Whether you are moving or staying - seasons keep changing.

With all of the hustle and bustle from school to work to soccer practice, things tend to get a bit out of place and often times lost amongst the ever-growing pile of stuff we tend to accumulate. Asset Plus looked at some different storage options that may help you organize your apartment so you can fully utilize all the square footage that you are paying for.

Below you will find Asset Plus’ top 3 recommended storage options that we think will not only optimize and organize your living space, but will do so with some fashion sense.

1. Land of Nod is a sister company of Crate and Barrel and CB2, whom specialize in furniture for kid’s and nursery rooms. The picture below is a 6 cube bookcase that can be configured to fit in a bedroom, bathroom and playroom or laundry room.

2. Itso is an organization system based upon individual units that are compatible with one another. The itso storage system is to assemble and the price is based upon your individual needs for storage. Itso storage units can be purchased at your local Target store.

3. The Componibili Storage Module by Kartell is designed to function and fit into any space available while storing a mass volume of items. This storage appliance can be purchased in either round or square shapes providing each individual with their own preference.

After an exciting summer and the kick off to a new school year, Asset Plus teams across the nation take time to applaud their residents through a friendly company competition.  The competition involved each property creating a bulletin board or easel board that displayed “Why We Love Our Residents” and placed them in their leasing offices for all to see.   

The competition evoked vast amounts of creativity in teams presenting their boards and unique reasons as to why the properties love their residents.  Reasons included “they pay their bills on time, they always come by to say hello, they keep us employed, they are involved with the community, and they become part of our family.”  Along with all of those endearing reasons were pictures posted on the boards of residents at various community events, lounging by the pool and all the friendly pets on the property.

The properties sent in photos of their boards to the Houston corporate office and from there were voted on for first and second place.  The winning property received a catered lunch and the second place property received an ice cream party.  Lakeview Lofts located in Cypress, TX ended up receiving the most votes with Indian Springs located in Houston, TX taking second place.  Below are photos of Lakeview Lofts and Indian Springs’ bulletin boards of why they LOVE their residents!

1st Place: Lakeview Lofts - Cypress, TX

2nd Place: Indian Springs - Houston, TX

With the first of many Texas Tech Red Raider home football games accounted for, Asset Campus Housing looks forward to future endeavors with one of their most recent student housing property developments; 25Twenty, located on the northwest corner of Marsha Sharp Freeway and University Avenue. 25Twenty broke ground in May 2010 and plans to begin preleasing this fall in accordance with the property’s new website that went live on September 15th, 2010.

Raider fans that attended last week’s game were able to see the new multi-use parking garage that will be adjacent to 25Twenty and serve as the parking garage to future residents. Raider Park is an 11 story garage with ground level retail and an open-air rooftop bar. The street located between the garage and 25Twenty was closed on game day for a pre-game concert and post-game festivities. "We look forward to this time next year when the residents of 25Twenty will be able to be a part of this unique Game Day experience" said to Barrett Kirk, Senior Vice President of Development.

25Twenty is a joint venture between Asset Plus Companies and Kayne Anderson Real Estate Partners I, L.P. (KAREP), a private equity real estate fund investing in specialized real estate sectors, with a primary focus on off-campus student housing. 25Twenty is a compelling investment for the fund as it is located in a public university market with solid enrollment growth and strong barriers to entry. KAREP anticipates 25Twenty having the same caliber of success that ACH’s 2009 development, The Lofts at Wolf Pen Creek has had with a 97% lease in 2009 and 100% pre-lease in 2010.

Residents will experience the superior level of customer service that ACH provides at all of their communities, as well as the most up to date technology and amenities. ACH is upgrading 25Twenty to have one of the fastest internet systems in the student housing industry, which will provide all residents with high speed internet access in their bedrooms. The amenities include a game room with a featured golf simulator, state of the art fitness center, theatre room, two outdoor courtyards and a competition sand volleyball court.

ACH aims for the development of 25Twenty to benefit the community at large with the opportunity to provide the ultimate housing experience for Texas Tech students, entertainment for alumni on game days, and a strengthened partnership with KAREP.

Asset Plus

Headquartered in Houston, Texas, ACH is an affiliate of Houston-based Asset Plus Companies, a third party property management firm specializing in real estate services for investors, developers, and owners. Asset Campus Housing manages a student housing portfolio of 50+ properties, exceeding 30,000 beds located throughout the United States.

About Kayne Anderson Real Estate Advisors

Kayne Anderson Real Estate Advisors (KAREA) is a private equity firm that invests in niche real estate sectors requiring specialized knowledge and skill for success, with a primary focus on off-campus student housing. KAREA is actively seeking student housing real estate assets of 150 units or more in close proximity to large public universities with strong student enrollment growth. The firm raised $136 million in commitments for its first real estate private equity fund Kayne Anderson Real Estate Partners I, which held its final close on March 31, 2009. KAREA is part of Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, L.P., a $9 billion investment management firm with over 25 years successful experience in the energy, growth capital, real estate and mezzanine debt sectors.

