30 Years and Counting
Multifamily’s largest fee management firm is in the mood to celebrate. Dallas-based Pinnacle, an American Management Services Co., held events at all of the company’s locations this summer to celebrate the firm’s 30th anniversary in the property management space. Parties included cakes, raffle drawings for gift cards, special employee recognitions, a Pinnacle trivia contest (see below), and a travel mug giveaway for each of the firm’s employees. Phoenix-based multifamily developer and owner operator Alliance Residential has also been tooting its horn this year: The company celebrated its 10th anniversary in September.
In a Quick & Quirky first, Pinnacle has agreed to provide an additional travel mug prize to the first Q&Q reader who correctly answers an abbreviated Pinnacle trivia contest. Email your answers here. First 100% correct entry gets the prize!
1) What did Pinnacle CEO Stan Harrelson do before he teamed up with John Goodman?
2) How many years has Pinnacle held the top spot on the MFE Top 50 Managers list?
3) What reality show was filmed in what are now Pinnacle's executive offices in Seattle?
4) When was the company founded?
Scream Cities
Just in time for October monster madness, Santa Monica, Calif.-based multifamily ILS Rent.com released its list of the top 10 haunted cities in America. Not surprisingly, Salem, Mass., made the cut, as did Savannah, Ga.; New Orleans, La.; and San Francisco. San Antonio was highlighted for the many spirit sightings in the vicinity of the Alamo, while Chicago was noted for its haunted cemeteries, including Oak Woods cemetery, where 6,000 Confederate soldiers were buried during the Civil War. Last year, a Rent.com survey found that 11% of renters believe they have lived in a home inhabited by ghosts and another 69% of renters admitted that they would be perfectly willing to share space with some spirits exchange for a good deal on rent. Talk about creepy concessions.
Scam Man
Cedar Rapids, Iowa, landlord Robert Miell sent himself down the river, and the Feds finally caught up with him in an insurance scam case that involved investigators from the IRS, the U.S. Postal Service, and the Iowa Insurance Fraud Bureau. Miell ultimately pleaded guilty to 18 counts of mail fraud and two counts of perjury that spawned from his fraudulent reports to American Family Insurance of more than $336,000 in storm damage at 145 properties. U.S. District Court Judge Mark Bennett wasn’t amused or even appeased by the plea, handing down the maximum sentence earlier this week: 20 years in the can for Miell, where he’ll apparently get a handle on in-unit obsolescence for real this time.
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