Archives for September 2017

At the September 2017 LIN Meeting held on September 20, 2017, 15 excellent properties were presented.
Thank you for presenting properties and attending the meeting!
Thank you to John Ransom, CCIM, SIOR and Tim With, CCIM, SIOR  who hosted 4900 Lang Ave NE. Print Flyer.
View September 2017 LIN properties here.
View September 2017 LIN PowerPoint Presentation here.
View September 2017 LIN Thank You’s here.

During September’s REALTOR® Safety Month, be sure to take precautions to protect yourself from physical harm—and to protect both yourself and your clients in today’s digital world, says Marc Gould, vice president of business specialties for the National Association of REALTORS® and executive director of REBAC.
Gould warns in a recent column at RISMedia about the threats cybercrime is posing to real estate transactions. An email-based scheme has been widely reported since surfacing in 2015, but victims are still falling prey and Gould calls it “one of the worst security issues in the industry.”
Criminals are gaining access to the email account of a party in a real estate transaction. They follow the communication between the parties. As closing approaches, they send an official-looking email to the buyers directing them to wire their down payment to the criminal’s account. The unsuspecting client does so and the funds are usually untraceable and lost.
Gould offers some of the following tips to keeping you and your clients safe from hackers:
Protect your email account: Use a strong, unique password. Be sure to change it occasionally. Have antivirus software in place and keep your programs up-to-date. Avoid using public Wi-Fi.
Encrypt: Do not rely on standard email to send any sensitive information, such as financial data, contracts, or wiring instructions. Use encrypted email, a secure document-sharing platform, or a secure transaction-management platform along with a phone call to your client.
Warn your clients: Be sure to alert every client to the dangers of wire fraud and to the signs it’s happening and how to prevent it. Gould even recommends considering having clients read and sign a notice regarding the possibility of cybercrime hitting the transaction.
Insure against it: If a breach does occur in one of your transactions, you could be subject to a liability claim if investors discover that access was gained through your company’s email account. Gould recommends adding cyber liability to your standard errors and omissions insurance policy to minimize potential losses.
By: Marc D. Gould (RIS Media)
Click here to view source article.

• Office and Industrial listings that may be typically isolated from populated areas, and are often difficult to access.
• Vacant land listings that can contain ditches and low spots that present accident hazards that create obvious safety risks.
• Multi-family or self-storage listings present hazards and may require personal safety basics like wearing appropriate gear and confirming adequate lighting.

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Two simple safety measures that you can implement immediately include:

1. Smartphone apps and other safety products enable agents to send alert signals via phone, text, social networks and email to your emergency contacts along with a GPS location; a list of expert resources is available on the NAR website.
2. Adding ICE (In Case of Emergency) entries into your smart phone’s contact list enables any prospect or client to be able to dial directly to someone who can send immediate assistance. Dialing 9-1-1 is not always reliable on a cell phone, as some calls are directed to towers outside of the service area where the casualty actually occurs.

Additional Resources:

The potentially massive impact on society is already changing how land-use planners, developers and others are preparing for this technology, BBG CEO Chris Roach writes in this EXCLUSIVE commentary.

The prospect of autonomous vehicles rolling off production lines has influenced those planning real-estate development projects across the country, writes Chris Roach.
With autonomous vehicles still years away from being a common sight on the nation’s roadways, its potentially massive impact on society is already changing how land-use planners, developers and others are preparing for this technology, which has been compared to the most significant innovation since the invention of the automobile.
Growing interest in self-driving vehicles has been fueled by a recent series of major events. Earlier this month, General Motors announced that it can begin manufacturing autonomous vehicles for mass production pending regulatory approvals. The automaker, which said it’s capable of producing 100,000 self-driving cars annually, is among other companies, such as Tesla and Google, working toward taking driverless vehicles from dream to reality.
In an effort to help pave the way to put more autonomous vehicles on the road, the U.S. House of Representatives recently passed legislation, called the SELF DRIVE act, that created the initial framework for the regulation of autonomous vehicles. The bill awaits Senate action.
The prospect of autonomous vehicles rolling off production lines has influenced those planning real-estate development projects across the country. For instance, the University of Wisconsin- Madison reportedly intends to reduce parking spaces, based on expectations that more of its students and staff will be commuting to and from the school with autonomous vehicles or from ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft, both of which are also planning to get into the autonomous vehicle business.
Fewer parking spaces are also being planned for projects elsewhere. A Nashville, Tenn., mixed-used development project is making fewer parking spaces available, and a Somerville, Mass., parking garage is reducing space by more than 60 percent, saving millions of dollars when completed.
Amid rising expectations of greater usage of autonomous vehicles, planners and developers are rethinking other uses for land initially set aside for parking spaces. Scaling back parking spaces means that the land can be used for other commercial or residential real estate purposes, resulting in more usable and high-value space. For example, shrinking demand for parking facilities could prompt development of more mixed-use walkable cities, which include streets designed for door-to-door service to accommodate autonomous vehicles.
However, planners will need to modify or create new land-use designs and zoning and traffic regulations before there can be a proliferation of driverless vehicles. A recent Institute of Transportation Studies at University of California policy brief said autonomous and shared mobility could potentially create increased sprawl without proper planning and regulations. In addition, land development projects will also need to take into account the more than 260 million non-autonomous vehicles now on the roads.
The day is coming that autonomous vehicles will be made widely available across the country, transforming society in more ways than how we transport people. Besides reducing traffic congestion and the carbon footprint, self-driven vehicles will clearly impact the design and construction in real estate development projects in cities and towns nationwide. As a result, it’s of the utmost importance that those planners, developers, and others in the real estate ecosystem work closely together to ensure that this innovative technology enables better places to work and live.
By: Chris Roach (BBG CEO)
Click here to view source article.