NC bill targets corporate landlords, others
Jen asked not to use her full name. She didn't want to upset her landlord, but she did want to speak about her frustrations.
'It's just not been a great experience,' she said.
She says she's had HVAC, electrical, and runaround issues. 'We were getting ready in the pitch black in showers, trying to get ready for work, for school, for everything,' she said. She says the company did knock $300 off her rent.
Neighbors come together to speak out against corporate landlords
A company rents the house to her. In fact, companies own a lot of the houses in her neighborhood. Some people who live in neighborhoods with a lot of corporate landlords have told Action 9 investigator Jason Stoogenke in the past that they worry it hurts their property values.
Stoogenke asked Jen if she would be concerned if there were a ton of rentals in her neighborhood if she were a homeowner, especially if one company owned them all.
'I would because I don't think that a lot of these management companies screen properly,' she said. 'And I had an experience in a previous neighborhood that I lived in where we had a lot of renters, but the renters didn't take care of the property. They just kind of left it in disarray.'
The bill lawmakers are considering would limit how many homes someone can buy to rent. N.C. Senate Bill 199 applies to counties with more than 150,000 people. It would outlaw people from buying 100 or more single-family homes to rent. The penalty would cost up to $100 per day for each home.
'I do think that's smart,' she said.
'We always want just to urge a sense of caution when you add regulations,' said Robert Dell'Osso with the National Association of Residential Property Managers. 'I just worry that a bill like this could open a Pandora's box down the road so maybe it's 100 doors per entity now, but a future legislature could shrink that to 50 or 75 or 10 or five. And then you really start to affect individuals.'
'They're not all bad, right? Some of them are actually pretty good,' he added.
If the bill becomes law, it would apply to any landlords after that. Anyone with more than the limit now would be grandfathered in.
VIDEO: Renter says landlord is in foreclosure and that her family's caught in the middle
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Associated Press
12-08-2025
- Associated Press
MyNINA's AI Virtual Receptionist Redefines Customer Service for Small Business
08/11/2025, Tampa, FL // PRODIGY: Feature Story // MyNINA, a pioneering technology company revolutionizing customer service for small and medium businesses (SMBs), today announced the continued success and expansion of its AI Virtual Receptionist service. Established in 2024 and headquartered at 2202 N. Westshore Blvd, STE 200, Tampa, FL 33607, MyNINA has empowered thousands of SMBs to save time and money by automating critical customer-facing tasks, enhancing operational efficiency, and delivering exceptional customer experiences. The modern business landscape demands that SMBs deliver professional, round-the-clock customer service while managing tight budgets. MyNINA's AI Virtual Receptionist meets this challenge head-on, offering an intelligent, cost-effective solution that streamlines call handling, appointment scheduling, and lead management. By replacing traditional receptionists, which can cost businesses $28,000 to $43,000 annually in salaries alone, MyNINA provides a scalable alternative that operates 24/7, integrates seamlessly with existing systems, and saves an average of 20 hours per week in administrative tasks. Since its founding, MyNINA has established key relationships with professional organizations such as the National Association of Residential Property Managers (NARPM). Making it a trusted partner for SMBs across industries, delivering measurable results. Establishing The company's AI-driven platform handles a wide range of tasks, including answering calls, booking appointments, qualifying leads, and managing inquiries across phone, email, and web forms. With customizable scripts and real-time data, MyNINA ensures personalized, professional interactions that enhance customer satisfaction and drive business growth. 'Since implementing My Nina, our intake process has been completely transformed.,' said Sarah Thompson, Partner at Thompson & Associates. 'The AI Virtual Receptionist has saved us thousands annually while ensuring our customers receive prompt, professional service at any time of day. The setup was seamless, and the daily call summaries keep us in the loop.' Located in Tampa's thriving Westshore business district, MyNINA is strategically positioned to serve a growing client base. The company's innovative approach has earned it recognition as a leader in AI-driven customer service solutions, with a commitment to helping SMBs thrive in a competitive market. MyNINA's service includes comprehensive features such as call recording, transcription, and daily summaries, ensuring businesses maintain full control and visibility over customer interactions. 