Wow! just found this article posted internationally in the Worldwide Mobility Magazine.
Building a House, Creating a Home
Members of the Wisconsin Employee Relocation Council recently participated in the building of a Habitat for Humanity home in Milwaukee, WI.
"We were all impressed with the Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity Organization, as well as our crew leaders, Andrew Rutz and Lee Lowley." said Nadya Nahirniak-Hansen, CRP, GMS, ASP, director of relocation/REO manager for Restaino & Associates, Realtors, Madison, WI. "They truly have a passion for what they do! We would like to say a special thank you to Doug Laundrie of Corporate Relocation Services for organizing the event. This was truly a remarkable experience and a fulfilling day for everyone!" Pictured in the photograph are: (top row) Andrew Rutz, crew leader, Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity; Lee Lowley, crew leader, Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity; Rebecca Glatzhofer, Allwright Moving Systems, Inc.; Doug Laundrie; John Donovan, Ace Worldwide; Greg Copeland, Cort Business Services—A Berkshire Hathaway Company; (bottom row) Bill Werth, CRP, Merchants Moving & Storage Company; Lisa Zena, CRP, Wells Fargo; Nadya Nahirniak-Hansen, CRP, GMS; Deborah Benavides, CRP, Shorewest Realtors; Jacob Werth, student at The University of Minnesota; and Doug Ketzer, CRP, GMS, Merchants Moving & Storage Company.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Furnishing “Homes” for Traveling Healthcare Professionals
The Challenge
Approximately 50 percent of AMN nurses choose to stay in furnished apartments provided by the company. As the largest health care staffing company in the country, AMN has leased as many as 4,000 apartments across the country at any given time.
AMN provides its employees safe, private accommodations within reasonable commutes, sometimes within a 5-minute drive for employees whose assignments require them to be on-call. As an additional benefit to employees, they arrange for housing to be comfortably furnished prior to an employee’s arrival. Housewares are also provided in about 25 percent of apartments.
Like many companies that must respond to fluctuating business conditions, AMN needed a furnishing solution that would enable them to maximize the efficiency of existing capital and human resources. Purchasing, managing and maintaining the large inventory of furniture required to support thousands of apartments can be a costly endeavor, particularly for AMN employees’ temporary needs, so rental furniture was a clear solution.
The Solution
AMN maintains apartment leases nationwide for a variety of lease lengths depending on local market conditions and the needs of the hospitals in that market. In some cases, healthcare professionals may travel with family members and need a two or three bedroom apartment. Furnishing these apartments with rental furniture frees AMN from the management burden and expense of furniture inventory management, and ensures that nurses are consistently provided with high-quality furniture. Rental furniture is also a flexible solution that allows AMN to adjust inventory, based on current demand.
The company traditionally contracted with multiple furniture rental providers to meet their needs, a solution that offered some AMN competitive price protection and guaranteed national coverage, however, that presented its own multi-partner management requirements and challenges. When AMN first began working with CORT, two other companies were supplying the majority of their furnishing needs, but over time AMN increasingly turned to CORT in recognition of their competitive pricing and superior service. By 2008, roughly 75 percent of the furniture rental business was split between CORT and one other company.
The Implementation
CORT worked with AMN to develop flexible solutions to meet their needs while delivering consistent service excellence. One such solution was a rebate incentive program based on the number of furniture leases and annual spend AMN had with CORT.
In late 2008, CORT acquired a competitor that expanded their national scope to the top 70 markets nationwide, a great benefit to its customers. This expanded service reach also led to an expanded partnership between CORT and AMH as they signed a 5-year agreement that guaranteed CORT 80-90 percent of the furniture business and housewares, as needed.
“Partnering with CORT for 80-90 percent of our furniture needs was a new direction for our furnished housing program, as in the past we worked with several providers at any given time,” said Brenda Gebler, vice president, vendor relationships and facility operations at AMN Healthcare, Inc. “However, CORT quickly lived up to their reputation of unmatched customer service even as the volume of business we did with them greatly increased. We work to use their furniture as often as possible.”
AMN is committed to signing long-term furniture leases whenever possible as this is the most profitable model for CORT, particularly in markets where there are hospital engagements nearly year-round and nurses rotating in and out of apartments. In return, CORT continues to deliver, pick-up and maintain furnishings at an affordable cost with a high level of service that AMN had not consistently experienced with previous vendors.
