A few weeks ago as the end of April was approaching, I had a dentists appointment coming up in a few days and I also had rent due at my apartment community here in Atlanta.  Roughly 3-5 days before both of these events, I received a text message from two numbers that I did not have stored in my phone, which as I am sure everyone can relate to, always catches you off guard a little wondering who the number may be.  Well the first text was from my dentist’s office reminding me of my appointment and the second mystery text was from my apartment community reminding me of rent being due on the 1st.  Both messages were received and both messages were opened.  Not a bad opening ratio being 100%.

When it comes to communicating with residents and prospects at apartment communities, there always is a constant battle of doing everything possible to ensure a message is received.  Whether it be a reminder to pay rent, or a notification letting a resident know about the recent increase in the resident referral amount, communities always have pertinent information that needs to reach the residents eyes.  When it comes to community prospects, having another effective means of follow-up allows a community to potentially draw in additional leases that may otherwise slip through the cracks.  By being able to text a prospect, you are almost guaranteed that the prospect is going to read the text, unlike a phone call, which may be screened, or an email, which more often times than not, will go unopened.  The typical email open rate is usually around 22 percent, whereas the opening rate of a text message is 98 percent!  With an opening rate of over 4 times that of an email, it seems like a no brainer that text messaging HAS to be incorporated in follow-up with prospects and residents, especially when it comes to reaching residents, seeing as how the average person opens a text message within 15 minutes of receiving a text. (stats obtained via Brittany McBride’s blog in Multifamily Insiders)

By having the option of texting prospects, a community has now allotted the leasing agents with four potential ways to follow-up with a prospect:  phone call; email; thank you card; text message.  With follow-up still being one of the many things that leasing agents let fall to the way side, a leasing agent that effectively executes all four follow-up techniques EVERYTIME is going to substantially stand out in every single prospects mind that has visited the community.  Plus, the beauty of the text message follow-up is that it is something that can be done soon after that prospect walks out the door, so that way your community can pop back in the head while they are perhaps on another communities tour.

To ensure your text message follow-up campaign is a success, it is important to build your database following these tips from Brittany McBride:

“Build Your Text Database With These Hot Tips:

Text-A-Resident

• Ask residents to opt-in when they stop by to drop their rent checks off.
• Distribute fliers around the property encouraging people to opt-in.
• Make the text program announcement at your next resident social.
• Have a raffle. For example, all residents that “opt-in” during the next 30 days will be entered to win a prize.
• Place a sign that says, “Ask me about our text program” in your clubhouse.
• “Go Green.” Residents can do their part by opting-in with this “green” initiative that gets away from paper notifications.

Text-A-Prospect

• Encourage prospects to opt-in to your text program while they wait for the next available leasing consultant.
• When prospects ask for more information, let them know they can “opt-in” to receive upcoming specials and promotions on their mobile phone.
• If prospects are looking for something that you don’t have available on that day, let them know that things change often and you’d like to be able to text them when something becomes available.
• Train your leasing team to have prospective renters “opt-in” during tours of your community.
• Place inexpensive door-clings with text sign up information throughout the property.”

Text messaging prospects and residents can be a way to communicate with these two groups in not only a less invasive way, but also a more effective way considering the extremely high opening rate of a text.  If you are considering incorporating text messaging into your follow-up schedule, make sure to take into account all the steps to success in this blog and watch the leases roll in!

Why do people only ask about price when inquiring about an apartment?  The most likely answer is that leasing consultants have conditioned them to do so.  When someone is only giving out a price or special over the phone, we are telling our prospects that price is the most important factor in choosing an apartment.  But studies show this is not the case.   In most cases location, maintenance, amenities and floor plans are more important than a price point.  

What makes this condition even more puzzling is the fact that an apartment is the most personal purchase a person will make all year.  It is where they will spend 14 hours of their day.  It is more personal then the clothes they wear or the car they drive.  But we never hear of people calling a car dealership and asking “how much are your cars?” 

