Welcome to Happy Thoughts

Changing the Course of Energy Efficiency: Behind a Groundbreaking Natural Gas Ban

From methane leaks to asthma risks, the use of natural gas in residential buildings poses a range of problems. In July 2019, Berkeley took a powerful step to solve them, passing a groundbreaking natural gas ban. HappyCo covers its significance for multifamily operators.

Beautiful Views, Major Risks:
Exploring the Coastal Development Equation

Waking up to an ocean view may sound like paradise, but in the face of climate change, this perk can come with serious consequences. From storm costs and safety risks to government responses and design strategies, HappyCo breaks down the coastal development equation.

Multifamily Tours Meet the Digital Age:
Why the Leasing Experience is Evolving

From glossy touch screens to virtual reality headsets, leasing tours are changing shape as multifamily meets the digital age. Are your teams ready to balance cutting-edge tech with quality customer service? HappyCo explores the evolving nature of the leasing experience.

Rebuilding Trust: Maintenance Hazards & Multifamily Opportunities in Military Housing

From “rodent droppings” to lead poisoning, military housing is making headlines for the worst reasons. As army leadership and elected officials work to rebuild trust, HappyCo uncovers maintenance pain points and operator possibilities.

An Impossible Bind? Exploring the Student Housing Crisis in Major Cities

Expensive metro area plus affordable student housing? The math seems impossible. Yet, urban universities face considerable pressure to provide convenient, quality housing. From financial hurdles to legal challenges to student concerns, HappyCo frames the stakes.

More Than Likes & Shares: How to Set Your Communities Apart on Social Media

Social media is much more than a game of “likes” and shares. HappyCo covers why social is a prime multifamily marketing opportunity — and how to set a strategy that piques interest and builds community.

Putting People First in Multifamily: Hiring Tips through Turnover Comebacks

In an age of unflattering Glassdoor reviews and frequent job switches, companies are under more pressure than ever to put people first. From hiring through turnover, HappyCo explores strategies for multifamily operators.

Winning Convenience or Losing Privacy? A Multifamily Guide to Smart Lock Concerns

Are smart locks more rewarding than they are risky? As the technology grows in popularity, HappyCo dives into a range of privacy, safety, and legal issues multifamily operators should know before they leave keys behind.

From Porches to Penthouses: Behind the Rise of Baby Boomer Renters

For baby boomers, the dream of a white picket fence is losing its luster. Many are trading porches for penthouses, entering the multifamily market in numbers far surpassing millennial stats. Here’s why they’re moving — and what they want.

Community Sells: Why Millennials Want Co-Living and How Operators Benefit

For a growing number of millennials, amenities aren’t enough anymore. Instead, they’re after a perk that’s much tougher to quantify: community. Here’s why millennials want “co-living” arrangements — and how operators benefit.

Clean Taps, Healthy Communities: Prioritizing Safe Water in Due Diligence Walks

Unsafe drinking water may have gained national attention with the Flint, MI crisis, but multifamily operators across the U.S. have long been on the hook to provide clean water for residents. Here’s how Due Diligence walks can prioritize the issue.

Little Time, Big Consequences: A Multifamily Lens on Major REAC Inspection Changes

14 days. That’s all the warning HUD will now give affordable housing operators ahead of a REAC inspection. HappyCo dives into the update and the reasoning, offering a multifamily president’s insights on the stakes for operators.

Stress-free Multifamily Compliance with HappyCo’s New Required Items and Scoring Features

End the days of faulty heaters and slippery walkways. Take the reins of preventative maintenance. But, how? Happy Inspector’s latest updates are set to transform your multifamily operations.

Trading Burbs for Transit Villages: Seize the Chance to Meet Millennial Demand

Tired of traffic and keen on cities, more and more millennials are looking for a change: trading suburbs for transit villages. Here’s how to meet demand as multifamily tastes evolve.

Taking the Stress Out of Software Choices: How to Manage Mobile Devices in Multifamily

Increased productivity or security pitfalls? Mobile devices represent tremendous opportunity and significant risk in the workplace. Luckily, there are several software options to manage them! Here’s your guide for multifamily.

Slow Economic Growth, Bright Multifamily Hopes: Why 2019 Spells Standout Housing Opportunities

Sluggish economic growth isn’t putting the brakes on promising opportunities in multifamily. Learn why 2019 is spelling standout possibilities — and just how you can maximize them.

Happy Software Starts with Happy Teams: Isaac Mann Talks Successful Engineering Leadership

What does it take to build happy software? Happy engineers! HappyCo Director of Engineering Isaac Mann reveals the engineering leadership strategies that transform teams and delight customers.

