NEW YORK (AP) – Nicolas Vandenberghe’s company has 42 staffers scattered among 36 cities in 15 countries. As technology makes it possible for people to be in constant touch while working remotely, businesses like Chili Piper are becoming the norm.

“We have Zoom, Slack, and a myriad of other collaborative tools – do we really need the in-person water cooler meetings?” asks Vandenberghe, whose business makes software to help companies manage meetings. Vandenberghe himself is continually remote, splitting his time between New York, Los Angeles and France.

Whether it means a parent working from home while caring for a sick child, a staffer who logs into a company computer daily from a coffee shop or an entire law firm that operates online, remote working is gaining momentum at small businesses. Technology that makes communication and meetings easy is a big factor in the growth of remote working, but so is the shrinking labor pool that accompanies an unemployment rate below 4% for over a year. Many companies no longer look for help close to their home base.

It’s hard to find definitive statistics on how many people work remotely. Gallup’s most recent survey in 2016 showed that 43% of employees worked remotely in at least some capacity; that was up 4 percentage points from 2012.

But even as remote working grows, business owners find managing offsite staffers involves more than giving them the latest technology. Communication, for example, can’t be left solely to videoconferencing and messaging apps like Slack. Three of Jazmine Valencia’s seven staffers are in her Los Angeles office, three are in New York and one is in Chicago. Her company, JV Agency, does marketing for the music industry. Valencia’s remote staffers can feel left out when the onsite team discusses issues.

“I have to over-communicate and make sure everyone is on the same page. This might mean more one-on-ones, more calls and sometimes just being constantly emailing or private messaging the remote team,” Valencia says. “I need to give them a sense of security.”

Owners say a remote operation can’t work without trust between a boss and staffers, especially because it can be difficult for an owner to know what an employee is doing during a workday. Tyler Forte recalls that when he first managed staffers remotely, “it was me checking on them probably too frequently.” He worried about staffers at his real estate brokerage spending time on social media.

But, “over time, you develop trust with the employee, that we’re all working toward the same goal,” says Forte, CEO of Felix Homes, based in Nashville, Tennessee. The company has staffers in Los Angeles. “Even if I’m not overseeing every move, I believe they are doing their best to advance the goals of the company.”

Forte has found project management software, an aid many owners use, helps him keep track of what everyone is doing.

Sometimes the problem is very different from staffers goofing off.

“People have this idea that if you have a remote team, they won’t work,” says Emma Rose Cohen, CEO of Final Straw, a maker of reusable straws that has a hub in Seattle. “It’s the opposite – if you hire the right people, they’re self-starters, and self-starters are often people who work too much.”

She’s alert to signs that any of her 15 staffers are spending too much time on the job, and when they tell her they feel burned out, tired, or stressed, Cohen says it’s time to take a break. And she’s very public about the fact she blocks off time for non-work things she needs to do.

One reason why employees take remote jobs is their bosses give them flextime; they can make their own hours, take time off for children’s activities or to go to the gym or walk the dog. That perk can help a small business attract and retain staffers.

But remote work is a bad fit for some employees because it often is isolating; staffers can feel disconnected and even alienated from co-workers. That can be countered to some extent through messaging channels that allow everyone to chime in on a fun discussion. Cohen has gone further, creating channels devoted to specific topics like pets or podcasts.

When Andrew DeBell hires remote staffers, he flies them to his company’s home base for interviews; that’s one way to increase the odds they’ll work well with the team at Water Bear Learning, a Ventura, California-based company that creates educational materials.

Some owners find remote work can have a stifling effect on a team’s creativity – there’s no light-bulb moments as staffers pass each other in the hallway, no riffing in a meeting, no break room chats that are unexpectedly productive.

“You’re able to feed off each other and brainstorm ideas better in person than when you’ve got several people on the phone,” DeBell says. His company has one staffer in Denver and two in Ventura. It also has a network of freelancers in the eastern U.S.

Vandenberghe encourages staffers to go to coworking spaces so they can avoid isolation. When he needs a brainstorming session, he flies staffers to where he is so they can meet in person.

Saili Gosula has a remote administrative staffer and several onsite employees at her Synergy HomeCare franchise in San Mateo, California, and all of her caregivers work out in the field. Gosula has some of the same issues as owners whose work is computer-based; she does a lot of communicating and informing, trying to be sure that all her office staff is on the same page.

As it turns out, Gosula uses some of the same skills with her caregivers, who are all working in sensitive, emotional situations as they care for elderly or sick people.