One of the many unfortunate side effects of the recession is that people became much more price conscious in their shopping habits.  The result is a complete disappearance of the value sell. 

Now we find ourselves in the golden years of multifamily.  With a recovering economy, job market and millions of potential renters shunning home ownership, it is time for apartment owners to strike while the iron is hot.  Three years from now when the housing market recovers and tens of thousands of additional multifamily units come online, apartment owners are going to look back at 2012 and 2013 and say “why was I afraid to push my rents?” 

Start by reselling your leasing teams on the feasibility of such rent increases.  While market analysis and research is widely studied on the corporate level, on the front lines of the leasing battle our people have yet to grasp the leverage they now have on potential renters.  The other night I was watching the movie Ocean’s Eleven and I couldn’t help but think of the current leasing landscape when George Clooney said to Brad Pitt “the house always wins, except when you have that perfect hand and you bet the house.”   It doesn’t get much better than this my friends.  It’s time to go all in!

At the NAA Student Housing Conference and Expo this year, a game of Family Feud was put together pitting five University of Las Vegas students versus five parents from that school in the ultimate showdown of student housing.  The responses to the game were based upon “11,195 college students and 3,605 parents from 159 different colleges and universities, who were polled via email Jan. 20-Feb. 1 by J Turner Research” (Units Magazine April 2012).  Ultimately the purpose of the survey was to determine what both students and parents want, or are looking for, when it comes to picking the perfect apartment in their respective college towns.  The survey is also a great education tool for all parties involved in multifamily from site level to developers, because what students and parents are looking for in an apartment community can vary greatly.

The entire summary of the survey can be found at www.naahq.org/resources/data/StudentHousing, but I am just going to highlight a few of the key questions and corresponding responses given that I found interesting from the showdown of parents versus students:

• It shouldn’t come as a surprise that word of mouth is typically one of the, if not the top marketing resource when it comes to a student deciding upon where they want to live.  I know when I was in school I always wanted to live either where my friends were living, or where the majority of students in town were looking to spend their time.  According to the survey of students polled, 38% of students learned of their apartment community from college friends/roommates, while 29% learned of their current community through an internet search.  I’d be willing to bet that the internet search somehow correlates Facebook and other word of mouth reviews as well, which adds up to nearly 70% of students being influenced by other individuals when picking their new apartment.
• When parents are searching online for their students new home, the number one thing those polled said they were looking for on the community’s website are rental rates (48%).  We typically encourage communities to not post their rental rates on the website, because this could lead to many individuals pre-qualifying themselves, or their students, and therefore not even calling your community to learn more information.  Even when prices are posted on a website, we like for the prices to be the market value, rather than the special price, to allow for the leasing specialists to sell the value, as opposed to just the special, of the apartment.  Surprisingly, parents were not concerned with finding out any additional information about the number one most important factor when selecting the actual apartment, safety, on the apartment community website.
• With the top tier student properties, you can typically expect to see more amenities than with conventional properties.  Movie theaters, pools, fitness centers and business centers are usually a must with many additional features stacked upon these.  So, if amenities are often times the main selling points of a student community, surely this is the number one feature students are looking for in their new home, right?  Not exactly.  The number one item students were looking for in their new home was a professional leasing and management staff (19%), followed by friends living at the community (19%) and a fitness center (18%).  It appears that students are concerned a little more with how they will be treated, rather than the amenities available for their use.
• This last stat from the survey I found of interest was one that I had actually heard before first hand at multiple communities, as well as in other student housing publications.  When asked what service or utility upgrade they would be willing to pay more for, of course the overwhelming response was none (26%), but after this the second response was high speed internet service (16%).  Current students are in the bulk grouping of the Facebook generation and absolutely have to have their high speed internet connection.  With internet venues such as Hulu and Skype, students rely upon fast internet access for entertainment just as much as they do for education purposes.  A student housing developer can plan on calling upon us sooner than later if a community is not designed with high speed internet access, because they will have a tough time leasing to students with that as an overwhelming objection.

