PTAA Members to Celebrate National Apartment Housing Day at Diamond Awards

On April 5, 2016 the Piedmont Triad Apartment Association (PTAA) will hold its annual Diamond Awards banquet to celebrate and acknowledge the “best of the best” in the Triad’s multi-family housing industry. These awards acknowledge the exemplary contributions in 2015 of companies and individuals who work in an industry that serves over a third of the people who live in the Piedmont Triad.

The date for this year’s Diamond Awards coincides with National Apartment Housing Day – #aptday – a program organized by the National Apartment Association to recognize the vital role the apartment industry plays in supplying quality housing throughout the country and the tremendous impact the industry has on the economy.

“With one-third of Americans now renting their homes, there has never been a more exciting time to be a part of the apartment housing industry,” said Doug Culkin, CAE, President & CEO of the National Apartment Association. “It’s time to celebrate the new American Dream.”

With an expected attendance of 475 people, PTAA’s Diamond Awards is the largest event of the year for the local apartment industry.

Industry Facts

The American Dream is changing; more than one-third of Americans rent their homes. Of them, 42 percent—or 37 million people—lease apartments.

Members of the Piedmont Triad Apartment Association own/manage over 58,000 housing units throughout the region.

Apartments and their residents contribute $1.3 trillion to the national economy each year. That’s 12.3 million jobs in construction, operations, leasing, management and skilled trades along with all the local businesses supported by apartments and their residents.

#aptday

Bell Sells

Bell Partners announced today that they, along with DRA Advisors LLC, have sold a portfolio of 20,439 apartments to Lone Star Advisors. From the Triad Business Journal story:

Bell Partners Inc. of Greensboro and DRA Advisors LLC together have sold a portfolio of 20,439 apartments to a global private equity firm for $1.8 billion, the firms announced today.

The portfolio comprises 64 properties across eight states and was acquired by Lone Star Funds, which has U.S. offices in Dallas, New York City and Washington, D.C. Bell will continue to manage the properties…

The deal includes 24 North Carolina properties located in Charlotte, Raleigh, Wilmington, New Bern and Goldsboro. The total portfolio was originally part of a joint venture purchase made by Bell and DRA in 2008, which then included 25,684 apartments spanning 86 properties.

This is one of the largest apartment deals in the country this year, and is likely to be the “biggest” story involving a Triad apartment company in years.

Improved Community Performance With More Cowbells

Next week – April 16 to be exact – PTAA will be hosting nationally-renowned apartment management expert Lisa Trosien for a 1/2 day seminar called “More Cowbell” that’s a must-see for anyone looking to improve their community’s performance. Here’s a little more about it:

The phrase “more cowbell” (in case you’re not familiar with it) is from a Saturday Night Live sketch about how a song can be improved by adding more cowbell because there aren’t a lot of songs that feature the cowbell. Just like the songs that don’t have cowbell, there are a lot of properties out there that don’t offer the best possible service to their residents. This seminar takes a look at how to improve the delivery of customer service at both commonplace (such as a service request) and uncommon places (such as when walking the property, turning a unit, etc.) The uudience for this fun (and loud!) program is all ranges of property management professionals. Cowbells are distributed to several individuals in the audience to add “More Cowbell!!” to the program. Highly interactive and lots of fun!

Attendees earn 3 CECs and will come away with some great tools for improving their property’s performance. Space is limited so don’t hesitate and sign up today!

Register here!

PTAA’s 2013 Labor of Love Project, March 22-23

This year PTAA will be working with Housing Greensboro for our Labor of Love project.  Fox8 did a nice story on Housing Greensboro that you can see here.

For our project this year we’ll be working on two homes in Greensboro and below is a brief description of each project. Our project dates are March 22 & 23 and we need volunteers for both days. You can volunteer for a whole day, both days or just a couple of hours on either day. To register simply visit our website or call the PTAA office at (336) 294-4428. We hope to see you out there!

Here are the project descriptions:

Home Repair Project #1: 

The homeowner has owned her home for 23 years.  She is an elderly woman with breast cancer who lives alone and needs repairs to make her home warmer, drier and safer.  She has a very low limited income and cannot do the repairs herself.

