — making it easier to stay informed and compliant. Also, when a policy is cancelled, the policy holder will receive an updated email from ResidentShield, which frees staff to focus on leasing and other important tasks (instead of tracking policies and sending letters). The lease violation fee program has also been modified to further motivate residents to remain compliant — and when they are not, they will be automatically charged a fee. Coming soon To optimize claims management, claims information will be stored in Voyager. This will make it easier for staff to enter claims information and track the progress of every claim. (ResidentShield claims are automatically updated every night.) Another feature available soon is...

If you’re attending the California Assisted Living Association (CALA) 2018 Spring Conference & Trade Show, along with 800 other professionals who will engage in important issues and explore opportunities for the assisted living industry, Yardi is excited to see you there. With the theme “elevate,” to acknowledge that senior living professionals are continually seeking ways to improve and enhance their services, the event is set for June 4-6 at the Hyatt Regency Sacramento and Sacramento Convention Center in California. Assisted living, memory care and continuing care resident community operators come together at CALA’s spring conference to participate in active learning, engage in critical discussions, and hear from outstanding presenters with a broad range of expertise within and outside the profession. Sessions will cover resident and dementia care knowledge and practices, legal and regulatory awareness, leadership and staff culture along with sales and marketing strategies. Attendees expect to walk away with ready-to-use information, ideas, and best practices that both challenge and inspire them. In addition to not-to-be-missed educational sessions, the conference also provides networking and socializing opportunities including a wine tasting event on Monday, June 4 and a cocktail reception on Tuesday, June 5. Yardi is sponsoring the luncheon general session on Wednesday, June 6 at 12:15, where featured speakers Matthew Emerzian and Cindy McCann will discuss “Creating a ‘You Matter’ Culture” that touches both residents and employees in assisted living organizations. View complete details about the luncheon, speakers and sessions in the conference brochure. While exploring the trade show exhibitors, you’re invited to discover Yardi’s single connected solution for senior living by visiting Booth 50, and while you’re there, enter for a chance to win a Bose Bluetooth Speaker. We look forward to meeting you in...

Yardi and Property Week assembled five property investment experts to discuss low-risk ways to find value amid fierce competition for prime property. Industrial, traditional PRS, build to rent and student housing were seen to offer opportunities, with a tough retail climate and political risk on the downside. Panelists Ian Benson: Finance Director, Kier Property Meg Brown: Director of equity placement, Colliers Howard Freedman, Partner/head of real estate and construction, RSM Jamie McCombe, Partner/head of IM, Cluttons Kris McPhail, Co-fund manager, Lime Property Fund, Aviva Moderator: David Parsley, Property Week contributing editor With prime property yields tightening and investors looking for value without too much risk, our think tank participants addressed the key issues of where funds should place their cash and what factors – both positive and negative – may affect their decisions and returns. Where are the hot sectors in real estate investment? MB: This is something we think about a lot, as we typically advise pension funds and groups where risk really matters, as they are investing money they can’t really lose. So right now we’re fans of things that are not correlated to economic cycles, and that’s largely mega-themes such as student housing, PRS and BTR, micro living and, to some degree, the co-working concept. JM: We feel capital growth is going to be more muted in this market, so there has been a flight to income return. We’ve been looking at some of those long-term income plays, such as hotels and student accommodation. The industrial sector has obviously been improving in the past 12 months, predicated on investors seeing some future rental growth, so yields have fallen quite significantly, but in the right areas and at right rent, there is still something to go for in terms of return. The prime end of the...