The Results
AMN repeatedly evaluates their vendor relationships based upon a number of categories, including general responsiveness and attention to service issues. AMN had, in the past, ended a relationship with a furnishings provider when nurse complaints were frequent and consistently unaddressed. A situation that can have a negative impact on employee satisfaction and loyalty. That said employees are thrilled with the service they can expect from CORT.
“I leased an apartment in Dallas in January 2010, since I was going to be spending a few months there,” said Gebler. “During my stay, I appreciated the chance to experience our nurse’s living conditions and I found the furniture to be perfectly comfortable. Overall, I was very pleased with CORT’s quality and service.”
AMN also had a consulting organization conduct an audit of processes throughout their entire system, including suppliers, pricing, systems and training. This analysis confirmed that, when compared to other vendors, CORT consistently provided AMN the best service and prices on rental furniture.
“The processes audit confirmed what we anecdotally knew to be true, that CORT was a partner we could trust to deliver best-in-class service,” said Gebler. “The audit was an especially helpful tool to communicate the success of this relationship to other executives within the AMN organization that may not have been familiar with the details of the supplier relationships for the furnished housing program.”
CORT will have continued opportunities to serve AMN as their business grows. After making changes to their business model and centralizing key operations, AMN has introduced new capabilities to offer traveling physician services to their hospital customers. CORT will also support their housing needs when apartment housing is necessary. In addition, AMN has completed acquisitions that have expanded their healthcare professional staff.
“CORT and AMN have developed a partnership based on mutual respect that has benefitted both our businesses,” said Gebler. “When our nurses are happy and well-cared for at home, we can be confident that they are delivering the high-quality of care to the hospitals and patients we serve that has made us the recognized leader in this industry.”
Approximately 50 percent of AMN nurses choose to stay in furnished apartments provided by the company. As the largest health care staffing company in the country, AMN has leased as many as 4,000 apartments across the country at any given time.
AMN provides its employees safe, private accommodations within reasonable commutes, sometimes within a 5-minute drive for employees whose assignments require them to be on-call. As an additional benefit to employees, they arrange for housing to be comfortably furnished prior to an employee’s arrival. Housewares are also provided in about 25 percent of apartments.
Like many companies that must respond to fluctuating business conditions, AMN needed a furnishing solution that would enable them to maximize the efficiency of existing capital and human resources. Purchasing, managing and maintaining the large inventory of furniture required to support thousands of apartments can be a costly endeavor, particularly for AMN employees’ temporary needs, so rental furniture was a clear solution.
The Solution
AMN maintains apartment leases nationwide for a variety of lease lengths depending on local market conditions and the needs of the hospitals in that market. In some cases, healthcare professionals may travel with family members and need a two or three bedroom apartment. Furnishing these apartments with rental furniture frees AMN from the management burden and expense of furniture inventory management, and ensures that nurses are consistently provided with high-quality furniture. Rental furniture is also a flexible solution that allows AMN to adjust inventory, based on current demand.
The company traditionally contracted with multiple furniture rental providers to meet their needs, a solution that offered some AMN competitive price protection and guaranteed national coverage, however, that presented its own multi-partner management requirements and challenges. When AMN first began working with CORT, two other companies were supplying the majority of their furnishing needs, but over time AMN increasingly turned to CORT in recognition of their competitive pricing and superior service. By 2008, roughly 75 percent of the furniture rental business was split between CORT and one other company.
The Implementation
CORT worked with AMN to develop flexible solutions to meet their needs while delivering consistent service excellence. One such solution was a rebate incentive program based on the number of furniture leases and annual spend AMN had with CORT.
In late 2008, CORT acquired a competitor that expanded their national scope to the top 70 markets nationwide, a great benefit to its customers. This expanded service reach also led to an expanded partnership between CORT and AMH as they signed a 5-year agreement that guaranteed CORT 80-90 percent of the furniture business and housewares, as needed.
“Partnering with CORT for 80-90 percent of our furniture needs was a new direction for our furnished housing program, as in the past we worked with several providers at any given time,” said Brenda Gebler, vice president, vendor relationships and facility operations at AMN Healthcare, Inc. “However, CORT quickly lived up to their reputation of unmatched customer service even as the volume of business we did with them greatly increased. We work to use their furniture as often as possible.”