The Science (and Art!) of Delighting People: From Cafe Perks to Multifamily Products

Defining delight is the easy part. But, inspiring delight? That’s part science, part art. Here’s how it’s done and why it’s so worthwhile.

Much More Than a Source of Light: How to Get the Most Out of Multifamily Windows

In the multifamily world, much is demanded of windows. They should let in air and light, but not too much. They should be safe and efficient, but not absurdly expensive. Here’s your how-to guide on striking the right balance..

Unraveling the ROI Myth in Multifamily: Why Diligent, Mobile Inspections Save You Money

A calculator can’t always prevent a crisis. When it comes to multifamily decision-making, it’s critical to look beyond the lens of ROI. Here’s why diligent, mobile inspections will save you money — right now and in the long run.

The Race is on to Go Green: How to Give Residents the Sustainable Housing They Want

From tainted water to warming temps, environmental crises keep making headlines — and changing minds. As people grow more and more concerned about local pollutants and global warming, the race is on for multifamily executives to give residents what they want: sustainable housing.

The Next Ten Years in Property Management: Predicting Multifamily Tech in 2028

Chatbots, smart locks, artificial intelligence — HappyCo CEO Jindou Lee breaks down the buzzwords and predicts just where property management tech is heading over the next ten years.

The Upsides of Going Upscale: How Strategic Upgrades Can Increase Rent, Reduce Vacancy

Between competition from luxury apartments, higher expectations from millennial renters, and modern rental units entering the market, owners of older multifamily properties may need to consider rebranding their communities as upscale to compete effectively. Here are the best strategies.

Chilly Nights, Icy Steps: How to Keep Residents Safe All Winter with Mobile Inspections

With winter underway, property managers face a range of high-stakes issues: from heating-related fires to dangerously icy walkways. Here’s a detailed look at winter’s biggest threats — and the best ways to keep residents safe by switching to a mobile inspection platform.

Building Communities of Quality: Changing Perceptions About Affordable Housing

Affordable housing operators that maintain their communities at high quality standards and programs like NAHMA’s Communities of Quality are changing negative homeowner perceptions and opening the way for more development, so critical in California’s tight housing market.

Budgeting for Compliance: Take the Stress out of Budget Season with Mobile Inspections

Budget season is the ideal time to double-down on inspection workflows for critical compliance requirements. With item-level analytics, you can now calculate the expenses associated with safety and compliance and forecast accurately.

Wake Up to the Post-Lawn Dawn: 4 Ways Multifamily Benefits from Ecological Landscape Design

If your landscaping isn't building property resilience, restoring habitat, improving your NOI, and helping you draw and retain renters, it’s time to apply ecologically regenerative design & operations thinking to your green spaces...

Transportation Trends Should Have You Rethinking Renter Parking

Disruption has come to claim your properties’ parking spaces. How are you responding?...

Don’t Turn an Asset Into a Liability: How You Can Keep Your Multifamily Balconies Code Compliant and Safe

Building codes exist for a reason — to protect human health, safety and welfare. After a fatal balcony collapse in Berkeley in 2015, 20% of balconies, decks and other exterior elevated elements (EEEs) failed inspection...

Negligence No More: How to Protect Yourself from Damaging Lawsuits

In this live recorded panel from 2018 NAA Apartmentalize, four operations and legal experts discuss how to defend yourself from unreasonable negligence lawsuits by taking preventative steps that ensure you have substantial protections in place...

Managing Mold & Moisture Intrusion in Multifamily

Where there's moisture, there's often mold, which can cause health problems, building damage and lawsuits. But you can avoid the dangers of mold and get a head start on remediation with your inspection system...

6 Things You Can Do to Protect Properties and Residents During Hurricane Season

Taking a few basic precautions for hurricane season can mean the difference between a mere inconvenience and a catastrophe...

4 Tips and Tricks for Attracting New Residents

Is your occupancy as favorable as it could be? Keep your properties competitive during peak MIMO season with these 4 suggestions for steering renters in through the door...

Are Your Properties A Disaster Waiting to Happen? Take Fire Safety into Your Hands

You can’t prevent fires if you’re unable to see the issues putting your properties at risk. Emerging property management tools like mobile inspection software give owners and managers visibility to detect critical vulnerabilities early...

Happy Insights is Here. Drive Higher NOI and Make Better Business Decisions with Real-Time Property Analytics

Real-time dashboards ready for action right out of the box, blazing fast database access, and the ability to easily drill into your data empower you to make critical business decisions quickly and confidently...