Multifamily marketers gathered in Huntington Beach, California, for the 2018 Apartment Internet Marketing (AIM) Conference on May 6-9. This year’s event focused on the latest digital marketing trends and technologies. “Marketing executives are increasingly called on to shape the resident experience and manage the pace of innovation,” shared Steve Lefkovits, executive producer of AIM. “We’re delighted to have Yardi and RentCafe as partners in educating the industry about the future.” Some conference highlights for multifamily marketers: Customer Experience Matters Customer experience is the new marketing. At the AIM keynote, Charlene Li, principal analyst at Altimeter and co-author of Groundswell, challenged marketers to examine relationships and experiences. “If you’re not focusing on the customer experience, you’re working on the wrong things,” emphasized Li. Why does customer experience matter? Because the data says so! According to resident satisfaction data from J Turner Research, Q1 2018 apartment reviews grew by 78% as compared to Q1 2017. The average number of reviews per property has grown 20% since Q1 2017, averaging more than 86 reviews per property. The study found a strong correlation between online reputation and resident satisfaction. Resident experience matters, and it influences renter and prospect purchasing behavior. In a session on customer engagement and loyalty, Joseph Batdorf, president of J Turner Research, stressed, “Resident satisfaction matters. Making sure they’re happy affects their willingness to renew a lease.” Customer Engagement Also Matters To create a better customer experience, you need to engage your customer from the get-go and keep them engaged throughout their time with you. Where can you innovate your customer engagement strategy? Create a well-rounded engagement strategy. Implementing a multi-source lead attribution model can help marketers more accurately assign value to each touchpoint in the buyer journey. Market to common values to bolster your engagement. Sticking to common...

Do you find that your internal staff training program lacks engagement or consistency? Yardi eLearning’s featured topic for this month focuses on creating effective and sustainable training programs for busy real estate companies. Take the pressure off of your training team with these best practices. The Balance Sheet caught up with Michael Joiner of Yardi eLearning’s client services team to get the inside scoop on what this valuable training platform has to offer. What does it mean to have an Effective and Sustainable Training Program?  Joiner: An effective training program is one that meets the training needs of a company. A sustainable training program requires a balance between the administrative tasks—like scheduling training, assigning courses, communicating between instructors and students, validating student work, running reports—and maintaining existing training with the development of new training that meets additional needs of the company and its employees.  What’s one common hurdle that keeps clients’ training programs from being effective?  Joiner: Not identifying the needs of the learners. For instance, you can assign a ton a courses, but do those courses help bridge a skills gap or correct a behavior? Ineffective training programs assign courses for the sake of assigning content that someone thinks is necessary, but it may not be relevant or applicable to an individual. What’s one common hurdle that keeps clients’ training programs from being sustainable? Joiner: Focusing too much on developing new training and letting existing training become out dated. Out-of-date training leads to a lack of engagement and trust on the part of the learner. A sustainable training program creates new training initiatives while regularly updating existing content. How can users access this information after the webinar? Joiner: We’re teaching this class at YASC Washington, D.C. May 30- June 1, 2018. We’ll also be...

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) are mighty tools to increase leads and conversions for your properties. Odds are, you’re already too busy to master those tools. Below are three quick tips to make SEO and SEM work for you. 3 Quick Tips for Increasing Leads Don’t underestimate the power of SEO. Getting quality traffic to your website is tough. It’s even harder to convert that traffic into leads. SEO helps the right renters find your property through organic (non-paid) search inquiries. In order for this to happen, search engines need to understand who you are, what you have to offer and the content of your website. That doesn’t happen through chance. Detailed strategies ensure that your website ranks high on organic search results with the right audience. Are your strategies bringing the desired results? Don’t go in alone. Not sure how to make SEO work for you? There is no need to reinvent the wheel. The experts at RentCafe Reach specialize in driving high quality traffic to your website. Catriona Orosco, manager of RENTCafé Reach at Yardi explains: “RENTCafé SEO account managers have the expertise and knowledge to help your website reach more qualified prospects. Our role requires us to stay up-to-date with changes made at Google. We work as a team to stay educated and aware of what’s important in gaining a competitive advantage in search results.” RentCafe Reach account managers are also experts when it comes to RentCafe marketing features. They can help you identify and test features to improve prospect engagement and lead conversion rates. “Often, people’s assumptions about what’s important are outdated,” says Orosco. “In addition to the initial optimization efforts and content creation, we’re checking website health on a routine basis, addressing issues and updating...