AMN is committed to signing long-term furniture leases whenever possible as this is the most profitable model for CORT, particularly in markets where there are hospital engagements nearly year-round and nurses rotating in and out of apartments. In return, CORT continues to deliver, pick-up and maintain furnishings at an affordable cost with a high level of service that AMN had not consistently experienced with previous vendors.
The Results
AMN repeatedly evaluates their vendor relationships based upon a number of categories, including general responsiveness and attention to service issues. AMN had, in the past, ended a relationship with a furnishings provider when nurse complaints were frequent and consistently unaddressed. A situation that can have a negative impact on employee satisfaction and loyalty. That said employees are thrilled with the service they can expect from CORT.
“I leased an apartment in Dallas in January 2010, since I was going to be spending a few months there,” said Gebler. “During my stay, I appreciated the chance to experience our nurse’s living conditions and I found the furniture to be perfectly comfortable. Overall, I was very pleased with CORT’s quality and service.”
AMN also had a consulting organization conduct an audit of processes throughout their entire system, including suppliers, pricing, systems and training. This analysis confirmed that, when compared to other vendors, CORT consistently provided AMN the best service and prices on rental furniture.
“The processes audit confirmed what we anecdotally knew to be true, that CORT was a partner we could trust to deliver best-in-class service,” said Gebler. “The audit was an especially helpful tool to communicate the success of this relationship to other executives within the AMN organization that may not have been familiar with the details of the supplier relationships for the furnished housing program.”
CORT will have continued opportunities to serve AMN as their business grows. After making changes to their business model and centralizing key operations, AMN has introduced new capabilities to offer traveling physician services to their hospital customers. CORT will also support their housing needs when apartment housing is necessary. In addition, AMN has completed acquisitions that have expanded their healthcare professional staff.
“CORT and AMN have developed a partnership based on mutual respect that has benefitted both our businesses,” said Gebler. “When our nurses are happy and well-cared for at home, we can be confident that they are delivering the high-quality of care to the hospitals and patients we serve that has made us the recognized leader in this industry.”
Friday, February 4, 2011
Apartment Industry
HOUSING
Last updated: Jan. 20, 2011
Sales of existing homes indicate that the worst is over, after the boom and bust over the past 12 months surrounding the tax credit for first-time home buyers. A surge in December followed a strong November. Despite the gains, though, the annualized pace in December of 5.2 million in sales remains below the pre-bubble trend of about 5.5 million. One spark for the jump in sales is the increase in mortgage rates starting in November, which pushed would-be buyers off the fence. Meanwhile, sales of new homes are bumping along at a very slow pace. And construction remains depressed, although housing starts, including apartments, increased by 6% in 2010, the first year since 2005 that residential building didn’t subtract from gross domestic product.
Anemic job growth is a major problem. You can’t buy a house without a paycheck. The net job growth of 1.1 million in 2010 was a good sign, but double that number is needed this year to move housing starts and sales toward prerecession norms. Job growth and pay raises will be needed to counter the rise in the 30-year fixed rate mortgage. It’s around 4.8% and likely to fluctuate in a range of 5% to 5.5% this year.
Another obstacle to overcome is the large inventory of unsold homes. Plus, new foreclosures and distressed sales are adding up to 3 million homes to the existing supply. Selling these homes -- often at deep discounts -- will result in a drop in prices of about 3% by summer. The final tally on foreclosures in 2010 will total around 1.8 million, and foreclosures will hit about 2 million in 2011.
Look for housing starts to increase to about 675,000 this year, versus 590,000 in 2010, as the economy adds about 2.5 million net new jobs. Reaching 1 million starts will likely have to wait until 2013.
Last updated: Jan. 20, 2011
Sales of existing homes indicate that the worst is over, after the boom and bust over the past 12 months surrounding the tax credit for first-time home buyers. A surge in December followed a strong November. Despite the gains, though, the annualized pace in December of 5.2 million in sales remains below the pre-bubble trend of about 5.5 million. One spark for the jump in sales is the increase in mortgage rates starting in November, which pushed would-be buyers off the fence. Meanwhile, sales of new homes are bumping along at a very slow pace. And construction remains depressed, although housing starts, including apartments, increased by 6% in 2010, the first year since 2005 that residential building didn’t subtract from gross domestic product.
