Qualify Prospective Renters

Have you ever heard the expression; “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”? Well, that maxim certainly holds true in the property rental business. The easiest, most cost effective way to deal with problem renters is to avoid renting to them in the first place. Carefully qualifying prospective renters is the best way to do that.

One tool you can use, in addition to the traditional photo I.D., credit check, and checking references, is to search for your renter on social media. You can get a very accurate picture of what kind of person a prospective resident is by checking what they post on social media, like Facebook for example.

Issue a Pre-occupency Condition Report

Once your new resident is set to move in, you should do a walk-through of the unit and create a pre-occupancy condition report. This report should include plenty of photos, which is very easy and inexpensive to do in the digital age. As you walk through the unit, take pictures of any damage you see as a record of items that need to be fixed. You should also take pictures of damage that doesn’t necessarily require repair, like dented siding or other cosmetic issues. This serves to protect the resident from future liability for the pre-existing issue, and to remind you of things you may want to repair down the road.

Once this pre-occupancy report is completed, you should give a copy to the resident and have them sign a receipt for it.

Maintain Your Property

Any rental property you own is a valuable asset, not only in terms of what you paid for it, but also in terms of what it pays you over time. You’d be surprised how many landlords lose sight of these facts and unconsciously view their property as a cash cow that will always be there to provide monthly cash flow. This can be a costly mistake.

But by properly maintaining the property, and taking care of necessary repairs brought to your attention by your residents, your property will last longer, and you’ll be able to hang on to those great residents you’ve rented to for years to come.

• Attend industry events: Attending industry events, such as apartment association meetings in your area, creates opportunities for you to network with people in your industry and learn from your peers.
• Stay connected: Schedule a lunch or coffee date once a month with someone in the industry. This can be a friend with a similar job, someone you met through a networking event, an old client or potential new client. Sitting down to talk gives you the opportunity to touch base and learn about their current goals and challenges and how it relates to you and your work.
• Connect on LinkedIn: If you meet someone new within the industry, reach out to them on LinkedIn. You can also join a wide variety of groups, from industry related to alumni associations and more.
• Join industry organizations and clubs: Industry organizations are a great way to meet people and stay on top of the industry buzz. Many organizations and clubs typically host quarterly seminars and networking events related to industry hot topics. They are a great way to meet peers, learn and build out your network!

There are many benefits of networking, including expanding your knowledge of the multi-family industry, meeting new people in your area and increasing exposure for your company. Share your best networking tips in the comments below!

Clutter Be Gone

It is a well-known fact that a room with too many items in it will appear smaller than it is. People looking to rent are searching for a sense of openness and space that give the impression of a large property worth the rental price. Landlords must take steps to remove as much clutter from the apartment as possible to create an illusion of a spacious floorplan, despite the square footage of the layout. Too much furniture is a common mistake for sellers when staging for a viewing. Removing bulky items such as unnecessary end tables and other pieces will not only make a space more open but help a potential buyer envision where his or her furniture may fit in the floorplan.

Lighten Up

Another important aspect of staging an apartment before a showing is to ensure optimal amounts of natural light shine into each room to make a closed space seem larger. Removing heavy drapery can enhance windows, and property managers can also consider upgrading blinds to create a modern display for potential renters.

Motorized blinds can not only help improve day-to-day energy efficiency and light management for residents, but they also make a property more appealing to prospective tenants. When a leasing agent or landlord is showing a property to a potential renter and demonstrates how blinds in a room quickly transform the layout and atmosphere, it will be hard for viewers not to be impressed. The ergonomic design of motorized blinds and shades not only give apartments a modern feel, but also allow for easy adjustments to lighting and décor without manual effort. This is particularly helpful for landlords looking to highlight larger window frames or glass walls that can be difficult to cover with standard drapery.

Do you have any tricks for staging your apartments? Leave them in the comments below!

