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.

Although advertising on campus and social media is essential when it comes to marketing to college students, there are other creative ways to reach out to the college crowd.

Here are three fun ways a student housing community can ensure they stand out from their competition.

1. Host a monthly game night: Whether it is at a local hang out spot or on campus, hosting a monthly game night is a fun way to garner interest in your property. Make sure there is a prize for the winner as an incentive for prospective renters! Have leasing agents attend the game night and be ready to chat with the prospective student renters. This is a great way to keep your property name known on campus, build personal relationships with students, and have students associate your community with having a good time.
2. Give freebies: It is no surprise that most college students are living on a budget and are notorious for taking advantage of any freebies on or off campus! At the beginning and end of each semester, offer a free treat or giveaway for students that come in to visit your property.
3. Host happy hour: The college crowd tends to hang out at local bars on the weekends with their friends. Do a little research and find out if you can host or co-host a happy hour night. Promote your happy hour on social media and around campus. If the night is successful, it can be repeated on regular basis or when you’re in need of an extra lift. Leasing agents can talk to students during the happy hour, hand out their business cards or schedule viewing appointments.

These are just a few ways that you can promote your available student housing to prospects on or near campus. Share your best tips in the comments below!

This is a guest post from Gabrielle Castaneda, who is currently enrolled at the University of South Florida pursuing a bachelor’s degree with a major in marketing, a minor in international business and a minor in management. In her spare time she enjoys doing outdoors activities. 

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• 11.5% increase in list price since last year
• 21% decrease in homes on the market since last year

With this large drop in inventory (down 51.5% since 2010), home builders have had plenty of work – and this is where it gets interesting for renters.

The number of housing projects started has risen by 37%. Even as buyers flood the market, development has outpaced demand. The answer is that these new projects are being built overwhelmingly for renters without going on the market. The homeownership rate currently sits at 66%, as reported by the US Census Bureau, and it’s unlikely to increase any time soon (in fact it is trending downwards).

The National Association of Home Builders reported that over 208,000 multifamily homes were built in 2012. Much of this development is being fueled by the surge of young adults in the job market. The millenial generation of workers is one of the largest in US history, and is putting an enormous demand on the rental market.

High prices and low inventories are driving would-be buyers into the rental market, meaning that renters are the ones fueling the housing recovery. As these trends continue, we in the apartment community can expect a couple of things: More competition, younger rentees and of course, higher rents.

Make sure you’re prepared – follow our blog and contact us for all your rental inquiries.

Rising Rents as Young People Enter the Market

There is an emerging shadow market that is about to come back into play. According to Business Insider, around 3 to 5 million people are returning to the rental market now that the economy appears to have recovered. Many of them moved back in with their parents or shared apartments or houses with others in order to save money and ride out the recession. Now that everything is turning around, many of these 20 to 30 somethings will be looking for places of their own, making demand and prices of rental properties rise.

Easier Credit Standards

Now that the recovery has occurred, or is in the final stages, the credit markets have loosened up once again, allowing people to borrow money for down payments on condos or leased properties. It is also giving people who property managers may have been wary of in the past better credit scores. This allows property managers to lease more properties more easily to prospective tenants with a piece of mind that they will pay their rent on time.

Property Management is Booming

According to Business Insider, the FHFA began selling foreclosed properties to investors who would maintain them as rentals in the foreseeable future. Which means there are a large number of incredible properties out there that need property managers who can be creative when leasing to tenants. Property management companies have suddenly become some of the most profitable in the real estate market as there is a ton of demand for their services out there these days. In other words, property managers can get creative in their business strategies over the next few years, as they will have no shortage in prospective tenants.

Higher Construction Costs

Due to the recovery of the housing market and the boom of first time home buyers, according to Business Insider, it only makes sense that construction would also rise in price, as there is more demand everywhere. This is important for property managers to know about, as they may have to repair tenants properties and will want to do it for as cheaply as possible. In other words, good property managers need to find a construction company or maintenance company that won’t be outrageously expensive every time they need their construction or repair services, allowing them to put more money in the pockets of the property owners. Having a good relationship with a maintenance or construction company that does quality work will keep tenants happy and make more money for the property owners, putting the property manager in the best possible light.

