Being a property owner can be a laborious job. Summer is fast approaching, so lawn care is a top priority. Unless you have the budget for a lawn care and landscaping service, Artificial Intelligence in recent years has made some remarkable robots. Here are some robots to use this summer to make yard work easier. First, to start with the lawn itself. If owning a large property and needing assistance maintaining the grass but hired help is not working out, have no fear. Imagine mowing the lawn was as easy as clicking a few buttons on your phone. This is a reality with robot lawnmowers that work the same as robot vacuum cleaners for the interior. Robot lawnmowers are unique because they learn the environment using a smart map or GPS. It mows like people, navigating the yard and cutting efficiently in straight back-and-forth lines. If the battery runs low, the robot will return to the docking station, charge automatically, then return to finish the lawn. Have total control over where the robot goes so that it will stay on course and out of the neighbor’s properties or in garden beds. Of course, there are some downsides to lawn mower robots, especially for those living in hilly, sloped land, so keep that in mind. There are a plethora of robot lawnmowers to choose from now but read reviews and choose one that would be best suited for your property lawn care needs. No green thumb is required to have an impeccable exterior with flowers and native plants for the bees and butterflies. Move over garden gnomes because the Hexa all-terrain robot is here. Again, it is easy to control all from a smartphone. It can walk, climb, take photos and videos, ramp up security,...

Property owners routinely borrow money to purchase additional real estate assets. But, as with any loan, executing the loan information elements, including covenants, amortization schedules, collateral and critical dates, is a complicated business.  The level of difficulty largely depends on the technology involved. Some borrowers go low-tech, tracking their information manually with separate spreadsheets and accountants for each property and loan. That approach, however, is time-consuming, error-prone and risky due to the amount of data transfer and multiple system access involved. When manual processes dominate, it’s hard to execute loan tracking obligations, much less gain a clear view of loan status across a portfolio. Debt Manager: Less Risk, More Transparency So what’s an easier, more efficient way to track debt and gain full visibility? Many property owners are aggregating all their debt information in a single technology platform, eliminating the need for multiple spreadsheets, additional accounting staff and disparate data. With no data transfers and a single source of the truth, they can quickly identify key information such as covenant compliance requirements, upcoming debt obligations and principal interest payments for the next month, quarter or any other timeframe. Yardi Debt Manager eliminates the risks involved in manual loan tracking processes and delivers transparency to all users, including executives and key stakeholders. It’s a comprehensive system for borrowers and lenders that centralizes loan data, eliminates spreadsheets and automates loan calculations. Another key advantage of Debt Manager is its ability to tie debt information to the general ledger, effortlessly generating it into financial statements, and seamlessly incorporating debt payments into AP and AR payment processing. All users have visibility into loans, from a high-level summary view to payment history and the lowest level–details about a given loan. Uniland Development Company is a full-service commercial real estate...

The subscription economy is here to stay. What does this mean for businesses and consumers? A successful strategy is for companies and consumers to subscribe to services rather than buy products. Let’s explore how subscription services are quickly evolving. Subscription business model concepts. The pandemic accelerated the growth of the subscriber model at a rapid rate. Those businesses that are not implementing this could miss out or lose to their competitors. Once companies or consumers shift to subscriptions, they rarely convert back. It’s a transformational change that is happening throughout the economy. Companies implementing this model correctly can predict revenue and profitability with much more accuracy and targeted focus. Businesses are upgrading to subscription models to ensure they do not lose out on the benefits of an ongoing consumer experience. In a high visibility example like Microsoft 365, consumers can reap the benefits of the software with a piecemeal monthly or annual fee instead of shelling out thousands of dollars every few years. Cancellations are the biggest threat to the subscription model. However, embracing cancellations can lead to greater consumer retention and increase business transparency. Moreover, by surveying those who cancel, business leaders can find a depth of data to help shift their approach to renewals and consumer loyalty. To retain consumers, businesses must create an experience that speaks for itself. Consumers can get a product anywhere but stay loyal for the expertise and community feel a brand provides. While it is essential to plan for new subscribers, it is just as important to focus on retaining current ones. Businesses should focus on how to build long-term, sustainable relationships with consumers focused on what they want with complete transparency. Utilize tactics that create meaningful connections with subscribers. Surveys, social media engagement, and listening to...