High school graduates moving away to college for the first time are having the option of co-ed housing more and more frequently at public and private universities with over fifty universities offering co-ed housing today.  For many years co-ed housing has been debated and unheard of, but with the beginning of another school year we are seeing  more schools gravitate towards student's requests for gender neutral housing.

The University of Southern Maine is one of seventeen that began the new transition this fall and says that the establishment of this new housing development is a result of their student’s cry for liberation to live with whoever and however they would like. Many students entering college for the first time tend to struggle with their identity and have pushed their concerns of being limited to their roommate selection to their University’s administrators. 

The more conservative trend that seems to be following this new housing development would be co-ed bathrooms and co-ed suitemates. The University of Chicago has rolled out co-ed bathrooms to all their on-campus resident halls, while Yale has permitted only seniors to live in mixed-gender suites but not mixed-bedrooms. The student government's on both campuses are both very active in seeing that their schools are leaders in individualization, even though Yale was the last of all four Ivy league schools to adopt some sort of gender neutral housing features.

While some students applaud the strives their universities are making towards freedom in choice of their roommates, some parents are worried about the safety and privacy of their children.  The University of Southern Maine combats this worry with the establishment that every student will be paired with the same sex roommate unless there is a written request for a mixed-gender bedroom from both parties.  Most universities agree that giving students the choice to live with whomever they want is providing a safe and comfotable living environment- whether  sex-segregated or gender-neutral housing.

Houston, Texas – September 7, 2010 – Asset Campus Housing (ACH) completes the leasing season for the academic 2010-2011 school year with a total portfolio wide resident retention rate of 48% due to the execution of an aggressive renewal campaign that was implemented through their multi-layered management system and highly motivated staff.

Thirteen ACH properties achieved a 40% or higher resident retention rate, while three other properties achieved 50% or higher resident retention. These percentages speak volumes of ACH’s ability to provide ultimate customer satisfaction in the student housing industry.

ACH executes their renewal campaign the first day residents arrive by physically assisting them with move-in and providing them with adequate resources to their surrounding community and university, i.e. the university’s football schedule, the best dining locations, and student coupon books to local retail stores. Throughout the year ACH proceeds to invite residents to monthly events where they can network and generate lasting friendships at planned activities that are not provided at competing facilities.

Recognizing what is important to today’s student housing resident, ACH focuses on training their entire staff to be prepared for every potential resident issue. The ACH staff makes it a priority to create a welcoming atmosphere by having onsite management recognize each resident by name and being available for assistance at all hours. Maintenance issues tend to be of high importance when dealing with student housing, therefore ACH hires the most efficient and professional maintenance teams available to ensure that all requests are met in a timely fashion with no future mishap.

ACH is consistently working with clients to be sure all facilities are kept up to date with the latest amenities and necessities, making it feasible for the company to hold on to nearly half of all their residing residents. The success of ACH’s resident retention has contributed to their successful yearend occupancy rate of 97%.

Headquartered in Houston, Texas, ACH is an affiliate of Houston-based Asset Plus Companies, a third party property management firm specializing in real estate services for investors, developers, and owners. Asset Campus Housing manages a student housing portfolio of 50+ properties, exceeding 30,000 beds located throughout the United States.

Houston, Texas – August 31, 2010– In one of the nation’s most challenging and competitive student housing markets, College Station, Texas, Asset Campus Housing (ACH) continues to see growth with the recent addition of two new management assignments while successfully leasing their other College Station properties.

ACH’s presence in the market place is over 4,000 beds, making ACH the largest off campus student housing provider in College Station, Texas.  In a market where 2,900+ beds have been added to the housing supply over the past two years, ACH outperforms competitors by achieving occupancy levels above 97% on the facilities it operates.

The success in College Station, Texas is the result of ACH’s operating philosophy of a low supervisory ratio combined with a creative, resourceful internal marketing department.  Two of ACH’s most recent management assignments in this market greatly benefited from their boutique-style property management approach by allowing the operating team to primarily focus on the operations and the marketing team to be strictly geared to marketing and the re-positioning of the assets within the market place.

Upon takeovers, with less than 60 days remaining in the leasing season, the ACH team dramatically increased the 2010 fall preleasing percentage from 41% to 97% in the new 400+ bed assignment and 52% to 94% in the 800+ bed assignment.

With over 8 years of student housing management experience in College Station, ACH is especially familiar with the market place and has established a well known reputation for exceeding resident expectations as seen with this year’s leasing success. 

 Headquartered in Houston, Texas, ACH is an affiliate of Houston-based Asset Plus Companies, a third party property management firm specializing in real estate services for investors, developers, and owners.  ACH manages a student housing portfolio of 50+ properties, exceeding 30,000 beds located throughout the United States.