Author: Victoria Cowart

Becoming Pet Passionate By Victoria Cowart, CPM, NAAEI Faculty Are you acquiring residential rental property and wanting to start on the best foot? Here’s a question that will impact approximately seventy percent of your renters. How will you respond to pets in your rental properties? Will you prohibit pets? Will you become pet-friendly? Or will you push yourself and your success by becoming pet passionate? Available data today says seventy-six percent of the property management industry consider themselves and their rental properties pet-friendly. Contrast that with those seeking pet-friendly housing, with seventy-two percent saying it’s hard to find. Also, consider…

Assistance Animals…A Fourfold Challenge By Victoria Cowart, CPM, NAAEI Faculty In operations, we all feel pressured to have a certain depth of knowledge on critical topics. This pressure rises to another level when the subject touches the work of our on-site, centralized, supervisory, and corporate team members. That pressure increases to a whole new level when it touches the lives of our applicants, residents, and possibly even our guests with disabilities. And if that wasn’t enough, this particular topic makes up approximately 60% of HUD complaints. With that, the pressure for operational knowledge and excellence rises fourfold. I’m speaking of…

Property Management is a Liability Rich Endeavor By Victoria Cowart Property Management is a liability rich endeavor. In fact, the National Apartment Association’s Education Institute (NAAEI) offers a Certified Apartment Manager (CAM) course, and there is one full module on “Risk Management.” It is in fact, a FIVE-hour module. As with all NAAEI programs, the CAM program is worth your consideration. The module covers risk management, risk assessments, and minimizing risks–financial, physical, liability, environmental, employee and more. The most difficult part of risk management, in my personal (non-attorney) opinion as a long-term operator, is seeking out and discovering risk -…