“We talk to them often, ask them how it’s going,” Gosula says. “We ask them questions every time we interact with them.”

Copyright 2020 The Associated Press, Joyce M. Rosenberg. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. This article will be available for 30 days following publication.

ORLANDO, Fla. – The Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 added disability as a protected class when it comes to fair housing. Simply put, that means that housing providers (definition includes owners and rental agents, among others) cannot refuse to make reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices, and services to afford a person with a disability equal opportunity to occupy and enjoy full use of a dwelling.

Although discrimination can take many forms, the most common ways the disabled person would be protected is by being entitled to a waiver of no-pet policies, not having to make a pet deposit, and being free from any other burdens placed on them because of the assistance animal.

Here’s a recent case that helps illustrate why respectful, interactive discussion should be the correct tone any time a request is received. It also shows how accommodation should be the goal as opposed to searching for a reason to deny.

A Florida condominium association was faced with a request for a waiver of the pet weight limit contained in its rules. The request included this note from a health care professional:

Due to mental illness, [unit owner] has certain limitations regarding social interaction and coping with stress and anxiety. In order to help alleviate these difficulties, and to enhance his ability to live independently and to fully use and enjoy the dwelling unit, I am prescribing an emotional support animal that will assist [unit owner] in coping with his disability.

This was followed up a few days later with a second note clarifying that the unit owner already has a therapeutic relationship with a specific dog that was over the association’s weight limit for pets.

Rather than accommodate the request, the association sent the following letter:

1. What is the exact nature of your impairment? How does it substantially limit a major life activity?

2. How long have you been receiving treatment for this specific impairment?

3. How many sessions have you had with [the doctor who wrote the note]?

4. What specific training has your dog received?

5. Why does it require a dog over 25 pounds to afford you an equal opportunity to use and enjoy your dwelling?

The unit owner provided a third brief note from the doctor responding to these questions. The association sent two additional lists of questions, each more detailed than the last, but the unit owner stopped responding after providing the third doctor’s note.

Complaints were filed with HUD and the Florida Commission on Human Relations, and a lawsuit was filed against the association. This resulted in a lengthy court battle, which included a jury trial and an appeal. What was the ultimate outcome for the association? The association had to waive its pet restriction. Additionally, it owed $5,000 to the unit owner, as well as $127,512 in attorney fees.

Although there may be bad actors out there abusing the broad definition of disability currently in place, this case illustrates the dangers an aggressive tone can present. It’s also a reminder that the definition is broad and can cover many types of health issues that may not be readily apparent. A respectful, interactive conversation is crucial so that housing providers can meet the burden of making reasonable accommodation for all persons who are disabled.

For more information on best practices in assistance animal screening, refer to a new 19-page memo issued on Jan. 28, 2020.

Joel Maxson is Associate General Counsel

© 2019 Florida Realtors®

NEW YORK – Commercial real estate markets across the United States are feeling a positive influence from the cannabis industry as property is bought, sold and leased for medical and recreational marijuana, a new report shows.

Hemp also is making waves in agricultural land sales and industrial real estate, agents say.

There were desert cities no one cared about until cannabis came along, said Ryan George, founder of cannabis real estate listing site 420property.com. “In Palm Springs, Adelanto, Cathedral City, [Calif.,] I personally know people who bought warehouses for $50 a square foot and sold them for $500 a square foot.”

Marijuana is illegal at the federal level, which interferes with some aspects of buying, renting and selling real estate. But 23 states have legalized medical pot, and 11 of them, plus Washington, D.C., also allow recreational cannabis sales.

Mature markets in states like Oregon, Washington and Colorado appear to have gotten a commercial real estate boost from marijuana, according to a National Association of Realtors report issued this month based on a 2019 survey of commercial brokers.

In states where all forms of marijuana have been legal for more than three years, 42% of survey respondents reported an increased demand for commercial warehouse space, and between 20% and 30% said they saw an increase in sales of retail properties and land.

But cannabis properties can come with regulatory hassles, said Vince Sliwoski, a Portland, Ore., real estate attorney. Recreational cannabis was approved in Oregon in 2015. “Title insurance is a huge headache,” Sliwoski said. “Buyers often have to use a third-party escrow instead of banks.”

Landlords with mortgages run a risk of banks calling in their loans if they are renting to a retail or industrial cannabis tenant.

