Valeey Rental Housing Journal - June 2014

Rental Housing Journal posed this question independently to four industry experts: “If

you were to look into the toolbox of a successful property manager, what 3 tools would you expect to see?”

Here’s what they all had to say…

Kate Good:Flexibility - Due to the fact that

there is a lot about the role of a man-ager you cannot control, flexibility will keep you on a successful path. I have encountered people who are too rigid to be flexible and they end up being rather miserable to be around.

This has lasting effects on the people around you and will show up in their attitude. A manager must demon-strate their ability to do a great job no matter what lands in your lap.

Awareness - All problems can be solved. Sometimes you will need to think through the problem and other times you will go around the prob-lem. Having an awareness that oth-ers have encountered what you have, there are resources and expertise at your fingertips, will help you be a standout. Step up to help so that you can standout as a superstar.

Expertise – Never stop learning

because nothing stays the same. Even the most seasoned people know that they don't know everything. Being an expert means that you are always in a state of growth even for the things you have mastered.

Greg Knakal:The ability to multitask and pri-

oritize. -- There’s always a lot to do and not enough time, so you have to know what to do, what’s important and when things need to get done. Make it happen.

The 4 Ps – People, product, price and promotions.

Understanding the goals of the investor – Know what your owners want and want to get out of their properties and operate the property with those goals in mind.

Katie Poole-Hussa:A Working Advertisement – Po-

tential renters are faced with weed-ing through hundreds of property ads online to find the perfect place to move. Not only should your adver-tisements for vacant units "sell" the properties, your ads should also be selling you and your company. The

Advertise in Rental Housing Journal VALLEY Circulated to over 6,000 Apartment owners, On-site, and

Maintenance personnel monthly.

Call 503-221-1260 for more info.

June 2014 - Vol. 8 Issue 6Rental Housing Journal Valley

EUGENE • SALEM • ALBANY • CORVALLIS

EUGENE • SALEM • ALBANY • CORVALLIS

VALLEY

Professional Publishing Inc.PO Box 6244Beaverton, OR 97007

PRSRT STD US Postage PAID Portland, OR Permit #5460

Current Resident or

WWW.RENTALHOUSINGJOURNAL.COM • PROFESSIONAL PUBLISHING, INC

3. Dear Maintenance Men:

4. Multifamily NW – Fair Housing = Great Customer Service

5. Three Important Steps for Welcoming New Property Management SuperStars by Ernest Oriene

6. Shoptalk

7. Rate of Same-Sex Housing Discrimination Studied By Jo Becker

Four Tips to Plan and Maintain a Waterwise Multifamily Lawn

Well-maintained lawns cre-ate a sense of community pride and add value for

tenants as an oasis for outdoor rec-reation. With water use often dou-bling in the dry summer months due to outdoor watering, lawns also of-fer great potential for landlords and property managers to save time, money and water by making simple and easy improvements.

Grass typically uses two to three times more water than other plants. What’s more, up to 30 percent of the water used on lawns can be lost to evaporation, run off, overspray and overwatering.

With forecasters predicting a par-ticularly hot and dry summer this year—and with national Smart Ir-rigation Month coming up in July—now is a great time to focus on making your property’s lawn more waterwise.

“Thoughtful planning, smart watering and routine maintenance keeps lawns waterwise and attrac-tive, even in 90 degree temperatures,” said Lindsey Berman, Conservation

Program Manager for the Regional Water Providers Consortium.

The Regional Water Providers Consortium—a group of 20+ local water providers plus Metro—offers the following four tips for creating and maintaining waterwise lawns for multifamily properties.

1. Analyze residents’ needs. Whether installing a new lawn or redoing a portion of an ex-isting lawn, it’s important to analyze residents’ needs and expectations. Does the commu-nity need a large recreational area for kids and pets, or is the outdoor space primarily orna-mental? Are existing lawn areas easy to water and maintain? For example, is grass the best choice for narrow borders or parking strips?

2. Select the right grass. If you’re planting a new lawn, se-lect a grass type that best meets desired aesthetic and mainte-nance needs. Cool season grass-es are ideal for the Portland area

because they are adapted to our region’s climate. An “ecolawn” is an alternative to conventional lawn grass, combining grasses with selected broadleaf plants such as herbs or flowers to produce an ecologically stable mixture of plants that require less maintenance than a typical lawn. Download the Consor-tium’s “Planting & Maintaining

Your Lawn” brochure (conserve-h2o.org) for more information to help identify which lawn type best meets the property’s needs.