'We're dedicated to empowering SMBs with tools that save time, reduce costs, and build stronger customer relationships,' said Jane Doe, Director of Communications at MyNINA. 'Our AI Virtual Receptionist is more than a service—it's a game-changer that allows businesses to focus on what they do best while we handle the rest.' MyNINA's rapid growth since 2024 reflects its ability to address the unique needs of SMBs. As the company continues to innovate, it remains focused on delivering unparalleled value through its AI-driven platform, helping businesses of all sizes achieve operational excellence and customer satisfaction. About MyNINA Founded in 2024, MyNINA is a Tampa-based technology company specializing in AI-driven virtual receptionist services. Located at 2202 N. Westshore Blvd, STE 200, Tampa, FL 33607, MyNINA has helped thousands of small and medium businesses streamline customer service, save time, and reduce costs. By leveraging advanced artificial intelligence, MyNINA delivers 24/7 call handling, appointment scheduling, and lead management, empowering SMBs to thrive in a competitive landscape. For more information, visit ### Contacts Paul Husing Director of Sales, MyNINA [email protected] (866) 826-5585 newsroom: Source published by Submit Press Release >> MyNINA's AI Virtual Receptionist Redefines Customer Service for Small Business
Fast Company
07-08-2025
- Fast Company
From back office to big picture: IT's autonomous era begins
If the famous British sitcom The IT Crowd were made in 2035, the basement office would be empty. Roy and Moss would work remotely, juggling support tickets across time zones. Jen? Probably bypassing IT approvals altogether and installing whatever AI tool LinkedIn told her would 'increase productivity 10x.' But by 2035, Roy and Moss won't just be fixing printers. You'll find them in the boardroom, briefing the C-suite on digital transformation, AI strategy, and IT's role in unlocking enterprise efficiency. We can thank AI for the IT Crowd's promotion. As agentic AI moves from concept to deployment, IT is emerging as ground zero for its real-world implementation and growth. Unlike other departments, where AI is still experimental or siloed, many IT teams have already integrated autonomous systems into their daily workflows. At large, according to a recent Atera survey of 1,000 IT professionals, 99% of survey respondents believe that their IT departments keep pace with current trends. And this new agentic AI era is no exception. What's happening here with agentic AI isn't just automation. It's a fundamental shift in how work gets done, who (or what) does it, and how humans and machines collaborate at scale. IT is experiencing its most significant shift since the digital revolution began. Organizations must transition to autonomous IT environments where AI systems independently handle routine technical operations, allowing IT professionals to function as digital workforce managers and strategic business partners rather than technical troubleshooters. Traditionally, IT departments operated much like an overworked emergency room, triaging an endless stream of technical issues with limited time and resources. In this reactive model, IT technicians functioned as organizational gatekeepers, resolving everything from forgotten passwords to printer configurations while business-critical initiatives languished. The metrics of success? Ticket closure rates and response times, not business transformation or innovation. Now, with AI agents entering the picture, we're witnessing a dramatic but incomplete evolution. Future-minded organizations have begun automating routine IT tasks, but most IT departments remain trapped in a technological purgatory; one foot in the manual processes of yesterday, the other tentatively testing the autonomous solutions of tomorrow. This halfway state creates its inefficiencies: fragmented systems where some issues receive instant AI resolution while others still languish in ticket queues; hybrid workflows that require more management than they eliminate; and IT professionals whose strategic potential remains underutilized in a landscape that still demands their time for low-value tasks. This halfway point isn't just unsustainable, it's unnecessary. Forward-thinking organizations are already charting a course beyond incremental improvement toward fundamental reinvention toward autonomous IT. BLUEPRINTS, NOT BAND-AIDS: THE AUTONOMOUS IT MINDSET Autonomous IT is a management approach that fundamentally transforms how organizations structure and operate their technology functions. Autonomous IT is what happens when AI agents take action in the real world, all without human intervention. It's an IT operation that detects issues on its own, preemptively resolves them, does not require a human to press 'go,' within predefined boundaries, of course, and continuously learns and improves. AI agents can eliminate quite a bit of the IT workload by handling repetitive and complex tasks autonomously. It's like having extra team members always on hand 24/7/365, instantly responding to tickets and resolving issues in minutes. This approach shifts