Starting January 1, it's an "Open" and shut case

Here in Texas, carrying a concealed handgun if you are licensed has been legal for some time.  This year, the state legislature also ruled that those same license holders could carry handguns openly. There are rules about holsters, etc., but basically, unless there are specific signs prohibiting it, here in Texas you may be seeing a lot more guns in January.

In our shop, we wondered if we should maybe get to know a bit more about this, maybe try and help our clients to decide for their own buildings whether they should take a position on the subject.

So we sent someone to a BOMA seminar on the subject, checked with our insurance agent, and then debated among ourselves to come up with something of a white paper on the subject.  I'm in the process of sending that out to our clients now.

So many questions arise:  Should handguns be banned?  What is the owner's liability?  What is the Property Manager's liability?  Can each tenant do something different?

Easy answers are hard to find.  The conclusion we finally arrived at was that employees and visitors to an office property should not have to have the expectation that they will encounter someone carrying a weapon openly.  Given that concealed carry is also legal, we decided to recommend to our clients the middle way of banning openly carried guns, but not install the signage banning handguns that would be concealed.  Let me know if you would like to read the full white paper.

September is about more than Football - I know, who's listening?

We property managers like football as well as anyone, I guess.  Since September is also National Preparedness Month, we are obsessing about more than football, we're talking safety.  We obsess because a safe building is also a comfortable place to be, and we love making our tenants comfortable and our clients are happy keeping their tenants.  Everyone wins!!

So I thought I would pass along the BOMA's (Building Owners and Managers Association) "Top Ten" tips we property managers will be reviewing in our huddles this month.

http://www.facilitiesnet.com/emergencypreparedness/article/BOMA-Preparedness-Top-Ten-List-for-National-Preparedness-Month-Facilities-Management-Emergency-Preparedness-News--11160

With hurricane season in full swing and experts predicting an increase in cases of the H1N1 virus this fall, now is the time to revisit preparedness plans, according to the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International.

September is National Preparedness Month and BOMA has released a list of ten best practices property professionals can adopt to ensure their tenants, staff and buildings are safe in an emergency or natural disaster.

An effective preparedness plan includes an emergency response plan, a communications strategy and a blueprint for business continuity.

Here is a list of tips to help property professionals start planning now:

   1. Review your plan. Regularly go over your building’s emergency preparedness plan with your team to ensure everyone is familiar with all aspects of emergency protocol.
   2. Practice makes perfect. Have your preparedness team take part in tabletop exercises, in which team members walk through various emergency scenarios and propose responses to “what if” questions.
   3. Involve your tenants. Make certain all of your tenants are aware of the building evacuation procedures and encourage them to participate in evacuation drills.
   4. Communicate. Develop a multi-layered crisis communication plan that is fast and effective in reaching tenants, local authorities and agencies, and the media.
   5. Stay alert. Sign up for daily alerts to monitor weather conditions and cases of pandemic influenza in your area.
   6. Work with authorities. Review local evacuation procedures and identify the agency that will issue evacuation orders.
   7. Cross-train staff. Identify and provide cross-training essential personnel to provide critical services.
   8. Revisit HR policies. Determine how your company’s leave and salary policies will apply in emergency situations, such as a pandemic flu outbreak, when a significant portion of your workforce may be unable to come to work.
   9. Operate remotely. Consider identifying off-site work facilities or telecommuting capabilities to ensure business continuity in the event of a disaster.
  10. Find the latest resources, such as informational websites.

Te Huur, or Te Koop - That is the question

A few more words about Belgium.  Although I typically post only about property management, as I traveled through Belgium I saw many for rent and for sale signs, I thought they would make an OK blog post - when in Belgium, you might say...