It’s a two sided coin when it comes to student communities, because not only do the students have certain needs to be met, but the parents of these students also have concerns of their own that have to be addressed.  The tough scenario that can be encountered all too often is that the desires of the student and their parents can be very contrasting, so leasing agents must be able to cater the apartment and the community to both parties.  Just remember that when it comes to student housing, it’s all about being able to learn what both students and parents want in order to secure the lease!

New construction class A property in an extremely saturated Jacksonville FL. market.  The property was located in a less then desirable location which led to under qualified traffic.  A majority of the prospects that toured were looking for a price point well below the asking rents for the community.

For the past 90 days, the property had taken in 22 applications, and rejected 17 due to insufficient income or bad credit.  A majority of the traffic was from signage.

 Potential solutions:

1.  Lower the asking rents of the property or increase the concessions

2.  Hire a new Leasing staff

3.  Hire CLASS to accelerate the lease-up

The owners chose to hire CLASS in order to avoid lowering their rents and risking potential complications when procuring their permanent financing.  The owners also wanted to mitigate the risk of a bad hire.

 Strategy:

CLASS knew that the property needed to improve its marketing effort in order to target qualified renters.  Additionally, a strong closer was needed to capitalize on any traffic created.  Even if prospects were coming in the door, the property was still priced well above other properties in the market.

 Implementation:

CLASS implemented the following changes to the leasing and marketing platform

1. Limited the units being offered.  CLASS noticed that most prospects were shown 4-5 different floor plans and being offered too many options during the tour.  The prospects were aware that this 250+ unit property was practically empty and as a result no urgency was created.  CLASS limited the units being offered to only two. 

2.  Increased the length of time the property would hold an apartment.  After showing the owner the statistics on the increased search time for class A properties, we extended the amount of time a specific unit would be held from 30 days to 60 days. 

3.  Increased the amount needed to hold the apartment.  CLASS knew that by increasing the amount needed at the time of lease, we would eliminate the fall off problem plaguing the property by only renting to those prospects that were truly income qualified.  This also mitigated the risk of holding an apartment for more than 30 days.

4.  Eliminated specials from all marketing material and refused to give them out prior to the closing table.  CLASS understood that the type of prospect who was concession shopping was not part of the target market.  By not advertising the specials, a better demographic of renter was walking through the door.

5.  Increased outreach marketing.  Prior to the arrival of CLASS, the outreach marketing had been very limited.  CLASS implemented a diligent approach to targeting preferred employers.  The CLASS Leasing Specialists would make daily trips to visit these employers, drop off lunches to prospects at work, and market to local realtors offering an aggressive referral fee.

Results:
By implementing these 5 strategies, CLASS was able to increase the traffic and significantly increase the number of leases.  Over the next 40 days, CLASS leased over 70 apartments and reduced the fall off to below 25%. 

Totals for dates 2012-03-07 to 2012-04-19

If you are like me, when you first read the words paired together for the title of this blog, you probably did a double take as the word after “speed” was not “dating.”  Also if you are just like me, the combination of these two words paired together made you click on, in this case, the blog, while in my case, it was the Business Insider link on their page that caught my attention.  Speed roommating is a concept that I had only vaguely heard of, but upon reading the attached article, it definitely struck me as a potential win-win scenario from a marketing standpoint and from a resident event standpoint.

Every time we are requested to assist with leasing at a community, it is always due to an overabundance of vacant apartments with a majority of those apartments usually being one floor plan size.  More times than not the apartment floor plan that is usually the tougher sell are the two and three bedroom apartments.  Why is this?  Depending upon the community the main reason two and three bedroom apartments are typically harder to move is that they are always the most expensive.  Couples will be much more inclined to down size into a one bedroom apartment, because it is the more economical choice.  Those singles looking to move into an apartment usually have no need for all the additional space, but would probably love being able to find a great match to split living costs with.  Even at a student community it may be a challenge to fill up all two, or three bedroom floor plans, because there are guaranteed to be a large amount of people that come in just looking for one bedroom of an apartment and ultimately have to be roommate matched.