3. Water wisely. The most com-mon landscape problem is over-watering. Overwatering can lead to shallow-rooted lawns, increased leaching of fertilizers

Continued on page 2

Experts on… The Ultimate Set of Property Management Tools

Continued on page 7

2 Rental Housing March Valley • June 2014

RENTAL HOUSING JOURNAL VALLEY

property amenities, pictures, and monthly costs speak for themselves. So why not elaborate on what you as a landlord, and your company, can and will do for them as a renter. List items such as your length of ex-perience, quick turnaround times in making repairs, available 24/7, etc. You're applying for a job just as po-tential renters are applying to rent.

IPhone or Like Device -- Staying connected these days has become a way of life. The new culture of ten-ants expect quick responses from their landlords. Acting quickly in most situations is pertinent. Whether you receive maintenance requests, vacancy inquiries, or your clients simply need information, respond-ing to any and all communications quickly can make or break your busi-ness.

Compassion – Even if we can't count it, we all know compassion is real. We've all felt its power and in-fluence. We also know there is more to achieving business success than market strategy and financial objec-tives. Where do these paths cross? People. Everyone has a story, and I make it a point in my business to both listen to a persons story, and take that story into consideration as the business relationship develops.

Will Johnson:

Winning Customer Service - The property management career

is largely about serving customers. On one hand, you have the property owners. They’re paying you to man-age their business efficiently, main-tain their real estate investments and earn a nice return on them. On the other hand, there are your residents. They pay you to provide them with a safe, well-maintained and enjoyable place to call home. The problem with this picture is that the wants and needs of these two separate custom-ers are different, and at times seem-ingly diametrically opposed. The best property managers I know are able to deftly balance these opposing forces by managing expectations and selling the win/win/win. Without owners, there are no homes for your tenants and you’re out of a job. With-out residents, there is no business for your owners and you’re out of a job. Your winning attitude and ability to bring balance and quality service to both, everyone’s needs are met and you not only have a job, you have a career.

Organizational Tools - No mat-ter how big or small your portfolio is, there’s a lot to juggle. Between finances and maintenance and mar-keting and day-today management duties, this is a bog job and one that requires an ability to organize your time and tasks. These tools aren’t a one-size-fits-all situation. For some folks a day-planner notebook, a ma-nila folder or three and a check reg-

istry might be enough. For others, a simple out-of-the box computer program will do the trick. Still oth-ers require big powerful enterprise software that allows you to track multiple properties across multiple owners and states while doing bud-gets, financial projections and guid-ing a satellite. The bottom line is you need organizational tools to be suc-cessful in this industry, or any other really. Know what you need to orga-nize, find a tool or tools that do the job and then use them every time. It’s that simple.

Quality Forms – Your property may have a foundation made of concrete, but a good property man-agement business has a foundation made of rental applications, lease agreements and other legal forms that are compliant with national, state and local laws. Very little can cost you and your owners more money, more quickly than legal is-sues with a disgruntled tenant. Per-haps the most common cause for drawn out legal matters are bad forms. If you’re using bad forms to begin with, your business is shaky from the ground up and no matter what you do after you’re at risk. To build a strong foundation, start with forms from a reliable source. A local rental housing association is a great source for quality forms, also there are a number of sources on-line that offer state specific forms. If you have

any question whatsoever, consult a local attorney specializing in land-lord / tenant laws.

Kate Good is one of the most recog-nized and in demand speakers in the in-dustry. She is one of the founding part-

ners of the Apartment All Stars and has recently added Apartment Developer to her resume with the ground breaking of

800 apartments in Houston, TX. She can be reached at [email protected]

Greg Knackal has been in the Prop-erty Management industry for the last 20 years. He was the 2009 President of Multifamily NW and has been a mem-

ber of the board for the last seven years. For the last 12 years he has worked for one of the largest apartment manage-

ment companies in the state of Oregon, Princeton Property Management .Katie Poole – Hussa is a Licensed

Property Manager, Syndicated Colum-nist in the Rental Housing Industry, Continuing Education Provider and

Principal at Smart Property Manage-ment in Portland, OR. She can be

reached with questions or comments at [email protected].

