Apartment Blog

It is publicized all over the nation that unemployment rates are rising, homes are still going into foreclosures and prices are increasing on necessary goods. During these times it really seems hard to find something to be thankful for. Our minds tend to remember the bad things much more easily than the good, but there are many blessings in everyone’s life.

I took a quick poll of a few friends, just to see what others will be giving thanks for this year. The most important thing I can say I am grateful for is family and friends. And I’m not alone. The overall consensus of what to be thankful for this year wasn’t about money. It was about good health for you and your family, pets, friends, community outreach programs as well as giving back to the community.

So while times are tough, it’s important to remember what you are thankful for, especially this year. Take a moment to really think about all the little blessings in your life. It can be something as simple as a child’s smile or a green light when you’re running late. Whatever it is, I hope you take the time to really appreciate it. On behalf of For Rent Media Solutions, I wish you a very happy and appreciative Thanksgiving!

                                  Pic by opiummuseum

Do you ever wonder why we celebrate the holidays we celebrate? Do you ever look beyond the festivities, gifts, and laughter to understand the roots of the occasion.  Maybe you have and maybe you haven’t, but Halloween has a unique history.  History.com says that when Europeans came to America they brought their varied Halloween traditions with them.  It wasn’t as prevalent in the rigid protestant north as it was in southern colonies like Maryland.  Different European ethnic groups and American Indian traditions meshed to form the American version of Halloween.

The first festivities included “Play Parties” that celebrated harvest and people came together to dance, sing, tell stories about the dead, and tell each other’s fortunes.  Telling Ghost stories was common as well. History.com also notes that in the second half of the 19^th century America was flood with immigrants especially from Ireland, whom helped popularize Halloween nationally.

The Trick or Treat Tradition came from English and Irish Traditions, and Americans began to go from house to house asking for money or food. In the late 1800s though, there was a movement to take the witchcraft out of Halloween and make the holiday more about community get-togethers and games.  Halloween eventually lost its religious and superstitious overtones. Trick or Treating evolved over time to be an inexpensive way for the community to share the celebration. Also, in theory giving kids treats prevented them from being the victim of tricks.

Halloween is now the second biggest commercial Holiday, where Americans an estimated spend 6.9 billion dollars.  Knowing the history may just be of trivial consequence, but it will help you understand the dynamics behind such a popular holiday!

Isn’t Halloween for the kids?  Adults may never want to grow out of the Halloween costume phase; but, this holiday SCREAMS kids. Here are two main activities they can get involved in on Halloween night:

• 1. Trick or Treating- Kids love candy and their supply of candy will be increased exponentially on Halloween night. Trick or treating allows kids to dress up and walk around the neighborhood to collect candy. Once they bring it home, do your best to inspect the candy. If you’re have kids are participating this year, make sure you are with them at all times during this activity. There are too many things that can happen to just let your kids roam around, even if they are borderline teenagers. You don’t necessarily need to hover at every door, but make sure you can see them as they walk around. This activity is also a good way to meet neighbors and have your kids meet the neighbor’s kids.
• 2. Harvest Carnivals- Not everyone celebrates Halloween, but they don’t want their kids to be left out of the fun either. Organizations will hold Harvest Carnivals on Halloween night to celebrate Harvest instead of Halloween. Harvest carnivals usually have lots of candy and games for kids to enjoy. Even if the kids do a little trick or treating first, they may want to end the night at a harvest carnival where they can meet and have fun with other kids in the community in safe environments.

Make it very clear to the kids what your intentions are before they get excited to do one or the other.  Their friends will surely start making plans early, and you don’t want to thwart their fun altogether.  Let them know what the rules are now.  Have any other ideas of activities for kids?

Being a “Charlottean” means appreciating the mix of southern hospitality and robust work ethic that make up the city of Charlotte.   This growing business Mecca has been named “#8 of the 100 “Best Places to Live and Launch” by CNNMoney.com- cities picked for their vibrant lifestyles and opportunities for new businesses.”

Contributing to the vibrant lifestyle, It is not uncommon to find a church on every corner in the “City of Churches”. There are reportedly 700 congregations that serve a population of just over 700,000.

The churches not only add to the spiritual growth of the cities inhabitants, but also add to the scenery.   Contemporary churches are known for their state of the art engineering, but the majestic beauty of  old churches still  graces more than a few street corners.

Get more information and search tips on Charlotte Apartments, or view all Apartments for Rent in Charlotte, NC.

Sources:

http://www.helium.com/items/1413517-why-is-charlotte-called-the-city-of-churches

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte,_North_Carolina

Remember in January, we wrote an article ‘5 Reasons to Get Fit in 2009′? The whole premise of that article was to give you five reasons why working out at your apartment community fitness center provides you with great benefits. Well, we’ve gone a step further to break down how doing other activities in your apartment community can really add up for shedding calories this year!

These numbers are for a 150 lb person and based on a work-out for 30 minutes.

**information collected from HealthStatus.com

On Wednesday, August 19^th, For Rent Media Solutions launched a Twitter sweepstakes for multifamily industry professionals. Multifamily professionals had an opportunity to win an iPod Touch® if they logged on to Twitter and sent @AptsForRent a tweet. To be eligible for the sweepstake, multifamily professionals had to enter a tweet that included the ‘Yeah We’ve Got That’ hashtag. This hashtag symbolizes our solutions network to help clients reach renters any time, any place, driving more LEADS for them.

On Monday, August 24^th, we announced Jessica Whitney as the randomly selected winner for the iPod Touch. Whitney works with Resort at Forbes Creek apartment community.  This community has had their Twitter account for a little over a month and loves using the microbloging site for ‘real time’ updates to inform residents of specials, events, etc. In addition to Twitter, we also learned that this community has a robust Facebook page set up displaying updates regarding events in the apartment community.

As a result of this campaign, For Rent Media Solutions saw an increase of followers to our Twitter profile and numerous retweets with our brand message all in less than three days! We also generated a couple thousand page views to our Apartment Blog and had many interactions with multifamily industry professionals.

We want to congratulate Jessica Whitney for winning the iPod touch. We would also like to thank all multifamily professionals who participated. We’re looking forward to running another sweepstakes soon!