What goes into Employee Background Checks: The OFAC Patriot Act Search

Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Congress passed the lengthily named “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act,” commonly known as the “Patriot Act.” This piece of legislation was aimed at arming law enforcement with tools to both detect and prevent acts of terrorism. While the Patriot act has had both supporters and nay-sayers, it has become of great value to employers. One of the services included in theRRD’s employment screening packages is the OFAC Patriot Act Search. This tool screens for individuals and groups associated with terrorism. By screening your employees with this service, you’re helping to prevent potential terrorists from receiving an income for their terrorist activities. You’re also helping to ensure the safety of your own employees.

History Of OFAC

During the administration of President Jimmy Carter in 1977, Congress enacted the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). This law authorizes the president to regulate commerce after declaring a national emergency in response to any unusual or extraordinary threat to the United States from a foreign source. The provisions of IEEPA are administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) under the Department of the Treasury, which publishes a list of individuals and companies owned or controlled by, or acting for or on behalf of, targeted countries. It also lists individuals, groups, and entities, such as terrorists and narcotics traffickers designated under programs that are not country-specific. Collectively, such individuals and companies are called Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs).

Once the president has identified a particular event a national emergency to US interests, this gives OFAC the authority to search for targets. Once they have compiled evidence against a particular group or individual in the form of large financial records, they send it to the Department of Justice for verification and review. Usually, when OFAC declares sanctions against a group or individual, other regulatory agencies will follow suit, resulting in assets being frozen in a number of different countries. If a name is flagged as a match and this person is then identified as a bona fide SDN, their assets are blocked and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from dealing with them. This list is available to be searched for the name of an individual they are looking to do business with, and the page will return either a perfect match, a partial match, or no match whatsoever.

Here Are Some Of The Databases Checked By The OFAC For A Screening

·        Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Bank of England Consolidated List of Financial Sanctions, Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions Terrorism Financing, European Union Consolidated List, Office of Foreign Assets Control, Monetary Authority of Singapore – Consolidated lists of all organizations and individuals which are subject to targeted financial sanctions or travel bans under Australian, United Kingdom, Canadian, European Union, United States of America, Hong Kong, and Singaporean sanctions laws, respectively.

·         Bureau of Industry and Security – A list of all organizations and individuals for which there exists a strict export prohibition, a specific license requirement for exporting, or the presence of a “red flag”

·         DTC Debarred parties – A list of organizations and individuals prohibited from participating directly or indirectly in the export of defense articles for violating the Arms Export Control Act in the United States of America

·         FBI Hijack Suspects, FBI Most Wanted, FBI Most Wanted Terrorists, FBI Seeking Information, FBI Top Ten Most Wanted, Interpol Most Wanted – Lists of particularly dangerous individuals wanted by the FBI and Interpol for hijackings, terrorism, and a variety of other crimes.

·         Terrorist Exclusion List – A list of organizations with known ties to terrorist groups, and which can disqualify an associated individual from living in the United States

·         Unauthorized Banks – A list of any financial institution operating without a license or charter

·         Non-cooperative Countries and Territories – A list of countries which are perceived to be non-cooperative in the global fight against money laundering and terrorist financing

·         Non-proliferation – A list of groups and individuals involved in the attempted proliferation of nuclear weapons to terrorist groups and countries around the world

·         Politically Exposed Persons – A list of particularly prominent individuals- and their relatives- who are at a higher risk for involvement in bribery and corruption by way of their position

·         Primary Money Laundering Concern (PMLC) – A list of foreign groups and individuals identified by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network as seriously involved in money laundering

·         World Bank Debarred Parties – A list of groups and individuals ineligible to be awarded a World Bank-financed contract because they have been sanctioned under the Bank’s fraud and corruption policy

Helpful tips for not stressing out your pet when you move

As we all know moving can be a very stressful time for us all, your pets are creatures of habit so this change will be just as stressful on them if not more so and the last thing you need to worry about is how well your pet will adapt to the change in their environment. Here are some tips to help them make the transition into their new home.

• Keep them on the same schedule

Be sure you keep them on their same eating schedule or if it’s a dog try to keep their daily walks at about the same time, this can be difficult if you are moving to a different time zone, so try to acclimate them slowly, by keeping to the same times from your previous time zone, but slowly changing the schedule, professionals recommend changing/adjusting about 15 minutes per day

• Keep smells as similar as possible

It’s really helpful to remember that they rely on smell as much as sight so it can be a good to not wash their belongings for the first days of living in the new place. Also, when leaving for work or shopping, try to leave an unwashed t-shirt in their bed, or around where they lounge.

• Pack their items last

When you pack make sure you pack their items like toys and bedding last so they can stay as comfortable as possible and when you arrive make it the first items you unpack and put out for them.

• Put them in a room while you unpack

Put them in a room with their items as you unpack, it will be easier for them to adjust once you have the place as close to unpacked as possible so there will be some similarities ie: the familiar couch or dining table are in their place.

• Take them out frequently

If you have a dog, take them out on walks more frequently than you would normally do so. Get them used to the area and knowing where their new home is. When you get home from your walk, give them a treat so they associate the new residence with a happy place. This will also get them used to knowing where to go, should they become lost.

• Make sure tags and chips are updated

No matter what you do you cannot eliminate all of your pets stress and when they are stressed is when they are most likely to try and get out, be sure they are chipped and the chip contact information is up to date with any new contact info and their tags/registration have been updated with their new address.

Property Management Fundamentals: Prioritizing Goals

To be effective in any workplace, you need to prioritize your goals to get the most important things done immediately, but also be able to have sufficient time to accomplish every aspect of your job. Once you get good at identifying where each task belongs on this list, you’ll be effective in prioritizing your work.

