Boise Rental Market
Below you can see First Rate Property Management’s vacancy rate for the year. As you see it was on an upward trend until last month. I expect the vacancy to continue to trend upward into February. Historically, it is known to be very difficult to rent things up in November because everyone has turkey on their brain. December is cold and mostly everyone is preparing for the holidays. Then January is just flat cold and is no fun to move in. Overall, I am happy with our vacancy, but we do have a couple properties that have been slow to move and we have one 4 plex development that we took over in April that had a lot of leases expire in the fall and many are moving out. So we’ve got our work cut out for us this winter.
Keep an eye out. Within the next couple of days I should have the vacancy reports for Ada County to share with everyone.

National Convention
Below is a photo of Tony, Lizz, Marie, Sheila, Nicole, Tara, Robert and Cathy, who all attended NARPM's (National Association of Residential Property Managers) National Convention in Seattle, WA. NARPM is the leader in professionalism in the residential property management industry. Members subscribe to a high level of Standards of Professionalism and Code of Ethics. Unlike any other trade association, NARPM members share with each other. For example: when we were asked to assist with a Home Owner’s Association, we reached out to our NARPM colleagues and were sent forms, procedures and great ideas. NARPM is truly an amazing organization and it certainly gives its members an advantage.
FRPM representatives also attended NARPM’s Trade Show and the Business Leadership Symposium. At the trade show, we got to see the latest products in property management. We are always looking at staying ahead of the game when it comes to technology, trends and innovations within our profession. Business Leadership was taught by Joseph Michelli, PhD. Dr. Michelli has worked with some of the greatest companies in the world, such as Starbucks, Ritz-Carlton, Zappos and Pike Place Fish Market, who all take pride in their customer service and leaving a legacy. We are working through his material to see how we and our clients can benefit.

Certified Residential Property Management Company (CRMC)
In April of this year, First Rate Property Management became the 2nd Certified Residential Management Company in ALL of Idaho. The above photo was taken at the National Convention shortly after we were recognized for our achievement.

Tony’s gets sworn in
Below is a photo of Tony getting sworn in as NARPM’s 2011 National President. The lady at the podium is NARPM’s current President Vickie Gaskill, who surprised everyone with a slide show of pictures of Tony and his family. The people standing in the background are the past National Presidents. The other photo is a picture of Tony’s 18 year-old daughter and his 3 year-old son, about an hour before Tony’s big speech. Tony’s 14 year-old daughter was unable to attend. She was hospitalized for the 2nd time that month. She is out of the hospital now and is recovering. However, her recovery requires quite a bit of supervision and many doctors appointments throughout the week. Because of the great FRPM staff, Tony is able to devote this time to his daughter in hopes for a more speedy recovery.