Anemic job growth is a major problem. You can’t buy a house without a paycheck. The net job growth of 1.1 million in 2010 was a good sign, but double that number is needed this year to move housing starts and sales toward prerecession norms. Job growth and pay raises will be needed to counter the rise in the 30-year fixed rate mortgage. It’s around 4.8% and likely to fluctuate in a range of 5% to 5.5% this year.
Another obstacle to overcome is the large inventory of unsold homes. Plus, new foreclosures and distressed sales are adding up to 3 million homes to the existing supply. Selling these homes -- often at deep discounts -- will result in a drop in prices of about 3% by summer. The final tally on foreclosures in 2010 will total around 1.8 million, and foreclosures will hit about 2 million in 2011.
Look for housing starts to increase to about 675,000 this year, versus 590,000 in 2010, as the economy adds about 2.5 million net new jobs. Reaching 1 million starts will likely have to wait until 2013.
Monday, January 17, 2011
CORT Furniture new Student Referal Program
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CORT Launches Student Referral Revenue Sharing Program
FAIRFAX, VA (November 8, 2010) Educational institutions seeking a new source of revenue now can look to off-campus student housing for new revenue streams. CORT, a Berkshire Hathaway company and the worldwide leader in furniture rental and leasing solutions, has just announced its Partner Referral Program for colleges and universities. Participating schools will generate new ancillary revenue streams from the millions of students living off campus attending these institutions today.
The program is very simple. CORT creates a web-listing placed on a school’s website along with off-campus housing information offering students furniture rental services. This listing includes a toll-free phone number and a web address that links into CORT’s Customer Service Center and is tracked through its customer relationship management (CRM) database. For every furniture rental lease CORT secures with a student who was referred from that school’s website, the participating school receives $75.
“This is a win-win strategy for schools,” said CORT senior vice president Mark Koepsell, “as colleges and universities can leverage the program to create an additional revenue stream while providing off-campus students a service that helps them obtain affordable, high-quality furnishings for their apartment.”
Through the web-based portal, students can view furniture rental options on the CORT website or speak to a CORT representative on the phone. The program allows universities to capture some of the revenue they lose when students choose to live off campus, while providing a great value to students and parents.
This program is another example of how CORT works with universities to develop direct and indirect relationships through which schools can offer furniture rental packages to students. Rented furniture can be delivered and removed “on-demand” by furniture moving professionals as students come and go from their living quarters during the school year.
CORT also offers additional services to support higher education institutions based on each school’s individual needs. For example, at some schools CORT is managing on-campus furnished housing programs with leased furniture packages. CORT also offers a furniture purchase-leaseback program through which CORT purchases furniture from an institution and leases that inventory back, thereby converting those furniture assets into cash and working capital as well as removing and updating individual items as needed and freeing up cash flow and staff time necessary to maintain an inventory of furniture.
About CORT
For the past 40 years, CORT has been a leading provider in rental furniture and has provided services to more than 80 percent of the Fortune 500 companies. CORT also provides the nation’s most comprehensive range of rental relocation services, including area-orientation tours and online apartment search services at www.ApartmentSearch.com. CORT is a Berkshire Hathaway company and has offices in every major U.S. market and a global furniture rental network of affiliates in more than 50 countries. For more information about CORT, visit www.cort.com.
Information gathered from www.CORT.com website
Greg Copeland
CORT Business Services
Wisconsin & N. Illinois
920-904-4894
Greg.Copeland@CORT.com
Www.CORT.com
CORT Launches Student Referral Revenue Sharing Program
FAIRFAX, VA (November 8, 2010) Educational institutions seeking a new source of revenue now can look to off-campus student housing for new revenue streams. CORT, a Berkshire Hathaway company and the worldwide leader in furniture rental and leasing solutions, has just announced its Partner Referral Program for colleges and universities. Participating schools will generate new ancillary revenue streams from the millions of students living off campus attending these institutions today.