Will Johnson has been publishing in and providing services to the multifam-ily and residential real estate industries throughout the West for over a decade.

He has over 20 years experience in sales, sales management and training.

p

Property Management Tools:...continued from front page

Rental Housing Journal Valley • June 2014 3


Dear Maintenance Men:I am about to undertake a landscape re-hab project at my building. My problem is that I have a 25-foot King Palm in the way. Can this palm be moved? I’ve also heard that landscape companies will pay for good-sized palms or at least remove the tree for free. Is this true?John

Dear John:Good question. We contacted a

couple of local tree and palm experts in our area. They said King Palms do not travel well and if they are laid down on their sides for transport, they have a low survival rate. For that reason most tree companies will not pay for or remove a King Palms for free. The cost of hiring a crane truck and crew for transplant, most likely will be more than the palm is worth. If it were us, we would try to find a way to include the palm in our new landscape plans or pay for a tree removal service.

Dear Maintenance Men:I have a funny problem with the au-tomatic vehicle gate at an apartment

building we manage. It gets stuck open at odd times for no reason. I have sent the handyman to repair the gate, but he found nothing wrong with it. Manual

Dear Manual:Double check all the gate systems

are working properly. Chances are the problem might be a stuck re-mote control unit in one of the resi-dent’s car. What happens is the con-trol button is stuck on and when the resident comes home, the gate opens automatically and chances are they are parking close to the gate. When they leave the property and get out of range of the gate receiver, the gate returns to normal operation. Finding the defective remote control unit will require a bit of detective work. You will want to determine the range of the controller, and then talk to the owners of the cars parked within the range. Another possibility may be that the remote receiver is failing. The gate will open when cars exit by driving over the gate “loops”, but will be unable to re-enter with their remote control units. The receiver is located near the gate motor assembly and can easily be replaced.

Dear Maintenance Men:

I am in the process of installing new dead bolt locks on a number of doors at my building. These doors have never been drilled for dead bolts before. The prob-lem I’m running into is how to line up where to drill for the latch plate in the doorframe. Do you have any good tricks for getting this done?Ken

Dear Ken:Indeed we do. Lip stick or shoe

polish is the answer. After the dead bolt lock is installed in the door and with the door open, extend the bolt. Now, dab the end of the bolt with lip stick or shoe polish and return the bolt to the unlocked position. Close the door and attempt to lock or ex-

tend the bolt into the frame. Open the door and on the frame should be the exact location of the latch bolt hole. Using a one-inch wood bit; bore a hole 1.5 inches deep to complete the installation.

Another method is to cut a one-inch thick dowel rod three inches long, insert a small finish nail into the end of the dowel rod, and be sure to center the nail. Cut the head of the nail off. With the dead bolt lock removed from the door, insert the dowel rod into the latch hole in the door with the nail end facing out. Close the door and with your finger, push the dowel rod into the doorframe. Pull the rod out and your

By Jerry L'Ecuyer & Frank AlvarezDear Maintenance Men:

Continued on page 6

BackgroundScreening

Visit us at www.erentalservicesinc.com

Rental Services, Inc.RSI Now Offers: Online Rental Applications and

Online Lease Agreements!

RSI Offers

Credit Reports Nationwide Criminal Records Resident Verifications Eviction Records Employment Verifications Sex Offender Report Civil Records Drug Testing Driving Records Employment Screening Business Reports Tenant Screening Nationwide Access Custom Reports

Call for more information!

Toll Free: 800-628-6414Fax: 800-296-9902



May 2, 2014 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM Spectrum Exhibitor Early Registration (Portland, OR)

June 12, 2014 6:30 PM PST - 8:00 PM PST June Landlord Study Hall - Understanding Notices - Proper Drafting & Proper Delivery (Portland, OR)

June 13, 2014 12:00 PM PST - 1:00 PM PST It's the Law Lunch Time Series: The Tenant Is Gone - Final Accountings and Abandonments (Portland, OR)

June 17, 2014 8:00 AM PST - 12:30 PM PST CAMT: Heating Systems Part I (Portland, OR)

June 19, 2014 8:00 AM PST - 12:00 PM PST Basic Electrical for Spanish Speakers (Portland, OR)

June 23, 2014 9:00 AM PST - 11:00 AM PST Section 8 Forum with Home Forward (Portland, OR)

