If all goes well, an Executive Order signed by Governor Schwarzenegger will not only advance California's transition to clean energy but boost the economy as well.
According to an economic study conducted by the University of California at Berkeley and Next 10, California's policies will create as many as 403,000 jobs in the next twelve years and household incomes will increase by 48 billion dollars.
Check out our Green Pages for information on money saving tips that help the environment. Once there, click on the Green Forum.
American Apartment Owners Association offers discounts on products and services related to your commercial housing investment, including real estate forms, tenant debt collection, tenant background checks, insurance and financing. Find out more at www.joinaaoa.org.
Citigroup, Inc announced last week that it plans to accelerate its Homeowner Assistance Program by reaching out to as many as 500,000 customers who are not in foreclosure, but are at high risk given economic indicators.
These ‘preemptive initiatives' are designed with loss mitigation in mind. To date, Citi's efforts to reformulate mortgage loans have prevented as many as 370,000 foreclosures, which would have represented $35 billion in loans over the last eighteen months of the program. For every one foreclosure, renegotiation has prevented four others.
American Apartment Owners Association offers discounts on products and services related to your commercial housing investment including REAL ESTATE FORMS, tenant debt collection, tenant background checks, insurance and financing. Find out more at www.joinaaoa.org.
The League of American Bicyclists has announced the winners of this year's most bike-friendly communities.
These awards go to communities that have made measurable efforts to integrate bicycles into their communities. Ninety-six communities have been awarded in thirty two states. There are five categories that local and national reviewers look at:
Education: Does the community have systems in place to train children and adult bicyclists?
Engineering: Are bicycles included in the city's transportation plan?
Encouragement: Does the community participate in Bike Month, bike rodeos, host community bike rides, or therwise encourage cycling?
Enforcement: Do police officers understand and enforce bicyclists' rights and responsibilities?
Evaluation: Does the community have methods in place to ensure their bicycle programs are making a difference?
League President Andy Clarke believes, "It's important to recognize communities as they begin to build bicycle friendliness into their network, but a community must have established records in two or more of the five categories in order to earn Bicycle Friendly Community designation."
Check out our Green Pages for information on money saving tips that help the environment. Once there, click on the Green Forum.
American Apartment Owners Association offers discounts on products and services related to your commercial housing investment, including real estate forms, tenant debt collection, tenant background checks, insurance and financing. Find out more at www.joinaaoa.org.
Focus on Liability Management and Preventative Maintenance: Bats
by Michael Koski
Here's a maintenance issue you might not have considered - preventing bat infestation!
Bat infestations are more common than one might think, especially with bats continued displacement as their natural territories diminish. Fortunately there are simple steps property owners and managers can take to lessen the likelihood of a bat invasion.
Bats are incredibly useful animals, arguably one of the most beneficial species on earth, but they can cause horrific damage to your property. Their droppings, or guano, are surprisingly caustic, known to actually eat away at wood and drywall. The accumulation of urine and guano will eventually saturate most building materials and severely devalue any structure they accumulate in.
Bats in the property may also increase property owners and managers exposure to litigation. Imagine the disputes that could arise after a tenant wakes up to discover their sleeping child has shared a room with a bat, or a group of curious kids play with a bat they find on the property and it tests positive for rabies. Recently in Stevensville, Montana ninety or so elementary school kids had to be given anti-rabies vaccinations after handling a rabid bat, ironically brought in by a parent. The cost of the treatment for these children? It could possibly exceed $150,000 (the cost of a series of rabies vaccinations varies, but currently averages around $2,000 to $3,500). Knowing what steps to take to prevent a bat infestation and how to handle the situation, should it ever occur, will save you time, money and can reduce your overall exposure to liability.
About the Author: Michael Koski is an author, Bat Exclusion Professional and owner of Get Bats Out- a nationwide bat exclusion company. Get Bats Out specializes in commercial and residential bat exclusion and guano clean up. His book,The Home Owner's Essential Guide to Bat Removal is available on his website atwww.getbatsout.com. He can be reached at 877-264-2287 for any and all bat questions.
American Apartment Owners Association offers discounts on products and services related to your commercial housing investment including REAL ESTATE FORMS, tenant debt collection,tenant background checks, insurance and financing. Find out more at www.joinaaoa.org.
A transportation fringe benefit to bicycle commuters is tucked neatly into the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act that was signed into law October 3, 2008.
Keep scrolling, you'll find it ( House Resolution 1424, Section 211, for you die-hard readers of legislation).
The passing of this act into law is a big win for cyclists who commute to work, offering tax fairness, and the financial benefit might give more people an incentive to try it.
Check out our Green Pages for information on money saving tips that help the environment. Once there, click on the Green Forum.
American Apartment Owners Association offers discounts on products and services related to your commercial housing investment, including real estate forms, tenant debt collection, tenant background checks, insurance and financing. Find out more at www.joinaaoa.org.
"For investors with a portfolio of properties, greater opportunities exist to save on premiums, and thereby increase your investment income, by purchasing insurance on the portfolio, just like insurance carriers do on their portfolios as a whole," according to Patrick Nugent, CCIM, JD with Commercial Insurance Solutions in Dallas. Read more.