“CRE Tech Industry—Boom or Bust?” was the question posed in a recent Realcomm-hosted webinar. The answer will depend on technology providers’ ability to differentiate themselves and deliver solutions that create value for building owners and operators, according to a panel of real estate technology suppliers, investors and users including Yardi’s Alex Stanton. The five webinar panelists agreed that the commercial real estate industry historically has been slow to innovate its asset management technology. In recent years, however, competitive, regulatory and sustainability pressures have generated a sense of urgency among property owners and managers to regard technology as a strategic ally. Stanton, Yardi’s regional director for commercial sales, noted that generic enterprise management platforms have evolved to accommodate procurement, energy management, coworking and marketing, paralleling the morphing of “lease” from basic tenancy to include amenities and online self-service options. “As a provider of transaction-enabling technology, Yardi aims to create deep transactional functions that can be embedded into the core technology platform,” he said. John Gilbert, chief operating officer and executive vice president of New York City property owner and manager Rudin Management, said his company invests in technology startups and even spun off its own software company. He likened technology to a construction project: “When building a structure, we dig a hole and pour a foundation. Property owners should look at technology adoption exactly the same way. I don’t want 20 more silos with 20 new technologies. All data collected should go into a central, integrated platform that can make the building run more efficiently and be smarter.” This approach will “future-proof” buildings and create value by correlating data that’s already being collected. Will O’Donnell, a senior vice president at logistics real estate leader Prologis Inc., noted that the difficulty of adopting new technology can...

CycleMAYnia returns to the Central Coast from May 1-31, 2018. The “Bike Month” encourages people of all ages and biking abilities to get out and ride. Established in 2005, the regional event promotes good clean fun through activities hosted by local businesses, organizations, and community members. This year’s CycleMAYnia will feature 40 bike rides and events ranging from bike-to-work breakfasts and family-friendly rides, to skill clinics and maintenance workshops. “The community benefits through fewer cars on the road and reduced emissions, as well as elevated levels of joy and friendliness amongst neighbors, strangers, and coworkers,” said Lori La Riva, Traffic Solutions/TDM Program Coordinator for Santa Barbara County Association of Governments. As part of the month, the National Bike Challenge kicks off May 1. During the Challenge, riders can compete for fun prizes and awards, and fuel up at free bike-to-work breakfasts. Community members and Yardi employees can sign up as a team or as an individual on the National Bike Challenge website. “This is a great way to bring together local businesses in the community and for employees to see how much fun biking to work can be,” shared Kelly Johnson, Yardi event coordinator. “It brings together people that might not have crossed paths otherwise.” A CycleMAYnia sponsor and longtime participant, Yardi will host the Bike Challenge Kick-Off Breakfast on May 1, 2018 from 7:15 – 9:00 a.m. Bike on over to Yardi headquarters (430 S. Fairview Ave., Goleta) for free food, music, and fun! Learn more about CycleMAYnia events, updates and more at...

Yardi follows up being named one of Glassdoor’s top places to work in the U.S. with a local honor for its Santa Barbara and Oxnard offices from the Pacific Coast Business Times, a local news outlet covering area companies. Yardi joins an elite group of 25 firms in the Santa Barbara and Ventura/Oxnard area recognized on the list, ranging in size from startups to established companies. Selections for the list were made based on submissions from the general public. “What makes this award most gratifying is that it was the result of our employees writing about us,” said Gordon Morrell, executive vice president, in a note to Yardi staff. Ranking No. 12, Yardi is the largest employer on the list of featured companies with around 700 employees in its Central Coast offices. A feature article about the company in the PCBT focused on corporate values, benefits, philanthropy and growth. Since being founded in Santa Barbara in 1984, Yardi has now grown to 6,000 employees worldwide. You can read the PCBT story here. A ceremony honoring the winners will be held Thursday, May 17 at Hotel Californian in Santa...