June 25, 2014 1:00 PM PST - 4:00 PM PST LARRC - Law and Rule Required Course (Portland, OR)

June 26, 2014 8:00 AM PST - 12:30 PM PST CAMT: Heating Systems Part II (Portland, OR)

June 27, 2014 9:00 AM PST - 1:00 PM PST New Hire Training (Portland, OR)

July 1, 2014 8:00 AM PST - 9:30 AM PST New OSHA Requirements (Portland, OR)

July 8, 2014 9:00 AM PST - 11:00 AM PST Fair Housing for Maintenance (Portland, OR)

July 10, 2014 1:00 AM PST - 1:00 AM PST PDX Charity Golf Tournament (Portland, OR)

July 11, 2014 12:00 PM PST - 1:00 PM PST It's the Law Lunch Time Series: Dealing With Non-Tenants - Unauthorized Occupants, Trespassers & Ejectments (Portland, OR)

Multifamily NW

Events Calendar

16083 SW Upper Boones Ferry Road, Suite 105, Tigard, OR 97224 503-213-1281, 503-213-1288 Fax www.multifamilynw.org

Fair Housing = Great Customer ServiceMultifamily profes-sionals understand the basics of fair housing and adhere to fair housing prac-tices. An increasing

number of property management firms now require fair housing training before a new employee is allowed to start leasing. Mandatory training for office and maintenance employees is a good start but it only scratches the surface. Ongoing and consistent training is required to ensure employees are fully aware and are compliant with all fair hous-ing laws.

The bigger challenge is the ex-ecution of consistency in every com-munication, in the way each person is treated and with what pricing is offered. Do you complete an online guest card for EVERY person that calls or visits the community? Do you respond to every lead that comes through email? Do you jump up for every prospect that walks through the door? Do you treat every phone call in the same manner and with the same respect? Chances are the answer is unfortunately “Not every

time”. If you are having a busy day or

a bad day and you rush through the tour instead of taking the time to tour the prospect through all the amenities, you could be sending the wrong message. If you are distracted on a phone call and don’t ask all your questions off of your guest card, you could be sending the wrong message. Sometimes the prospect that comes through the door is someone you re-ally connect with. Getting to know them and building rapport comes easy and you are willing to go above and beyond to find them a home in your community. But what happens when the next prospect comes in and they are not friendly, a bit on edge and argumentative? You don’t build rapport with them and quite frankly aren’t excited about having them as a future resident because they appear to be a handful. Are you willing to go above and beyond for that prospect too?

Do you judge people based on the way they talk, the kind of car they drive, the way they are dressed or perhaps where they work? Do you treat someone who is highly edu-

cated differently than someone with a GED? Perceived social status can profoundly influence the way people interact.

How can you remedy your unfa-vorable subjective perception of oth-ers? Everyone has a personal outlook based on how you were raised and what you were exposed to. Anais Nin said “We don’t see things as they are; we see things as we are”. Chal-lenge your perspectives, and work towards seeing things from others viewpoint. Taking a higher level or big picture view of things can have a positive impact on us and those around us. Great customer service is making everyone feel welcome at your community.

We are all human and the pres-sures of life affect us such as family life, financial stress, being tired or sick and pressures to perform. This makes it all the more important to develop policies to create consisten-cy in documentation, leasing calls, tours and follow up, and resident rules and regulations. Educate and develop your teams to have a big picture view and to remove personal perspective. Create the same experi-

ence for every person that comes in contact with your community, not simply to protect from a Fair Hous-ing claim but because it is good cus-tomer service and it’s the right thing to do.

Discrimination on any level is un-acceptable and in the housing indus-try we have a moral and legal obli-gation to use the same policies and offer the same opportunities for ev-eryone. Fair Housing education has never been more important and Mul-tifamily NW has increased course of-ferings with over 21 classes in mul-tiple regions. You can download the Multifamily NW Fair Housing Best Practices document from our web-page at multifamilynw.org. Multi-family NW also offers rental forms to help all landlords operate within the law. Take advantage of all the rental forms and course offerings and make education a priority for your organi-zation.

p

Pam McKennaMultifamily NW President

This form allows the legal disclosures necessary to enforce the land-lord’s rules of the parking lot. Keep track of vehicles that belong to resi-dents, show the monthly cost plus the deposits and late fee applicable for the parking space, and take advantage of the printed rules and regu-lations that keep the lot orderly. The form also gives options for guest parking and has a template for distributing parking tags/stickers or oth-er identification. This informs residents that violations of these rules can result in towing of vehicles.

