Taste of Home Potluck

Not only do we have some great property management professionals here at Bell-Anderson, we have some good cooks too! Our December potluck was a "Taste of Home" theme, with every recipe chosen out of a Taste of Home magazine or cookbook. Here are a few pictures!

Shannon's Chocolate Peppermint cake

Stefanie's Cranberry Orange Bread Pudding

Lots of good stuff!

Dawn's Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars

Relay for Life

Ken Allen, Community Association Manager, is at the top of the brochure for this year's Relay for Life at Renton Memorial Stadium! The relay is taking place this weekend (June 10th and 11th) from noon on Friday to 6pm on Saturday. The public is invited to come cheer the walkers on, and cancer survivors are encouraged to take the initial lap on Friday. Good luck Ken and Irene!

Office Closures

Just a friendly reminder that our office will be closed next Monday the 30th of May for Memorial Day, and then again on Wednesday, June 1st for our annual company retreat. Thank you in advance for your patience!

Office Closure

The Bell-Anderson office will be closed on Friday, October 15th. The company will be attending the NARPM National Conference in Seattle. If you have an emergency, meaning fire, flood or blood, please call our office at 253-852-8195 and you will be directed to the emergency pager. Thank you in advance for your patience!

Tacoma Concert Band Fundraiser at Joseppi's in Tacoma

Stefanie Octave, our Condo AR Bookkeeper, has been invited to play bassoon with the Tacoma Concert Band for their summer series, and hopefully more performances in the future! All of the band members are volunteers for this non-profit group, and to raise money, there will be a special evening at Joeseppi's Italian Ristorante in Tacoma.

On Tuesday, October 12th, from 4-8pm, if diners say they are there to support the Tacoma Concert Band (and 100 diners show up throughout the evening), the group will receive 20% of the entire night’s proceeds. There will also be a silent auction at the restaurant. Take your family out to dinner for a great cause! For more information on the band or the event, click here.

Congratulations Mr. & Mrs. Corp

On August 14th, our Condo AP Bookkeeper, Jen Collins, married her best friend Justin and became Mrs. Corp! She looked stunning and we are so excited for her. Congrats Jen and Justin!

Congrats to MVP Lamar Neagle and The Charleston Battery

Last Saturday, the Charleston South Carolina Battery won the United States Soccer League Division Two Championship against the Richmond Kickers, and one of our own has reason to celebrate! Maintenance Coordinator Maria Garcia's step-son, Lamar Neagle, helped lead his team to victory and was named league MVP!! To see the story and video interview, click here. (Courtesy of Live 5 News)

WELL DONE LAMAR!!

Vendor Night

Last night we held our first VENDOR NIGHT at the Kent Community Center with great success!! We had over 30 vendors come out and we are excited about the turnout. We shared some pizza, listened to a presentation by the EPA about lead-based paint and remodeling, got the opportunity to meet in person a lot of the folks who we only connect with over the phone, and gave away a pair of hockey tickets to one lucky vendor. Thank you very much for those who came out to meet us. If you were unable to attend, we hope you will join us in the future. If you are a vendor and have suggestions for a speaking topic that you may find interesting for next year's meeting, please e-mail Maria at mgarcia@bell-anderson.net. For those who wanted more information about becoming a NARPM affiliated vendor, you can find that at http://chapters.narpm.org/C015/affiliates-join.html

The EPA's presentation

All of our lovely vendors

Maintenance Coordinator Maria (who put together the event) & Jen going over reminders and community events

Dawn & Carrie signing people in

Thank you again for everyone who came out. We are hoping to do this again in the future!!

Calling all Vendors!!

Vendors, please mark February 11th, 2010 on your calendars from 7-9 pm for Vendor Appreciation Night! Looking forward to seeing you all then!

Tacky Sweater Day

One of our company's little-known traditions (unless you have been fortunate enough to encounter us on this day) is an annual tacky sweater contest. We also added a comfort food potluck to make it really amazing. This year, the competition was tight. Stefanie, our Condo A/P Bookkeeper, rocked a zebra-print snuggie with a dangling ornaments and a heidi-style hairdo. Residential Property Manager Dawn lit up with the office with a custom-wired sweatshirt complete with LED lights. The Tacky Sweater Award initially went to Jenise, one of our HOA Property Managers, for her custom doily and ribbon creation, until another PM, Ken, showed up with his amazing collage of ornaments and tinsel to steal the show and bag the award. Well done everyone!! Tune in next year!!

Stef and her Snuggie

Dawn's Lighted Sweater

The First Winner Jenise (note the tacky sweater trophy)

Ken Comes from Behind to Win it

The Whole Gang

NARPM National Convention in Orlando, FL

During the week of October 19^th-24^th Vickie, Dawn and I (Carrie) attended the National Association of Residential Property Managers annual conference in Orlando, FL.