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The Yardi Senior Living Forum kicked off two days of classes and networking with an insightful presentation from Argentum President and CEO James Balda, who revealed two of the most pressing challenges facing the senior living industry. Argentum, the leading trade organization for senior living, was formerly called the Assisted Living Federation of America (ALFA). The organization recently changed its name to reflect the evolving nature of the industry, Balda shared. Senior living communities now encompass multiple lifestyles and care standards, which require a broader definition than simply “assisted living.” Argentum, which means silver in Latin, is intended to reflect the clientele the industry serves as well as the organization’s intent to set leading standards for senior living communities across the nation. With the “silver tsunami” of aging Baby Boomers set to have a major impact over the next decade, there will be an increased focus on senior housing and care. But right now, the industry faces two major challenges, Balda revealed: labor shortfalls and declining occupancy. “We are struggling everywhere, in all markets around the country, to find talent,” he said. The industry currently employs around 1 million people, but in the next 7 years will need to hire 1.2 million more. Around 900,000 of those will be replacements for existing staff due to the industry’s high turnover rate in a tight labor market. The additional 300,000 will be new hires to meet the needs of aging Baby Boomers. “Senior living isn’t really seen as a career path. Nobody is waking up in the morning as a kid and saying ‘I want to go into senior living for my career,’” Balda said. But the good news is that senior living does have a compelling mission as an industry and...

A key investment management trend over the past few years is the increasing demands limited partners (LPs) are placing on their general partners (GPs) such as additional key performance indicators, fee disclosures, or a more active relationship, among others. Changes in the relationship between LPs and GPs involved in real estate investment, the maturation of the investment management industry and increasing sophistication of asset aggregators are some of the principal factors. Co-investment came into favor as a strategy for LPs, creating new challenges even as it solved others. In this new paradigm, advancements in investment management technology is key to making a potentially fraught relationship work for both sides. Analyzing opportunities and performance has created new challenges for LPs and GPs involved in private equity real estate investments. For example, LPs often request different standard data than GPs are accustomed to using; GPs must produce custom data extracts for each LP, a cumbersome and time-consuming exercise. For their part, the LPs often struggle to compile and aggregate data from GPs in analyzing their investments. With these challenges, many LPs and GPs are seeking new tools for collaborating and managing their real estate investment activities. One increasingly popular option involves employing a single connected platform that draws information from disparate data sources and aggregates complex ownership structures.  Such a platform provides clarity into investment programs, manages risk and allocation, and easily calculates returns and compares them to benchmarks. This approach can improve deal tracking, communication and investment decisions for LPs and GPs. Unifying operational and financial data within a single platform helps GPs by automating the complex accounting transactions associated with fund management. They can more easily manage complex ownership structures, consolidate financials and report to investors. Capital calls can be timed to up-to-the-minute operating...

Yardi announced the acquisition of Phoenix Broadband Ltd., an innovative business technology firm specializing in infrastructure and hardware solutions for shared workspaces. Based in Stirling, Scotland, Phoenix Broadband is known for its Medusabusiness brand. Medusa is a service platform for managing technology resources in a shared workspace. When multiple companies share a common office space, access to secure, easy-to-manage technology is important. Centralizing access to cloud-based business networks, Internet, Wi-Fi, voice services and more, Medusa provides simple hardware and seamless IT for coworking spaces. “We are delighted to become part of the Yardi family, and through them, ensure Medusa is the leading network technology powering the boom of flexible workspace in the real estate industry,” said Tony Freeth, principal for Medusabusiness. “We believe our clients will benefit tremendously from Yardi’s investment in the future of coworking.” The team of 10 developers, help desk associates, sales and management team will continue to operate from its office in Scotland. Medusabusiness currently serves over 700 locations such as business centers, coworking spaces, real estate managers and IT firms, including more than 300 spaces in North America. “We are expanding our investments in the coworking arena.” said Gordon Morrell, executive vice president of Yardi. “Shared workspaces are a growing industry that bridges real estate and technology, areas that continue to be Yardi’s primary focus.” This is Yardi’s second recent acquisition in coworking technology. In late 2017, Yardi acquired WUN Systems, the Florida-based maker of a software management platform for coworking spaces. Many coworking spaces use both WUN’s platform and Medusa. Founded in 2002, Phoenix Broadband Ltd. is based in Stirling, Scotland. Serving the shared workspace market, clients include business centers, coworking spaces, real estate managers and IT firms. The company’s products deliver seamless IT management in shared workspaces....