Oregon Parking/Carport Agreement M158 OR

Often, apartment owners and managers are confronted by residents and even prospects who want to know who lives in your community. An inappropriate response to such a question could make you liable for discrimination and the result can end in a cost-ly lawsuit. This question and many others will be addressed, taking Fair Housing “Do’s and Don’ts” on a case by case basis.

10 Common Fair Housing Mistakes to Avoid

Monday, July 7th, 2014

Join Multifamily NW and Fair Housing Trainer Sharon Jackman to get answers to your questions about the most common fair housing mistakes to avoid.

Chemeketa Eola Events Center 215 Doaks Ferry Road NW

Salem, OR 97304

2 CE Credits Cost: $65.00 Multifamily NW Members $95.00 Non-Members

Email: [email protected] Fax: (503) 213-1288 Class: 9:00am-11:00am

Register: Email: [email protected] Fax: (503) 213-1288

Questions? 800-632-3007



Once you have hired a new property management Su-perStar, the next step is criti-

cal. It’s now time to welcome this SuperStar into your property man-agement company in a way that will accelerate their success and make a lasting first impression. Read the three steps outlined in this article to learn special tips for welcoming a new SuperStar and how to organize a positive and productive first week.

Organizing their arrival: When or-ganizing the arrival of a new Super-Star, preparation must begin at least one week before their first day of em-ployment with your property man-agement company. This preparation might include gathering the follow-ing: a company directory/hand-book, a telephone/fax/address/E-mail list, a cell phone with fresh batteries, personalized business cards, a computer with all the nec-essary software already loaded for them, a folder with any corporate or medical/health forms they will need to complete on their first day and any property management forms or special business tools they will need. Here are some additional ideas: stock

their office/desk with enough office supplies for a full month, a company credit card, easy-to-follow directions for common office tools like the tele-phone, fax machine, computer scan-ner, E-mail and the copy machine, a day planner or new calendar logged with important events or meetings, and maybe a nice company mug to say “welcome aboard”.

Tip From The Coach: Remember, the preparation that is done prior to the arrival of your new property management SuperStar will make for a smooth first day and ensure that training can continue on the second day, with no interruptions. To ensure that each SuperStar receives the best welcome aboard, review each of the items listed in the above paragraph and create an internal checklist spe-cifically customized for your prop-erty management company. The for-mat and flow of this first week will make a big impact with new Super-Stars, but you only get one chance to make a first impression—so make it count!

Planning their first day: Wow! What a great plan to welcome your new SuperStar, right? So what’s

missing? Assign a person in your property management company who will be fully responsible for wel-coming each new SuperStar in a way that is consistent with your company culture and high standards. Start by selecting a SuperStar on your current team and assign him or her to be a welcome mentor for your new Su-perStar during their first week. This person can show your new Super-Star around your property manage-ment company, make introductions to your residents, go to lunch with them the first few days, and explain the company hierarchy and proce-dures. Most importantly, this men-tor can answer the many questions all new SuperStars will have.

Tip From The Coach: On the first day you can help your new Super-Star gain acceptance among the team by quoting him or her about a new idea or suggestion they shared with you. This demonstrates that you val-ue their feedback and will be quick to give them credit. This also shows your current team that the new Su-perStar on their team can make valu-able contributions to the success of your property management compa-

ny and will accelerate the acceptance process.

Scheduling the first week: As the hiring manager you are also respon-sible for meeting with your new Su-perStar at the start of their first day to share with them the written plan you have for their first week. This writ-ten plan should include a specific agenda, detailing their exact train-ing steps and who will be assisting them in their learning. In addition, this plan must include a space for each of you to sign and date every step in their training plan as they are being accomplished. This is an im-portant check-and-balance, because it communicates to your new Super-Star that they are responsible for the success of their training and you are equally responsible for the comple-tion of a comprehensive training program.