IT professionals from reactive problem-solvers to strategic architects who design intelligent systems and govern digital workforces. Imagine IT transforming from a help desk repair shop to a high-altitude mission control, designing systems so intelligent they render traditional troubleshooting obsolete. This isn't about making existing workflows more efficient; it's about making them completely irrelevant. At the core of this paradigm are AI agents: not just tools, but autonomous digital operatives capable of executing complex IT tasks with minimal technician interference. As IT journalist Rich Freeman explained in a recent article, to earn the 'agentic' badge, these systems must clear a high-bar performance test: Recall their digital footprints with surgical precision Plan future actions like strategic chess masters Interface directly with systems, speaking the native language of technology Collaborate across digital ecosystems seamlessly Learn and evolve with each interaction Execute assignments entirely autonomously, from inception to resolution, unless explicitly commanded otherwise The result? 24/7 availability, zero first-response time, and improved efficiency across the organization, alongside reduced costs, minimized downtime, and more productive employees. It's IT that's not just efficient, but truly intelligent. Autonomous IT emerges as the most tangible manifestation of this transformation. Employees no longer queue for basic support as AI agents intercept and resolve issues in real time. Password resets, software requests, device reconfiguration, and reboots: all handled instantaneously by intelligent systems that understand context, policy, and process. But tier-1 ticket resolution is just the beginning. Free from the burden of mundane/repetitive tasks, IT teams can redirect their efforts toward designing scalable infrastructure, optimizing digital experience, and driving long-term innovation. With autonomous IT frameworks, IT teams become the stewards of operations, the engineers of reliability, and the champions of ethical AI use. It will chart the course for how technology supports and empowers the entire organization. The evolution we're witnessing isn't about replacing IT professionals, it's about elevating them. Tomorrow's IT leaders won't be defined by their ability to troubleshoot hardware or deploy software packages but by their capacity to align technology with business strategy, orchestrate complex ecosystems, and harness AI capabilities to drive organizational transformation. The IT crowd is moving up from the basement to the boardroom, with AI handling the tickets while humans handle the strategy. The only question is: Will your organization lead this revolution, or be surpassed by those who do? After all, in the age of AI-powered IT, the most dangerous phrase isn't 'system failure.' It's 'but we've always done it this way.' The early-rate deadline for Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies Awards is Friday, September 5, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply today.
Yahoo
03-08-2025
- Yahoo
The housing market is changing. Is a low-fee real estate agent the way to go?
When Jonny Ballesteros and his fiancée, Jen, began house-hunting, they weren't sure what to expect. It was the first purchase for the couple, who are both 29, and in the competitive San Diego-area market where they lived, they needed some hands-on guidance. But the real estate agents they contacted were no help. They appeared to be too busy to offer the kind of service the couple wanted. They decided instead to work with a new company that offers flat-fee brokerage services for buyers. Shop Top Mortgage Rates Personalized rates in minutes A quicker path to financial freedom Your Path to Homeownership While the cost savings was helpful, Ballesteros also felt he and Jen got the support they needed: suggested homes that matched their criteria, viewing appointments, and online chats about everything from scheduling to questions about process. "We truly needed that hand-holding because it was our first property,' Ballesteros told USA TODAY. In an age when Americans do everything from writing their wills to ordering their groceries online and without a middleman, the residential real estate industry remains stubbornly entrenched in tradition. But one year after a landmark lawsuit changed the way commissions are negotiated, some upstarts think the time is finally right. "The settlements haven't actually changed the transaction much yet," said Ben Bear, co-founder and CEO of TurboHome, the company that helped the Ballesteros. "But what it has done is educated buyers that hey, high commissions don't really make sense." At the same time, Bear said, new technology makes it possible for companies "to deliver a high level of service that does have a lot of personal touch, at a lower price point." TurboHome, which has been around since 2022, is currently only available in California and Texas. Other companies offering similar services for buyers include ShopProp and Arrivva. The longstanding approach to real estate transactions in America had a commission of roughly 5% to 6% paid by the seller and divided between the agents for the buyer and the seller – a hefty surcharge that some observers believe inflated home sale prices. For the home that Johnny and Jen bought, which cost $679,000, the buyer's agent's commission traditionally could have been $20,000 or more. TurboHome's fee was less than half that – $7,500. And the seller agreed to pay it, so the couple paid nothing and was able to apply the money to their loan. How the real estate commission lawsuits changed consumer attitudes A report released in June by the left-leaning think tank Consumer Policy Center explained how the commission lawsuits have helped erode traditional arrangements. 