If you’re thinking about starting a resident recycling program at your apartment community, here are some helpful tips to get you on the right track:

• Research recycling programs. Check out the recycling programs in your city. Most cities offer resources that can help you start up the program at your property.
• Pick a point person. Select an employee to be responsible for the recycling program. That employee will be in charge of designing the program, arranging for the pick-up of materials and answering questions from residents.
• Decide what to recycle.Sometimes deciding what should actually be recycled is a challenge. There are helpful resources online you can reference to remind you what can be recycled. Some of the materials you should consider including in your recycling program are:
  • Aluminum
  • Plastics
  • Glass
  • Corrugated cardboard
  • Old newspaper
• Select a supplier. Evaluate options and select a supplier that will collect the recyclables from your property. Your city’s recycling resources will often have information on recycling pick-up, or you can look into major suppliers like Waste Management who have programs specifically designed for businesses.
• Facilitate outreach. Education is the best way to encourage your residents to recycle. Include signage and/or literature in the leasing office with information on the recycling program or goals that you are trying to reach to generate more participation. Make sure you are setting a good example by recycling in the leasing office as well. Use signage and displays around the property to inform residents:
  • Why they should recycle
  • What they should recycle
  • Where they can recycle
  • How they can recycle
• Create space for your recycling bins. Find a convenient place for recycling bins that are easily accessible for residents. Ideally, having the bins located next to trash bins or dumpsters will help encourage participation by making it easy for residents to take care of both in one trip.

Do you have a recycling program in your community? Leave your tips and advice in the comments below!

In honor of Apartments.com Appreciation Week, we wanted to thank all of you who have partnered with us and those of you who are considering us as an advertising solution in the future.  As a token of our gratitude, we are giving you a chance to win a brand new Amazon Kindle Fire!*

To win, all you have to do is to be the first to name the tagline of our new advertising campaign in the comments section below.

Thank you and good luck!

Edited: We have a winner! Congratulations, Annalisa! We will be reaching out to the winner via email.

*No purchase necessary. To be eligible to win, you must be over 18 years of age and a US citizen. One (1) Amazon Kindle (ARV $199) will be awarded on Apartments.com Blog to the first person who responds correctly to the Apartments.com Appreciation Week: Comment to Win opportunity post. Amazon is not associated with this promotion. Employees of Sponsor, their parent companies, subsidiaries, affiliates, and those associated with the development, distribution or implementation of this Contest are not eligible.

While the new ads are fun and engaging, our goal is to increase exposure for you!  This summer and fall, the airwaves will be abuzz with Apartments.com.  In addition to print, millions of renters will hear and see our name across a variety of popular media channels, including:
-    Pandora Radio
-    XBOX Live
-    HollywoodLife.com
-    View our three television commercials on networks such as MTV, TBS, Comedy Central, E! and more!

Watch this video capturing the essence of our newly minted integrated advertising campaign.

We hear it all the time – I just don’t have the time or energy to stay current with Google or I don’t know the first thing about Facebook marketing, or worst yet, I have a website, that’s all I need to do.

While my post will touch on the latter two points, I am not here to endorse Facebook or scold you for abandoning your website like a bad habit. My goal is to provide you with easy-to-implement pointers on how to build a solid yet simple website that is both search-engine and user friendly without making your web developer burn the midnight oil. Let’s dive right in.

Small business website design, what is it?
It’s very common for business owners who are not tech savvy to feel overwhelmed by the thought of putting together a website. The truth of the matter is the size of the website or the budget behind it is not as important to search engines as the user experience and the ability to discover the online content to index for future use. Search engines want to provide the very best answer to user’s inquiry, independent of the size of the website, fancy images and expensive ads. With a solid action plan—or any action plan—you will be able to set the proper foundation on which to build your digital empire. What I want to cover here are the simple basics needed to get your website in the best possible condition, meaning creating easy access for search engines to find and index your online content. I will also share some website pitfalls to avoid.

1. Select Your Domain: Choose whether or not you want your website to display the www. at the beginning of your domain. While often overlooked, this is one of the most important decisions to make when creating a website. Many people do not realize this decision is made by the website owner, because the place where you purchased the domain sets it automatically. Another fun fact is each domain registrar treats this differently, so please decide upfront and make changes as needed. Final note, eliminate duplicate pages on the web by adding a 301 redirect to the website you didn’t choose. This can usually be done by the domain provider.

2. Set Up Free Analytics: Once the website is live, set up whatever form of analytics you have available to you. Google and Bing provide free tools that require you to add a small file or line of code to the homepage that activates their systems ability to push information regarding your website to a dashboard for you to review. There are many companies who do amazing things with analytics to help produce insightful reports and let you focus on your business, but those usually come with a price tag. The benefit of using the paid option is variety—you are not tethered to your chair-crunching numbers.