Tip From The Coach: At least for the first week, meet with your new SuperStar for fifteen minutes at the end of each day. Make sure they are settling in, answer their questions, review their responsibilities and ask how their transition into your prop-

Three Important Steps for Welcoming New Property Management SuperStars!

by Ernest F. Oriente, The Coach

Continued on page 8



The telephone is your single most important leasing tool and it’s probably the easiest

“tool” to operate at your community, but is everyone answering it when it rings? Many apartment communi-ties are spending time and money on designing creative, effective ads and signage to make their phones ring. Yet, believe it or not, many leas-ing people are still choosing not to answer their telephones. Worse yet, those who are relying on voice mail to take messages, are not always returning calls in a timely manner or even at all. I cannot tell you how many shopping reports I received last month with remarks like this:

“If I had really been looking for a new home, I would have given up trying to reach someone here. The phone went unanswered as I at-tempted to make contact numerous times, and no one returned my call when I left a message.”

For those property management companies who regularly evaluate their employees with a shopping program in order to “perfect their performance,” they are also testing to make sure someone is simply an-

swering the phone and returning calls! Of course having difficulty making contact with the leasing of-fice is merely an inconvenience for the Secret Shopper, as I am only PRE-TENDING to need an apartment. What about REAL renters out there? What do you suppose happens to them? My guess is they are living in your neighborhood, perhaps in an apartment at the community next door because someone answered the phone on the day they were looking for a new home.

The question that keeps coming up over and over again from prop-erty managers and owners is this:

Q: How can I get my leasing people to convert more of their tele-phone traffic into actual visits and then rentals?

Then there’s the question from the leasing consultants and manag-ers who primarily work alone due to budget constraints and the size of their communities:

Q: I know my supervisor is con-cerned about the office coverage and my ability to always answer the phone, but since I work by myself I

have to take care of everything out on the property and also run all the errands. I just can’t be in the office all day, every day. What can I do?

A: It sounds like the people be-hind these questions/concerns all have the same goal in mind, but have yet to devise a plan in order to achieve their objective. While the day to day operations of caring for each community and its residents must be carried out, there will be no new residents to take care of without ac-tive leasing. The most obvious solu-tion is as simple as forwarding your office calls to a cell phone. By having calls forwarded and being prepared to quote information about your available apartments, you can eas-ily set appointments while you are out walking a vacant apartment or running a bank deposit. Of course you will have to always be prepared with something to write on and pos-sibly take a message if a call comes through when you are unable to talk. However, in receiving a “live voice,” rather than a message, your call-ers are more likely to give you their name and number for a call back

rather than leave you a voice mail. Of course if you aren’t in a position to answer your phone, how about regu-larly checking for messages AND re-turning calls? While you’re at it, how about also checking for e-mails from prospective renters. – Most of you can do that with your phone too!

A: To those property managers and owners who already have their managers forwarding calls to a cell phone, but are not seeing a high per-centage of callers being converted into visitors, maybe your employ-ees need an “incentive” as extra motivation to work harder on set-ting appointments, rather than just answering questions and giving out information when the phone rings. It could be something as simple as a Starbucks gift card in the dol-lar amount of the number of callers turned into visitors and something more for every visitor who becomes a resident. (Of course a guest card system and/or telephone log would have to be in place for verification purposes. . . .)

Continued on page 7

Dear Maintenance Men...continued from page 3

drilling site is marked exactly. One last item, if you are doing a number of doors, it may be worth purchasing a doorknob drilling jig. It will contain all the tools needed for professional door lock drilling and installation. The kit typically costs between $50 for a home improvement store kit and up to $400 for a professional kit. The $50 kit if fine if only have a cou-ple of doors to drill, however, if you have a lot of dead bolts to install, the professional kit is worth the money in the time and frustration it saves.

Please send us your Maintenance

Questions!!! To see your maintenance question in the “Dear Maintenance

Men:” column, please send submission to: Questions@BuffaloMaintenance.

com Please “Like” us on Facebook.com/BuffaloMaintenance Bio: Please call:

Buffalo Maintenance, Inc for mainte-nance work or consultation. JLE Prop-

erty Management, Inc for management service or consultation Frankie Alvarez at 714 956-8371 Jerry L’Ecuyer at 714 778-0480 CA contractor lic: #797645,

EPA Real Estate lic. #: 01460075 Certi-fied Renovation Company Websites:

www.BuffaloMaintenance.com & www.ContactJLE.com www.Facebook.com/

BuffaloMaintenance

1/8 Page4 7/8” x 3 5/8” bwOn-Site3a

ON-SITEVALLEY, METRO, ARIZONA APT. NEWSSalsbury Industries

Jan, Mar, May, Jul, Sep, Nov,

The Industry Leader in Quality

Order Factory Direct!Contact Us Today for a Free Catalog!