Yardi has entered an exclusive three-year agreement securing RentCafe as the title sponsor of the Apartment Internet Marketing Conference (AIM). “We are excited to announce our partnership with AIM. We believe this is a great opportunity for us, for AIM and for the attendees because ultimately, we are all laser-focused on innovative digital marketing,” said Esther Bonardi, vice president of marketing at Yardi. A Powerful Partnership AIM is the only industry event focused exclusively on educating multifamily executives on advances in internet marketing, advertising and branding. Executives gain insights into web technology and applications, mobile platforms, lead tracking and in-home technology as well as resident retention and communication techniques. RentCafe, a leading multifamily marketing solution, unites marketing and leasing functionalities in a single, easy-to-use platform. Prospects, residents and staff benefit from its intuitive interface and groundbreaking features. “Marketing executives are increasingly called on to shape the resident experience and manage the pace of innovation. That starts with initial impressions of a community, and flows through to communications, social media, service and amenities,” shared Steve Lefkovits, executive producer of AIM. “We’re delighted to have Yardi and RentCafe as partners in educating the industry about the future.” “RentCafe has seen tremendous growth by adding innovative marketing features for the multifamily industry. Through this partnership, we can support the key foundations of the conference, providing exactly the kind of cutting-edge solutions that attendees have come to expect from AIM,” said Bonardi. What to Expect at AIM This year, keynote speaker Malcolm Frank will explore the topic of marketing automation with “What to Do When Machines Do Everything.” Automation is a key area of opportunity for organizations seeking to achieve greater efficiency and customer engagement. Frank will offer strategic guidance and actionable steps to help AIM attendees and their organizations excel in the...

No longer the sole domain of freelancers, micro busineses and start-ups, coworking is taking the Asia Pacific by storm as large companies jump on board the trend, says Yardi’s Neal Gemassmer. According to research by Cushman & Wakefield, coworking has accelerated rapidly throughout the Asia Pacific region, with roughly 750,000 sqm of space leased over the last two years alone. America’s largest coworking company, WeWork, now has 300 offices in 62 global cities, while China’s Naked Hub and Ucommune are also making waves around the region. Gemassmer, Yardi’s vice president for international business, says demand from corporates has been the one of the biggest coworking drivers. He points to research from Cushman & Wakefield, which finds the number of coworking enterprise-level companies – those with more than 500 employees – has doubled in the last 12 months. Meanwhile, the share of freelancers and independent workers has dropped by nearly 15 per cent over the last three years. “Large companies are on the hunt for space that is flexible, that enhances collaboration, and that fosters a creative culture – all characteristics of a coworking environment,” Gemassmer says. So, what are the three coworking trends to watch in 2018? Innovation acceleration “An innovation culture is an essential ingredient in a modern workplace, particularly as disruption continues to drive many companies out of business,” Gemassmer says. “Nurturing new ideas is critical to any company facing industry disruption.” Google has established community hubs, which it calls “campuses” to cultivate a community of entrepreneurs. Coders and creatives, innovators and investors can work together while locals catch up for coffee. Similarly, Unilever has set aside an entire floor of its regional headquarters in Singapore for start-ups to set up shop, and for its own team members to connect. “Coworking can...