1. Emergencies

This is a given, however emergencies are the things you absolutely are unable to ignore, but often impede on your day-to-day. Whether it’s a plumbing issue in a unit, a tenant lock-out, or criminal activity in the neighborhood, you weren’t planning for it, but now it’s the most important part of the day. When there isn’t an emergency going on, you should be focusing heavily on projects and organizational changes that can reduce the risk of emergencies occurring in the future. If emergencies happen on a continual basis, then they’re getting too much in the way of your day-to-day work.

2. Procedural

Procedural tasks are tasks that you do on a schedule. You know ahead of time that they’re coming and they play a central role in the working of your company. Procedural tasks for a property manager include billing, make-readies, minor work orders, and more. These tasks are usually best accomplished first in the day if there aren’t any emergencies. Once accomplished, you now have the rest of the day to work on projects and organizational changes that improve your business.

3. Projects

In general, a project has a deadline. Projects are tasks that can’t be accomplished in one day, but provide great benefit to the company long term. Projects can be for all kinds of things that benefit your procedural tasks or may help to prevent emergencies from happening in the future. Sample projects might be a new marketing campaign, implementing new property management software, refurbishing a property, creating an event for your tenants, or other projects that improve the organization and efficiency of your work.

4. Research

It’s always good to do a little research on the side whether it is for building your own skills or finding new tools online that will help your business. Whereas implementing property management software can be considered a project, actually discovering and learning about that software requires research. However, research has no guarantee of providing immediate results. For that reason, it’s the lowest priority on this list. You can’t be researching 70% of the time and working for 30%. Your daily dose of research should probably be no more that 1-2% of each day, if not less. You may be at a stage in your work life where you’re working on to many emergencies and procedural tasks to ever have time to do research. In that case, you might consider doing research when you’re outside of work. Habitual research in small doses can provide powerful insight for improving your work in the present as well as develop your career in the future.

If You Are Not Advertising your Property Rentals On Social Networks You Should Be

We are always looking for the best ways to advertise our rental properties for lease with the company that will give us the best reach for the best price, if you keep your social networks current and active they may be the best way to reach potential new renters.

Here’s how:

1) The majority of your target audience is on social networks

– By keeping your listings current you can ask friends, family members, and current tenants to like and share your listing posts casting an even a wider net within the community. Larger exposure will equate to quicker rentals.

2) Photography Is Important

– be sure the photos you use are quality and show the entire property, especially areas you feel should be highlighted. Remember you want them to click onto your post to check it out, make it inviting.

3) Monitor Your Posts and Respond To All Comments

-Be sure to respond to all comments in a timely manner, especially those that ask if/when they can see the property. If this comment came from a friends reposting of your post then be sure to reach out and thank them for the help. Everyone loves a thank you.

Be especially aware of “internet trolls” that may post a negative comment just for the sake of it. Respond in a professional way, a good strategy would be to ask why, or how they have experience with your property, if it is a valid complaint, thank them for bringing it to your attention, and let them know it is being addressed.

4) Don’t Be Afraid To Repost

– The number of people seeing your post is not as great as you would think as there are so many posts that are vying for their attention.

5) Potential higher Quality Tenant

– Being that the potential new tenant has a good chance of coming from someone you know or already resides in your property it is a higher possibility that they will be a quality tenant.

Of course you want to be careful as with anything in social media there are scammers and others that can prey on information so be cautious of what is placed into your posts and as always be sure you run a background check and don’t do your showings without others in your company coming along or at least have them nearby.

What You Need To Know About Rent Concessions

With rent concessions on the rise nationwide we need to have an understanding what giving or offering a concession can do to your property value if not handled correctly.

Let’s start with the definition of a rent concession, a concession is any “reduction in price, rent or other benefit provided to a potential tenant as an inducement to lease your property”. There are many ways to give a concession, reducing the first month’s rent, reducing rents for a contracted time or maybe even upgrades the property they are considering ie: an accent wall or upgraded appliances. Your goal should be to have all scenarios have about the same amount of rent paid. Also, if you can get a new tenant to accept an upgrade to the unit as a concession, it can be even more beneficial to you.

What you need to consider as you are offering your concessions is how do these concession affect my long term value of my investment. If you find yourself wanting/needing to refi and you begin the underwriting process you will find that lenders are interested in how much income an asset is producing and how much income an asset can optimally produce. Concessions add an additional layer to the equation. When underwriting the Net Operating Income of an asset, concessions are typically subtracted from the Gross Rental Income in order to determine the Net Rental Income — which also factors in things like vacancy and unpaid rent that’s deemed ‘uncollectible’. This may affect the borrowing power of the property, as lenders use multiples and ratios to determine the maximum loan to value.

The top 3 types of concession are- Lease-Up Concessions, Marketing Concessions and of course the old ‘Red Flag’ Concessions.

Lets start with the Red Flag Concessions: Lenders will have some concern when you are looking at buying or refinancing a property with rents that are in line with market competition but have on-going concessions to keep the property occupied. They will wonder why there are ongoing concessions, and what hidden issues might be there.

Lease-Up Concessions are defined as discounts offered in newly rehabbed or newly constructed apartment product during the lease-up phase as a means to stabilized occupancy (roughly 90%) as soon as possible. These one-time concessions are generally not of concern to lenders so long as there is strong lease-up velocity and that asking rents are well supported by the market.

Marketing Concessions: You will find these concession across all asset classes. These are often more of a marketing play in that rents at the property may be slightly above market rates. The ‘concession’ brings rates more in line with the market. These types of concessions are usually of no concern as long as they keep the rents at the market rate.

No matter what type of concession you chose be sure that it is reflected properly in your rent roll as it will make it easier for potential buyers or lenders feel comfortable with your property.