1010 East 62nd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90001-1598Phone: 1-800-624-5269 • Fax: 1-800-624-5299



PROPERTY NAME

NAME

CITY STATE ZIP

Send for your FREE subscription to Professional Publishing, Inc., PO Box 30327, Portland, OR 97294-3327 • (503) 221-1260 • fax (503) 221-1545

EMAIL ADDRESS PHONE

ADDRESS

RHJ VALLEY FREE SUBSCRIPTION

By Jo Becker, Education/Outreach Specialist, Fair Housing Council of Oregon

A HUD survey released in 2013 involving 6,833 tests in 50 different metropolitan areas

found that same-sex couples were over 15% more likely to experience discrimination than heterosexual couples.

Sexual orientation and gender identity are not, as of yet, covered by the federal Fair Housing Act, but they are protected under state law in Oregon.

Shanna Smith of the National Fair Housing Alliance responded to the study by saying, “This study serves as evidence that there is a dire need to include protections for the LGBT community in the federal Fair Hous-ing Act. More enforcement of these laws is also necessary as discrimi-nation continues at high rates even in states that have these protections for the LGBT community. The HUD study is groundbreaking in both its scope and magnitude. While the dis-crimination statistics are no surprise, the study itself was a crucial first step that needed to be taken to bet-ter understand the extent of housing discrimination.”

In another report released a year earlier, the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) found that multi-year trends in anti-LGBTQ hate violence and homicides continue . In fact, 2012 had the dis-tinction of having the fourth highest yearly total of anti-LGBTQ violence ever recorded. The report details that transgender women, people of color, and gay men face the most se-vere violence.

For more information about fair housing visit: www.FHCO.org/sexualorient.htm. Here we offer a variety of tools – such as the Self-As-sessment Compliance Checklist and Suggested Best Practices for Various Housing Transactions created by our colleagues at the Washington State Human Rights Commission – as well as a myriad of assessments and state-ments from HUD on the issues, as well as other relevant resources.

If you or someone you know sus-pects their civil rights in housing have been violated, please contact our free and confidential Fair Hous-ing Hotline today at 800/424-3247 ext. 2.

This article brought to you by the Fair Housing Council; a civil rights organization. All rights reserved © 2014. Write [email protected] to

reprint articles or inquire about on-going content for your own publica-tion.

To learn more… Learn more about fair housing and / or sign up for our free, periodic newsletter at www.FHCO.org.

Qs about this article? ‘Interested in articles for your company or trade association? Contact Jo Becker at [email protected] or 800/424-3247 Ext. 150

Want to schedule an in-office fair housing training program or speaker for corporate or association func-tions? Visit www.FHCO.org/pdfs/classlist.pdf

Federally protected classes un-der the Fair Housing Act include: race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status (children), and disability. Oregon law also protects marital status, source of income, sexual orientation, and domestic vio-lence survivors. Additional protect-ed classes have been added in par-ticular geographic areas; visit FHCO.org/mission.htm and read the sec-tion entitled “View Local Protected Classes” for more information.

p

Rate of Same-Sex Housing Discrimination Studied If the day-to-day responsibilities

of managing your community make you repeatedly absent from your leasing office, consider forwarding your calls to a cell phone. This will minimize the inconvenience to your prospective renters and anyone else that might be trying to get a hold of you, as well as make you readily available in the event of an emergen-cy. By the way: It’s just as important to answer the calls marked “private” as it is to pick up when the calls are routed through an ad source or you see your supervisor’s phone number come up on your caller ID! – It just may be the Secret Shopper calling . . .