3. Search for Keywords: Perform some searches for keywords that relate to your domain and business. Ideally, this would have been done prior to purchasing the domain, but this is the time when you dig a little deeper and investigate the competition as well as any history surrounding the particular domain name you chose. This part can snowball pretty fast as you start seeing so many results and possibly different companies showing on page 1 for the given queries. I always suggest having a list of 10 – 20 keywords and sticking to just those. Then, make a spreadsheet listing the keyword and under that keyword copy/paste the top 5 ranking websites. The last step to this process is to search for the company domain on Google. If the domain is www.example.com, click into the Google search bar and type the following: site:www.example.com – and click ‘Enter’. Please note that there is no space between the word site: and the domain. Also, depending on the decision made during step 1, make sure to include or remove the www. portion. The results you see (or don’t see) are filtered just to the domain, in this case, www.example.com.

4. Create a Sound Strategy: Have a very basic strategy in mind for what you want the website to accomplish. Ranking #1 in Google is not the right mindset and is not sound strategy. What you want to focus on is the audience who will ultimately use your website. Is it going to be geared toward renters, landlords, property managers, etc.? Focusing on this sooner than later in the development stage will simplify your brand messaging and help drive conversations on social media.

5. Build Out Your Site Architecture: Website architecture is important, especially for smaller websites, because it provides the fundamental navigation. Where do you want to drive the user? While architecture may sound scary to some, it’s not. It’s simply the layout of the website (e.g. a navigation bar). The most important aspect to keep in mind when thinking about your website layout is simplicity. Are you providing exactly what the user needs or is looking for? Does each page target very focus points? Do the pages flow in a logical manner? Are there ways to streamline the navigation even more? Is the call to action on each page clear? Does the user know what to do?

6. Define Conversion Goals: Conversion is a deceptively challenging metric to define—even in small businesses—as different teams and departments have different micro-goals to meet. The key is to define conversion for the pages and measure their success over time. Without going too far down this path, pages should be designed to make conversion easy and provide an obvious call to action. Do not make the user take multiple or unnecessary steps to send a lead or subscribe to a newsletter.

7. Produce Unique Content: Lastly, ensure each page is unique and does not repeat the same copy elements from other pages. For example, the topic on a page should only be found on that page. The title of the page should be original. The keywords found on the page should be related to the topic and should be phrased in a way that is natural to the way the user would speak. For example, apartment building instead of apartment complex or tenants instead of residents are words that could help attract many more visitors to your website.

Areas to avoid at all costs
There are a few areas to avoid at all costs when it comes to maintaining a healthy website and overall success in rankings. Scammers can sometimes find pain points associated to smaller businesses by selling an idea rather than results. The really malicious ones will actually produce results they know will not last longer than the time it takes to cash their checks. It’s these crooks that give SEO and Inbound Marketing as a whole a bad rep. Be completely skeptical of any person or business that guarantees you #1 ranking on any search engine. This is possible only by manipulating the system in place and will get you penalized or worse: banned from showing up in results. These people achieve such results by participating in link exchanges, or buying links from other domains, in return for the link authority that the domain will provide. This is usually found by the search engines over time, as certain websites just don’t make sense linking to each other due to the type of content they contain.

Another big pitfall is creating a fantastic website that is purely in Flash or constructed in a way that does not allow the search engines to see what it’s about. This can be a really tough decision for website owners because fancy animation and nice video look slick, but they are awful for search engines looking for text signals to help understand what a page is about and when to show it to users searching on the web. This is not to imply that you cannot use these great elements on your website, but to construct it 100% out of something that cannot be understood will hurt more than help.

What about social media?
This is a very tough question to answer because it is unique to every website. There are countless articles on best practices that have more expertise than I on this topic. However, to keep things consistent, I advise using social media as a medium to generate buzz for your product and brand. Jump into conversations that are happening with your target market and provide expert opinions and answers to questions they may have. This builds influence and gets people talking and linking to your website, which is the most important part because it is those talks and links that search engines pick up and use as signals to rank your website. I also recommend the social media role be handled by someone who is comfortable with whatever platform is being utilized. I do not think a small business needs to stretch themselves thin trying to be on every major social network. Instead, pick one but no more than two you are confident your target audience congregates most often and focus your energy there. This is important because your audience wants to feel there is a real person behind the brand and not a machine generating automated responses. Building credibility creates trust, translating into making you a trusted market leader.

While there are an infinite number of website frameworks to implement, the key is to follow your strategy to keep your website moving forward.

