Mike Mueller's Next Move: Acquiring CallSource's Multifamily Division

Multifamily technology entrepreneur, Mike Mueller, has acquired CallSource's multifamily vertical and plans to relocate the company's operations to Scottsdale.

Terms of the deal, which closed Thursday, were not disclosed. Mueller said the acquisition positions CallSource Multifamily for its next phase of innovation and growth which includes the subsequent move to Scottsdale and the creation of 40 local jobs.

CallSource Multifamily provides key strategic services to enhance an apartment community's ability to track marketing spend, increase lead conversion rates and improve employee performance. Its services allow apartment owners to direct their marketing and employee dollars for maximum return. Powering these services is a technology platform that tracks more than 11 million calls and monitors those calls for optimal leasing opportunities and prospects.

"CallSource Multifamily is the leader within the industry and we know that clients will be delighted by the seamless transition as well as the additional innovative offerings that will be rolled out in the future," said Mueller, who has a long and distinguished career in the multifamily industry. Mueller was one of the first people to visualize how the Internet could change the way owners and managers market apartments and recently sold VaultWare™, the industry's first online apartment reservation system, to MRI Software.

"The CallSource Multifamily business aligns perfectly to my history of innovating consumer-centric marketing and leasing solutions," added Mueller, who will serve as president and CEO of the company.

Jerry Feldman, Chief Executive Officer of CallSource, commented, "CallSource has been serving the multifamily industry for 21 years. And I have known Mike for 15 of those years. I am excited to have him and our multifamily team take our products and services to the next level."

Joining Mueller will be Mark Sadosky, chief sales and marketing officer; Len Ksobiech, chief financial and operating officer; Doug Chasick, chief learning officer, as well as an experienced team of CallSource Multifamily management and personnel.

About CallSource Multifamily
CallSource Multifamily provides key strategic services to enhance an apartment community's ability to track marketing spend, increase lead conversion rates, and improve employee performance. Its unique services: CallTrack, LeadScore, Telephone Performance Analysis, LeadManager, LeaseSaver, and Online Learning Management System allow a multifamily business to direct its marketing and employee dollars for maximum return. Powering these services is a technology platform that uses more than 85,000 numbers tracking more than 11 million calls, of which over 4 million are listened to and scored for multifamily businesses across the country. CallSource technology is responsible for tracking and monitoring tens of millions of dollars in leasing opportunities.

About Mike Mueller
Mike Mueller was one of the first people to visualize how the Internet could change the way apartment owners and managers market their properties with one of the industry's first Internet Listing Services, AllApartments.com, a company he founded in 1996. It was later merged with Realtor.com and went public as HomeStore.com in 1999. Over the last 13 years he has been an early investor in companies like RealPage, LeasingDesk, MyNewPlace and most recently VaultWare which he founded and sold to MRI Software in late 2011. His focus continues to be consumer-centric marketing and leasing solutions for the multifamily housing industry and has been acknowledged as a pioneer by numerous organizations and publications. With his CallSource acquisition, Mike plans on taking prospect lead acquisition to a new level through the use of multiple emerging technologies including mobile-enabled devices like smartphones.

Why do apartment listings have such terrible pictures?

That's not from me ... I'm just passing along the message.

Don't believe me? See for yourself:

Think about this for a minute -- this is coming directly from a prospective renter:

I'm in the process of looking for apartments right now, and a ton of them just have horrible-quality pictures that tell me nothing about the place. Is there some incentive for people to keep on doing this?

One search on Craigslist shows exactly what the questioner means. Here's one example (posted by a professional management company):

What is that supposed to tell me as a prospect?

Now I'm no photography expert, but it seems to me like quality photos shouldn't be that big of an issue today, even if a professional photographer isn't in the budget.

Some Basics

I dug into this a bit further, looking for some basic tips about taking better quality photos. It didn't take long to find some great resources. Here's an example of some suggestions from Apartment Therapy:

Light: Take advantage of daylight. When using artificial light, use as much as possible. Don't use a flash as it can create shine and glare...

Wide Shot: Stand as far back as possible in the corner of a room. Try to center the good stuff in the middle and cut out as much of the ceiling as possible. If you don't have a wide-angle lens and the room is too small to capture all at once, then do a piece at a time.

Close-ups: Don't zoom in but rather step up to whatever you think is an interesting detail in your apartment. Frame it well, meaning make sure that there are other things in the photo that complement it. It is also a good idea to get above the scene rather than meet it at eye level.

Focus: If you don't have a tripod, try to lean the camera on something stable each time you take a photo. Clarity is crucial.

Perspective: Don't take all your photos from the same vantage point. Stand on a chair, lay down on the floor, get on your knees...

Great stuff. Now let's put some of these tips to use.

Taking Better Apartment Photos

We need to make it as easy as possible to take better photos, and we also need a (relatively) readily-accessible device that doesn't require a physics degree to operate.