Hemp doesn’t have these issues, Sliwoski said, because marijuana’s non-psychoactive cannabis cousin no longer is federally illegal. A south Oregon sawmill has been repurposed as a hemp extractor facility, and that shows how the region’s economy is changing, he said.

“In southern Oregon, the biggest driver of the economy used to be timber, but now hemp is the new big agricultural commodity that people are banking on.”

Denver-based Foster, of VIP Commercial real estate, remembers when Colorado legalized medicinal pot in 2008, “just as the entire economy was falling apart.”

Many blamed the marijuana industry for higher rents, he said, but cannabis money for warehouses, dispensaries and doctor’s offices was welcome. Colorado legalized recreational pot in 2014.

As the industry has matured, landlords are recognizing some pitfalls unique to renting to cannabis businesses. Respondents from mature cannabis markets in the Realtor association study said the smell was the largest concern for property owners renting to cannabis-related businesses. Other concerns were moisture and mold and theft and fire.

“There are complaints that large warehouses that grow produce a smell that kind of takes over the neighborhood,” Foster said. “You smell it on the highway, and it’s like ‘Welcome to Denver.’”

But even if marijuana initially helped hold up the prices of Colorado warehouse space, it’s now too expensive to grow cannabis indoors, Foster said. Growers are turning to greenhouse properties in southern Colorado – in the poorest areas of the state – where land is cheaper.

Hemp cannabidiol extractors are moving into prime warehouse space with complicated build-outs including “explosion-proof rooms and air-release vents 150 feet high,” Foster said.

“It’s like a second gold rush,” Denver commercial real estate agent Pete Foster said. “First it was cannabis in 2008 through 2012, and now it’s the hemp.”

In California, cannabis-friendly municipal ordinances and low tax rates caused a land rush between 2017 and 2018 in the Palm Desert area where the Coachella music festival is hosted, George said. But some investors were burned when they realized the high cost of retrofitting warehouse space to grow cannabis.

Some towns didn’t have the electrical capacity to upgrade electricity in warehouses to grow, he said, adding, “Some people lost millions.”

The ride has not been as wild in states where medical marijuana has been legalized.

“You need to get it approved by the county and then sometimes by the municipality, too,” Miami-based Realtor April Rodriguez said.

Getting into the medical marijuana business is a billionaire’s game, she said, with strictly limited state licenses going for $40 million “for the piece of paper – that’s before they even buy the land.”

Rodriguez said some landlords want nothing to do with a medical marijuana dispensary, but sometimes change their minds after town hall meetings. “Most of it is landlord education. They don’t know what it is and wonder, are they going to get in trouble?” she said.

For states with no legal cannabis but growing hemp industries, real estate is trickier, said Harold Jarboe of Tennessee Homegrown hemp in Readyville.

Jarboe, a hemp consultant, and others in former tobacco country, are operating on slim margins after a glut of 2019 supply and a steep drop in prices.

GenCanna, Tennessee’s biggest hemp processor, filed for bankruptcy protection, and several others have shut their doors or lost financing, he said.

Jarboe said real estate agents are trying to find an entrance into the agricultural farm market.

“In agricultural areas where farming has been stressed, there’s all sorts of warehouses and barns that need no refurbishing for hemp. But this next year, it will be extremely hard, because where will the margin be for the person doing the real estate?”

Copyright 2020 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.

NAPLES, Fla. – The Sunshine State can offer more than just sunshine for prospective homebuyers. While the climate has always been a big draw for new residents, another element has led many in recent years to relocate to Southwest Florida: taxes.

Local professionals say that the Southwest Florida real estate market has seen a significant boost thanks to people migrating from northern states with much harsher tax environments. Residents who have lived for decades in states such as New York have taken advantage of an opportunity to find relief in Florida, where the tax burdens are less heavy.

“Nobody, as far as I know, likes to pay more taxes if they can pay less,” said Tony Lachowetz.

Lachowetz, 61, moved down to Florida in November 2018 after retiring as a University of Massachusetts Amherst business professor. He lives in Florida about six and a half months of the year, which allows the educator to establish residency in the state. The remaining months of the year, he spends in Massachusetts where he still has family and a second home. Lachowetz also continues to remotely teach a few online courses for the university.

He said the decision to move was, in part, motivated by the savings he could find to the south.

“It’s just a cost of living move,” he said. “You immediately get real estate tax breaks through the homestead (exemption). You also immediately get a state income tax break.”