Real estate signs in Belgium always seem to be attached to the building itself, and almost always perpendicular to the building, jutting out usually at 2nd floor level.  That in itself was interesting to me as an American.  In suburban Texas we take for granted the excess of space we have to plant signs.  In Belgium, especially in urban areas, that space simply does not exist in most cities.  So they must be installed on the building, above the street level so as not to conflict with the signs of the business itself, up and out of pedestrian traffic also.

Then there's the language on the signs. Throughout the country, the signs were Te Koop, which means for sale, or Te Huur, which means for rent. I think the meaning of Te Huur is probably "To Hire."  The language for both is Dutch, which is spoken by a lot of people in Belgium.  The thing is, French is spoken by a lot of other people in Belgium.
 

For a country as small as Belgium, it was surprising to me how many people spoke Dutch and not French, or French and not Dutch, depending on where they live.  By some secret handshake, however, sometime in the past, the decision got made that even in French speaking areas, real estate signs would speak Dutch.

So I am going along, seeing real estate signs, and finding them interesting (yes, I know how sad that sounds), until one day I saw a JLL sign. Then it became: "Well if JLL is here, where  are the Coldwell Banker Commercial signs?"  Competition reigns supreme, and hard as I looked, I hate to admit that I did not see one of my own company's signs.  I know CBC is in Europe, but what about Belgium?  Do I need to go there and do some business development, take one for the team? pick up some listings?  If I must...

Happy Fourth of July 2015!

CBCA DFW offices will be closed on Friday July 3, but we are always on call and will take care of your buildings as if we owned them ourselves!

Enjoy your Independence Day Holiday!

Did you know??
Thomsas Jefferson and John Adams both passed away on July 4, 1826, exactly 50 years after they both signed the Declaration of Independence

Carol Sosebee

An American in Belgium...and Hand Dryers

Even on vacation, I cannot stop seeing through the lens of property management.  Everywhere I went, could not help noticing hand dryers.  HAND DRYERS!!!

Ok, there's a reason.  When I was in Italy in 2011, I could not help noticing that the automatic hand dryers there were gentler on the hands, the blast of air did not deform your hands when you used them, as is universally the case in the US, and they did not sound like you're standing behind a jet engine at takeoff.  I chalked it up to the supremacy of italian design.  

Not so.  I went to Belgium in May for a very cool tour of Trappist monasteries.  Not, as you might think, because I am religious.  No, it is because my husband and I are avid Belgian Beer fans.  We joined 17 other people in paying homage to these wonderful beverages by traveling to their brewing locations and enjoying them as close as possible to the source.  And as we traveled the country, I kept noticing the hand dryers.

First, there was the Dyson V dryer. The first time I encountered this dryer, I had no idea how to use it, and pretty much just walked away with wet hands. Later I saw someone else wave their hands in front of it, and viola, two blades of air rushed from the sides of the V, and hands became dry as if by magic.









Then there was the Eco Dryer.  This one had lots of air holes inside, so that your hands were dried with gentle air pressure as you passed your hands up and down.  I liked this one a lot, I thought the multi-point air drying was a great idea. Of all I saw, this one did the job without the ear splitting, hand deforming downward single point jet of air I usually see here.


And finally, my least favorite, and most like whatI see in the Good Ole USA - the downward single point of air dryer.  This is the European version of the Xelerator jet dryer in the US.  It is, however, easier on the hands, and not so loud.

As I contemplated the use of hand dryers at Trappist breweries in Belgium (Yes, I know how strange that sounds), it occurred to me that I don't even see that many hand dryers in office buildings in the U.S., at least in the DFW area.  Why is that, I wonder?  Could it be because sub-consciously we all have the same reaction to the use of uncomfortable hand dryers we typically find in the US?

It inspires me to source one of those kinder, gentler hand dryer versions to install in the bathrooms of the buildings we manage.  Stay Tuned...I'll let you know how that turns out.      

