All Forum Posts by: Nate Hall

@Matt Clark I have to admit that the change in tech isn't something I had thought about. They are offering 5-year contracts on most of our properties with a few needing to be 6-year to be profitable for the company. 

At first glance, this felt like a good idea, but I'm not so sure anymore. You make some really good points that I hadn't considered. 

Thanks for the reply, Emanuele. I can see where it could be a big asset. I just hope it can fit into the low-income multifamily space. 

Recently, the company I work for -- a property management firm specializing in medium-sized multi-family complexes -- was approached by a representative from a large cable company. The rep is offering to sell us bulk internet and cable for a low price. We can take that and offer it to our residents (with our own mark-up) to add an extra revenue stream on top of our rent money. The price is low enough that we can undercut the prices of other internet and cable providers by a large margin and still make a profit. 

The big issue is that we have to pay for the internet and cable whether or not a unit is rented. While any rented unit now makes more money, a vacant unit now costs more. 

Does anyone have experience with deals like these? Did they work out or is it just a hassle? My boss is a little skittish on the idea and doesn't want to make a decision without some sort of referral. 

I'm really hoping to stick with Yardi. I believe that transferring data to their new system will be less painful and I'm hoping that training employees will go smoother.

Their initial price quotes were painful, but I've talked to some of the companies in their 'success stories' section on their website and now I believe that the bad pricing may be due to a communication error. I'm waiting on a new quote now and hoping that it looks much better than before.

The platform we had been on was Enterprise, but we've come across several issues with trying to put that version onto new servers. Also, they'll be sunsetting support soon enough.

We are definitely locked in to a longterm contract, but it comes up at the end of the year. There are a few competitors that have been asking around about them. As much as I like the current company, I don't want to fall into complacency when it comes to negotiating these out.

That's what I'm going to have to do. My rep is really nice and is very responsive except for when I asked about price. I know she was dealing with some family issues at the time, so I'm keeping my hopes up that she's not dragging her feet because I've stumbled across something they've pulled.

I'll definitely make sure to get some proposals by the other companies around. Luckily, there are quite a few waste removal options. 

I'm pretty sure that we're paying by the tip. Each bill has a unit cost, but unit costs don't just describe a single unit. The unit cost describes, for example, a quantity of two dumpsters 8-yards in size picked up twice a month. I've found separate bills that will have the same quantity, size, and pick ups that will vary wildly in the price. 

I've actually asked our representative about the costs and she said she would look into it. We do have contracts on the different properties, so it may just be a question of how each contract was negotiated. 

I'm not sure how connected the Alabama garbage industry is, so I may back off if I get a new representative who is large and Italian. 

As the controller for a property management company, I have to sign off on all of the bills. Most utility bills are pretty straight forward whether they're high or not, but the waste removal bills are a different animal. I usually check on the costs of an 8-yard dumpster and divide it by the number of dumpsters and the times it is picked up in a month so I can get the cost  of one pick up for that dumpster. So far, I've seen fluctuations between $30 to $300 per pick up of an 8-yard dumpster. Can anyone explain why there is such a variation in pricing?

@Account Closed

I've learned the hard way that calling any property management software company is going to take a chunk of time. I've even got a few that I have ruled out from the list of candidates that will still call and email trying to get me to run a demo. Hopefully Appfolio will deliver. I appreciate the advice. 

I don't have a sample, but it's easy enough to describe. The report lists the properties in a column. Next to that column are columns for operating income, non-operating income, deposit activity, deposit balance, operating disbursements, management fees, beginning balance, current activity, and current balance.