Homeowners in Florida can claim an up to $50,000 homestead exemption on their primary residence, which reduces the assessed value of the residence and the property tax that the owner pays.

Lachowetz said he’s also been able to save about $7,000 per year thanks to the fact that Florida has no personal income taxes.

According to New York City-based personal finance technology company SmartAsset, “homeowners in Massachusetts face some of the largest annual property tax bills of any state in the country,” and the state has an average effective tax rate of 1.22%, which is higher than the national average of 1.08%.

Florida’s average effective property tax rate sits at 0.98%, lower than the national average, according to SmartAsset.

“I was excited about the prospect of not having to pay (income tax) anymore and paying a real estate tax that, as a percentage of the value of my home, is about half of what I’m paying in Massachusetts,” Lachowetz said. “The prospect of coming down here and eliminating some taxes or reducing some real estate taxes by quite a bit, that certainly got my attention.”

And while Lachowetz just has the refrigerator and heat on in one room of his Massachusetts house, he’s still dishing out more in electric bills than in the Florida house that he is fully utilizing.

“I pay about half in utilities as I do in Massachusetts right now, and I’m not using my house in Massachusetts,” he said of the northern home that is about half the size of his residence in Florida. “That’s just how high the electric rates are right now.”

Lachowetz said he’s noticed that states like Massachusetts and New York are losing population “every year.”

“California is losing so many people and so many businesses every year, and people are moving to low-tax, low cost-of-living states like Idaho, Texas and Florida.”

Between 2017 and 2018, almost 23,000 people moved to Lee and Collier counties, and most of those people migrated from somewhere else in the U.S, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates.

“There’s a reason (for the population growth),” Lachowetz said. “It’s not just the weather.”

Pros and cons of Florida’s tax environment

“Other states are getting less tax-friendly,” said Katherine Loughead, a senior policy analyst with the Tax Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. “Florida has been pretty competitive for a while now, having never had an individual income tax. Other states are increasing their income taxes or creating new, more burdensome taxes, and that drives a lot of people out of state.”

In fact, the Sunshine State ranks fourth in the nation on the foundation’s 2020 State Business Tax Climate Index, which Loughead said measures how competitive state tax structures are.

“There are only three states that have a more competitive overall tax code that is friendly to businesses and makes taxpayers feel they are being treated fairly,” she said. One of the most prominent reasons for Florida’s high ranking is the total lack of an individual income tax, she said.

Loughead noted that taxes on income are generally more harmful to economic growth than taxes on consumption or on property “because income taxes penalize that next dollar of investment.”

She stated that the corporate income tax is also “pretty competitive compared to a lot of other states.” Florida’s corporate tax has a relatively low rate and is a flat tax, meaning that it’s not a graduated rate that will charge higher amounts for those who earn more, she said. Compared to states such as New Jersey, which has a top statutory corporate tax rate of 10.5%, Florida’s 4.458% is relatively affordable for businesses.

According to Loughead, Florida is also for wealthy retirees as it doesn’t have estate or inheritance taxes, commonly referred to as “death taxes.” Therefore, “it’s a good place for retirees to go if they don’t want taxes levied when they transfer their estates or make big gifts to their descendants.”

Despite all of Florida’s advantages, she noted that there is still plenty of room for the state to be even more tax-friendly. She mentioned the tangible personal property tax, which applies to the value of tangible property such as equipment used in a business. The Florida Department of Revenue defines tangible personal property as “all goods, property other than real estate, and other articles of value that the owner can physically possess and has intrinsic value.” Therefore, the tax commonly applies to assets such as business equipment, furniture, and automobiles, according to the Tax Foundation.

“It’s really the land and improvements and buildings that should be subject to the property tax,” she said.

Loughead also referenced the bonus depreciation deficiencies that Florida has. Bonus depreciation is an incentive in which businesses can deduct a large percentage of the price of certain assets, instead of writing them off over the life of those assets.

She said that under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, when a business invests in machinery and equipment, it can write off 100% of that investment in the first year, while Florida code only allows 14%.

“Businesses are getting more of a benefit on the federal level than they are on their Florida corporate income tax returns,” she said. “That basically increases the cost of capital and makes it harder for businesses to invest in machinery and equipment. It’s kind of an added penalty for in-state investment. It’s levied the hardest against those that have big capital expenditures in the state of Florida.”

Lastly, she said that the sales tax in the state should be “broadened and modernized” based on the fact that it currently does not apply to a numerous amount of services. She said that services such as dry cleaning, barbershops, parking, landscaping and others are exempt from the sales tax.