American Apartment Owners Association offers discounts on products and services related to your commercial housing investment including REAL ESTATE FORMS, tenant debt collection,tenant background checks, insurance and financing. Find out more at www.joinaaoa.org.
In the spirit of maverick lawmen like Wyatt Earp, Chicago's Sheriff has said "no" to enforcing eviction orders against renters when the landlord's property is foreclosed.
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart held a press conference Wednesday to announce that he has ordered his deputies to halt evictions in Chicago and some outlying areas, because the Sheriff's Department will no longer "be a party to destroying people's lives."
Evictions are already a "gut-wrenching" experience for his deputies, Dart explained, but when tenants have been paying rent and are unaware that the property is subject to foreclosure, evicting them rises to the level of "injustice". Read more.
American Apartment Owners Association offers discounts on products and services related to your commercial housing investment including REAL ESTATE FORMS, tenant debt collection, tenant background checks, insurance and financing. Find out more at www.joinaaoa.org.
"What property owners need to understand it that there's a big difference between market value that lenders use and the replacement cost carriers use," says Patrick Nugent, CCIM, JD, with Commercial Insurance Solutions out of Dallas.
"A property insurance policy is intended to make an insured whole and will not act as a profit center."
With that in mind, Nugent recommends that a property owner take a hard look at the insurable values with an eye toward replacement costs because this will lower premiums. Read more.
American Apartment Owners Association offers discounts on products and services related to your commercial housing investment including REAL ESTATE FORMS, tenant debt collection, tenant background checks, insurance and financing. Find out more at www.joinaaoa.org.
So, where's the party? On November 8th and 9th, 2008, the Washington D.C. Convention Center will open its doors to Green Festival. Over 350 eco-friendly businesses will be attending.
Scrolling down the list of vendors, I was surprised to see an entrepreneur from my own home place, Boulder, Colorado. Heather English was floating down Boulder Creek in an inner tube, thinking she needed a new handbag, when she came up with the idea for her new business, English Retreads. She designed her first handbag using reclaimed truck inner tubes.The fabric lining is made from post-consumer recycled plastic bottles. Local truck stops supply her with inner tubes, and many of these tubes have traveled over 60,000 miles. She's found a great way to make reclaimed rubber into a fashion statement. Read more.
Check out our Green Pages for information on money saving tips that help the environment. Once there, click on the Green Forum for more articles by feature writer Louisa May.
American Apartment Owners Association offers discounts on products and services related to your commercial housing investment, including real estate forms, tenant debt collection, tenant background checks, insurance and financing. Find out more at www.joinaaoa.org.
One of the world's largest financial institutions, Bank of America, announced this weekend that it has settled the massive litigation brought by eleven states against it's Countrywide loan portfolio.
The bank purchased Countrywide's loans over the summer subject to the claims for predatory lending practices.
Many experts have viewed such lending practices and the resulting eruption of foreclosures as the catalyst for the current financial ‘bailout' plan just approved by Congress and signed into law last week.
The bank has promised to spend as much as $8.4 billion dollars for what it deems a "home retention" program, with the goal of slowing or preventing as many foreclosures as possible of the remaining Countrywide loans which could include nearly half a million customers. How will they do it? Read more.
American Apartment Owners Association offers discounts on products and services related to your commercial housing investment including real estate forms, tenant debt collection, tenant background checks, insurance and financing. Find out more at www.joinaaoa.org.
American Apartment Owners Association
If all goes well, an Executive Order signed by Governor Schwarzenegger will not only advance California's transition to clean energy but boost the economy as well.
Citigroup, Inc announced last week that it plans to accelerate its Homeowner Assistance Program by reaching out to as many as 500,000 customers who are not in foreclosure, but are at high risk given economic indicators. 
The League of American Bicyclists has announced the winners of this year's most bike-friendly communities.
Bat infestations are more common than one might think, especially with bats continued displacement as their natural territories diminish. Fortunately there are 
Bats in the property may also increase property owners and managers exposure to litigation. Imagine the disputes that could arise after a tenant wakes up to discover their sleeping child has shared a room with a bat, or a group of curious kids play with a bat they find on the property and it tests positive for rabies. Recently in Stevensville, Montana ninety or so elementary school kids had to be given anti-rabies vaccinations after handling a rabid bat, ironically brought in by a parent. The cost of the treatment for these children? It could possibly exceed $150,000 (the cost of a series of rabies vaccinations varies, but currently averages around $2,000 to $3,500). Knowing what steps to take to prevent a bat infestation and how to handle the situation, should it ever occur, will save you time, money and can reduce your overall exposure to liability.
A transportation fringe benefit to bicycle commuters is tucked neatly into the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act that was signed into law October 3, 2008.
"For investors with a portfolio of properties, greater opportunities exist to save on premiums, and thereby increase your investment income, by purchasing insurance on the portfolio, just like insurance carriers do on their portfolios as a whole," according to Patrick Nugent, CCIM, JD with Commercial Insurance Solutions in Dallas. 
In the spirit of maverick lawmen like Wyatt Earp, Chicago's Sheriff has said "no" to enforcing eviction orders against renters when the landlord's property is foreclosed.
"What property owners need to understand it that there's a big difference between market value that lenders use and the replacement cost carriers use," says Patrick Nugent, CCIM, JD, with 
;)
;)