Are you dealing with a unique challenge or unusual situation at your community that you would like to see

addressed next month? The Secret Shopper would like to invite you to send

in your questions, as other people may be dealing with the same or similar is-sues. - You will remain as anonymous

as the Secret Shopper! Please ASK THE SECRET SHOPPER by making contact

via e-mail. Your questions, comments and suggestions are ALWAYS wel-

come! ASK THE SECRET SHOPPER Provided by: Joyce Kirby SHOPTALK

SERVICE EVALUATIONS Phone: 425-424-8870 E-mail: joyce@shoptalk-

service.com Web site: www.shoptalkser-vice.com Copyright – Shoptalk Service

Evaluations p

Shoptalk...continued from page 6

Waterwise...continued from front page

and nutrients, and increased potential for disease problems. A well-planned, well-designed and well-timed irrigation sys-tem saves money, saves water and promotes lawn health. Wa-ter before 10 a.m. or after 6 p.m. to minimize evaporation. As a rule of thumb, an established lawn requires about one inch of water per week—more dur-ing the peak of summer and less during spring and fall. Check out the Weekly Watering Num-ber at www.conserveh2o.org to see how much to water your plants and lawn each week.

4. Maintain. Routine mainte-nance such as mowing, fertil-ization, moss control, weeding, aerating and dethatching will keep lawns healthy. Make every drop count by checking your ir-rigation system regularly; even small leaks can waste hundreds of gallons of water.

Conserving water makes eco-nomic and environmental sense, and helps our region meet our long-term water supply needs. Property man-agers care for much of the region’s landscape; by creating and maintain-ing a waterwise lawn, you will create a beautiful landscape for your ten-ants and help to preserve a valuable community resource.

About the Regional Water Providers Consortium

The Regional Water Providers Consortium (a group of 20+ local water providers plus the regional government

Metro) is committed to good steward-ship of our region’s water through

conservation, emergency preparedness planning, and water supply coordina-

tion. The Consortium provides resourc-es and information to help individual

and commercial customers save water. www.conserveh2o.org

p



erty management company is going. Remember, whenever someone new joins your company they bring fresh eyes and new ideas—so listen and watch closely to see what you can learn.

Want to hear more about this im-portant topic or ask some additional questions about how to welcome a new SuperStar? Send an E-mail to [email protected] and The Coach will E-mail you a free PowerHour in-vitation.

Author’s note: Ernest F. Oriente, a business coach/trainer since 1995 [32,050 hours], serving property man-agement industry professional since 1988--the author of SmartMatch Alli-ances™, the founder of PowerHour® [ www.powerhour.com ], the founder of PowerHour SEO [ www.powerhourseo.com ], the live weekly PowerHour Lead-ership Academy [ www.powerhourlead-ershipacademy.com/pm ] and Power Insurance & Risk Management Group [ www.pirmg.com ], has a passion for coaching his clients on executive lead-ership, hiring and motivating property management SuperStars, traditional and Internet SEO/SEM marketing, com-petitive sales strategies, and high lever-age alliances for property management teams and their leaders. He provides private and group coaching for property management companies around North America, executive recruiting, invest-ment banking, national utility bill au-

diting, national real estate and apart-ment building insurance, SEO/SEM web strategies, national WiFi solutions [ www.powerhour.com/propertyman-agement/nationalwifi.html ], powerful tools for hiring property management SuperStars and building dynamic teams, employee policy manuals [ www.power-hour.com/propertymanagement/employ-eepolicymanuals.html ] and social media strategic solutions [ http://www.power-hour.com/propertymanagement/social-medialeadership.html ]. Ernest worked for Motorola, Primedia and is certified in the Xerox sales methodologies. Recent interviews and articles have appeared more than 8000+ times in business and trade publications and in a wide variety of leading magazines and newspapers, including Smart Money, Inc., Business 2.0, The New York Times, Fast Com-pany, The LA Times, Fortune, Business Week, Self Employed America and The Financial Times. Since 1995, Ernest has written 225+ articles for the property management industry and created 400+ property management forms, business and marketing checklists, sales letters and presentation tools. To subscribe to his free property management newslet-ter go to: www.powerhour.com. Power-Hour® is based in Olympic-town…Park City, Utah, at 435-615-8486, by E-mail [email protected] or visit their website: www.powerhour.com

p

Oriente, The Coach...continued from page 5

BEFORE

AFTER

Quality asphalt Maintenance

Commercial & Residential• Protects & Prolongs Asphalt Life • Resists Oil & Gas Spills• Reduces Maintenance Costs • Improves Appearance

www.salemsealcoating.com

• Licensed • InsuredCCB# 165255Since 1984

prompt Free estimates

503.362.9171800-458-9171

• Asphalt Repair • Crack Filling • Striping • Slurry Seal

Documents

Valeey Rental Housing Journal - June 2014