Navigating and Averting Negligence in Slip and Fall

Find out how property owners and their insurers can best minimize their risk in this special report...

Is BYOD Right For Your Organization?

A Bring Your Own Device approach to enterprise mobility saves your company on hardware costs and increases employee satisfaction and productivity. But how do you strike the right balance between convenience and data security?...

Package Problems? Get the Play-by-Play on Solutions for Multifamily Package Management

With more than 5 billion items shipped through Amazon Prime in 2017, parcels are piling up at multifamily properties. New package management solutions promise peace of mind for both you and your residents. What are your options?...

Get Ready for Swimming Season: 4 Ways to Prep your Community Pools

Keep your pools sparkling and in pristine condition by properly prepping your staff and pool facilities for a busy swimming season.

Emotional Support Animals (ESAs): What Multifamily Operators Should Know

Emotional Support Animals (ESAs), Service Dogs, and pets might bring some behavioral, sanitary, and damage risks, but Multifamily operators are getting clear on laws and opening up their policies...

Recover More Losses at Student Turn with Your Final Account Statements (FASs)

Are you missing opportunities to recapture damage losses? No more debates over damage or cleaning charges. Make a statement by documenting MIMO on mobile and get your FASs to parents and students fast…

The Future of Multifamily Housing Demand

There’s at least one thing young and old can seem to agree on: in today’s housing market, renting is the way to go...

2 Ways to Pattern Your Patios After Your Brand Promise

As your most visible amenities, your properties’ patios and decks have the power to promote your brand promise — or break it. Here’s how to ensure a pattern of quality, safety and daily delight alfresco style...

The TOP 6 Trends to Watch in the Next Battle for Multifamily Market Share

Customer Centricity will be at the heart of winning the next big battle for Multifamily. These 6 trends will impact whether you succeed or fail in the coming decade...

Avoid these Violations: How to Keep Children Safe at Your Playground

Kids do and will get injured on the playground. Sometimes, it’s unavoidable. But what if it’s your fault? Avoid playground violations and negligence claims by following these simple guidelines to uphold the highest standards...

Creating Value for Millennial Renters

Part 2 of our series on millennial renters shares tips for investing in features and amenities that win over the generation most likely to rent...

Standardize Property Operations and Streamline Reporting by Integrating HappyCo Data with RealPage

HappyCo’s new integration with RealPage delivers seamless unit and property syncing, automated MIMO and streamlined reporting for line-of-sight visibility to onsite operations...

What Millennial Renters Want

The largest generation in America has strong lifestyle preferences to match its appetite for renting. How can you capture the Millennial market?...

Is Your Online Reputation Costing You Student Renters?

Reclaim your online reputation and drive better reviews with real-time inspections for Student Housing...

Flexible and Reliable Lease Auditing with New HappyCo Lease File Audit Solution

Transform lease audits with a web application and tailored reporting that improve speed and more reliably uncover rental income and risk factors...

MRI Inspections Powered By HappyCo — Available Now

Transform your inspection process and improve quality standards with MRI Inspections Powered By HappyCo...

Your Property Data is Money: This Fall, Turn Over a New Leaf and Budget Smart

All good budgets are based on solid data, but without a well-structured inspection platform you may be missing key data points…

Streamline Property Inspections with HappyCo’s new ResMan Integration

Our integration with ResMan revolutionizes your maintenance operations, — streamlining unit setup, inspection scheduling, move-ins and move-outs and work orders...

Faster Walks & Better Budgeting with New HappyCo Due Diligence Module

Automate due diligence with mobile inspections and real-time intelligence for faster walks, accurate budgeting and lower bids...

New! Create Yardi Work Orders Instantly with HappyCo

Your staff can now automatically initiate work orders during inspections with the new HappyCo Work Orders Integration for Yardi Voyager so you can manage necessary repairs instantly from anywhere...

Reduce Turn Time, Costs and Complaints: What Every Student Housing Operator Needs To Know About Using Software to Manage Turn

When you’re turning 10,000 beds, mobile inspections with real-time turn boards can eliminate thousands of hours of labor, reduce resident disputes and raise your damage recoveries, but how do you choose the best tool?...

You Need Mobile Inspection Software. Here’s How to Choose

Moving from paper processes to mobile inspection software can boost your portfolio’s operational excellence, efficiency and resident relations — but what should you look for in a solution?...

Why Enterprise Software Should Be More Like A Video Game

Learn Why Great Software Design is Critical for Enterprise-Wide Adoption in this Q&A with Jindou Lee, CEO of HappyCo...