Who Knew...? Water can be "Smart"

I have been watching the latest news from California, their water crisis is scary looking.  By happenstance I turn my attention to my own city installing "smart meters" everywhere.  I read in the Dallas paper about Wichita Falls contemplating a recycling effort of sewage water into drinking water.  Hmmm. what does it all mean?  What I'm afraid it means is that water is a more scarce resource than the price we pay really reflects.

One of our landscaping providers has been telling us for awhile about a new "Smart Controller" he can install that will, properly configured and managed, keep irrigation water use to the absolute minimum required to get the job done and still have the pleasing curb appeal at our properties our tenants and their guests expect.  Apparently in our case this can be almost half our current irrigation water use.  Yikes!

So this week that landscaper had their reps come in, buy us lunch, and explain how their system works.  We are a tough audience.

It's a pretty cool deal.  Think about all the irrigation controllers in office buildings that have to be accessed on-site.  With this system you access and manage the controller through a web interface, turn the system completely off when there's rain headed our way, fine tune the individual zones, and get real time data on how much water you are using.

The question is, how much does it cost, how long is the payback, and what is the value proposition to our owner clients to induce them to invest quite a bit to replace a regular controller that is not currently broken.  Like I said, we are a tough audience.  We do like the idea though, and think we know where we can try it out.  I'll keep you posted.

Roofing is the theme...and the meme

One of our strategies for getting preventive maintenance done is to come up with monthly "Themes" for the kind of routine maintenance that is often so hard to work into the schedule.

This month's preventive maintenance theme is roofing.  We partner with a company who does annual video inspections.  Video is great for those of us get a bit, shall we say, woozy, on rooftops.  Our vendor walks the roof with a video camera and uploads that video, along with their report and recommendations, so we can log in and compare this year to last year's inspection.

Our guys, in the meantime, focus on the things they can stay up with, like keeping the roof deck and drains free of debris, and checking for ponding after a rain.

Personally, I do get a little lost in the terminology. Bitumen, coping, scuppers, parapets, counterflashing...it does make my head swim, sort of like I feel when climbing up that ladder to the roof.

LEaDing the way on lighting efficiency

In our weekly property management team huddles, we have a periodic forum for hearing from a vendor with a new idea, new approach, new way to add value.  We want to hear from them, because everything we do is about adding value.  Property value.  For us it's not just adding value in the abstract, it's about adding real value to a real property.

So that's why we scheduled a visit from a local electrical contractor last week who wanted to tell us about how they can retrofit lighting fixtures with LED's.  That may sound simple, you can buy screw in LED's at Home Depot, right?  Right.  Think about this though:  what is the predominant fixture in an office building?  It is not a screw in bulb, it's a fluorescent tube.  And in many office buildings the predominant lighting is a T-12 fluorescent fixture, which is now obsolete, and those bulbs have officially gone the way of the dinosaur.  They are no longer being made, and are becoming scarce. So, think again about how nice it would be if you could retrofit that obsolete tube with LED and a minimum of fuss and muss?

That's what these guys are offering, and we are interested.  We are very interested.  We may just LEaD the way!

Can we talk...about disaster readiness?

As disasters go, this week's crash of a Germanwings jet by the co-pilot is so high on the OMG list that maybe I should not even talk about it.  I find it impossible not to though, because as Property Managers, we are ALWAYS trying to think about how to prepare for things happening we can't control, but must respond to.  

Our hearts and prayers go earnestly out for all the families of those who lost their lives Tuesday.  

The very next thought, and again, we cannot help ourselves, is:  What are our vulnerabilities?  How can we prepare for the unthinkable to happen?  

My team talks disaster preparedness through regularly at our weekly huddles, we play what if games, and do our best to come up with the best plan we can.  We then communicate it to tenants, and then we practice it.

