Real Estate Daily News Buzz is designed to give news snippets to readers that our (yet to be award winning) editors thought you could use to start your day. They come from various business perspectives, real estate, government, the Fed, local news, and the stock markets to save you time. Here you will find the headlines and what the news buzz of the day will be.
Tuesday, the Dow Jones industrial average picked up 24.86 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 17,829.73. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 5.65 points, or 0.3 per cent, to 2,088.90. The NASDAQ composite added 6.55 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 4,843.76.
Benchmark U.S. crude fell 52 cents, or 1.1 per cent, to $48.85 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, the benchmark for international oil prices, slipped 3 cents to $50.62 a barrel in London. In other energy trading, wholesale gasoline rose 1 cent to $1.59 a gallon. Heating oil slipped 1 cent to $1.52 a gallon. Natural gas rose 2 cents to $2.77 per 1,000 cubic feet.
The Next-Gen Apartment: The 2016 Concept Community “Welcome to the 2016 Concept Community, a deep-dive into the technology wants and needs of today’s, and tomorrow's, renters. The theme of this year’s journey is “Future Proofing,” and the project will proceed in three phases—research, expertise, and vision. First, we surveyed more than 73,000 renters nationwide to ascertain what today's renters want and need from their communities, with the help of our market research partner, J Turner Research.” (Multifamily Executive)
How Real Estate is a Smart Investment for Entrepreneurs “If you’re planning on investing in real estate because you think you’ll get rich quick, you need to think again. There have been boom times in real estate history, but the current economy is not one of them. In the 1990s, it was fairly easy to buy a property, make very quick improvements, and then flip the property, making a quick and substantial profit. After the housing bubble burst and the recession of the early part of the decade left the economy running sluggishly, real estate has been one of the last areas to rebound.” (Huffington Post)
L.A. Apartment Owners Charged with Evicting Tenants, Then Renting Their Units via Airbnb “The Los Angeles city attorney’s office has filed criminal charges against the owners of a rent-controlled apartment building in the Fairfax district, alleging that they evicted tenants and converted the units to short-term rentals on Airbnb. Owners of three other properties are facing civil suits that they illegally operated rent-controlled buildings as hotels. It marks the first time City Atty. Mike Feuer has prosecuted landlords on suspicion of operating illegal short-term rentals.” (Los Angeles Times)
Rudin Management Launches Commercial Real Estate Tech Startup “One of New York City’s largest real estate companies, Rudin Management, has spun-off a commercial real estate technology startup called Prescriptive Data. The new company has spent the past several months building a cloud-based smart building platform and control panel. The platform, dubbed Nantum, is designed to function as the “brain” of a building. Nantum integrates existing sensor data from disparate building systems to provide a holistic view of how a building is operating.” (cre.tech)
The Five Traits You Can Learn from Real Estate Entrepreneurs “The entrepreneurial landscape has undergone a dramatic transformation, but one thing that hasn’t changed are the foundational principles and traits that define what it means to be an entrepreneur. As an entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of RealtyShares, one of the nation’s largest real estate crowdfunding platforms, I know there’s truth to be found in those words of Biz Stone. If you’re missing one piece of the puzzle – the right timing, the drive to keep to going in the face of failure or the willingness to invest your time – the whole venture runs the risk of going off the rails.” (Forbes)
Einstein’s Lessons on Real Estate “The debate of its veracity aside, Albert Einstein reportedly said, in some variation or another, that ‘the most powerful force in the universe is compound interest.’ It is unimportant whether he actually said it. What is important is that we believe that the most important figure in physics and mathematics who ever lived actually believed it. It is also important because it is an obvious truth, and like gravity, we take it for granted. Real estate developers and investors, the financiers who leverage them, or your pension fund that invests in real estate, all live by this fundamental rule.” (Miami Herald)
Seven Elements of Private Equity Manager Selection “While it is possible to invest directly in privately owned companies, most individual investors lack the relationships, expertise and resources necessary to source attractive investments, conduct due diligence, negotiate and structure the transaction, and monitor the investment. Instead, most investors gain exposure to private equity through a fund, which offers the benefits of professional management along with greater diversification than might be achieved by investing directly in a single asset.” (WealthManagement.com)
DaVita-Anchored Office Tower Sold to Invesco Real Estate Just Days after Construction Began “A 19-story downtown office tower to be anchored by DaVita HealthCare Partners has traded hands mere days after the start of construction. Invesco Real Estate purchased the land, as well as the construction rights, for 16 Chestnut, a 430,000-square-foot office building at the corner of Chestnut Place and 16th Street near Denver Union Station, Starwood Capital Group and Denver-based East West Partners announced Monday.” (The Denver Post)
The Legendary Watergate Hotel Just Reopened After a $125 Million Renovation—Take a Look Inside “The iconic Watergate Hotel in Washington D.C. hosts a legendary past, becoming famous for its location within the complex that sparked the political scandal ending Richard Nixon's presidency. Closed since 2007, the hotel officially reopened to the public last week after a $125 million renovation. Guests can expect an elevated experience with playful touches that pay homage to the hotel's historic past. (Business Insider)
Three Groups Will Compete to Win the Right to Expand Javits Center “Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Monday that three companies will compete to expand the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on Manhattan’s West Side. Cuomo first unveiled plans for a 1 million-square-foot expansion of the convention center in his State of the State speech in January, after which the state’s Empire State Development Corp. solicited calls from companies hoping to take on the job. The state has culled three applicants from the interested developers, all of which will have to respond to a request for proposals released Monday.” (Crain’s New York Business)
White House clears small, commercial drones for takeoff — The routine use of small drones by real estate agents, farmers, filmmakers and other commercial operators was cleared for takeoff by the Obama administration Tuesday, after years of struggling to write rules that would both protect public safety and free the benefits of a new technology. The Federal Aviation Administration announced the creation of a new category of aviation rules designed specifically for drones weighing less than 55 pounds. The long-anticipated rules mean commercial operators can fly drones without special permission. Industry and government officials describe commercial drones as the biggest game-changing technology in aviation since the advent of the jet engine. (AP)
Suit accusing Starbucks of under-filling lattes can proceed — A federal judge is allowing the bulk of a lawsuit accusing Starbucks of systematically under-filling lattes to move forward. Two California residents are suing the coffee chain, claiming Starbucks lattes are only filled to about 75 per cent of the cup’s capacity. A federal judge has thrown out three of the eight claims filed against Starbucks. Starbucks says the company believes the lawsuit is “without merit” and it will be prepared to defend itself in court. (AP)