With these scenarios and many more, speed roommating could potentially be a huge boost in filling up those hard to lease extra bedrooms of a multi-bedroom apartment.  Speed roommating is quite similar to speed dating, except that it is somewhat more casual.  As opposed to a multi-stop table setup, speed roommating is more of a mingling environment where everyone is encouraged to meet with as many people as possible for as long a time as desired and each person has a name tag to designate if they ”have a room, or need a room.”

I feel that this could be a great idea to host at a community clubhouse, or at a local bar/restaurant in town, and would not only provide a great service to current residents, but would also be a great form of outreach for the community name.  The article lists the pros and cons of speed roommating and in my opinion, the pros surely outweigh the cons from a potential leasing opportunity standpoint.

We live in a world of mass marketing.  With the constant flow of information that we provide social networks and websites about our likes, shopping habits and contact information, we have become easy targets for marketers.  But lost in the e-blasts and banner ads are the personal touches that truly build relationships.  And it is our relationships with our potential customers that drive business.

There are many ways to measure the success of digital marketing campaigns, and one way is click through rate.  If you take an average e-blast, the CTR will be dependent on variables such as target market, size of the blast, content etc.  Most marketers will tell you that a CTR over 20% is fantastic.  More so then open rates, CTR’s measure the prospective customer’s interaction with the email.

Last month, Student Housing Business ran a list of the 30 under 30 for the Student Housing Industry.  So we reached out to all 30 of these individuals to congratulate them on their nomination.  We sent a simple email saying how impressive it is to be listed among the 30 best young professionals in such a vibrant industry.  We congratulated them on their success, wished them luck in the future and told them we hoped to partner with them on future projects. 

The response has been over whelming.  At this point, over 70% of the 30 under 30 have not only responded to our email, but many have written lengthy letters of thanks for the recognition of their accomplishment.  The emails have been sincere and have invited further communication and partnership in future ventures.   Everything we hoped to accomplish in past massive e-blasts has been dwarfed by 30 personalized and sincere emails. 

Why have we seen such an impressive response?  It’s because we got personal.  The sincerity of a personalized email is a unique and valuable tool for connecting with potential customers.   It shows them that they are not just another email address in a giant database, but rather they are a person whom you know by name and whose business and partnership you greatly value.  While this technique can be more time consuming then utilizing other mass marketing strategies, the results are the building blocks upon which great partnerships can be formed.  The constant advertising bombardment to our cell phones, emails and social media sites only magnifies the up-side of getting personal with your prospects.

-Danny Soule

For any apartment community out there, having a video made to show the features and benefits of the property is a must have in the marketing repertoire.  A high quality video can definitely be the difference between a potential prospect coming to tour your community and leasing, or just continuing to scroll their mouse right on to your competitors website.

Property videos can be as simple as using a Flip Cam, or something similar since Flip Cam is no longer produced, to film the property, show apartments, the model, residents enjoying amenities, etc.  This video allows for simple pictures posted on the community website to come to life and really accentuates what the community has to offer.

If you are really looking to get a vamped up and professionally made video for your community, ShowMyProperty.tv may be what you and your community need.  ShowMyProperty.tv takes the typical apartment video and exponentially increases the marketing potential by inputting:  a script; actors for hosts; high quality film production; editing; rights to the video.  Using ShowMyProperty.tv will allow your community to take a step above the competition as the video will also includes clips of surrounding venues, so potential residents can see what the location of your property also has to offer.

I strongly encourage clicking on the link and watching a few of the apartment examples to see what ShowMyProperty.tv has to offer.  The great thing about the video is that once it is made, it can be plugged into all outlets of social media allowing for a significant increase in property awareness and ultimately, more leases!