On Tuesday the 20^th we took a special leadership class that was put on by the Disney Institute. You could not help but smile during their presentation. Most of the talk was regarding communication and how to effectively communicate. We did a really good exercise that involved a leader, manager, and co-workers. You could not look at each other or verbally communicate; you had to write everything down that you wanted to accomplish. Well needless to say I was the “leader” in our group and my team sat there the whole time because I didn’t flip my directions over to see what I was trying to accomplish! It was really funny how much I rely on verbal communication. If you don’t communicate what you are trying to accomplish, the whole process falls apart. It was a real wake-up call because we communicate so much by e-mail that I think we forget what we are saying in our e-mails is not necessarily the message that the receiver gets. I really liked it and highly suggest if you ever have the opportunity to go to one of Disney’s training courses you should.

During the conference on Wednesday night, Thursday and Friday we had 3 general session speakers and quite a few breakout sessions that were very helpful and invigorating. I really appreciate these conferences with NARPM because doing what we do can become a little monotonous once and a while. We also share a lot of information at these meeting and meet professional contacts in the industry. This group is amazing when it comes to sharing information and ideas. I always come away with new ways of handling situations and new ideas.

Another exciting event was held on October 23^rd, 2009 when my sister, Dawn, and I had the great pleasure of swearing in our Mom, Vickie Gaskill, to the position of President for 2010’s National Association of Property Managers. What an amazing opportunity it was and we are all very proud of her! Vickie is going to get to travel to a lot of NARPM chapters all over the United States next year and share with them her expertise in the area of Residential Property Management and Leadership.

We are all looking forward to the next year and what it has to bring!

City of Hope 5K Walk

To the right is our team that participated in the City of Hope 5K Walk, where the proceeds went to fund breast cancer research. We are a group of Bell-Anderson and Assoc. employees and family members who do not want to see breast cancer destroy any more lives. We had a great time walking and being encouraged by all the survivors that attended the event. It was a truly amazing experience.

Team Pink Ladies (and a few men) would like to thank everyone who donated and participated. Our team raised over $1,300.00 to help find a cure for breast cancer!!! As mentioned in a previous posting, the top donor will be awarded a basket of goodies. The top donor this year is Vickie Gaskill, owner of Bell-Anderson and Associates. Thank you Vickie for your generous donations!

Next year, we hope to plan earlier and get an even larger team and more funds donated to help fight against breast cancer. Once again, thank you for all of your contributions; without you we would not have been able to have such great success!

Support the Fight Against Breast Cancer - Seattle's Walk for Hope

On Sunday, October 4th, some of the staff of Bell-Anderson along with their families will be participating in City of Hope's Seattle Walk for Hope to make a difference in the fight against breast cancer. This year, the national presenting sponsor, Staples, will match the total funds raised nationally up to a maximum contribution of $250,000.

If you would like to learn more about our team, the Pink Ladies (and a few men), or donate to City of Hope, please visit our team's website at http://nationalevents.cityofhope.org/goto/bellanderson.

The top donor will win a baked goodies basket filled with your favorites courtesy of the Pink Ladies!

Thank you for your support!

Another Article

The Bell-Anderson Recycling team made the Seattle Times!

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009472121_recycle15m.html

Recycling Olympics

On Tuesday, July 14, Bell-Anderson participated in the “Recycling Olympics,” an interactive game meant to raise public awareness for the Allied Waste and City of Kent recycling program. Property managers Dawn Hardley and Carrie Fjeld along with maintenance coordinator, Maria Garcia, made up Bell-Anderson’s team of expert recyclers known as “The Dream Green Team.” The other two teams, “The Green Queen and Her Teens” and the “Eco Challengers” were made up of families from the Kent area.

Pulling into the neighborhood in Kent in which the event took place, the team was shocked to find that they would be working with “real” garbage, straight out of the Allied Waste truck. Donning protective gloves and goggles (they decided against large plastic ponchos), team Bell-Anderson met the judge of the competition, Tom Watson, project manager for King County's recycling and environmental services. They would have an unspecified amount of time to move as much of the garbage pile to their team’s area as possible, and sort that into either a blue recycling can, a green yard waste bin or a green garbage bin. The team with the most recycling at the end, measured in lbs, would be declared the champions.

Team Bell-Anderson worked their magic and scraped out a very close victory, recycling over 100 lbs of what was previously garbage into their two recycling bins. When asked what their secret was, the gals said “Finding heavy things like phonebooks.” Also present at the event were several media organizations to spread the word about how easy recycling can be. Watch your local news tonight for your friendly neighborhood property managers in the blue shirts!

While winning is always great, we were amazed by what we learned today. First of all, it was astounding the amount of perfectly good recyclable material that had been thrown away by Kent residents, things as basic as cardboard boxes and tin cans. The Bell-anderson team was also amazed by all the materials that can be put in your yard waste bin, such as food scraps (no meat, fish, or dairy), food soiled paper and even paper egg cartons. They were also surprised to find that removing labels from recycled items is no longer necessary, and clean dry plastic bags are accepted as well.

Overall it was a great event! Thanks to the City of Kent and Allied Waste for inviting us to participate. For more information on what can and cannot be recycled (Allied Waste customers in Kent only) visit http://www.rabanco.com/collection/kent/residential/resi_what_to_recycle.aspx

Dawn, Maria & Carrie

(a.k.a. the Dream Green Team)

The trash pile

The team with Caren Crowley,

Customer Service Manager for Allied Waste Services

King County Eco-Consumer Tom Watson &

Kent City Councilwoman Elizabeth Albertson

Digging in (we had to keep Maria from diving)

Carrie was the sorting person

Recycling is fun!