'By focusing public attention on 5-6 percent commissions through news coverage, the changes persuaded some consumers to question traditional real estate brokerage services,' wrote Stephen Brobeck and Wendy Gilch. More recently, they added, the industry jockeying between Zillow and other listings portals and brokerages has helped focus attention on how real estate information is displayed, which may persuade homeowners to sell their properties in non-traditional ways. Douglas Miller is a long-time attorney and real estate industry gadfly who instigated the first of the commission lawsuits filed starting in 2019 against big brokerages and the National Association of Realtors, one of the largest professional lobby groups in the country. A recent analysis shows that commissions paid to real estate agents have barely budged over the past few years. The new upstarts are not "discount brokers," he said. 'They are 'fair fee brokers,' I think is a better way to put it," Miller said in an interview. "The traditional agents want to label them as, 'You are using somebody who's charging less, you're going to get what you pay for.' I would say no, what you're going to get is an overpaid agent if you use a traditional agent.' One of Miller's biggest bugaboos is that the vast majority of real estate agents do almost no deals on a regular basis. According to a 2024 analysis from Brobeck, half of all agents reported no or only one sale the previous year, while 70% did five or fewer. 'In terms of personnel, the residential real estate industry is clearly a part-time industry,' the report concluded. As Miller sees it, the lower-cost companies that focus on transactions probably have more experience than many agents do. The National Association of Realtors did not respond to a USA TODAY request for comment. When does it make sense to work with a traditional real estate agent? Lisa Gill, an analyst with Consumer Reports, thinks that there are advantages to working with traditional agents. "Real estate is still very much a relationship business," she said. "Particularly in very competitive markets, it can benefit both buyers and sellers to have a representative who's tapped into a network of agents." TurboHome's Bear agrees. There are plenty of types of transactions where a buyer or seller may want the kind of high-touch experience Gill describes. But there are also other advantages to companies like TurboHome, which doesn't require that clients be exclusive to them. That means that if another real estate agent is able to find a property, there's no penalty for walking away and choosing to be represented by that agent. Gill also notes that experienced professionals can bring wisdom and context that go beyond the checklist of transactions involved in a sale. Working without a traditional agent might be akin to 'building a house without hiring a general contractor,' she said. It's likely that many sales can be done without that expertise, but on the rare occasion that things do go wrong it may wind up costing more in time and money to fix. Still, evidence is mounting that for many Americans, the 'bare-bones' approach works perfectly well. Miller, a practicing lawyer, is also a licensed Realtor who facilitates dozens of sales every year, making him one of the Realtor Association's top producers in Minnesota, he says. He charges half the amount a traditional agent would – 1.5% of the transaction or less – on the home's sale price or list price, whichever is cheaper, to avoid the perceived conflict of interest that comes from a sale price being bid up. The 2025 Consumer Policy Center report, meanwhile, focuses on the seller experience, evaluating companies Ideal Agent, Houwzer, Trelora, Simple Showing, and 1% Lists, with a special nod for one called Clever, which had more –and more-experienced – agents on its staff. While consumers using those companies need to do a little extra research, the report says, including being absolutely sure which specific services are offered and evaluating the individual agent that will be involved in the transaction, they conclude that 'low fee brokers do represent a viable alternative for home sellers.' Read next: Should you sell your own home? Why a FSBO may look more tempting This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Housing market is changing. Is a low-fee real estate agent the answer?