I recently shopped a class B property in Atlanta that was attempting to increase occupancy prior to disposition.  I had spoken to the owner and I knew that they wanted to hit 93% by the end of April, but their operational budget was tight.  So I poked my head in the leasing office to inquire about an apartment and see how the property was attempting the lease-up.  What I saw was very disheartening.  The property had slashed rents by nearly 10% AND was giving away a month free if anyone moved-in by April 30th.  While I imagine this strategy will ultimately succeed in securing the leases needed, I was amazed that the owners had chosen to slash the rents prior to putting into place some basic leasing logistics.  With vacancy rates dropping and rents rising, here are a few easy steps every owner should take prior to lowering their rents.

1.  Make sure the property has a web presence.  Today’s renter does not drive by and call the number on your NOW LEASING banner.  Rather, they are going to type the property name into Google and hit enter.  Based on what they find, they will decide to call the office and schedule an appointment.   To just rely on an ILS like rent.com in lieu of a website is extremely expensive.  Here are a few tips on creating a quick property specific web presence.

• Utilize the free website templates from Vaultware.com and create a property website.  This will only take you a few hours and it will only cost about $12 for a domain name. 
• Make sure your property has a Google Place Page and that it includes pictures, a link to the website and accurate information.  www.google.com/places
• Create a property Facebook page and update it daily with local news, polls and pictures.

2.  Monitor your properties online reputation.  Get some $5 Starbucks gift cards and offer them to residents who post a review on Apartmentratings.com, Google, or Facebook about the property.  Make sure you stress that any review will suffice; it does have to be a good review.  If the review is negative, then respond politely and publically on the review site.

3.  Review the tour route and select show units.  There should be a show unit for each available unit type.  You can use a model, mini model or vacant rent ready apartment.  The show unit should be chosen based on the appeal of the tour route and it should be the last unit of that type to be leased.  Prospects should ONLY BE SHOWN a show unit.  This will make it easier to maintain the tour route and show units.  The whole property does not have to be pristine, but the office, tour route and show units must be perfect. 

4.  Follow up.  One direct result of the internet is the enhanced search time we are seeing from prospective renters.  Your leasing team needs to have a diligent follow up plan in place in the event that  a purchasing decision is not made the first time a prospect views the property.   Here are some good follow up ideas for your leasing team.

• Phone calls.  Make sure that every prospect is called within 24 hours of the tour.  The Leasing Specialists should attempt to be personal and conversational on the phone.  Do not call the prospect and directly ask them if they have found an apartment.  They know why you are calling, and if they are ready to come back and lease they will tell you.  Rather, try conversing with them on a topic that you feel will be interesting to the prospect.  If your follow-up call turns into a 3 minute chat, then you have established rapport and you will get an honest update from them on their apartment search.
• Emails.  They should be personal and by including video, you can greatly increase the click through rate.  Make sure to add every prospect to an email list and set up bi-monthly e-blasts for additional follow-up.
• Thank you notes.  Today, a hand written thank you note shows the prospect that the management cares about the residents.  For properties in that “B” asset class, management and maintenance are the biggest reasons that people look for a new apartment.   A hand written note speaks volumes!
• Visit them at work.  If you have teamed up with a local pizza place, try brining them a pizza to their office.  They will be very grateful and their co-workers will certainly take notice.

-Danny Soule

Renewal rates are increasing.  Concessions are becoming obsolete.  Vacancy numbers are dropping.  Developers are trying to help balance the demand by building more new communities (side note…hopefully we do not see a repeat of what happened with the housing market in 2008 and have an over saturation of apartment communities with this “boom.”)

As a developer this is by far one of the best scenarios to begin building, if the financing can be found, because the American dream has gradually worked its way over to renting as opposed to owning an amazing new home.  The flexibility of being able to move from place to place has replaced the iconic image of having a home to weigh one down.  Developers are always looking to build where the demand is highest, but another factor that should always be taken into account is where to develop where the COSTS are lowest.

NAA releases an annual survey of income & expenses each year highlighting where the most expensive places in the country are to operate, as well as where the most cost efficient places are to run a community.  Here is the list of both categories:

Highest Net Operating Expenses

1. Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, Fla.