Scope of repair work:

• Roof- replace sheathing, felt paper, drip edge, shingles, pipe boots, ridge vent & ridge cap
• Exterior- seal & flash windows, repair missing brick at slab, replace knob & deadbolt on front door, reinstall storm door
• Bathroom- install baseboard behind sink, install grab bars in shower
• Kitchen- fix leaking sink, replace faucets & repair tiles on countertop
• Energy Efficiency- air seal attic, install insulation dam & insulated lid for attic access, install bathroom fans, replace blubs with CFLs throughout house, patch sheetrock in utility room & tape joints

Home Repair Project #2:

The homeowner has owned the home for 20 years.  She is an older adult living with her daughter and they both have disabilities which limit their ability to financially or physically do the repairs themselves.  Her home needs plumbing, electrical and accessibility repairs to make her home warmer, drier and safer.

Scope of repair work:

• Plumbing- caulk tub, replace faucet, supply lines & toilet
• Electrical- replace motion light, cap wire for disposal & install junction box with cover over sink
• Accessibility- install grab bars beside toilet & in shower, install handrails at front & rear doors
• Other- replace back door to laundry room, repair deck
• Energy Efficiency- vent dryer to outside, air seal fireplace, install insulated lid on attic access, air seal attic & crawlspace

President of the Richmond Fed Visits Greensboro, Shares Insights

Monday evening Jeffrey Lacker, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, hosted a dinner at the Proximity Hotel in Greensboro for leaders from the Triad business community.  He shared several insights about the current state of the economy, and among his more interesting comments were:

• That the persistently high unemployment was largely due to a mismatch between unemployed workers and the skills that potential employers are looking for. He gave several statistics to support his statement, and pointed out that unlike past recessions we will not be able to “spend our way” out of this recession.
• He highlighted several of the programs that Guilford Tech and other community colleges in North Carolina have created to help address the skills gap
• During a Q&A session after his speech he remarked that he thinks it will be years before housing rights itself. He noted a significant overhang in the single family residential market, and predicted it would take several years at a minimum for the the existing inventory to be absorbed and for SFH construction to begin to return to historically normal levels.
• He also noted that this recession, caused by the bursting of the housing bubble, has likely altered the psychology of the younger generation. Home ownership is no longer perceived to be the risk-free, American ideal it was seen as during the heyday of the housing bubble and this will likely have a long term affect on the housing market.

PTAA Reading List 8/24/11

Following are links to articles you may find of interest.  These links, and many more, can be found at PTAA’s del.icio.us page.

• Apartment Credit Screeners Improving Rental History Data Sets – Multifamily Executive Magazine (Aug 12, 2011)
• Judgment Call: Appraisals Weigh Down Housing Sales – WSJ.com (Aug 12, 2011)
• Housing Starts and Building Permits Slump in July – (Aug 16, 2011)
• Triad Home Sales Decline 16% in June -The Business Journal (Aug 18, 2011)
• Winston-Salem 10th most fun, affordable city in U.S. – The Business Journal (Aug 18, 2011)
• Should Britain Become a Nation of Renters? – The Source – WSJ (Aug 18, 2011)
• Linkage in Income, Home Prices Shifts – WSJ.com (Aug 18, 2011)
• Room for Apartment REITs to Rise – REIT.com (Aug 18, 2011)
• State’s Jobless Rate Tops 10 Percent – JournalNow.com (Aug 19, 2011)
• Spend Now, Save Later, Bond Fund Leaders Say – NYTimes.com (Aug 22, 2011)
• Winston-Salem Business Inc. Demographic Brochure – PDF – (Aug 22, 2011)
• Back to School: Residents, Investors Descend on Student Housing – Multifamily Executive Magazine (Aug 22, 2011)
• Strong Demand, Tight Supply Strengthen Case for New Apartment Development – CoStar Group (Aug 24, 2011)
• U.S. Increasingly Shuns Home Ownership to Rent – msnbc.com (Aug 24, 2011)
• REITs Stand to Gain from the GSEs’ Demise – HousingFinance.com (Aug 24, 2011)