On the Streets Where You Live

Our crew of surveryors can be overcome from the boredom of repetitive dialing and asking the same questions over and over. So they entertain themselves any way they can, this time it was finding amusement in the names of the streets where the complexes were located. Thanks to Michelle for bringing these nuggets to our attention.

How would you like to live on Hobbie Horse Lane? Or would Lolly Lane be better?

You might hesistate to live on Slaughter Lane or Convict Hill Road. If you are troubled by Chemical Lane, try moving over to Safety Street.

If you want to be in a good mood all day, move to Jollyville Road. You could also live on Simplicity Street. In the best of all worlds, you would live on  Wonder World Drive.

How would you like to tell a person cashing your check that you live on Minawawa Avenue?

Hurrican IKE

There are only a few days left to finish the 3Q survey, and everything is done except Texas. Last week when we tried to call the Houston Metro Area, we were unable to contact 1000+ complexes in our database. So we started again this week and we have been able to get through some of the complexes. We are hearing interesting stories about how communities have been coping with lack of electricity. One building told us they were cooking breakfast for their residents on their outdoor barbeques and several ingenious managers are making “cowboy coffee” for all comers. It has sometimes taken 35 to 40 phone calls to get through, but little by little we are completing the majority of surveys in the Houston area.

The big exception of course are the coastal communities that bore the brunt of the hurricane. In Port Arthur and Beaumont there were a few cases where we could get throught the managers were coping with emergencies like downed trees, flooded ground floors, and heating and cooling systems malfunctioning. The worst problems are in Galveston where we have been unable to reach a single apartment. I have friends that have vacation home on the Brazos River and they tell me that the roads in that area are still impassable. So it remains to be seen whether any of those Galveston apartments will ever be occupied again.  What a shame! The fun shops and interesting restaurants of Galveston made it a great destination for Sunday brunch and some time on the beach. Hope we can do it again soon.

Monday Morning News

This morning 12 telephone surveyors reported to work– collecting current rents and occupancies. Problems began immediately as they attempted to call Houston. The Houston MSA is the largest in our database, containing approximately 1100 complexes. It’s truly Texas-sized.  As of this morning most of those complexes are without electricity because of hurricane Ike and many are without phone service. We have already completed our survey of Austin and San Antonio, but it looks like we will have to wait until next week to get Houston. It remains to be seen in the hard hit areas like Galveston and Port Arthur that there will be any buildings left to survey.

On the bright side Lehman Brothers is not one of our clients.