2. Los Angeles-Long Beach, Calif.

3. San Francisco-Oakland, Calif.

4. Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

5. Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, Calif.

6. San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, Calif.

7. Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, Mass.

8. West Palm Beach-Boca Raton, Fla.

9. Washington, D.C.-Arlington-Alexandria

10. Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington

Lowest Net Operating Expenses

1. Eugene-Springfield, Ore.

2. Evansville, Ind.-Ky.

3. Albuquerque, N.M.

4. Bloomington, Ind.

5. Tulsa, Okla.

6. Knoxville, Tenn.

7. Winston-Salem, N.C. (tied for 6)

8. Colorado Springs, Colo.

9. Chattanooga, Tenn.

10. Little Rock, Ark.

Any of the cities on this list surprise anyone?  Obviously the number one being Miami (net operating cost per unit=$6,193!) should not have been a shocker as I am sure they are consistently number one year after year.  I thought it was interesting to see how scattered the bottom ten were throughout the country and how seemingly isolated to basically two states the top ten were.  Nonetheless it’s a very interesting to take into account from a developer side and I am sure anyone involved in those top ten can vouch for how pricey their operating costs are!

It’s often difficult to run some sort of incentive for incoming prospects without having current residents feeling like they were left out, or upset that they are not able to reap the benefits of leasing an apartment now.  It is almost guaranteed to happen where a new prospect will move in who received a move-in concession, they will talk to their neighbor about what great deal they took advantage of and the current resident will probably be the first person at your leasing door the next day trying to demand they receive the deal.  Often times it is difficult to explain to residents how specials change and that they are not currently eligible for the move-in special, because they already live at the community!

With this being said there is in fact a great option that can appeal to both your incoming prospects as well as your current residents.  Have a community raffle!  Now this isn’t just another raffle where people come to the office and buy tickets to be entered into the drawing.  The idea is for the community to be able to benefit from this raffle from both prospects and residents.  Lauren Boston from NAA wrote an article in the most recent issue of Units magazine about how Nancy Wittenberg, owner of Claridge Apartments, implemented this concept at her Houston based property and it was a great success!  Here’s how it can work:

-Everyone person, both prospect and current resident, is eligible to participate in the raffle

-The raffle needs to run at least a one to two month duration, but by all means can be offered over a longer period of time

-The raffle prize can be anything, but make it something worthwhile that doesn’t necessarily require the person that wins to be living at the community (i.e. TV; vacation; shopping card; etc.)

-Incoming prospects receive one ticket to be entered in the raffle just for taking a tour during the specified time

-Incoming prospects that apply receive two or three tickets, depending upon the lease length term.  My recommendation would be to probably have a stipulation that the person must be approved to receive the additional tickets.  This would be best in order to avoid a huge spike in applicants, but also a huge spike in potential cancellations and rejections.

-Current residents are eligible to receive one ticket for rent paid on time.  This is why I would say the contest should at least go for a duration of two months to enable current residents to get potentially a minimum of two tickets.  This contest could go a much longer length, which would be great if you are a community that is looking for a little boost in your percentage of residents potentially paying rent on time for a few months.

-This raffle could also be a great boost to your resident referral in that current residents could also receive a ticket if they referred anyone during the allotted time period that filled out an application

As you can see there is quite a bit of potential from not only an increased traffic standpoint, but also an increase in rent paid on time from this simple raffle idea.  In addition running a promotion such as this can also increase marketing visibility, because this promotion can be advertised everywhere:  social media outlets; flyers to businesses; resident referral flyers to your residents; new move-in packets for residents.  This promotion would be great for a community looking to get their Facebook Page going as another stipulation of the entry could be that each individual, both prospect and resident, must like the Facebook Page to be officially eligible.

We have implemented this concept at numerous properties and it has always been a hit.  It may end up bringing in quite the increase in traffic, but after all, that is a great problem to have!