Archive for the ‘Increasing Apartment Occupancy’ Category

More info on Hispanic Marketing Focus

Monday, August 24th, 2009

We’ve hit many times the fact that Hispanics are the fastest growing resident demographic.  However, did you know that Hispanic Internet usage is growing 50% faster than the general market?  Do you have a strategy for this market area?

If not, keep in mind that most Hispanic searches are in English.  The fact is Hispanic marketing in fact any demographic marketing focus is a cultural item.  For example are you aware that a Hispanic household is 3.5X more likely to respond to a direct mail item than a non-Hispanic Household. This is particularly important when you understand that they only receive 10% of the mail other households receive.

About 55% of Hispanics respond well to ads in Spanish.  Also, Radio and television is generally the best mode of advertising based on selling results.

When you considers Hispanics are $860 billion dollar market segment, ignoring this segment is at your own risk.    This will be an even greater fact as the segment is  expected to grow to over $1 trillion by early in the coming decade.

Good sources for this post were:

MK Blog

The Latino Journal

Online Hispanic Trends

Online Rental Application vs. PDF – Revisited

Friday, August 21st, 2009

Submitting a rental application is a HUGE step for both the potential renter and property manager alike. Once the potential residents have submitted a rental application, they have made a conscious buying decision. It is a fact -phone leads, email leads, and walk-ins are great, but completed rental applications are golden.  It’s a wonder then, why so many multi-family properties still use only paper and PDF applications when it comes to leasing their apartments! In the age of technology, it has been proven time and time again that electronic submissions are faster, easier, and more organized than a long paper trail.

I’m sure you’re thinking, “I have a PDF application that potential renters can print, fill out, and bring back or fax it to me; what’s the difference?”

The difference is huge!

First, ask yourself, “How many of your PDF rental applications have you received from your website and internet ads in the last 12 months? 1, 2, 5?”

PDF applications don’t work because they are essentially the same as a paper application that is picked up at the office. In fact, in most cases it is the exact same paper application, just uploaded to the Internet to be printed. Applicants still have to fill it out and bring it to you or fax it. We’ve learned that the less running around people have to do, and the more convenient their application process is, the more likely they will be to rent with your property. Convenience is key!

We personally own ten multi-unit apartment properties in the Southeast. Our properties, receive an average of 2-5 new rental applications a week from their websites and internet ads! One of our properties had 29 sight-unseen leases last year!

Online Rental Application

A Seismic Demographic Shift in Housing

Sunday, August 16th, 2009

A Demographic Housing Seismic Shift

At apartmentmarketingsolutions.com, we’ve identified some key areas where properties can differentiate themselves.  One of the least exploited is ethnic differentiation.  Over the next decade this is an even more significant fact as more than 72% of new households will be minority according to the 2009 Joint Housing Study.  This implies a seismic shift in the proportion rental homes for the nation.  For the first time since records have begun U.S. homeownership is on track to move below the historic average of 62% toward a low 50% range (and this does not consider impact of the housing crisis driven recession on homeowner trends).

Since minorities have lower incomes and in general rent at a greater rate than whites.  In fact, if we break this down further, U.S. census data shows that blacks rent at a greater than 50% rate compared to home ownership.  This jumps to more than 60% for the Hispanic Latino population.

Where does this lead?  It turns out that of new households, Hispanic Latinos are 36% (50% of the 72%) of the total.  If we extrapolate from this point we know that of total household figures:

If this trend holds, homeownership will fall below 50% over the next decade or two a fact no study has explicitly recognized.   Should this trend hold the course, besides indicating drastically reduced single family household growth there will be a equally large rise in multifamily housing requirements.  Further, management companies that do not address winning larger portions of this demographic will struggle to maintain occupancy. Apartmentmarketingsolutions.com sees Spanish leasing and marketing tools as a critical step to address this trend.  Further, apartmentmarketingsolutions.com believes that beyond the steps taken that research understanding these trends are key competitive differentiators.

The Name of the Game – Traffic and Closed Leases

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

More traffic… more qualified traffic… better closing techniques are the name of the game for owners and managers.

