Our February speaker will be Mr. James Surane

Mr. Surane is the lead attorney for the Law Offices of James W. Surane, PLLC. After graduating from Louisiana State University (LSU) in 1988, Mr. Surane served as a patrol officer with the Shreveport/Bossies City Police department for approximately five years. Upon Mr. Surane’s wife’s graduation from nursing school, Mr. Surane resigned from the police department to pursue his life-long ambition of becoming an attorney.

Mr. Surane attended Whittier College School of Law where he graduated in 1992 with honors. Following graduation, Mr. Surane immediately went to work for the State of North Carolina as a Civil Magistrate. During Mr. Surane’s term as a Magistrate, Mr. Surane adjudicated approximately 12,000 landlord tenant cases per year. Mr. Surane’s experience as a Magistrate allowed him to gain a very thorough understanding of the landlord tenant laws in North Carolina and the manner in which these laws applied to the facts presented in the thousands of cases over which Mr. Surane presided.

After serving for a term of  four years as a Magistrate, Mr. Surane successfully built a state wide law practice that services areas of law pertaining to residential and commercial landlord tenant matters, foreclosure defense and, business and real estate transactions. Mr. Surane has been a practicing attorney for 19 years. Mr. Surane’s focus has been in the litigation of summary ejectment matters. Mr. Surane has represented landlords across the State of North Carolina in more than 200,000 cases. Mr. Surane’s paralegals have worked with Mr. Surane for as few as 8 years and as many as 19 years. When it comes to experience in understanding, processing and appearing in court for landlords, Mr. Surane and his team present a very seasoned and accomplished staff of professionals that take great pride in serving their landlord’s interests.

With His years of experience Mr. Surane's should provide us with a lot of very valuable information.

We hope to see everyone there.

Greensboro Landlords Association

Our speaker will be Sue Achwartz with the city of Greensboro.

Sue, has been a professional planner for more than 25 years most of that time working with neighborhoods to facilitate reinvestment in their communities. August 1, 2011 she was named Director of the Department of Planning & Community Development for the City of Greensboro, North Carolina where she has won numerous awards for her redevelopment efforts.  She was the Project Manager for Southside, an infill Traditional Neighborhood Development of the edge of Greensboro’s downtown which was recognized by the Sierra Club in 2005 in its “Building Better: A Guide to America’s Best New Development Projects” report. Southside had previously won US EPA the 2004 Smart Growth Award for Built Projects and the American Planning Association’s Outstanding Planning Award for Implementation in 2003.

She was also instrumental in focusing attention on East Market Street in Greensboro which was once the hub of the African-American business district in the city that had been the subject of urban renewal in the 1950’s and 60’s. These efforts included bring a team of volunteer planners to the corridor for 5 days of workshops and meetings with the community. As a result the East Market Street Development Corporation was created, at $12.5 million streetscape and traffic management project was implemented and $2.5 million in redevelopment funds were committee to the area to leverage private investment.

She has been active in the American Planning Association at both the state and national levels. The many offices she has held include President of the North Carolina Chapter of APA, two terms on the American Institute of Certified Planners Commission, serving as Secretary-Treasurer all six years.  From 2006-2008 she served as the President of the American Institute of Certified Planners, the professional institute of APA.  During her tenure she has successfully launched the AICP Community Assistance Program which will provide planners pro bono to areas to work on social equity issues. She has a B.S. in Geography and Urban Studies from the University of Pittsburgh, and a Master of Arts from the University of North Carolina, Charlotte.  In 2003 Sue was inducted into the AICP College of Fellows, the youngest person to be inducted to date.

The next GLA meeting will be held Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 6:00pm at Mahi's Restaurant. We will have our annual Holiday Social. We invite all members and request they bring a Guest. There will be a meet and greet session followed by a buffet style meal with a cash bar available.

This month's meeting is being sponsored by the following vendors:

Got You Floored

Pest Management 

Commercial Service Systems

Godwin Insurance

If you speak with any of these vendors please thank them for their support and please support them in return. 

Next Meeting November 8, 2011 at First Presbyterian Church at 6:30 PM.

Christopher Musial will be the speaker.  He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2007 and received his J.D. from Elon University School of Law in 2010 and is currently collections manager for Rent-A-Home of The Triad.

His presentation will cover the ins and outs of collecting on unpaid rent, including the filing of small claims court actions, the expected time and effort involved in preparing for and presenting issues in small claims court, and suggested methods of going about receiving money if a judgment is entered against the tenant. Additionally, the presentation will discuss various collection agencies and their assistance in collecting on outstanding balances.

