NEWS BRIEFS
NATIONAL UPDATES
to be independent contractors, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) noted that it would affect office staff, sala- ried employees working for brokerages and state and local real estate associations. While the ruling has been blocked for now, should the Department of Labor opt to fight the injunction, employers could owe back-overtime to eligible employees starting from the original date of implementation. This means that real estate investors with salaried employees eligible for overtime under this ruling will not only need to track activity related to the case but also track overtime hours carefully to ensure that they have the means to pay, should the Department of Labor triumph in its pursuit. About 4.2 million workers not presently eligible for overtime pay could become eligible if the ruling eventually goes through. •
noted that the hospitality industry is one that “cannot afford to be stagnant. …That is why innovators in all areas of the industry—de- sign, technology, operations and finance— are so vital to hotels. (These) movers and shakers … have proven themselves to be hospitality’s brightest stars.” Lodging mag- azine recognized Loeffler for his strategic decision to fuel company growth and build cli- ent wealth using accredited investor funding (versus institutional funding) in acquiring a handful of hotels in recent years. SOURCE :: CaliberCo.com ELIE RIEDER, founder and CEO of Castle Lanterra Proper- ties, is on Real Estate Forummagazine’s “50 Under 40” list for 2016. The publication describes the 2016 winners as the “cream of the crop” frommore than 300 nominees representing the best and brightest young professionals in commercial ducing multifamily properties within strategic growth markets throughout the United States. The firm owns and manages a portfolio in excess of 7,300 multifamily units valued at more than $1 billion. Rieder is directly involved in all of the company’s investment and prop- erty management activities, drawing on nearly two decades of experience as a real estate investor, owner and manager. SOURCE :: CastleLanterra.com PHILIP ROMNEY recently was promoted to chief finan- cial officer at Property Management Business Solutions (PMBS), the franchisor of Real Property Manage- Real Property Management franchise support team in accounting and finance functions, including revenue and billing. He has more than 35 years of accounting and finance experience in a variety of in- dustries, beginning his career in the Seattle office of KPMG. Romney has since held senior leadership positions in companies in the utilities, biotech, insurance and online retail industries, most recent- real estate. Formed in 2009, Castle Lanterra Properties is a privately held, New York- based real estate investment company that acquires and manages quality income-pro- ment. Romney joined PMBS in June 2015 as vice president of accounting, leading the
COLDWEATHER BRINGS OUT THE BARGAINS If you’re willing to buy when the weather is frightful, your real estate investment deals could be quite delightful. So delightful, in fact, that you might save as much as $50,000 or nearly $100,000 in certain locales. According to online real estate management and investment firm HomeUnion, the national square-footage price for sin- gle-family rental properties falls by about 7.2 percent during the winter from spring and summer levels. However, if you look at this seasonal trend on a city-by-city basis, the numbers get far more exciting. HomeUnion evaluated cities across the country to identify which housing markets offered the best seasonal bargains on purchase prices of single-family rental properties. Greenville, South Carolina, offered spreads of $50,000 while Chicago rental buyers could save almost $100,000 if they purchased during winter months. While these deals are certainly exciting, it’s important to note that winter rental rates also tend to be lower in “seasonal cities.” Chicago rents are about $100 per month lower for leases initiated during the winter, for example. In cities with smaller temperature shifts, the rental ranges tend to be smaller as well. • If your real estate investing business has any salaried em- ployees, you could find yourself paying them some serious back-overtime in 2017 if a recently blocked Labor Depart- ment ruling is overturned in the New Year. The Labor Department ruling would have expanded the number of workers eligible for overtime pay and begun automatically hiking those same workers’ salaries every three years moving forward. The ruling was supposed to go into effect Dec. 1, 2016. But the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas issued an injunction blocking its implementation. The Labor Department ruling would have required all salaried employees designated as executive, administrative or professional staff to be paid time-and-a-half for any hours worked over 40 hours a week if they earned less than $47,476 annually and, in some cases, if they earned less than $134,004 annually. While this might not seem particularly relevant to real estate investors at first since many parties in the sector tend SOURCE :: HomeUnion BACK-OVERTIME ISSUE COULD PROVE COSTLY
ABS UPDATES ITS MORTGAGE OFFICE SOFTWARE Applied Business Software Inc. recently announced a major update to its signature loan servicing software The Mortgage Office. The Long Beach, California-based software company, which also developed The Loan Office software, is an industry leader in loan servicing software with a worldwide customer base. Some of the highlights in version 2.1.7.60 include: • Text messaging between customers and their borrowers and lenders. • Geomapping and interactive-map generation for all or selected loans via a partnership with MapQuest. • Multiple options for real-time credit card and EFT pay- ment processing, made possible by a partnership with Payment Data Systems. • A new prepayment penalty feature that calculates guar- anteed interest through the expiration date for payoffs. • User-defined notes on line of credit, commercial and construction billing statements.
SOURCE :: Carole VanSickle Ellis
MODEST ECONOMIC GROWTH EXPECTED INTO 2017
The forthcoming change in the U.S. administration poses new uncertainties about the economy, but mod- est growth is still expected for 2016 and 2017, according to the Fannie Mae Economic & Strategic Research Group’s November 2016 Economic and Housing Outlook.
• Addition of seven U.S. military and state abbreviations.
• Lender/purchaser disclosure statement updates.
• Auto-pay email notification to borrowers.
The slowdown in job growth and business investment suggests the economic expansion has transitioned to a late-cycle phase, in which growth tends to moderate and, in turn, makes the economy more vulnerable to shocks. Although increased market volatility may occur in the medium term as policy developments take shape, the ESR Group expected economic growth would pick up in the second half of the year just ended, averaging 2.4 percent, following 1.1 percent growth during the first half of 2016. ESR kept the full-year 2016 growth forecast at 1.8 percent, with a similar pace of growth expected for 2017. •
• Updated IRS forms 1098, 1099INT and 1099MISC to comply with IRS changes for tax year 2016. •
SOURCE :: ABS, Inc. (www.themortgageoffice.com)
PEOPLE IN THE NEWS CHRIS LOEFFLER, CEO and co-founder of Scottsdale, Ar- izona-based Caliber—The Wealth Development Company, is listed as a Top 10 Up-and-Comer on Lodging magazine’s 2016 Top 50 Hotel Innovators list. The list features Top 10 innovators each in five categories: up-and comers, finance and real estate, design, operations and tech. The magazine
SOURCE :: Fannie Mae
8 | think realty magazine january :: february 2017
thinkrealty . com / mag | 9
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