Since that's where my head is at this week, I dug out this article from  Building Operating Management magazine, on disaster preparedness.  I hope it helps you if your mind wanders down the worst case scenario path like mine does.  It always helps me to shift from OMG to What Can I Do???

http://www.facilitiesnet.com/emergencypreparedness/article/Disaster-Response-Planning-Tips-from-Preparedness-and-Remediation-Pros--15750

Resilience and the Property Manager

I shared with my colleagues at CBCA today some training I received in a class at the SMU/Cox school of business back in January.  I am enrolled in a leadership certificate program through CREW Dallas at SMU and the learning I have been exposed to in these classes has been a good source of training for our own folks.  

Resilience training was just this kind of content.  I know that as Property Managers, if you are not resilient, you likely won't be a Property Manager for very long.  A couple of hallmarks of resilient people are Optimism, Solutions Focused, and determination.  Check, check, and check.

If you're a Property Manager, and you KNOW that toilets will run over, roofs will leak and ruin a tenant's copier, power will go down, the landscapers will break a sprinkler head, etc, etc, etc, and you come to work today anyway, what else would you call that besides OPTIMISM????

If you're a Property Manager and you have a tenant who needs parking for 100 people for a meeting they are having next week and you have 125 parking spaces in your lot, you find a lot within a block from your building to help that tenant because you are SOLUTIONS FOCUSED

If you're a Property Manager and you have a roof leak that keeps coming back after you a)replaced the roof, b)sealed the brick on the penthouse c)cleared the roof drains d)caulk the flashing AND the counter flashing, e)5 other things, and you have told the tenant you WILL find that leak, well, folks, you are DETERMINED

That is the Property Manager - Resilient

Contact me if  you would like to get my powerpoint slides on resilience training.

I have noted for a long time how interesting it is that Property Manager's HATE rain.  Unlike farmers, gardeners, water planners, and, yes, most of the rest of the world, the Property Manager just hates rain. First, it's the call from a tenant to report that water is coming into their office from above, and it's ruining just everything.  Second, said tenant just doesn't understand why you can't fix the leak right away, your roofer says nothing can be done to stop it until the rain stops, so you pray for the rain to stop, get the tenant some help to cope, and you keep your fingers crossed.

This week, our company attended a regional CBC Conference at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.  It was day two of the semi-regular DFW Snowmaggedon, which means we freak out and watch all kinds of traffic reports about the snow or ice that probably won't last until 4:00 - It's Texas after all.  Anyway, as I walked into the stadium, I was corralled into a lane created by cones, because, as I was warned, there was ice falling from the stadium, and there were guys with de-icer climbing up to stop it before it fell.  As a Property Manager, I understand.  When the ice fell from AT&T Stadium last time, the "facility managers" were caught off guard, they couldn't let it happen again.  

We started a program several years ago to de-ice our full portfolio of building entrances and sidewalks, and we have an email blast that goes out to tenants ahead of any potential icy or snowy weather to remind them about snow and ice on roofs that can fall and hit cars, we place cones in vulnerable areas.  It still doesn't feel like enough, but like the managers at AT&T Stadium, at least we're not caught off guard.

Carol Sosebee

COO, Director of Property Management
Coldwell Banker Commercial Alliance DFW

From CBC Regional Conference - Repeat after Me: I WILL start blogging again

Last year, my DFW company, SCM Real Estate Services, merged its operations with a franchisee of Coldwell Banker Commercial, and became one of six offices of that franchisee, called Coldwell Banker Commercial Alliance, or, as we call it, CBCA.

Before CBCA, I blogged regularly about the Property Management world I have inhabited for a long time.  That blog was contained on our old website, and when that website went away, there was no readily available outlet for my VAST blogging talents, ahemmm.  Plus I was really busy with the merger and transition to the CBC brand.

Today, however, I realized that this should not have held me back, that I could have (and will now again) continue with updating my blog posts about the interesting and sometimes crazy world of property management that I go to and enjoy every day.  It was at the Coldwell Banker Commercial regional conference held at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, right down the street from my office.  I hope to share a few best practices, some insight, and possibly sometimes even the drama of the profession.  You won't be bored.