What trends are you watching out for at your property?

With that in mind, here’s a quick guide to effective marketing strategies applicable to any rental property.

A diversified marketing approach

Today’s prospective tenants are resourceful when it comes to finding a place. In addition to drive-bys, print listings and referrals from friends, they’ll also scour Apartments.com and other online rental websites in search of that diamond in the rough. As a property manager, you’ll want to have a presence in all of these areas to attract as many renters as possible. Feature vacancy signs prominently outside your property, invest in listings in the classifieds and other rental guides, both in print and online. You can offer referral bonuses to current tenants as a way to generate interest through word-of-mouth.

A pristine exterior

First impressions can make or break your changes with a prospective tenant. Particularly during rental season, it’s important that your property’s exterior be well-kept – plants tended and trimmed, grass mowed, siding and sidewalks power washed, etc. A dirty outer appearance can sour prospects before they even view the rental unit.

Lease-based incentives

If you’re trying to encourage long-term leases of six or 12 months, sweeten the deal by offering an incentive to lease signees. Feel free to get creative when it comes to these incentives, keeping in mind that even a small gesture can have appeal. According to AllBusiness.com, some common incentives include rent discounts, a free household appliance, or a welcome basket filled with delectable goodies.

Build utilities into rent rates

Utilities costs can pile up quickly, and the task of handling five or more utilities bills can be tedious for any tenant. Properties can increase their appeal by including some utilities as part of the rent. Water and garbage are among the most common built-in utilities, but electricity, heat, cable and Internet are all used as incentives by some properties.

Waiting lists

If you have people interested in your property when there are no current vacancies, this doesn’t have to be a total loss. Take down their information and ask them if they would like to be added to a waiting list. Vacancies can crop up at any time, and whether it’s the next day or six months down the line, it’s possible that you will contact an individual or family just as they’re in the process of looking for a new place. This way, you always have a stock of potential leads to turn to when a renter turns in his or her moving notice.

Effective marketing is all about making your property visible and appealing to renters. Fortunately, there are plenty of things property managers can do to increase the appeal of a property. With a strong marketing strategy in place, you should be able to reduce the length of unit vacancies and increase your property’s rental revenues.

Time management is something many people struggle with, and these painless tips can help both at home and in the leasing office:

Planning: Planning out your day can save you time by helping you stay on track. Create a to do list; a pen and notepad work just fine or try an app like Evernote to keep track of your daily activities. Review your list each morning and determine what your priorities are, and what, if possible, you can delegate to others.

Prioritize: Instead of checking your email first thing in the morning, or jumping into the newest project right away, tackle the most  important thing first. If you’ve been putting off a big project, getting it completed will lift the pressure off your shoulders. If you have a project that you just can’t seem to get started on, try breaking it up into smaller, more manageable chunks of time.

Say No: Sometimes, you just have to say no. Consider your workload, schedule and sanity before saying yes to every project. Sometimes it is better to sit back and evaluate before jumping in headfirst.

Evaluate Your Time: Make a list of everything you do for every hour for one week. Then, evaluate what is taking up the majority of your time. If it’s something you don’t think is important, start making strides to change your habits!

Schedule Time with Yourself: Set up appointments with yourself that are designed to accomplish specific tasks. Putting a set beginning and ending point can help keep you focused. Make sure to stick with your appointments, or this tactic won’t work for long! Another tip is to schedule your time for tomorrow before you leave work today so you can hit the ground running in the morning.

What are your best time management tips? Share them in the comments below!

Let me explain why we’re going down this controversial path and why we believe it’s the right thing to do:

First, it’s what renters want, and our ability to deliver value to our advertisers will diminish over time if we don’t continue to evolve and address the needs of consumers.

Second, I am convinced the current, highly trafficked apartment reviews sites paint an unfair, negatively biased picture of our industry. We simply can’t be that bad! According to Brett Hurt, founder and CEO of Bazaarvoice (whose platform powers Apartments.com’s reviews as well as hundreds of additional brands across dozens of industries), the average product rating worldwide is 4.3 stars out of 5, and 80% are four to five stars. On Yelp.com, across all categories, the average rating is 3.8. The notion that consumers only post reviews when aggravated or irritated  is simply false. Let me repeat this statistical fact: The propensity to post a review when happy or satisfied with a product or service is higher than the propensity to flame.