“It would make sense for the sales tax to apply neutrally to a broad base of final consumer goods and services,” she said. “That would generate more revenue to bring down the overall sales tax rate or other tax rates.”

Local real estate market sees boost from ‘tax refugees’

“It’s definitely been a positive for our market,” said Bob Quinn, a Realtor with The Re/Max Realty Team Office in Cape Coral who represented Lachowetz in his home purchase. “If someone can save enough in taxes, it becomes a big plus for them, especially in retirement if you can reduce your income taxes by moving from a high-tax state to Florida. It just makes a lot of sense for people.”

He said he’s met more buyers in recent years who have relocated to Florida to escape some of those conditions.

Quinn moved to Southwest Florida in the late ‘70s and said that back then, the population of Cape Coral and throughout the region consisted of mostly retirees from the Midwest. The reason for making Florida their new home was to escape the harsh winters, and often, their Southwest Florida home was a second, seasonal residence. Many of these buyers would still maintain their primary residence up north.

This has changed, however, in recent years, Quinn said, as the cost to maintain two homes rose and residents opted to just keep their Florida locations due to the lower taxes.

“This is especially true as northern property and income taxes kept rising,” he said. “Over time, it became a tax issue. People are still moving here to get out of the cold and snow, but escaping from a high-tax state has become another priority for people.”

He also mentioned that technological advances have allowed people to keep their jobs from the North, work remotely from their new homes in Florida and still receive the tax benefits.

Quinn stated, however, that some of these high tax states are taking a “close look” at people who migrate to Florida or other southern states. He said due to this, residents who relocate need to “go about it the right way.”

“You start seeing a lot more of these really intrusive residency audits,” he said. “There’s a growing probability that their former high-tax states are going to take a real close look at them to make sure they’re legitimate Florida residents. They are trying to grab that tax revenue back from all the people who have left their states.”

He said that the extent of this doesn’t just include states going after people while they’re alive but also going after their estates and heirs after they pass away.

Quinn suggested that new residents consult with a Florida-based certified public accountant and a Florida-based estate planning attorney when they relocate.

Bill Earls, a John R. Wood agent who regularly handles some of the priciest listings in Naples, agreed that the escape from tax burdensome states is boosting the local market.

“It’s no question that ‘tax refugees’ coming here is another shot in the arm for us,” Earls said. “I think a lot of these people who are smart, economically successful people, they see the writing on the wall. Those northern governors where they see income flights from their states, they’re going to raise taxes again. The fact that people are moving here to get away from the tax burden in northern states is palpable.”

He said that while some of the less wealthy individuals may be moving down to Florida to capitalize on the financial opportunity, some of the wealthiest are also getting involved in the trend.

Earls stated that some titans of industry are fed up with the tax burdens of other states and are making a statement by moving to the Sunshine State. He mentioned President Donald Trump, who recently switched his primary residence from Manhattan to Palm Beach. The president tweeted after the news was released, noting the “millions of dollars in city, state and local taxes” he pays each year in New York.

“Did he do that because he needed to and couldn’t afford to pay?” Earls asked. “No. But I think he’s just had it. It’s almost like a protest movement, not buying into New York’s debacle anymore.”

Demand bringing more development to Southwest Florida

Pablo Veintimilla, the Southwest Florida market president for Centennial Bank, said that Florida commercial and residential construction came to a “screeching halt” when the 2008 financial crisis hit, leading to a lack of new residents.

Now, with the economy’s recovery and the cost of living rising in northern states, the building has begun again, Veintimilla said. “Now we’re back to migration,” he said. “There’s still a lot of land in Florida. And they’re building all these homes and now they’re coming down. And we see now a lot of construction happening here again. They’re anticipating this demand, and they’re continuing to build.”

Along with the demand, the current low-interest-rate environment for mortgages allows new residents to purchase more than what they anticipated, he said. This, combined with the lower cost of living in Florida, makes the area even more appealing.

“The people who are moving here and looking to buy a home, because the interest rates are so low, they can afford more of a home,” he said.

This great Florida migration does have some unintended consequences, however.

“That migration here is causing the rise of real estate prices,” Veintimilla said. “You have a large segment of the population – teachers, firefighters, policemen – starting to get priced out of the market.

“Affordable housing is a big challenge here.”

© 2020 Journal Media Group, Andrew Wigdor. This article will be available for 30 days following publication.