From online applications to maintenance and business operations, property managers work hard to juggle competing priorities while still sustaining the profitability and integrity of their buildings. Whether it’s single-family homes, multifamily apartments or commercial properties, the challenges can be complicated. Thankfully, the solution doesn’t have to be. Meet Yardi Breeze, a refreshingly simple software platform built for property owners and operators with portfolios of 1,000 units or less. Yardi’s newest software solution provides everything small to mid-sized owners and managers need to succeed. This latest addition to the Yardi suite of products extends the company’s legacy of providing tailored software solutions for residential and commercial properties. “Yardi Breeze is the result of Yardi’s 30+ years of providing quality software with unwavering customer focus,” said Terri Dowen, senior vice president of sales at Yardi. “It was designed with the unique needs of smaller operators in mind.” Property management just got a whole lot easier. Yardi Breeze is simple but powerful. The interface may be fast and the framework intuitive, but don’t let that simplicity fool you. Breeze is still a robust, all-inclusive software suite that includes options for online marketing, applications and payments built right in. “We were able to set up our apartments in about 30 minutes,” explains Allan Shapiro, a principal at Castle Rock Real Estate. “The process was easy, straightforward and seamless.” With a transparent, affordable pricing model with monthly fees starting at $1 per unit, Yardi Breeze combines a wide array of tools into one streamlined, easy-to-use interface. Users can simultaneously manage a diverse property portfolio. In addition, the software also comes outfitted with RentCafe for effortless marketing and easy access to prospect and tenant portals. “From instant live chat support to automatic address completion and one-click data upload, everything is...

According to a market study carried out by the analysts at Technavio, a business reporting service, the retail market in Saudi Arabia will grow steadily at a rate of above 7 percent by 2020. The recent influx of global retailers in Saudi Arabia will result in the steady growth of the market for the next two years, the report projects. To prepare to meet the local, regional and international retail development trends, the Red Sea Mall’s owners chose to adopt the leading cloud-based retail real estate management solution from Yardi, a global technology company with a strong presence in the Middle East. The intent of purchasing the software is to optimise shopping centre operations by managing the asset efficiently and preparing for future growth. Red Sea Mall is one of the biggest shopping centres at Jeddah City, it is located at the northern suburbs on Malik Road. The mall includes 242,200 square meters built area, with a five-star hotel, seven story office building, and both external and undercover parking areas, all of which are linked to the 18 mall entrances. “Among various investments, the retail sector is a major contributor to the increased economic diversification regionally. Accordingly, to enhance the operation of the Red Sea Mall, we invested in the Yardi Commercial Suite,” said Aidrous Al Bar, Executive Member of Red Sea Markets Limited, owning company of the Red Sea Mall. Yardi is a leading, full-business solution for retail property management that centralizes data and automates workflows to help property managers work more efficiently, reduce costs and achieve successful retail center operations. “The software platform will not only allow management to streamline core property management operations, it will also enhance its marketing of rentable spaces, enhance retailer on-boarding and relations, and gain deeper insight...

The UK’s build-to-rent sector is booming. In less than a decade, the sector has grown by around 60% and is now worth some £1.5trn. This comes as no surprise. We all have, at some point in our lives, been looking for a place to live, whether it is a house or a flat, and build-to-rent is an alleviation in the midst of the UK’s housing crisis. The internet has made home searching extremely easy and the advent of the so-called ‘generation rent’ has seen millions of people turning to renting as their model of choice. The old days of pen and paper, endless phone calls and long rides in your car to view properties are long gone and the search is now almost entirely conducted on the web. Just as shopping no longer means showing up in a store, home searching has become essentially digital. But even so, the process might be extremely slow. Imagine you are on your lunch break, looking for an apartment on your laptop or smartphone. You are clicking on dozens of different sites, scrolling through pages and pages of dubious websites. Maybe the information provided on the website is incomplete. It lacks floorplans and energy ratings. There are no reviews or pictures. How can you trust this website instead of another one? Is the apartment going to be as good as it is presented? Are you just going to waste your time? Hunting for an apartment can be a very frustrating experience indeed. Turning to the other side, and looking at the situation from a landlord’s perspective, it is increasingly hard to catch a home-hunter’s attention. Due to the same chaotic web scenario, this challenge is now tougher than ever. How can a landlord make a prospective resident discover...