Seamless Workflows & Reporting with the New Happy API

Easily integrate the data you collect in HappyCo into corporate applications and databases for seamless workflows and reporting…

Hurricane Preparedness: Why The Cloud is Your Friend

Keeping property-level inspection records backed up to the Cloud can get you a fair payout in the aftermath of a major storm...

The Costly Myth of “Passive” Real Estate Investments

Why Real-Time Operations are your key to preventing lapses in Quality Assurance that lead to huge legal settlements...

Prepping Your Pools & Spas for Prime Time

In the joyful rush of pool season, properly inspecting for health & safety keeps your residents’ favorite amenities open for fun in the sun...

Digital Signatures for Android are Here

Authorize reports and solidify documentation records with the new Digital Signatures feature for Android...

''How Could This Have Happened?'' Why You Won't Notice The Warning Signs Before A Fire At Your Apartment

95,000 U.S. Apartments caught fire in 2016. Avert disaster with Real-Time Operations...

Why Bedbugs Will Cost You Millions (And How to Ensure They Don’t)

Exterminate both pests and lawsuits with a mobile inspection platform, and rest easy knowing your apartment communities are living up to your quality standards...

Immediate Jeopardy Webinar for Senior Living Feb 16

Learn how to avoid CMS CoP compliance issues so you can protect your residents, reputation and reimbursements in this free webinar...

Now you can upload photos on the web with Happy Manage!

With the latest update to Happy Manage you can upload your inspection photos right on the web — your control center for operations is now even better!

Get Improved Reports with Happy Inspector 1.5.0 for Android and Better Photo Sync with 3.11 for iOS

Happy Inspector 1.5.0 for Android makes it a snap to add Report customizations. 3.11 for iOS gets your photos uploading quickly. Learn about both updates...

The Consequences of Immediate Jeopardy

Getting terminated from Medicare & Medicaid is damaging enough, but the consequences of Immediate Jeopardy reach far beyond these two programs...

It’s Here! Introducing Web Inspection Editing and Report Creation with Happy Manage!

Many of you have been asking us to add inspection editing and report creation to Happy Manage, our web control center. Today, we’re excited to announce we’ve updated Manage with those features!!

Tomorrow! Meet HappyCo at NMHC Student Housing Conference — Booth 321

Drop by Booth 321 tomorrow at the NMHC Student Housing Conference in New Orleans to chat with Ray, Sabrina and Mike about how you can realize up to 80% time savings when you’re turning thousands of beds!

Tomorrow! Meet HappyCo at Franchise Leadership & Development Conference — Booth 23

Drop by Booth 23 tomorrow at FLDC in Atlanta to chat with Jindou and Sean about how you can increase your brand compliance by 46%! Plus, take home one of our famous t-shirts!

What Every Senior Living Provider Should Know About CMS Immediate Jeopardy

Even the most well-run assisted living facilities, nursing homes and other senior living providers can get blindsided by Immediate Jeopardy. But what is it?...

Minimizing Bad Buzz and Improving Ops with BI

Learn how business intelligence tools can help you cut customer complaints by more than 50%...

Why Business Intelligence Matters to Restaurants

What is BI and how can it give you the visibility you need to address issues immediately before they become negative customer reviews?...

Putting a Price on Commercial Property

Determining the value of a property can become a lengthy and contentious process. In order to pinpoint the best price for a property, mortgage originators are now taking advantage of inspection technology to capture data with speed and ease...

Happy Inspector 1.3.0 for Android

For Happy Inspector 1.3.0 for Android we’ve listened to your feedback and squashed bugs from camera issues to problems creating reports. Shape up your Happy Inspector experience with Version 1.3.0 for Android...

Faster inspections and sharper reports with Happy Inspector 3.10 for iOS

For Happy Inspector 3.10 for iOS we’ve listened to your feedback and implemented several interface improvements to speed up your inspection workflow, spiff up your reports and boost photo upload. Plus there’s lots of performance improvements under the hood...

Feb 24 Webinar with Buildium: Severe Weather Prep and Recovery

Weather maintenance emergencies are at the top of most property management companies’ lists of nightmare scenarios. Whether it is protecting against an oncoming hurricane, sweltering in a heat wave...

HappyCo & Buildium Offer Multifamily Industry's 1ST Integrated PROPERTY INSPECTIONS Solution

HappyCo is excited to announce that we have partnered with Buildium to offer the multifamily industry’s first integrated property inspections solution! Buildium customers can now complete all inspection actions in the Happy Inspector app...

Can You Picture This? How Residential Property Managers Can Save Time and Money

Despite major advances in technology in the last 15 years, photographs are still an afterthought when it comes to most property inspections. Sure, inspectors can pull out their mobile phones and take shots of stained carpets and frayed curtains, but...

