Raising the rent is a necessary reality in the life of a property manager.  If you never raised rents, you’d be out of business before too long.  With retention as a primary goal for many property managers, tackling this topic with residents is a difficult and uncomfortable conversation for many to have.  However, we learned last week, during the Training Series Live! webinar, hosted by Sarah Greenough (@SGreenough), SVP and CMO of Princeton Properties, there are ways of having these conversations.  The key to communicating a rent increase is to deliver the news in a confident, positive manner while keeping the resident’s perspective in mind.

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

Kids these days. What do we really know about them? Well, these coming-of-age youths of Gen Y are more technologically evolved than preceding generations, which is evidenced by their behavior: co-dependent relationships with their mobile phones, addiction to social media and video games likely accessed from their tablet. And, apparently, they prefer renting an apartment over owning a home. That’s one of the factors cited by Reis for the historically low vacancy and high rents being seen in the U.S. right now.

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. Read More

Many savvy renters are continually on the hunt for tips to maximize their living space.  Below are three must-have products to share with your residents to help them create storage even in the smallest bathrooms by using floating shelves, tiered bathroom storage and an over-the-door shoe rack.

Floating Shelves: Read More

Headed to the National Apartment Association Conference in Boston this year?  When you attend a big educational conference like this, it is easy to become overwhelmed with the excitement of the show and the knowledge you’ll acquire.  Here are a few tips on how to make the most out of your trip to NAA:

1.  Plan ahead – With so many educational sessions to choose from, it’s not efficient to decide which ones to attend on the fly, so be sure to check out the show program before you travel.  Make a plan with your coworkers to divvy up the schedule to get the most out of the sessions.  Not going with anyone?  You’re bound to run into someone you know or meet someone else traveling alone.  Don’t be shy to swap notes with a friend!  Read More

Last week’s edition of Training Series Live!, hosted by Karen Courtright, Research Director at Slack and Company and Susan Bryant, VP of Marketing at Apartments.com, unveiled a comparative research study, reviewing what multifamily professionals perceive to be true about renters, versus the renters’ actual apartment search process, attitudes and behaviors. 

It turns out what consumers are doing isn’t exactly what we on the property side think they are doing!  As someone who works in the multifamily industry and is also a renter, I was particularly surprised by some of the results.  In addition to highlighting the key findings from yesterday, I’m sharing some of my ever so helpful ah ha! moments:   Read More

This post was originally written by Kerry Sugrue, former Social Media Specialist at Apartments.com. 

Father’s Day is around the corner and it’s a great opportunity to do something special for the Dads in your community.  Most people will want to spend the day with their children, so try one of these fun activities in the days leading up to Father’s Day. Read More

Memorial Day is the official start of the summer season!  Instead of just entertaining your residents with parties this summer – rally them for a cause that gets your community noticed.  Why? There are so many great reasons, including building relationships, contributing to a cause that is important to your residents and great publicity for your community.  Follow these steps to get your charitable event off the ground:

1.  Select your cause – Engage your residents early to determine a cause, so you generate ideas that are not only creative, but appeal to your community. Read More

As the class of 2012 turns their tassels and leave campus life, savvy grads are finding they still have some homework to do to identify the cities that offer the best opportunity for employment, a place to live and the best quality of life as a young professional.  To help give these newly minted grads a leg up in both a competitive job and rental market, Apartments.com and CareerBuilder teamed up for the fifth year in a row to reveal the Top 10 Best Cities for College Graduates list.  Backed by our expertise in apartments and jobs, we tailored our list to what matters most to new grads—a place to live that affords them a lifestyle they can enjoy and the best overall opportunity.

Check out the infographic below to see the top 10 cities for new grads, average cost of rent for a one bedroom apartment, hottest jobs and more.  Did your city make the list?  Even if it didn’t, tell us why your hometown is a fabulous place for new grads to settle down in the comments section. Read More

This post was originally written by Brandon Hollembeak, Product Manager – Advertising Products & Services

Jim Davoren of Apartments.com buying lunch from a food truck by swiping his credit card on an iPad.

This post was originally written by Omer Navaid, Online Marketing Specialist at Apartments.com

In this day and age, technology has given us a plethora of communication channels at our disposal – both in our personal lives and in the business world.  From the staggering popularity of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, to the now commonplace practice of text messaging due to the ubiquitous nature of mobile phones.  These days, it sometimes seems like a technology that’s as old as email would no longer be relevant to us as marketers and as people. Read More