Financing the acquisition of real estate assets can maximize your returns. However, borrowing money not only puts liability on your balance sheets; it can also come with extra headaches and tedious tasks for you and your team, including tracking amortization and payment schedules, meeting covenants, and tracking collateral and critical dates. Executing all these obligations accurately is necessary to minimize risk throughout the duration of a loan. Consider a loan-to-value covenant, for example, a lender-imposed restriction that compares the value of a property to the loan’s value. Borrowers need to monitor this figure because falling property valuation could potentially trigger additional financial costs that can further reduce the asset’s return to investors. Another common covenant is the debt service coverage ratio, the ratio of NOI to the debt service amount. This figure indicates whether the property generates sufficient net operating income to meet each month’s debt payment, revealing the borrower’s likelihood of exceeding the thresholds and potentially falling into default. This covenant, too, requires close monitoring based on the current forecasts in place at the properties. Discovering you have breached a covenant as it occurs is far too late in the game to correct it. Having some visibility into forward-looking information is a key aspect of risk reduction. But tracking loan information using manual data entry and transfers among multiple software systems is time-consuming, inefficient and prone to error. As a result, many borrowers are turning to new technology solutions that provide full visibility to reduce risks and drive informed decision-making. And that’s why Yardi Debt Manager is gaining traction among real estate borrowers. This solution eliminates the risks involved in manual loan tracking processes and delivers transparency to all users, including executives and key stakeholders. It centralizes loan data,  provides a comprehensive system...

Artificial Intelligence is becoming far more than just a viral sensation. AI is becoming a technology that any business or person can leverage to revolutionize their work and day-to-day activities. Let’s explore some of the latest mind-blowing AI tools beyond Chat GPT. Similar to Chat GPT, Dall-E 2 will transform text prompts into computer graphics. It can combine concepts, attributes, and styles. This will eliminate the long waits for graphic designers to get images back and produce quicker turnaround times. The hope is that Dall-E 2 will empower people to express themselves creatively. The creators of Dall-E 2 hope that this will help them understand how advanced AI systems see and understand the human world, which is critical for creating AI that benefits humanity. Lumen5 is an AI-powered video creation tool that enables anyone to easily create education, marketing, or business video content using a simple drag-and-drop interface. Lumen5 makes it easier than building a slide show deck on PowerPoint. It can turn blog posts into videos or Zoom recordings into captivating clips. Looka is a tool that makes it easy to brand your business by using AI to create unique and distinctive logos that convey the company’s style and messaging. Bring your brand to life by building brand identity and creating hundreds of branded marketing materials. Looka is not just logos, either. Customize the design of business cards, social profiles, email signatures, and more. Murf is a text-to-speech engine that makes it simple to create natural-sounding synthetic vocal recordings in 15 languages from over 120 voices and dialects. Murf’s AI voices do not sound monotonous and robotic. Murf’s advanced AI algorithms catch the right tone and pick up on every punctuation and exclamation mark from the human voice. This output can easily be...

Convenience is a key factor when providing online solutions to your tenants. But if they have to log into one platform to make a payment, another platform to submit work orders and a third – or fourth – to review documents and share sales data, are you offering them true convenience? What about maximizing convenience for your own staff? CommercialCafe combines the five key features necessary for a truly convenient tenant portal, for both tenants and staff: Payments In addition to reviewing and paying invoices through a secure online portal, tenants can select which open charges they are paying. Your accounting team no longer has to guess where payments are being applied and saves time not processing physical checks. Work orders Tenants can submit service requests, including photos, and, upon completion of work, provide feedback via automated survey. Technicians receive work orders automatically on their mobile phones, decreasing response times and miscommunication. Notifications Automated SMS, push notifications and emails streamline and enhance communications, whether notifying tenants about available lease documentation to view or sharing details about property events. COI management Prospective and current tenants can upload insurance certificates, allowing property teams to view documentation that ensures property requirements are met and tenants are compliant. Sales data Retail tenants can upload sales figures and documentation that support the percentage rent calculations carried out by accounting teams, increase time savings and accuracy. In addition to these features, CommercialCafe offers another layer of convenience through its seamless integration with other Yardi solutions, including Yardi Voyager, Lease Manager, Facility Manager and the Procure to Pay suite. To learn more about the full benefits of CommercialCafe, join a webinar...

Is the virtual real estate market the new frontier thanks to the metaverse? Investors are now looking at metaverse real estate, an online platform where people can buy, sell, and lease virtual property, according to recent article in the New York Times. A general contractor and NFT (nonfungible token) collector, Gabe Sierra, in Miami, offered his latest creation, an 11,000-square-foot mansion, but to spice up the deal, he provided the exact twin home in the metaverse. The property hits the auction block this month, and Sierra is hoping for a sale price of around $10 million. “It’s a project that blends the line between physical and digital to the furthest extent that I could go on a residential home,” said Sierra. “It pairs a real-world build and expands on it in the digital space. It will make much more sense as these technologies get more immersive.” Financial transactions in the metaverse are handled in cryptocurrency and powered by the blockchain, a digital distributed public ledger that eliminates the need for a third party like a bank. According to Technavio, the metaverse real estate market is expected to grow by $5.37 billion by 2026. In the Sandbox, one of the most popular metaverse worlds, much of the virtual land has been purchased by global corporations like Adidas, which is there to sell products. The total land value in The Sandbox was estimated to be $167 million last year. While a parcel is sold for about $400, there is a secondary market where prices can be many times that. Proximity to land owned by celebrities and big-name brands drives up prices. One buyer paid $450,000 to become Snoop Dogg’s neighbor in “Snoopverse.” “Land is becoming the infrastructure of the metaverse,” said Sebastien Borget, co-founder of the...

