Paula Zagaris, president of Liberty Property Management and chief financial officer of PMZ Real Estate, was named Outstanding Business Leader for 2008 by the College of Business Administration at California State University, Stanislaus at their Eighth Annual Recognition and Awards Banquet this Thursday.

Congratulations Paula!

When someone does a search for Property Management, or Restaurant or Real Estate Agent for your local city on Google, a list of “Local Business Results” pops up at the beginning of the search results with a map.

Our property management division, Liberty Property Management, is high on the list for the Modesto area, and I wanted to find out how to get it high on the list for some of the other areas we do business in.

I did a search to get some tips and stumbled accross the article, How to Rank Higher in Google Local, on WebProNews.com

Here are some tips I think will be helpful for you:

• Get links from as many websites as you can.  Google Local results seem to rank results the same way Google Search results do.  The more links you have to your site, the more credible and the higher rank you will have.
• If you don’t have a website for your business, get one!  If you still refuse, you will be missing out on a lot of potential business. If you are stubborn, or just don’t have the resources, submit your business to different online yellow pages like Super Pages and Insider Pages.

These should get you started.

Liberty Property Management is pleased to announce the appointment of Jason Alves as Property Manager in the executive office of President Paula Zagaris. Alves joins the company after recently graduating from California State University, Chico with degrees in Business Administration – Finance and International Economics. He spent the past year gaining experience at UBS Financial Services and Atlantic Mortgage before joining the Liberty team.

“We have a unique opportunity to expand upon our business’s success with Jason joining our team,” said Zagaris. “Our clients are better served every time we add someone with new energy and talent, and they will find Jason to be exceptional to work with,” she said.

Alves will be working directly with Zagaris focusing on business development, market analysis, and outreach to the growing list of clients at Liberty Property Management. Despite the challenging real estate market, Liberty has experienced unprecedented gains in their portfolio of rental clients and homeowners association management contracts.

Originally from Hilmar, Alves has two brothers and two sisters – all of whom live in the Central Valley. He can be reached at (209) 548-4562 or jasonalves@pmz.com.

If you’re wondering who the new face is in our property management division, it’s Dan Centeno. Liberty Property Management is pleased to welcome Dan as our new Home Owners Association Manager. “We’re excited to have Dan as a member of our team. He has such a wide range of experience and a wonderful personality,” said Paula Leffler, President of Liberty Property Management.

Previously Dan worked for Fairfield Properties, developer of luxury apartment homes throughout the nation. He also has extensive experience as a financial analyst with Turner Properties in New York. He played a role in the development and construction of the Time Warner Building in New York City. The 750 feet, twin-towered multi-use complex, named Columbus Centre is the home of AOL Time Warner World Headquarters, a 250-room/suite luxury hotel (the Mandarin Oriental, New York) spaces for retail, entertainment, restaurants and offices, 225 luxury apartments, as well as CNN live broadcast production studios and a concert hall for the use of Jazz at Lincoln Center.

As Liberty continues to expand its professional services offerings, Dan will now join the HOA team and take the lead in managing dozens of associations throughout the Central Valley. Dan has lived in Modesto’s college area for the past year and enjoys weekend vacation excursions to the bay area and other notable locations throughout northern California.

Congratulations to our very own Christine David in Liberty Property Management for her recent academic achievement!  On March 13th, Christine received official designation as a Certified Community Association Manager through the California Association of Community Managers.  This isn’t something we take lightly.  The coursework and commitment required to achieve this goal is complex.

In the growing and competitive field of community management, today’s clients demand skilled managers who will deliver superior service. Community leaders are looking to hire companies that employ qualified professionals that will oversee the proper, and legal, management of their assets.  Liberty Property Management takes the responsibility of managing properties seriously, and Christine is an example of the professional level Liberty’s clients have come to expect.

The CCAM® (Certified Community Association Manager) program was developed to establish and ensure standards of practice and professionalism in managing California community associations. The process entails meeting specific requirements and qualifications, including successful completion of the CACMSM Core Law and Ethics Courses, as well as a six month minimum experience requirement.  For more information about CCAM certification, click here.

Christine can be reached at ext. 2285 or cdavid@pmz.com