Congratulations to Steve Lefkovits and the folks at Apartment Internet Marketing (AIM) for putting on another great conference. As usual, it seems to bring out the best people and companies in the industry. In no particular order, here are my thoughts on my three days spent last week in Southern California …

A social event: Social media once again dominated the conversation. And like much of the buzz on the Twittersphere, there seems to be general agreement that the industry is beyond both “if” and “when” and finally moving into “how.” And that’s when the conversations really start to get interesting, when the “how” isn’t just about how to generate leads but how to manage reputation, build community and brand, etc. Read More

This post was originally written by Catelyn Bergstedt, Associate Product Manager, Consumer Products at Apartments.com

If only you knew what your residents were thinking. Do they feel at home in their apartments? Is your maintenance staff getting the job done? Do they crave more community events to meet fellow residents? Read More

We are thrilled to announce the launch of our 3rd annual Apartments.com Roommate of the Year Contest—live now! As we search the nation high and low for the best roomie, we turn to you, once again, for support. Could the next Roommate of the Year be living under YOUR roof? If so, not only could you help them win the Grand Prize of FREE Rent for a Year plus $10,000, but you can also walk away $1,000 richer for promoting the contest!

Scratching your head asking yourself “How can I help?” Don’t worry. We’ve made it easy! Simply, fill out the entry form, read the official rules and visit the Roommate of the Year Contest promotion website to get started on spreading the word. From flyers to distribute to your residents, to posters you can showcase in the most popular areas of the apartment community, to social media tips and banner ads for your website, we’ve got you covered! Read More

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

We are so excited to announce the newest addition to our Apartments.com Training Series! These sessions are offered free of charge to all of our advertisers, and discuss how to maximize advertising, capitalize on online media and acquire valuable information on industry research. Our newest session, Interactive Multifamily Marketing, takes a detailed look at how the power of online advertising can drive infinite exposure to your apartment community. Read More

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

Reduce, Renew, Reuse. To some this phrase is an overused alliteration, to others it’s a lifestyle, but to apartment communities it’s any easy way to make a difference. At Apartments.com, we try to do our part around the office to help the planet, like providing sustainable lunch bags to employees and strategically placing recycling bins around copy rooms and printers. Read More

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

Congratulations to the following Apartments.com customers who were selected as the winners of our March Live Chat contest to receive a new iPad 2! Read More

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

Our third annual Roommate of the Year Contest is coming soon, so we invited our 2010 Grand Prize Winner, Andrew Prestler, to come to Chicago and help us film our intro video. Luckily, I had my Flipcam to capture all the behind the scenes fun! Read More

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

Peak rental season is right around the corner, so I sat down with the Apartments.com Director of Photography, Mandana Namvar, to discuss the importance of photos and what her department can do to get your property spring-time-ready!  If you have any questions for Mandana make sure to comment below and if you would like to talk to someone about scheduling a photo shoot for your apartment community please email sales@apartments.com.  Thanks for watching! Read More

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

As cheesy as the title is, providing a safe and fun environment for your residents is very important when it comes to a shared fitness center, especially since 77% of renters told Apartments.com that they would be more likely to increase their workouts if there was a fitness facility in their building.  Below are a couple tips to keep all those people healthy and happy in your fitness center: Read More

If you’re a regular visitor to, or long-time customer of Apartments.com, you may have noticed the significant transformation of  our site that has taken place in the last week or so.  After years of research, hard work and testing, we launched a redesigned version of our home page and search path!  Needless to say, I’m very  proud of the resulting effort.

What’s important to note is that this is not only a front-end re-skinning of our site, but a complete re-build of our underlying architecture.  The goal, therefore, was not just to improve the user experience, but create a robust foundation for future growth and innovation.  Mission accomplished! That said, the freshest new features are the ones you see on the front-end, the ones that help prospective renters find a place to live, and I’ll enumerate a few of them now: Read More