A quick look at Flickr shows that the most popular camera used by photographers contributing to the site is a device a number of us have in our pockets right now -- the iPhone.

THIS is great news. First, because it's in your pocket, ready to fire at a moment's notice. Second, it's a respectable camera, especially if you have the latest edition (the 4S), so no need for a high-end DSLR. Third, it has a library of awesome apps to help you take better photos and share them online. Oh, and it shoots HD video, too. (I've focused on the iPhone for the purpose of this post, but there are also many photo-related apps available for Android phones ... try starting here.)

Get More Out of Your Cameraphone

So how exactly do we use the iPhone to take better pictures? Just like with any other camera, the right accessories can make all the difference. Here are just a few of the apps you might want to try to get more out of your iPhone camera:

Camera+: Features include an image stabilizer, exposure editing, cool effects and more.

Instagram: Add gorgeous filtered effects or tilt-shift blur. Share photos to other popular social networking sites.

Big Lens: Edit photos by setting the aperture, changing periphery blur levels and adjusting background to add a very professional look to your images.

Gorillacam: Take time-lapse photos, use the timer or use the built-in level to make sure your photos are straight.

Color Splash: Give photos a dramatic look by converting them to black and white, while keeping your chosen details in color.

Photoshop Express: Basic photo editing, including cropping, filters, effects, borders and more.

Flickr: Share your amazing photos with the world, and geo-tag your images to let people know where to find you.

Not one of these apps costs more than $1.99 in the iTunes App Store, and many of them are free.

Beyond the software, there are many external lenses and other accessories that you can add on to get even more out of the iPhone camera. (Tom Martin offers some great tips in this presentation.)

With a little bit of time & effort and a slim device that many of have in our pockets, we can significantly improve the photos we're posting on our property websites, ILS ads and Craigslist posts.

Now it's your turn. What tips do you have to take better property photos? What's your favorite camera or photography app?

Want to see some great photos? Check out some of the most interesting photos of apartments on Flickr.

NMHC OpTech 2011: Top Tweets from Day One - #NMHCTech

Many in the industry have descended on Dallas for this year's edition of the NMHC Operations and Technology Conference, which kicked off yesterday with a keynote presentation from futurist Jack Uldrich.

In case you couldn't make it to the conference (yours truly included), here are some of the highlights from those in attendance at yesterday's sessions, 140 characters at a time:

Want to follow along during today's roundtable discussions and sessions? Just follow the search #NMHCTech.

How Much Bandwidth Does Your Property Need for the "Internet of Things?"

So you think a 3Mb connection for each resident is sufficient? Maybe 5-10Mb if you have "tech-savvy" residents like students?

Sorry, that's just not going to cut it.

Take a look at the graphic below, shared by Cisco. (If there's any company that knows networking, it's them.) The money stat?

"By the end of 2011, 20 typical households will generate more Internet traffic than the entire Internet in 2008."

That's only three years ago, folks.

This goes way beyond websites and email ... the "Internet of Things" includes devices that have never been part of the network before (think appliances, access control systems, lighting systems, background music, sprinkler systems, etc.). Considering that the typical apartment community is often 200 households or more, that's a LOT of bandwidth. (Netflix usage alone can be enough to slow Internet speeds to a crawl at many properties.) If we assume that a fair number of these devices will be wireless, that's also a LOT of Wi-Fi spectrum getting pounded ... so be aware of potential interference issues. And all of this doesn't even account for any devices that property owners are installing to help properties run more efficiently.

The question is, what are you doing about it now to make sure you aren't losing these connected residents later? How are your ISP partners stepping up to help address potential bandwidth bottlenecks at your property? (Even if the numbers shared here don't pan out by the end of the year, it can't be that far off.)

I'd love to hear how you're planning for the "Internet of Things" and how it will affect multifamily (positively or negatively).

by visually via

IPv6: The new Internet Protocol and why you should care

This is a guest post from Bill Szczytko. Bill is the IT Manager for Maryland Management who loves handling the challenges of driving prospects and creating computer programs. Read more from Bill at BSitko.com.

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Some experiences in life can turn your bad mood into good. A love note from your spouse, a smile and kiss from your kids, your mother-in-law staying for the weekend ... okay, maybe not that one.

There are other things, like learning about Internet Protocol ANY version, that do just the opposite. Why then should you continue reading any further? Sure, this topic might be considered by some to be "Boring but important" but this stuff is crucial to understanding where the internet is headed. The Internet as you know it HAS to transform over the next few years or it risks not working at all.

There's lots of Geek language in here. To help ease your pain I'll be slapping up these icons to let you know when the Geekery is about to get pretty deep. Feel free to skip that section, look it up for more information, or stab yourself in the eye with your pen.

What is Internet Protocol? Does it have anything to do with Facebook?