The program is very simple. CORT creates a web-listing placed on a school’s website along with off-campus housing information offering students furniture rental services. This listing includes a toll-free phone number and a web address that links into CORT’s Customer Service Center and is tracked through its customer relationship management (CRM) database. For every furniture rental lease CORT secures with a student who was referred from that school’s website, the participating school receives $75.
“This is a win-win strategy for schools,” said CORT senior vice president Mark Koepsell, “as colleges and universities can leverage the program to create an additional revenue stream while providing off-campus students a service that helps them obtain affordable, high-quality furnishings for their apartment.”
Through the web-based portal, students can view furniture rental options on the CORT website or speak to a CORT representative on the phone. The program allows universities to capture some of the revenue they lose when students choose to live off campus, while providing a great value to students and parents.
This program is another example of how CORT works with universities to develop direct and indirect relationships through which schools can offer furniture rental packages to students. Rented furniture can be delivered and removed “on-demand” by furniture moving professionals as students come and go from their living quarters during the school year.
CORT also offers additional services to support higher education institutions based on each school’s individual needs. For example, at some schools CORT is managing on-campus furnished housing programs with leased furniture packages. CORT also offers a furniture purchase-leaseback program through which CORT purchases furniture from an institution and leases that inventory back, thereby converting those furniture assets into cash and working capital as well as removing and updating individual items as needed and freeing up cash flow and staff time necessary to maintain an inventory of furniture.
About CORT
For the past 40 years, CORT has been a leading provider in rental furniture and has provided services to more than 80 percent of the Fortune 500 companies. CORT also provides the nation’s most comprehensive range of rental relocation services, including area-orientation tours and online apartment search services at www.ApartmentSearch.com. CORT is a Berkshire Hathaway company and has offices in every major U.S. market and a global furniture rental network of affiliates in more than 50 countries. For more information about CORT, visit www.cort.com.
Information gathered from www.CORT.com website
Greg Copeland
CORT Business Services
Wisconsin & N. Illinois
920-904-4894
Greg.Copeland@CORT.com
Www.CORT.com
Friday, December 17, 2010
Cort 2010 Holday iPad Promotional Party
Thank you to everyone who was able to make it to our wonderful event. We had 41 individuals in the industry show up and enjoy the Red Accordian food, some drinks, wii bowling and of course someone was able to win the iPad.
Again we want to say thank you to all of our clients and customers, as well wish everyone a safe and Happy Holiday.
Kind Regards
Again we want to say thank you to all of our clients and customers, as well wish everyone a safe and Happy Holiday.
Kind Regards
Sunday, September 12, 2010
US Unemployment Rate vs. Education Level
The Great Recession and subsequent disappointing recovery have been much harder on less-educated workers. The unemployment rate in August was 9.6 percent overall, but this masked large differences based on levels of education. For workers without a high school diploma, the average rate was 14.0 percent while just 4.6 percent of workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher were unemployed. The spread between the unemployment rates for these two categories of workers reached a peak of 10.8 percentage points in August 2009 and has come down slightly since then to 9.4 percentage points. The largest gap before the Great Recession was 9.0 percentage points, which occurred in May 1992 shortly after the government began collecting that statistic in January of that year. The reason for the large gap in the current cycle is that the construction and manufacturing industries were hit much harder than any other sector of the economy. This relates to a question that economists have been debating recently: Is part of the increase in the unemployment rate structural in nature or is most or all of the increase due to the recession and soft demand. The unusually wide spread between workers with low and high levels of education suggests that some of the gap could be structural, perhaps due to cheaper production costs overseas, increasing labor productivity in the U.S. or a mismatch between the needs of employers and the skills of workers. Any or all of these trends could be a contributing factor to the slow pace of hiring, which has critical implications for the recovery of the commercial real estate leasing markets.
Statistical Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Grubb & Ellis
Statistical Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Grubb & Ellis
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Milwaukee Flood
We wish the best wishes from Cort to everyone affected by the flood. We hope everyone has managed to survive through the struggle of Mother nature and want to let anyone know that we are working with a great deal of restoration companies to get this matter resolved as soon as possible for all the commercial clients and the residential clients we have and work with.
At this moment we would say over 70% of the mess is totaly cleaned up.
:)
At this moment we would say over 70% of the mess is totaly cleaned up.
:)
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