Functionality in Yardi Voyager Commercial property management and accounting platform complies with upcoming new accounting standards for commercial property management set by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). Yardi Voyager supports FASB-required operating and finance leases and IASB-mandated finance leases. “Yardi fully understands the requirements set by FASB and IASB and is helping our clients adopt the mandatory new standards,” said Terri Dowen, senior vice president of sales for Yardi. The FASB/IASB standards are optional now, but starting in 2019, FASB and IASB will require recognition of all lease transactions on a lessee’s balance sheet. Previously only finance leases (purchase agreements) appeared as liabilities; property management companies were not required to disclose long-term liabilities associated with a lessee’s leasing activities. To account for these liabilities, lessees will need to determine the net present value (NPV) of all future leasing obligations as of a certain transition date and given a certain discount rate. The liability on the balance sheet will equal the NPV of the future lease payments.  The offsetting right-of-use asset will equal the NPV of future lease payments, adjusted for initial direct costs and carryforward. New features in Yardi Voyager help tenants meet the new standards by allowing calculation of the net present value of lease payments using a discount rate.  They also recognize a liability equal to the calculated present value and an asset equal to the present value plus adjustments. Other new features include amortization of the lease asset value and lease liability over the life of the lease, generation of all required general ledger accounting entries, and a full reporting suite including prior year comparisons and compliance reports. FASB is an independent, not-for-profit organization that establishes financial accounting and reporting standards for public,...

Leasing agents often have to be part lawyer, part CPA and part tour guide when handling such details as monitoring existing tenant lease options, notifications and expiration dates, tracking prospective tenants, crafting letters of intent and arranging showings. Customer relationship management technology that manages these operations has come a long way over the past few years. A key development was stacking plans and floor plans that provide a two-dimensional visual representation of a building showing space availability, tenants on each floor, expiration dates and current rental rates.  Color coding helps managers, leasing teams and others identify opportunities and expose risk.  And mobile technology has taken lease execution out of the office and into the field, further shortening the leasing cycle. What’s the next step for CRM technology?  The Balance Sheet asked Tom Dragmen, Yardi’s manager of global solutions, for a deeper dive into the emerging generation of stacking plan and floor plan technology. Q: What does “interactive stacking and floor plans” mean? A: This refers to a rich visual representation of lease expirations and related space details. They can overlay configurable performance measures and metrics on floor plans.  They also provide a visual dimension for efficiently analyzing expirations, options, unit types and rent-per-area trends in buildings. Q: What’s the user perspective? A: Leasing agents and others get a full graphical display of vital information including lease statistics that determine rental rate trends.  They can see stacking and floor plans based on expirations occurring in specific years, rents per area, encumbrances, options, proposals, unit types, and tenant performance measures such as sales per area, sales variances year over year and foot traffic. Q: How can this information be used? A: When integrated with CRM and accounting systems, the new generation of interactive stacking and floor...

In our previous article link, IT specialist Linda Greenwaldt explained how CommonBond Communities implemented Yardi RentCafe for subsidized housing to improve efficiencies. Yardi eLearning helped the organization optimize their use of RentCafe. It is also the nonprofit’s go-to tool for employee education. The eLearning Solution eLearning provides on-demand training through a convenient online platform. Administrators can choose between pre-written classes, customized classes, and any combination in between. The fully configurable courses offer quantifiable insight into employee learning and content retention. “eLearning is perfect for rolling out RentCafe,” said Greenwaldt. “For introductions, this is perfect, perfect, perfect. During training, it has been great to prepare what onsite staff need to know, when they need to know it, without making them feel overwhelmed.” “Most people only pick up 10 percent of information their first time through it,” shrugged Greenwaldt. “We structured [the courses] in a way where they can always go back and review it. The 10 percent that I tell people that they can’t forget is going to eLearning and retaking the class!” Greenwaldt using eLearning to issue high-priority courses like Fair Housing first, followed by role-based learning for RentCafe and Yardi Voyager for PHA and Affordable housing. Customized Learning eLearning offers an extensive library of courses written by Yardi industry experts. Administrators are welcomed to use the courses as-is, but they are also encouraged and empowered to customize content. “A lot of times, I’ll reach out and see what Yardi has and modify it or do something slightly different. It’s helpful because I can copy the class and add the CommonBond content,” said Greenwaldt. Learning assessments promote information retention while helping leadership identify topics that need clarification or review. Greenwald said, “I love the ability to throw in a test or quiz. I can...