Finding better qualified residents is essential to the success of your multi-unit property. Increasing apartment occupancy can be done through two main methods: The first method for finding good, qualified residents is to heavily advertise your apartment so that you capture as many potential residents as possible, and then weed out the many unqualified rental applicants. This method of resident acquisition brings you a plethora of potential residents but heavy advertising is expensive. The second method for finding great qualified renters is to only advertise to renter prospects who are more likely to qualify. Acquiring renter traffic though this method of resident ...
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This is a PAY per RESULT apartment marketing solution. Our Resident Lead Generation solution generates 2-3 daily new calls. How do we do this? We have identified some of the Internets leading web presence companies. We place weekly updated ads of every floor plan on each of these companies' websites. Craigslist, Whitepages, Google Maps, Yahoo Local, etc... Customer Feedback - Beckie Foust "Occupancy100 generates 1-2 qualified leads per day" "Currently Occupancy100 generates 1-2 qualified leads per day, and 3-4 new applications a week. We love it. Most of our new tenants have come from occupancy100s services." Beckie Foust Property Manager - ...
Difficult Economic Times Have Affected the Apartment Industry With difficult economic times... Unemployment is rising... Delinquencies dog revenue... more and more potential renters are doubling up... Traffic is slow... Occupancy is edging downward... Apartment Communities need more resident prospects: Calls - with so many renters doubling up we can't afford not to generate as many as possible, Visits - statistics show that results are much stronger from online contacts if responded to within the first hour, Emails - increasingly resident leads do not want to talk on the phone or otherwise interact. Some properties we serve have closed over 10% of their leases without a ...
This is a PAY per RESULT Apartment Marketing Solution. We have found that potential residents fill out applications after work once they have gotten home. This means that rental applications are submitted after your leasing office has probably closed. Our research suggests that applications that are responded to within the hour lease more than 50% of the time. Because of this we have professional leasing agents at our central office between the hours of 8am to 2am which ensures that more than 90% of all applications are responded to within an hour. Even if your leasing office is not open, you ...
From a comment on the earlier post I highlighted:
-Put the phone number in multiple places so it is always visible (even when scrolling)
-Show pictures of the interior of your unit
-Make contacting the property as easy as possible with links and email addresses
-Remember, post links that go to the property, not the ‘main’ website (many people do not want to perform another search after searching craigslist)
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:
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.
As the economic downturn has continued to worsen, I’ve watched deliquencies grow worse at several properties, I believe we are seeing more crime on our properties, and I am sure I could find other effects if I looked closer. All of this has caused me to consider our tenant screening process. The fact is a background check and credit check provide little information.
In the future, our company will be looking for subtle ways to strengthen and broaden our tenant screening process. The results of that effort will focus not only on tenant selection, but also on tenant retention. Consider that if using this information you can change your base as little as 5% per year that the results will become compellingly positive over a few years time.
Our focus is going to be on learning more about lifestyles, education, interests, and social choices. From these, we will focus on tenant retention and tenant incentives. We believe these are excellent way to develop tighter communities where the incentive to rent will overcome the desire to own as residents become more focused on cash producing asset acquisition than homeownership.
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:
Good luck and good leasing.
Hey everyone,
We have been working hard to create as many helpful videos for you to enjoy as possible. Here is a video that explains our apartment marketing solutions, and offers a great overview on Tenant Lead Generation, and the Online Rental Application.
Enjoy!
I’ve written about this before, but feel this is a drum that can’t be beaten to often. As apartment operators providing a full set of information to resident prospects is a leasing prerequisite. The main bullets on the subject are:
Detailed community information such including directions to your property, local shopping, services, entertainment, government facilities, schools, utilities, cable television, major employers, and points of interest. The more the prospect can be positioned to decide this is the home for them the better.
Detailed apartment community information including amenities in the unit, pools, laundry, fitness facilities, playgrounds, picnic areas, walking trails, tennis courts, etc.
Information about the staff and attitude toward residents. The extent they can begin to develop a sense of relationship can make a major difference in their decision to make your apartment homes their home.
Information about pricing, operating hours, and to cost benefits your apartment community may have over competitors can provide the competitive edge your need to lease an apartment unit.
Finally, make it convenient and nonthreatening to make a buy decision. Provide alternatives for connection. The contact should allow the prospect to contact the community or if they are inclined, allow them to complete a full billable application. Completed correctly, we’ve seen communities close 10% or more of their leases based on this approach.
So you have an apartment to lease. Either a weekly lease, monthly or yearly. And you’ve done all the things, including newspaper, CraigsList, local apartment guide, even a few fliers to neighbors. And you still have some un-rented inventory.
What’s next?
Make sure your web site and total online presence is where it needs to be, from email to website to Google Adwords to Search Engine Optimization for Google, Bing and Yahoo. A few ideas:
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:
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
The Hispanic community in the United States has an incredible $800 billion worth of buying power, even in today’s economy, proving to be an incredibly lucrative investment for the multi-family units willing to tailor their marketing approach in order to meet the needs of the Hispanic renter community. Home ownership proves to be incredibly challenging among the Hispanic community, with lower average education levels, large family units, the general lack of Social Security Numbers for applications and background/credit checks, and a relatively lower average age of individual households deterring most from being able to possess their own homes.
The majority of the Hispanic community is of foreign birth, opting to make their way to the United States by way of major cities such as New York, Miami, and San Francisco. These densely concentrated metropolitan areas are generally home to few owners, and more renters, thus making home rental among the Hispanic population a popular option. The road to home ownership is often lengthy and bureaucratic—60% of United States Hispanic residents opt to rent their homes, and take pride in doing so. Studies show that Hispanics take pride in paying their rent on time and are often more eager to keep a clean living space and uphold tenant/landlord requirements within their homes. Because of this, many multi-family complexes are reaching out to the Hispanic community and adapting the general structure of their renting process and marketing approach to accommodate these eager renters’ needs. In a world where identity theft is happening all around us, a vast number of apartment applications no longer require Social Security Numbers, and many complexes are making concessions for large families. Apartment marketing efforts targeting the Hispanic market can bring you many qualified and eager renters.
At Occupancy100, we employ Spanish-speaking staff, ready and able to help you market your apartment to these thriving populations by translating and tailoring advertisements to reach your Hispanic target market. By talking to one of our staff members we can help you to customize your approach in order to gain this lucrative and profitable tenant population.
We have even created a Spanish/English Online Rental Application!