So, how are reviews on Apartments.com fairing so far? With close to a thousand reviews already in the can, the news is good. The average rating for all reviews is 4.0, which has been consistent going back to when we had fewer than 50 reviews. 72% of all reviews are four or five stars, and only 15% are one or two. In other words, the reviews we’ve received are much more consistent with cross-industry norms and generally (apologies in advance for the all-caps, but this is important) VERY POSITIVE. What about those 1-2 star reviews? Yep, they can sting, but they also represent an opportunity to engage in the conversation and address customers’ needs, and when consumers see that in action it reflects positively on you.

This brings me to our last reason for launching reviews: They not only provide the renter a say, but they also give you, the property manager, a new voice. This is your opportunity to be heard like never before by responding thoughtfully and gracefully to negative reviews and appreciatively to positive. You may not feel like thanking us now, but I’m convinced someday you will.

Now, about that moderation process. Each review goes through three filters. The first is automated, looking for profanity, proper nouns (no name-calling here), HTML and also verifying only one review is submitted per IP address (to stop anyone from stacking the deck from a single machine) – basically, stuff a computer can police. Each review then gets read by two sets of human eyes. These folks are looking for more subtle no-no’s, like fair-housing-violating language, spamminess, and just unrelated or blatantly inflammatory content. We didn’t have to have such a stringent approval process. We could have relied solely on automated filtering or just one set of eyes, but you wouldn’t believe some of the stuff these filters catch. Well, maybe you would. Not all of it’s bad, mind you, but we believe it’s this level of thoughtful, thorough moderation that will separate us from others in the space, and allow our industry to enjoy average ratings more akin to the norm.

In fairness, much of the worry in the industry seems to be around management of reviews, and, indeed, this is a challenge. That’s why we’re committed to working with third-party vendors that manage reputation, reviews or surveys. It will take some work to get the various systems to talk to each other, but we are already in discussions with many of those vendors to figure it out, and also developing some of our own tools that will allow you to moderate your Apartments.com reviews at no additional charge. Stay tuned.

Our advertisers believe  it’s our job to cast their communities in a positive light. Prospective renters, meanwhile, want thorough, trustworthy and helpful information, and they want unbiased reviews. Knowing what we know about ratings and reviews across industries and looking at our data thus far, I believe Apartments.com can satisfy both.

Erica also appeared on her local news in Spokane, WA to talk about the great opportunity Ellen and Apartments.com were able to provide her with. Watch the clip below!

Summer Socials: Take advantage of nice weather and create outdoor activities for your residents. If your property has a pool, invite renters to attend a pool party and grill up hamburgers and hot dogs for the guests. Have an ice cream social one night, or hand out treats to residents as they pass by the leasing office as a nice surprise as they come home from a long day at the office.

Holiday Cheer: Spread cheer to your residents through holiday events. Hold a canned food drive at Thanksgiving or encourage residents to donate gifts through a charity like Toys for Tots. Have a potluck dinner where residents who may not be able to spend the holidays with family have a place to enjoy a meal and spend time with their neighbors.

Book Club: Book clubs are a great way to help renters meet and befriend their neighbors. Organize a book club for your residents that meets once a month. Surprise book club members with fun party favors inspired by the book as a great way to end the night.

Fitness Fun: Help your residents be more fit by providing free workout classes on property. Hire an instructor or put a call out to seek out fitness professionals already living in your community to lead the class. If you don’t have a fitness facility at your community, don’t worry. Host classes such as yoga, kickboxing or Zumba that can be done in a large open space that do not require expensive equipment or props.

Sports Night: Rent a projector and play big games like the Super Bowl, NFL, NBA and MLB playoffs, the NCAA basketball tournament or college football bowl games in a common area, or even outside during nice weather. Encourage residents to bring their favorite tailgate foods and provide chips, sodas and other snacks during the game.

Remember, residents are more likely to be social if they feel comfortable within your community. Make sure leasing agents are friendly and inviting and that you notify your renters of upcoming activities. Hang signs, drop flyers in their mailboxes and promote using word of mouth.

What are some other tips for throwing successful social events?