However, achieving this is a complex task.  A significant key  is recognizing that the American demographic is a changing thing.  Did you know that 72% of new tenants for the next 10 years are expected to be minorities and that half of these will be Hispanic/Latino?  Also, did you realize that this year American schools will graduate the largest class in history?  Or, what about the fact that seniors as a part of population will grow disportionately over the next 10 years.

What about economics?  How does the loss of wealth from the recession impact you?  Or, how will increased savings impact renting?

As owners and manager, studying our markets is critical.  This implies studying our local market and market trends.  This means understanding global trends.  Finally, this implies coming up with techniques to capitalize on these factors once understood and quantified.

Blake Ratcliff – CEO of Pallaton Properties

Online vs. Print Advertisements

Tuesday, July 21st, 2009

Advertising your multi-family property may seem like an arduous task considering the myriad of options (and expenses!) available these days. At Occupancy100, we’ve learned that online advertising is the most practical option when pitted against print advertising in terms of ROI and the infinite number of potential renters these types of advertisements are able to reach.

Print ads tend to be incredibly expensive and with a low return on investment. Brochures, pamphlets, newspaper/magazine ads, billboards, etc. require high monetary investments in order to fund design, printing, distribution, storage, and postage, and potential error modification. After such an outflow of money, the geographical restrictions for distribution are incredible—often these types of advertisements are seen mainly by the older generations who are less likely to use the Internet, and skip over those younger generations who rely mostly on the World Wide Web as their main source of information.

In comparison, online advertising costs are often limited to website hosting—which costs a minimal monthly fee—and the individual advertisements can be seen by any person with a computer, whereas print ads are generally limited to their specific geographical locations. Online ads are capable of reaching an infinite number of potential tenants with a larger overall profit margin per consumer in contrast to print ads. Additionally, errors can be easily corrected with online advertising whereas correcting any printed mistake requires an entirely new printed product—re-establishing the original costs.

After trying print advertisements for ourselves with minimal results, we tried our hand at advertising on the web, and what a difference it made for us and our company! We want to help you utilize these tried and true techniques for your own business! With our Successful Website, Search Engine Marketing, and Search Engine Optimization services, we help your business gain the top spots in organic and paid search results and we help you to expand your properties’ marketing opportunities as a whole.  We even gather monthly reports so you can track the progress and traffic of your advertisements in conjunction with tenant acquisition at your properties. The best part? You only pay for results! Check us out today!

Introducing, Apartment Marketing Solutions!

Monday, July 13th, 2009

Hey everyone,

We at Occupancy100 are pleased and proud to announce that our new website, Apartment Marketing Solutions, has been completed and is ready to serve all of your marketing needs!

In these hard economic times, we know how difficult it is to generate potential renter traffic, let alone sign leases.  Having previously struggled with lagging occupancy in our local renter market due to the military “surge” overseas, our staff had to create new and innovative ways to generate traffic through our apartment complexes. Having already experienced our services’ success for ourselves, we’re now here to help you! Check out all of our services, proven to generate leads and sign those ever-elusive lease agreements, and you only pay if it works!

Our Tenant Lead Generation solution generates 2-3 new calls per day by weekly updating your apartment ads on various websites such as Craigslist and Whitepages, and other forms of targeted marketing. If you sign up now, you get 10 leads for free — a great way to test our expertise for yourself!

We also offer an Online Rental Application–a secure, rental application that potential occupants can fill out online without using a pen, printer or fax–and you receive it immediately. This service option has proven itself time and time again, offering 3-5 new applications per week to our customers! Try it now and receive your first 4 applications for free! Additionally, our Online Rental Application is accompanied with our “Know Your ROI” feature that allows you to gauge which advertisements are creating the most traffic through custom pie chart displays.

Through our experience, we have learned that rental applications that are responded to immediately produce a signed lease at least 50% of the time. Since potential tenants often fill out rental applications upon returning home from work, we offer After Hours Leasing Support from 6pm-2am to field any incoming applications during this time! Potential renters are happier (and more likely to sign leases) knowing that they are responded to in a timely manner! Get your first 2 responses free if you sign up now!

Accompanying these amazing services are our auxiliary services, including search engine optimization, monthly reports, and more! To view everything for yourself and/or to contact an Occupancy100 representative for further detials, visit www.apartment-marketing-solutions.com.

We look forward to serving you and your apartment rental business!