Significant changes in technology are coming. At the 2023 Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas, recognized for underscoring the latest technology, Steve Koenig, Consumer Technology Association vice president of market research, highlights the newest tech-savvy trends. “Cybersecurity, cloud, artificial intelligence, and robotics are all part of it and underpins the effort and the global economy,” Koenig said. This includes speed and increased productivity benefits, improving worker safety, and optimizing space. He continues, “The metaverse is closer than you think. Metaverse is still a speculative term but make no mistake, this is a real trend, just as the internet was a real trend in the early 1990s, even though many of us didn’t know what it was. That’s the same dynamic manifesting around the metaverse right now.” Advertisements and how consumers shop look different today compared to 20 years ago. Using the metaverse and online shopping, consumers can push a shopping cart in “an elevated sense of immersion,” said Koenig. In addition, virtual meetings with sales associates when purchasing a new computer or shoes will be more common, allowing the sales representative to show the features in detail. Many are turning to electric cars with technological advancements and more autonomous transportation advancements. With a decline in truck drivers, soon the answer will be self-driving trucks, predicts Koenig. “Humans are nice to have. Technology is the answer.” Robots are becoming more advanced, especially in sustainability. For example, farmers are now using more windmills, farming robots, soil sensors, and intelligent silos. In addition, John Deere won the 2023 Best of Innovation at the CES show for a fully autonomous tractor. Regarding the gaming world, data shows that there are over 164 million self-described gamers in the US market, according to research from the CES show. However,...

How are you overseeing maintenance operations, managing service requests from tenants, tracking work orders with technicians and extending the health of equipment in your buildings? If you’re not using automation, you’re working too hard and spending too much money. It’s also easy for important things like timely repairs and inspections to fall through the cracks. You can optimize building performance and tenant experience by using facility management software to automate preventive maintenance, property inspections and work order management. Following are best practices to help commercial operators maintain peak building performance and gain portfolio-wide oversight. Tip #1 Automate service requests through a tenant portal. Reduce manual tasks for your staff and increase convenience for your tenants with online work order requests and automated scheduling. Improve communication via email and SMS messaging and ensure tenants are satisfied with your maintenance performance. Reduce man hours needed to manually field requests from email or by phone Simplify the feedback loop through follow-up tenant surveys and promote satisfaction Tip #2 Automate notifications for incoming work orders and set rules around completion. Auto-assign work orders to technicians so they can get started quickly with all the details they need. Track work to completion and eliminate time-consuming manual processes including paperwork and phone calls. You can easily track pending requests, alerts and exceptions. Shorten work order cycles by improving communication between maintenance staff and tenants Help improve tenant satisfaction by preventing requests from falling through the cracks Tip #3 Schedule preventive maintenance and inspections without paperwork. Save time by scheduling recurring property maintenance and standardizing inspection routines. Satisfy all types of inspection requirements including annual, regulatory and due diligence. Use workflows with flexible templates to ensure that inspections cover every detail, every time. Save money and man hours by extending the...

There are thousands of new scams every year, which can be challenging to keep up with them all. However, remember these few tips, and you can avoid most scams while protecting yourself and your family. Never send a wire transfer or gift card to someone you’ve never met. Wire transfers or gift cards act the same as cash does, which makes it impossible to trace. If someone is trying to convince you to pay this way, hang up and file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Avoid clickbait. Always think twice about an ad that pops up or clicking on links from an email. Clicking on a link will download malware onto your computer or smart device, allowing cyber thieves to steal your identity. Scammers are great a mimicking official seals, fonts, and other details. If you recognize the email but the message is off, delete, block, and report the email as a phish. If it is too good to be true, it probably is. This goes without explanation. Many scammers will offer a discount rate, offer all the added services then ask for money upfront. Never pay for a service upfront. Always check reviews and profiles at the Better Business Bureau to see what other people have experienced. Use extreme caution when dealing with someone online. Scammers will use social media, dating websites, Craigslist, and many other sites to reach potential targets. They can quickly feel like friends, which is part of the con for you to trusting them. Never share personal info. Again, this goes without explanation, but never give out your personal information, such as your banking information, birthdate, and social security numbers. Always read over invoices, and do not be intimidated when a scammer uses those scary tactics...

