Winter is coming, so it’s time to prepare before you land new tenants or start fielding maintenance requests from your current apartment tenants. As a landlord or property manager, you have both specific and general responsibilities when it comes to all aspects of your apartment rental properties. These responsibilities are usually explicitly discussed in a lease or rental agreement, or they may be more general agreements between you and your tenants to keep up […]
admin
September 11, 2017
The flood waters in Houston, Texas haven’t even started to abate after the disastrous storm that was Hurricane Harvey tore through the state here in August of 2017, and already victims are being left out in the cold. Several sources have reported that flood insurance policies plunged in the years leading up to the storm. In Houston alone, the number of policies fell from 133,000 to 119,000 between 2012 and 2017. “When you start to see policies drop like this, […]
August 28, 2017
Flooding is one of the most traumatic and dangerous natural disasters in the United States. In general, flooding is the number one natural disaster in the entire country, while flash flooding is responsible for approximately 200 deaths each year. From 2005 to 2014, the average flood claim was $42,000, and total flood insurance claims averaged more than $3.5 million per year. During the floods that erupted in Texas in March and April of 2016, […]
August 14, 2017
The short answer is no, but it’s perfectly understandable why many people think shading your air compressor a good idea. The concept of shading an air conditioning unit—specifically the air compressor—is a widely circulated myth largely based on a misconception of the science involved and the way an air conditioning unit operates. Why Shading the Air Compressor Doesn’t Work In theory, cooling down the air proximate to an air conditioning unit should give the machine a bump in efficiency because […]
July 31, 2017
A wide variety of sources can cause a house to smell poorly, from the trash that’s overdue for the dumpster to a teenager’s body odor. But some smells require more attention than others because they can cause health problems, fires, or even death. Let’s take a closer look at five domestic odors you should pay attention to if they occur in your home. 5. Smoke If you smell smoke in your home, exit your home through […]
July 17, 2017
Regardless of where you stand on the environment, there’s no doubt that commercial weed killers are some nasty stuff. In fact, one of the most popular commercial weed killers, Monsanto’s Roundup product, is based on a chemical called glyphosate, which the World Health Organization says is “probably carcinogenic,” meaning it causes cancer. That’s a high price to pay not to have dandelions in the yard this summer. Luckily, there are lots of better options using natural […]
July 5, 2017
The science of meteorology must have some of the most complex terminology in any science, and when you add in colloquial terms and slang, the vocabulary we use to describe the weather can get downright wacky. Here are some of the most out-there weather terms we’ve run across in digging into the weather. 1. Toad Strangler This is a colloquialism native to the southern United States that describes an extremely heavy downpour of rain […]
June 19, 2017
Despite what skeptics may say, solar energy is a very good thing—for efficient home designs, for the environment, and for your checkbook. It’s one of the only self-sustaining processes for creating and storing energy, rather than buying it. Let’s take a closer look at some of the home trends that are being impacted by solar. 1. The Solar Energy Market is booming According to the Solar Energies Industry Association, solar energy is off-the-charts popular […]
June 5, 2017
Whether you’re just wanting to keep your family safe from foul weather or you’re an amateur storm aficionado with dreams of tornado chasing, there are all sorts of applications you can use to keep track of big storms in your area. But the weather apps you’ll find in the App Store and Android Store are also based on all sorts of different technologies, so it’s important to understand what you’re looking for in a […]
May 22, 2017
The “green roof” movement is one of the more interesting contemporary building movements of our times. There are lots of famous examples, from the fascinating vertical green wall at the Musée du quai Branly in Paris to the Living Green Roof at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. But most homeowners don’t realize that for a small investment of time and supplies, they too can install a green roof that brings a […]