How to Introduce BI to Newbies

In October 2015, HappyCo released its very own business intelligence tool, Happy BI. Our CEO, Jindou Lee, a former real estate investor, has a keen understanding about why every real estate and property management company needs to have a BI tool...

A Gift for You—Happy Inspector 3.9.1!

To close out 2015 and celebrate the holidays with cheer, we’ve overhauled report formatting in Happy Inspector 3.9.1. Update through the App Store today, and the Force will be with you in 2016...

Templates, Templates, and More Inspection Templates!

With all of the new features that we've been releasing lately, we've made sure to focus on the basics, the starting point for all of our users—templates! Since an inspection template is the core of being able to complete an inspection...

Extra! Extra! Read All About It! Equity Residential To Deploy HappyCo

November 10, 2015 marks a very special day for HappyCo, as today is the official release day of Equity Residential's unveiling of their multi-year deal to deploy HappyCo's suite of inspection tools to their nearly 500 property managers...

Happy Inspector for Android!

We want everyone to be Happy Inspectors, not just iOS users! Which is why our engineers have been working extremely hard to get Happy Inspector ready for Android tablets and smartphones...

Happy Inspector Feature Release: Scoring!

Wouldn't it be nice, if when doing an inspection, you could somehow tally up points for items whether they were in good or poor condition, or even give items monetary values, so that at the end of a walkthrough you knew immediately the charges a tenant or guest owes...

Don't Just File Away Your Data — Use It with HappyCo's New Business Intelligence Tool

So, you've been gathering data about your properties, units, restaurants, rooms, shops, equipment, or whatever else it is that you manage... inspectors have been documenting everything that is in great condition, what needs minor repairs, and what is completely broken...

As the Property Turns: Helping you maximize the efficiency of planning and executing student housing turnover

Every June through September, when students vacate their housing locations, property managers scramble to execute quick transitions. What’s the best way to minimize delays and maximize efficiency...

Getting Your Vacation Rental Property Portfolio Ready For Autumn

If the emergence of pumpkin-spice everything is any indication, summer is breathing its last toasty warm breaths and the cooler days of autumn are moving in. For property managers, this means that the bustling summer vacation season is drawing to a close...

A Happier Inspector—Upcoming Additions and Fixes

Here at HappyCo, we are always busy listening to customer feedback and engineering new ways to improve Happy Inspector based on the feedback we get. We are happy to announce that there are some BIG changes in the works...

Follow These Simple Steps To Construction Worksite Safety

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) says that, on any given day, nearly 6.5 million people are at work at more than a quarter of a million construction sites across the United States. Unfortunately, those same people are at the highest risk...

The Most Productive Communication Practices For Managing Student Residents (and their parents!)

Communication is the most important aspect of what we do as property managers. Managing student housing units can prove to be one of the most challenging work conditions as we not only have to deal with our tenants...

How To Hack Your Turnover: Tips To Make Turnover Faster & Easier Than Ever Before

It’s no secret that managing expirations and planning in advance will make for a smoother transition at turnover. While having a clear strategy will help you to meet the industry standard of three days, it isn’t always easy...

[eBook] A Property Manager's Ultimate Guide To Technology

There's a lot happening with technology today and it's getting harder by the day to keep up, especially in an industry as fast-paced as property management. Our new eBook, A Property Manager's Ultimate Guide To Technology, will help get you caught up to speed...

Updates to Happy Inspector - Create templates, eSign, dashboard and more!

There has been a lot of updates and improvements to the Happy Inspector product in the past 4 months. We wanted to share with you a summary of the key updates...

El Niño Is Coming, Is Your Property Ready?

What will El Niño mean for property management professionals? This blog post will give you all of the information you need to make sure your property is ready for this year's weather phenomenon and includes a free checklist, too...

Make Inspector Gadget Jealous With These Tech Tools for Property Managers

WegoWise utility management platform, DropCam wifi-enabled video , Kevo by Kwikset Bluetooth powered lock system, PackageLog parcel management, Tile Asset-Location Technology...

The Proof Is In The Pixels: How Digital Photos Can Alleviate Move-Out Disputes

An apartment inspector’s task list for each move-out is formidable, time-consuming, and must be completed on a tight deadline. However, new technologies are making it easier for inspectors and property managers to gather the information they need...

6 Mobile Apps Every Property Manager Should Know About

Property management pros, residents and even future tenants are relying on mobile technology more now than ever before. If your property management business is not utilizing the latest mobile apps, they may move on to a company that is...