Archive for the ‘Apartment Marketing Ideas’ Category
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
Hey everyone,
We have found a post by Chris Thorman on his Software Advice website about Property Management Software. This article briefly explains the many problems property managers face such as keeping track of resident leads, managing marketing your apartment, building an apartment marketing website, and much much more. Also he brings up a great point on how a recent report by Apartment Internet Marketing shows that 46% of prospective resident leads come in past the normal 9am-5pm operating hours. The article touches on the importance of an online rental application and how collection information from your website can help you know more about your prospective residents such as where they found out about your apartment community… click Property Management Software for more on this post.
Tags: Property Management Software, Software Advice
Posted in Apartment Marketing, Apartment Marketing Ideas, Apartment Marketing Support, Apartment Marketing Website, Marketing Apartment, Marketing Apartments, Marketing Green Apartments, Online Property Management, Online Rental Application, Property Management, Property Management Service, Property Management Services, Property Management Software, Property Management Solution, Rental Application | 229 Comments »
Monday, October 12th, 2009
The largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. have seen high density renting for sometime. Many communities have taken steps to attempt to manage the issue. However, in the final analysis if cost of living demands it then this will be a reality.
As apartment operators, why should we embrace this trend?
In the industry, we tend consider density related to tenant behavior issues. This association is based on experience and should not be ignored. How do we counter this? Some ideas that stand out include:
- Increased deposits based on density.
- Processes to identify density violations and processes to bring the violating tenants into compliance.
- Processes to better tenant and manage tenants for screening. Perhaps additional charges for added parking needs are a good response. Or, co-signature requirements on leases.
Ignoring the issues is not reasonable, but the economy may have created a new reality that we can’t realistically ignore.
Posted in Apartment Evaluation, Apartment Investing, Apartment Management, Apartment Management Service, Apartment Management Services, Apartment Marketing, Apartment Marketing Ideas, Find Good Tenants, Find Latino Residents, Find Renter, Find Renters, Find a Tenant | 118 Comments »
Sunday, October 11th, 2009
Signage is still one of the most powerful marketing tools available to business and that includes multifamily. In the coming 12 months, we are focusing on signage in a much more significant way. The questions we are asking are:
- Where can we get more,
- How can we gain more attention,
- How can we improve consumer response.
- What is the right information on our sign.
As always marketing to a potential resident is much different than selling a night at the local hotel, products at the local clothing store, etc. Our customers are making a lifestyle choice that they will have to live with for the next 12 months or more. If we can facilitate this in the right way, the consumer is more likely to rent and once having rented more likely to stay for the long term.
Posted in Apartment Marketing, Apartment Marketing Ideas, Apartment Marketing Website, Find Good Tenants, Find Renter, Find Renters, Find Tenant | 76 Comments »
Friday, October 9th, 2009
Today, Urbane Lab posted an insightful blog about Craigslist posting. Actually, the ideas can apply to much of our marketing effort in the apartment industry. Using the same Craigslist ad format is likely to become stale and ineffective. As apartment marketers we should have a stable of ads. Perhaps our goals should not be to earn the lease on every ad. Also, shouldn’t a sub goal be to capture contact information from every viewing prospect.
I recommend viewing Urbane’s post at Multifamily Insiders. You will find some real gems you can put to use at your property.
Posted in Apartment Marketing, Apartment Marketing Ideas, Apartment Marketing Website, Find Good Tenants, Find Renters, Find Tenant, Find a Tenant, Finding Good Tenants, Finding Renters, Finding Tenants, Get Good Tenants, Get More Renter Traffic, Get More Renters, Get More Tenants, Get a Tenant, Getting Good Tenants, Getting Tenants, Help Rent Apartments | 22 Comments »
Thursday, October 8th, 2009
Apartment communities can capitalize on the current economy. In the past, consumers who wanted any particular item could rely on readily available credit to simply purchase the item. This is no longer true.
Consumer credit has fallen 7 straight months. In July, credit fell $21 billion. In August, credit fell $10 billion. In September, credit fell $12 billion. News reports this week describe consumer spending as weak and focused on necessities.
A multifamily operator with imagination is uniquely positioned to be the value provider to residents. For one price and some imagination, a community can:
- Reduce the cost of living,
- Reduce outlays for necessities, and
- Provide luxuries that are otherwise unavailable.
Communities can provide services for good profits yet at a discount to alternative sources because your community is captive, your collections process is in place, and your staff is already positioned to provide much of what is needed.
Secondarily, the environment may be right to significantly increase retention. And, increasing retention reduces cost.
Blake
Posted in Apartment Management, Apartment Management Service, Apartment Marketing, Apartment Marketing Ideas | 18 Comments »
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
U.S. consumer debt fell another $10 billion last month. Current predictions are the average savings rate for the coming decade will exceed 9%. Retailers believe spending has shifted long term to necessities and away from luxuries.
So, the question becomes how can we as owners squeeze more into less. I see a few areas we intend to act upon including:
- Bunking options with safes for valuables in properties with space for more tenants,
- Storage options for folks downsizing from homes,
- Fixed income rent plans with utilities built in (reimbursed by the tenant is our plan), and
- By the bedroom leases and roommate management.