The champs meeting the press

Way to make us proud!

Community Clothes Closet

In these times of need the staff at Bell-Anderson has opened a clothing closet for anyone, free of charge.

We have boy’s and girl’s clothing, with sizes starting at 12 month’s to 4T and some youth sizes, as well as women’s clothes size Large to 22. We are hoping to get men’s clothing as well in the near future.

Anyone that is in need of clothing, please contact your property manager or e-mail info@bell-anderson.net to make an appointment. Please do not hesitate to contact us. Your appointment will be kept confidential.

If you have some clothing that you would like to donate, please contact our office at info@bell-anderson.net. Any donations of gently used clothes, shoes or coats would be greatly appreciated.

Hello From Bell-Anderson!

Hello from Bell-Anderson & Associates, a full-service property management company located in Kent, Washington. Whether you are a tenant looking for a single family home, townhome or apartment for rent, an owner with one or more investment properties, business seeking a small commercial space or a condominium or homeowners’ association in need of management, Bell-Anderson offers the service for you.

Our company motto is “Our family serving yours.” Not only does our company operate much like a large family, but we do our best to treat everyone we come in contact with like our family as well. In order to reach out to our owners, tenants, board members and community association residents, we will be posting updates to this blog on a regular basis. Our hope is not only that we can keep you updated with company and personal news but also provide general information relating to everyone involved with property management, as well as legislative and trade association updates: a little of everything if you will.

To get us started, let’s meet the staff of Bell-Anderson!

First off, our fabulous owners Tim and Vickie Gaskill: they bought Bell-Anderson in September of 2002 from Gerry Anderson, who started the company in 1963 with Don Bell, Jr. Vickie Gaskill joined Bell-Anderson in 1986, and worked as the General Manager for the last three years before she bought the company. Vickie has earned four professional property management designations (CPM®, ARM®, MPM®, and RMP®) and serves as an instructor on the national faculty for the Institute of Real Estate Management and the National Association of Residential Property Managers (NARPM®). In 2010, Vickie will become the national President of NARPM®. What an accomplishment! Tim Gaskill works as our all-around handyman and police contact. Together Tim and Vickie foster a sense of family that is enjoyed and appreciated by all of the staff. In their spare time, they like to spend time at the ocean and spoil their three grandchildren.

Vickie Gaskill

Our community associations department is made up of three property managers, two bookkeepers and a few support staff.

Property manager Ken Allen, CPM ®, ARM ®, CMCA®, AMS® has been in the industry since 1978 and is an active member of the Institute of Real Estate Management.

According to Brandon Benavides, another community association manager, “Family, friends, work and sports are my life.” He is our resident baseball expert and coach.

Brandon & Ken

Jenise Doty is the most recent association manager to join the Bell-Anderson family, but has been in the property management industry for over 20 years. She also works selling real estate and loves quilting and gardening.

Stephanie Durham, our condo support person assists all of the property managers. Her real estate career began as a Realtor in Southern California, and in 2006 she earned (and still maintains) her Washington Mortgage Broker’s license.

Stephanie, Jenise & Shannon

Jennifer Collins works as the accounts payable bookkeeper. She received her Human Resources degree from Eastern Washington University. Stefanie Octave, a West Virginia native, recently earned her Washington Salesperson’s license and is our accounts receivable bookkeeper. Together, Jennifer and Stefanie’s bright smiles and April fool’s jokes keep our office laughing.

On the residential rentals side, there are three property managers, a full-time maintenance coordinator and one bookkeeper.

Carrie Fjeld, ARM®, RMP® manages the majority of Bell-Anderson’s apartment communities, as well as single family units. She is busy serving on the convention committee for NARPM’s 2009 national conference, and will co-chair the 2010 convention in Seattle.

Stefanie & Carrie

Dawn Hardley, ARM® began her property management career in commercial management, and now manages single and small multi-family units. She is an avid outdoorswoman, enjoying camping, fly fishing and photography.

Residential manager Kasey Medina recently joined NARPM and is looking forward to working toward her first professional property manager’s designation after having graduated from Central Washington with a Business degree in December of 2008.

Maria Garcia works as our Maintenance Coordinator and all-around smart and helpful person. She has been with Bell-Anderson for 10 years, and usually knows the answer to most of our questions. In her spare time she enjoys basketball and spending time with her family.

Maria & Kasey

Shannon Richardson works as both the Residential and Corporate bookkeeper. She has been with Bell-Anderson for 9 years and loves golfing in her free time.

Last but certainly not least is Debi Alexander, our front desk coordinator. She may be the most familiar person to the majority of our clients, and her hard work and organization keep our front desk running smoothly.

Debi

Well now that you have met the family, we hope you will check back in the future to see what else pops up on our blog. It is a pleasure to serve all of our clients and the community. From our family to yours, have a wonderful day!