Readers of a certain age might recall the buildup to Jan. 1, 2000, as an exercise in high drama. The object of concern was the so-called Y2K bug, the fear that hardware and software systems would stop functioning if they interpreted Jan. 1, 2000, as the first day of the year 1900. The issue was a legacy of computer programs from the 1960s, when engineers used a two-digit code for the year, omitting “19” to save data storage space. 2000 was comfortably far away then. But as that year approached, the concern grew among experts that the faulty interpretation of “00” would wreak havoc on everything from national defense systems and energy grid infrastructure to home mortgage calculations and factory operations. Corporations and governments formed task forces, planned and tested for years leading up to 2000. Large businesses in the U.S. spent an estimated $100 billion creating Y2K compliant programs. Boeing conducted a series of test flights with systems simulating a 2000 rollover to safeguard its 10,500 jets in service worldwide. AT&T spent $650 million to bolster its phone system. There was a fair amount of worry, too; IBM attributed its 9% fourth-quarter earnings drop in 1999 to large corporate customers delaying computer purchases. Smooth start to the millennium On Jan. 1, 2000, everything held together with only minor glitches attributed to Y2K. The U.S. Federal Housing Administration listed incorrect dates on a few reports. A Berlin opera company’s system made people born in 1995 appear to be 95 years old, rendering their parents ineligible for government-mandated subsidies. A video store in New York state foisted a $91,250 charge on a customer who, according to their computers, returned a rented movie 100 years late. There were some airline flight delays and a few other snafus...

3D printing has picked up the pace in the housing market, especially with inflation rising. Builders can print houses faster building with more earth friendly resources and fewer staff. Let’s explore the latest updates with 3D homes in the affordable and single-family housing markets. The University of Maine unveiled the first 100% bio-based 3D printed home made entirely with bio-based materials. It features 3D-printed floors, walls, and roofs of wood fibers and bio-resins. The house is fully recyclable and highly insulated with 100% wood insulation and customizable R-values. “Our state is facing the perfect storm of a housing crisis and labor shortage, but the University of Maine is stepping up once again to show that we can address these serious challenges with trademark Maine ingenuity,” said Gov. Janet Mills. “With its innovative BioHome3D, UMaine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center is thinking creatively about how we can tackle our housing shortage, strengthen our forest products industry, and deliver people a safe place to live so they can contribute to our economy. While there is still more to be done, today’s development is a positive step forward — one that I was proud to support through my Maine Jobs & Recovery Plan and my budget.” The technology is designed to address labor shortages and supply chain issues that are driving high costs and constricting the supply of affordable housing. Due to automated manufacturing and off-site production, less time is required for on-site building and fitting up the home. Printing using abundant, renewable, locally sourced wood fiber feedstock reduces dependence on a constrained supply chain.  These materials support the revitalization of local forest product industries and are more resilient to global supply chain disruptions and labor shortages. Using advanced manufacturing processes and materials, future low-income homes can be...

5G, the next generation mobile network, launched in 2020, following in the footsteps of a steady progression of voice capability, call and text encryption, data transmission, video calling, mobile internet. 1G started it all in 1981, 2G came 11 years later, and 3G and 4G made their entries in 2001 and 2012, respectively. 5G figures to impact everything from entertainment and healthcare to farming and robotic factory workers, meeting an ever-growing need for high data rates for virtual, augmented and mixed reality. So is 6G the inevitable next step in this evolution? On one hand, 5G, which promises significantly faster data rates, higher connection density and lower latency, among other things, hasn’t even been fully deployed. But “in the next 10 years, we can expect massive changes and new technologies coming into our lives which will require more and more connectivity at higher speeds as we transfer more and more data,” says Dr. Shaghik Atakaramians, a senior lecturer at the University of New South Wales Sydney’s School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications. She continues, “We can imagine completely autonomous systems; or multi-sensory extended reality which integrates the five traditional human senses with the digital world; or real-time remote telesurgery; or complete virtual shopping malls.” ‘Always on a 6G path’ That means, New York City-based technology information consultant Lifewire says, that “technology always pushes forward and standards take a long time to mature, so we’ve always been on a path to a 6G world. We’ve managed to go from 1G to 5G in such a relatively short amount of time, so 6G is just the natural progression towards faster and better wireless connectivity.” Once developed, 6G most likely will involve using ultrahigh frequencies (millimeter waves) of the radio spectrum. It might eventually approach the upper limits...