I look forward to any questions or comments you have. Feel free to continue the conversation on Twitter @AmadoCan or leave a note below. Thank you and happy searching!

Here are five tips Sarah covered to prepare you when having the talk with your residents:

1.    Understand the perceived value of your property.  Typically, an increase in rent will not be significant enough to drive a resident out of your community because they can no longer afford to live there.  More often, it’s the resident’s perception of the increase that may turn their head toward other options.  When notifying them about raising the rent, be sensitive about what the dollar amount signifies to them and address those concerns upfront.

2.    Know your market.  When deciding how much to increase rent, consider market value, how your current rates compare with similar units and the demand for rental property.  Are you highlighting your best community features?  Refer to your market in the quarterly Apartments.com STaR (Statistics, Trends and Research) Report to help determine the average rent in your area, along with popular amenities and community features.

3.    Stay positive and confident!  How your resident responds to a rent increase will depend, in part, on your attitude, so don’t apologize or feel the need to defend the increase.  If your tone is timid, your resident may perceive the increase negatively.  Be sure to address the topic in a matter-of-fact fashion, and show your resident how this also benefits them!

4.    Make it easy on yourself.  Lighten your load by staggering notices over a few months.  For example, let’s say you have 20 units up for renewal in October.  Test the waters by giving a 90 day notice to 10 residents informing them of their increase.  See how many bites you get with X percentage.  Depending on the success of round one, maintain or lower the increase amount for the next five residents 70 days out, and the final five the last 45 days out.

5.    Sweeten the deal.  Some property managers go out of their way to provide a spoon full of sugar to help rent increases go down easier by offering a gift for renewing.  Say thanks by upgrading an appliance, installing new carpeting or offering to paint a room.  The presentation can go a long way too, so have fun with it and wrap the new appliance with a big red bow!

If you missed this webinar, don’t worry!  Each presentation is recorded and available for you to access at your earliest convenience.  If you have any questions or comments, tweet them to @Apartmentscom, using the hashtag #AptsTraining, or leave them in the comments section below.

Sign up for the next webinar here.

In a recent Chicago Tribune article, Ryan Severino, senior economist at Reis, says This generation doesn’t hold home ownership on a pedestal the way prior generations did.

Instead, they flood city centers in search of jobs, fun and a place to live (not necessarily in that order), helping drive up national effective rents 1.3% over the first quarter while pushing down vacancies to 4.7%, its lowest level since 2001.

There are, of course, other factors contributing to the tightness of the market, including a lack of new construction. But even when new development begins and more properties become available, the lingering slump in the housing market will mean continued demand for apartments, especially from the youth.

And, does this come as a shock? Many of these young adults have grown up, and may only know, a collapsing housing market, are still navigating a depressed job market and facing stricter lending restrictions from banks. Plus, there are many benefits to renting that appeal to these cost-conscious consumers, including flexibility to move where they want and relocate for job opportunities and convenient access to amenities and maintenance support.

Knowing what makes these young renters tick will be critical in marketing to them and eventually signing them to leases. At Apartments.com, we spend a lot of time looking at search patterns and just geeking out on market data and trends, and here’s what we’re seeing:

• Mobile is huge. Traffic to our site from mobile devices (not including apps) has more than doubled since last year, which was more than double the year before. Because of the steeply inclined line mobile adoption data makes when graphed, staying ahead of this phenomenon is what I call scaling the mobile mountain. Actually, I don’t call it that. Sounds kind of stupid, really. Point is, it’ not a bunch of 40-and 50-year-olds driving the bulk of that mobile adoption. It’s first-time renters in their 20s, who live with their mobile devices and tablets always at their sides, so get after them.

In a talk I did way-back-when at NAA 2011 with our good friend Sarah Greenough (@SGreenough), we stressed the importance of having a mobile-optimized version of your property website, and I’m shocked to find so many today that still render the desktop site on a mobile device.

• Reviews make a difference. Talking about reviews to an audience of multifamily professionals is starting to feel like beating a dead horse. (“We know, we know! Enough, already!”) But consider this: In a recent Apartments.com study, 84% of respondents 18-24 used reviews as part of their decision-making process for finding a new home. That’s six percentage points shy of 90%, which in most cases I just round up to everyone! That’s a big number that deserves more – in fact, demands more – than begrudging acceptance.

• Social works. Even if you can’t always drive a straight line from a social campaign to a lease, having a social media presence isn’t enough. You need to keep it engaging, relevant and updated constantly.

