Sarah Katz is the Content & Community Manager at Apartments.com, and oversees all social media and blogging efforts for both trade and consumer audiences. She also supports the marketing team with internal communications, email marketing, webinars, white papers and much more. Sarah is passionate about social media and enjoys learning about new trends and getting others excited about new social tools and ways to connect with an audience.
Prior to working for Apartments.com, Sarah spent her time in social media and marketing roles in a diverse variety of industries. In her free time, Sarah enjoys photography, baking the perfect chocolate chip cookies, and keeping up on her favorite TV shows.
Each week, the Apartments.com Photography Team selects a photo taken by one of our Digital Photographers that truly represents the type of photographs that Apartments.com uses to showcase a property. These images are not only really successful at capturing the space and architecture of a property, but they are all-around great photos!
The photo of the week this week was shot by Team Lead Dan Kohler in Smyrna, GA. Read More
In today’s web-based world, it is essential that communities establish an online presence and manage their reputation online. Though it is difficult to completely control what can be said about your property online, it is important that you are active in the online space. If a community fails to protect or establish an online reputation, they could be at much more of a competitive disadvantage than a neighboring property. It is important for a property to stay updated with community-related chatter on major social media sites.
These days it appears everyone is on the go. People are trying to save as much time as possible while running around doing everyday tasks. Now that smartphones allow consumers to access the Internet at anytime, from anywhere, people can essentially shop and search for whatever they’d like at any time of the day. In 2012, comScore estimated that four out of five smartphone users use the device to shop. In addition, Cisco stated that in 2013 the number of mobile devices on Earth would surpass the world’s population. It is extremely important in today’s technology driven world that a company operates a well-developed mobile optimized site.
Do you use Pinterest at your property? If you’re like many others, you’ve probably heard about Pinterest and know that it has become one of the most popular social media tools. You may have even created an account and started pinning pictures of your property or other fun Pins that your residents may be interested in.
Prestige Marketing, Inc. put together a helpful how-to guide on how to use Pinterest for advertising. While not specific to the multifamily industry, this infographic has a lot of great information that can be used to market your property on Pinterest. Let us know how you are using Pinterest at your property in the comments below!
The Benefits of Affiliate Marketing [Infographic]
Keeping your employees motivated is a challenge for just about any business, but is especially important in a leasing office for an apartment complex or large number rental properties. The less inclined and excited your employees are to sell and move in new renters, the more the overall profits will suffer. Not only will the sales pitches be weak on each property they show, but the lack of enthusiasm can be felt by prospective renters through the leasing agent, which will also detract from leases. Below are some tips to motivate your leasing agents to stay excited and motivated to lease as many available properties as possible.
After a rough few years in the housing and rental market due to the down economy and recent recession, it appears as if everything is beginning to turn around in 2013. While it’s too early to invest everything in the rental and housing market at this moment, there are some emerging trends that are clearly evident so far in 2013 that are important to know if you work in the real estate and property management business. A number of these emerging trends are listed below.
The more communication property managers and their residents have, the better, as it usually leads to better, stronger business and personal relationships between both parties. This will make everyone’s living and working experience better and make renters stay for extended periods of time and property managers attentive to their residents’ needs. As communication has gotten so much easier in recent years, using social media to connect the two parties is a logical idea. Below are some ways engaging with renters on social media can be used to create an open line of communication between property managers and their renters on a regular but casual basis.
As operational costs, property taxes and inflation go up, raising rent is inevitable. Failure to match the going rental rates of your surrounding area, and to adequately cover all expenses, will only serve to hurt your bottom line And if you delay on this change, you’ll be facing an even larger rental gap to cover in the future, which will endanger your ability to retain renters through the transition.
The market for renters is competitive. Regardless of your rental property’s size, any unit vacancy is revenue going down the drain. High renter retention rates can minimize these gaps, but even the best properties will need a strong approach to recruiting new renters as openings occur. Depending on the demand for your property, there are a number of marketing strategies you can employ to fill vacancies and stir up interest in your rental units.
In the business world today, almost all attention is focused on keeping the customer happy. So it is safe to say that the same rule applies for landlords to make their renters happy. Resident satisfaction is very important because it is a way to ensure a sustained retention rate.
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