Speaker - Elicia Oliver

Subject Utilizing Quickbooks

In this ever-changing economic environment, there is no better time to take control of your business finances than now. We will explore the benefits of using QuickBooks to manage your business and also the possibilities when using your existing software to its full potential.
Presented by: Elicia Oliver President of Oliver Small Business Consulting, LLC
www.oliversbc.com If you have any plans to utilize Quickbooks for your record keeping you do not want to miss this meeting.

TERI CALDWELL from T-Tech will also be speaking about being able to take check payments through your web site. The ability to do this will let you speed up collection of your receivables, work more effectively with people who are not in town, and avoid the use of the post office. At least one of our members is presently using this service with good results. This should be of interest to you. The T-Tech web site is www.ttechpayments.com

GREENSBORO ELECTIONS All candidates running for elected offices have been invited to this meeting. Currently we have invited 32 canidates to attend. The format of the meeting will give all that a few minutes to make a presentation to the group. The remainder of the meeting will provide an opportunity for all of us to talk with the individual candidates. This will give us a chance to learn more about the candidates positions on issues of concern to us, and to let them know about the issues that are important to us.

Currently we have the following canidates confirmed to attend:

Mayor:

Bradford Cone, Tom Phillips

AT Large:

Wayne Abraham, Marikay Abuzuaiter, Deborah Fae Brogden, Jean Austin Brown, Clarence Easter, Cyndy Hayworth, Yvonne J. Johnson, Chris Lawyer, Sal Leone, Marlando Demonte Pridgen,

District 1:

Donnell (DJ) Hardy

District 2:

Dan Fischer, Bradley C. Hunt II

District 3:

No One

District 4:

Nancy Hoffman

District 5:

Jorge Cornell

Do not miss this meeting. It will provide you with the information you need to make an informed decision when you vote this fall in both the primary and the general election. See you there !!

No meeting this month. We are taking the month of July off. See you in August. Enjoy your summer.

Profit and Loss

June Meeting Speaker: Bert Davis

Topic: Spreadsheet for landlords to determine Profit & Loss per property.

Bert will distribute different spreadsheets with example cost analysis for rental property. This will be a very informative meeting. Please plan to attend.

Fair Housing

Our speaker for May will be Bill Gallagher, founder of Superior School of Real Estate. Anyone with a real estate license in North Carolina has surely heard of him, as his ability to make learning fun, if not hilarious, is legendary.

Bill, a graduate of Wake Forest University, has worked as an real estate agent in Charlotte, becoming Broker-in-Charge at Merrill Lynch Realty in just a few years. IN 1998, Bill was named President of Career Development for Prudential Carolinas Realty and Opened Bill Gallagher School of Real Estate under the Prudential umbrella. In 2005, he founded Superior School of Real Estate and now has more than 20 instructors on staff.

His company's passage rate for students taking the NC real estate exam for the first time, is consistently above 85%. He lives his company motto of Laughing and Learning. He will be presenting a light, entertaining, and educational session on Fair Housing.

Investor Sales and Financing in Today's Market

This month our speakers will be discussing lending to investors and selling properties in a difficult market.

Lynette Batten, with MetLife, will be talking about the programs that are available for lending to investors.

John Marks will be speaking about the factors that help make a property stand out and sell in this difficult real estate market.

Advertising and Marketing Strategies

Our March meeting will be March 8, 2011 at First Pres Church at the normal time of 6:30 PM.

Our topic for the month will be Advertising and Marketing Strategies. We will have a three person panel consisting of current members. This should be an interesting and informative program for a timely topic.

1099s and Other Pests

The February meeting will be held in a new location so please check directions. Because we had to cancel the January meeting due to inclement weather the program for February will be what we had scheduled for January.

Debbie Brower, CPA will give a brief presentation concerning the new 1099 reporting requirements. This will be followed by a presentation by Billy Tesh on pest control in general and bed bugs in particular. Bed bugs are becoming more common and present unique problems in terms of extermination and control.

This is an opportunity to get up to speed on this issue. Billy Tesh is the president of Pest Management Systems, Inc., a full service Pest Control company. He is also president of GroundWorks, a company specializing in drainage, hardscaping and miscellaneous construction.

Cancelled due to weather

Social

The December meeting will be at Mahi's Restaurant on Lawndale Drive.

Appetizers and soft drinks will be available, and there will be a cash bar. This will be held in a private dining room in the restaurant. Meals will be available in the restaurant.

The purpose of the meeting is to give everyone a chance to socialize, network, and get to know your fellow members better. This is a good opportunity to talk with people who have different approaches to common problems and to benefit from the resources available in the group. Plan on attending.

Money

Chip Person will be speaking this month on a topic near and dear to all of us--money. Chip is a financial advisor with Raymond James Financial Services, Inc.

He will be talking about options that are available in the current low interest rate environment to earn higher rates of return. He will also be taking questions on a variety of investment topics. Missing this meeting could cost you money.