But, I’m most intrigued by recent reports. Here Huffington Post’s Meagan Johnson and Larry Johnson demonstrate, rather nicely, how much Gen Y-ers are influenced by their friends, peers, and even their parents. Forget the latter for a second, and it’s clear much of this influencing happens through social media. Or, to paraphrase the Johnsons, The bottom line is that if you want Gen Yers to advise their friends to (lease) with you, you need to be a friend to them.

• Think green. A 2011 study showed Gen Y is more likely than older generations to support clean energy, and let environmental concerns influence their decision making. While installing solar panels on your properties may not be economically feasible (but a good idea if you can afford it), try appealing to this sensibility by highlighting your recycling programs or your community’s walkability (Gen Y prefers not to drive). Today’s generation is also more socially conscious (especially about giving back to the locally) than its Baby Boomer counterparts, so highlight local charity events and sponsor other community outreach programs.

On the bright side, a lot of this good marketing is just plain good. You get to expand your reach while building your community’s network and improving the world around you. Now, if we could just figure out how to gamify the leasing process, we’ll have the Gen Z sewn up as well.

]]> http://www.apartments.com/blog/apartments-com/new-renters-new-rules/feed/ 1 http://www.apartments.com/blog/apartments-com/ask-the-expert-five-tips-for-marketing-your-apartment-community-to-students/ http://www.apartments.com/blog/apartments-com/ask-the-expert-five-tips-for-marketing-your-apartment-community-to-students/#comments Wed, 24 Aug 2011 18:30:24 +0000 Tammy Kotula http://www.apartments.com/blog/?p=985 This post was originally written by Kerry Sugrue, former Social Media Specialist at Apartments.com. 

It’s that time again.  Back to school!  If you have an apartment community near a college campus, then you are gearing up for the busiest time of year.  As soon as you get all of your 2011-2012 residents moved in, you have to start thinking about getting leases signed for next year.  I had the opportunity to chat with Kim Cory, Sales and Marketing Director for University Village, about marketing to students.  She offered five tips for reaching your key audience and having a positive presence on campus.

1. You need to have school spirit

On college campuses, a lot of prime recruiting opportunities for you revolve around university events.  Decide what the most popular sports team is and host tailgate parties before home games at your apartment community.  If the school allows it, set up a tent in the tailgate lot and hand out food and fun collateral to students.  Make sure to invite your current residents, their friends, parents and university staff to stop by.  Better yet, partner up with the university or student groups for a joint tailgate.  More exposure = More fun!

2. Encourage your residents to bring friends

When you host an event, encourage your residents to bring their friends.  These are your potential renters!  Don’t be afraid to advertise your resident events on campus and in the school newspaper.  This is the fastest way, bedsides Facebook, to spread the word.  More students will want to come knowing their friends are welcome.

3. Start advertising immediately

Don’t wait until you are in full-blown leasing season, or realize you have fewer renewals than anticipated, to start advertising on campus.  Find out when Welcome Week is and have your ads ready to go in the student newspaper, freshman move-in guides, visitor brochures, sports calendars, etc.  Get creative with where you advertise!

4. Partner with the university

Creating open lines of communication with the university is extremely important.  Set up meetings with the Student Life Department to find out how you can help with campus events, share tips for student safety and discuss easing the transition from on-campus to off-campus living.  Inform the university of any changes to your lease agreements or community policies to keep them aware of how it may affect students.  Keeping the university involved and informed will help build a lasting relationship, benefiting your residents in the end.

5. Get involved

Put a friendly face and helping hand to your community from the first day.  Campus Advantage is a great example of this, as they have the best move-in program I have ever seen in student housing!  Organize your staff to welcome residents on move-in day, go big and have fun with it.  Recruit a welcome committee or ambassador program to help new students learn where to find everything around the community and let them know what upcoming resident events they can look forward to.  Help your residents, as well as other students, get acclimated with the university by providing restaurant guides, maps, campus and resident event calendars or bus schedules.  You can bet these types of resources will be put on their refrigerator or in their backpack, so make sure it’s branded with your apartment community name, website and email address.

Most importantly, as with any apartment community, make sure to provide excellent customer service and you will have happy residents, that will hopefully, do the word-of-mouth marketing for you.  Do you have any questions or thoughts about these tips, or others to share?  Make sure to comment below.