Managing in this environment is challenging, but with some imagination, these type changes may offer higher occupancy and higher margins even as pressure on price is increasing.
For folks looking at new units, I believe smaller floor plans are likely to regain a great deal of luster as total cost of living including rent and utilities become more important.
Posted in Apartment Management, Apartment Marketing, Apartment Marketing Ideas, Apartment Marketing Website, How to Find Renters, Increase Apartment Occupancy, Increasing Apartment Occupancy, Marketing Apartment, Marketing Apartments, Obtain More Leases, Obtain More Renters, Obtain More Tenants, Receive More Renter Traffic, Receive More Renters, Receive More Tenants, Tenant Acquisition, Tenant Finding | 24 Comments »
Sunday, October 4th, 2009
Urbane Apartments offered a great tip for operators. Instead of asking where resident prospects found out about your community, ask what search terms they used as well. In this way, you can improve your competitive position on the web.
Posted in Apartment Management, Apartment Marketing, Apartment Marketing Ideas, Apartment Marketing Support, Apartment Marketing Website, Apartment Rental Application, Find Renter, Find Renters, Find Tenant, Finding Good Tenants, Finding Renters | 40 Comments »
Saturday, October 3rd, 2009
Today, Bloomberg ran an article that states an expectation of deflationary pressure throughout 2010. The principal driver behind this conclusion is the weakened employment environment throughout the United States. As a results as owners and managers we have to consider how this effects are operations and asset choices.
From a leasing perspective, this is extends the pressure households are under to accept living situations that were not acceptable in the past. Rebuilding America’s wealth means lower fixed cost choices for a large percentage of us. Owners should be considering rental options that will reduce tenants total cost of living decisions. Our affiliated properties have been developing fixed income solutions and solutions to increase the tenant density in our units taking advantage of our generally abundant parking, often good access to public transportation, and other factors supporting this.
From an operations perspective, we must be reviewing our labor costs and assure that we remain competitive. Additionally, as a sector that is likely to recover more quickly in this economy, we may have talent opportunities that don’t often exist. Also, expect and pursue significant reductions in costs for supplies and contract services.
As potential property investors, good deals today must offer extremely strong fundamentals as market conditions may continue to erode property values over the next 24 months. And, for properties already owned, lower leverage is the choice path.
Posted in Apartment Acquisitions, Apartment Evaluation, Apartment Investing, Apartment Management, Apartment Marketing, Apartment Marketing Ideas, Apartment Purchases, Apartment Tenant Qualification, Apartment Website, Finding Good Tenants, Finding Renters, Finding Tenants, Get Good Tenants, Get More Renter Traffic, Get Tenant, Get a Tenant, Getting Good Tenants, Getting Tenants, Help Rent Apartments, Help Renting Apartments, Leasing Management | 206 Comments »
Monday, September 28th, 2009
The Apartment Marketing Blog has a very interesting and actionable post on salesmanship ideas that can improve close rates. We all benefit from attending to ideas like these and others such as:
- Dress codes,
- Name tags,
- Fresh cookies in the office and
- Many others
Good luck and good leasing.
Posted in Apartment Management, Apartment Marketing, Apartment Marketing Ideas, Apartment Marketing Support, Apartment Marketing Website, Find Good Tenants, Find Latino Residents, Find Renter, Find Renters, Find Tenant, Find a Tenant, Finding Good Tenants, Finding Renters, Tenant Acquisition, Tenant Finding, Tenant Getting | 401 Comments »
Sunday, September 27th, 2009
I recently wrote an article highlighting some key points for lead generation online on ezines. The address is:
http://ezinearticles.com/?Online-Apartment-Leasing-Leads—How-to-Find-Them-and-How-to-Win-Them&id=2884453
You will find this article different because of the focus on what the process is in the prospect’s head while working with the Internet during the apartment search. I’d recommend checking out the UrbaneLab for some good ideas regarding how to further decipher this process. Their address is:
http://www.apartmentveteran.com/
Posted in Apartment Management, Apartment Marketing, Apartment Marketing Ideas, Apartment Marketing Support, Apartment Marketing Website, Apartment Rental Application, Find Good Tenants, Find Latino Residents, Find Renter, Find Renters, Find Tenant, Find a Tenant, Finding Good Tenants, Finding Renters, Finding Tenants, Get Good Tenants, Get More Renter Traffic, Get More Renters, Get More Tenants, Get Tenant, Get a Tenant, Getting Good Tenants, Getting Tenants, Hispanic Market, Hispanic Tenant Finding, Housing Demographics, Housing Market Facts, How to Find Renters, Increase Apartment Occupancy, Increasing Apartment Occupancy, Latino Prospects, Leasing Management, Leasing Support, Marketing Apartment, Marketing Apartments, Multi-family Renting, Obtain More Leases, Obtain More Renters, Obtain More Tenants, Online Property Management | 23 Comments »