The internet as you use it today relies on a method of communication called Internet Protocol v4. No matter the device you use, this protocol is getting you online.

Let me give you an example: let's just assume that the internet is a made up town in America. Every house in this town has its own unique address. That's no different from real life right? It would be pretty confusing to the USPS if people in the same town had the same address. How could you get your mail delivered? You'd end up with a brown bag covered magazine and someone else would have your AARP membership card. Chaos.

Next, think about how you'd get to someone's house in this town. You write down their address, look up the directions on Google Maps, and find out the route to take to get there. When you type http://www.google.com into a web browser, Internet Protocol needs to look up the address too. It accomplishes this look up using Domain Name System. Once it finds out the route to get there, it then "drives" your packet of data to the destination FAST.

So every device that wants to use this Internet Protocol thingy needs a unique address?

Yup. In some form or another. (I'll explain that sentence in a minute.) Unlike my real world example where you're just driving over to someone's house, Internet Protocol is a two way street. Which means running over to Sally's for a nooner would require her to then come back to your house. That won't work. See, once your packet of data has been given the correct address to go to ... that packet needs to get home. It's why the packets have to be able to find each other; hence why they must be unique.   The IPv4 spec (Geeks love calling things spec) uses 32-bit addresses which limits you to only 4,294,967,296 possible unique addresses. That's a ridiculous amount of addresses. Except there's one problem; by the end of this year, we'll be out.

"Honey, put the Private sign on the hotel room door and come here."

You might find this really crazy, but we would've been out of addresses a long time ago except for one thing. Private addressing. I won't pretend to know the makeup of your corporate offices but I'm willing to bet they use a private address scheme. Typically when computers are in the same building, they will all communicate with each other.   There's no reason why they all need to have their own unique internet address and so under the Private address scheme they can share one.

  Here are the 3 ranges of private addresses:

* Class A: 10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255
* Class B: 172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255
* Class C: 192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255

Hey ... you! Wake up! Stay with me now. I thought I'd lost you. You were sleeping pretty hard there. Bottom line is these private IP's are not routable; meaning Internet routers will ignore devices that have these addresses. Because they aren't routable on the INTERNET you can use them for private addresses. You can then have multiple devices all talk to each other and yet share only one Internet IP address. Get it? Good ... let's move on.

So we need IPv6 because even with private addresses we're STILL running out?

You're a fast learner. Back in the mid 90's IPv6 was chosen because some seriously smart Geeks saw the end of the internet. The new version gives you an absolutely ridiculous amount of addresses that you can use.   It's based on 128 bits vs 32 bits as IPv4 was. This means that we'll have 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 available addresses. Yes ... umm, THAT number. I mean honestly I don't even know how to say that. Just crazy. (It's undecillion actually.)

So if IPv6 has been out since the late 90's why aren't we fully using it yet?

Well, that's the real question right there isn't it? Remember ... every device in existence today uses IPv4. Most routers are still using it, servers, workstations, Internet lines ... the entire backbone of the internet is still utilizing it. People don't like downtime so how do you convert EVERYTHING to the new spec? For now IPv4 and IPv6 are working side by side. Remember that this is a software problem. Network cards and network switches could care less what spec you're using but still, how do you get every device to start speaking a different language and not mess stuff up?

Slow and steady wins the race

Over time everything will need to be converted. As multifamily companies just trying to grasp the impact social media has on our business, should we even shifting our attentions for this? Yes. Here are some things I think you should do to get ready:

* Find out if your IT staff is trained in IPv6. I've glossed over the complicated topics here but trust me when I tell you that reading the IPv6 specification on a full stomach is bad. If your IT staff doesn't understand IPv4, then they aren't really your IT staff but terrible imposters. Knowing IPv4 isn't enough though. It will take some reading and research before they're ready to take on IPv6. Before you just barge into the IT staff's office to tell them about this make sure you call first ... you don't want to interrupt them playing World of Warcraft. Just sayin'.

* Is your network provider ready? Is your internet service IPv6 ready? It's going to take some phone calls but before you can start using IPv6 on the internet, you'll need your internet to be IPv6. Wow, talk about redundant.

* Is everyone running an IPv6 ready Operating System? Windows XP has had support since SP2 but it's off by default. Windows Vista (CRAP!) and 7 have it on and ready by default. OS X has had support since version 10.4.8. How up to date are your operating systems and if not what will it take to get them there?

* What about your actual applications? Can they handle IPv6? This will require talking to your PM vendors as well as your web hosting vendor. Switching your network over only to find out you can't run Yardi internally would be very very bad.

So there you have it. IPv6 is coming to an Internet near you. No one is saying you need to switch tomorrow but plans should be in place to begin your transition. This new protocol isn't going to rent you new apartments, it won't turn your units faster, and it won't keep your staff motivated but it will insure that everyone can access email, your property management software and Facebook. Now, what is more important than that?