Apartment leasing
and marketing blog
Four decades of filling apartments, written down. Notes on occupancy, leasing teams and the marketing that actually brings people to a tour.
Latest from CLASS
Four decades of filling apartments, written down as it happened. Leasing, marketing, resident retention and the parts of the job nobody warns you about.
Filling Apartments with Responsible Residents: CLASS Leasing Specialists
How CLASS leasing specialists attract responsible residents through comprehensive leasing strategies, onsite collaboration, and a 48-hour express program.
Read the post →Accelerated Apartment Leasing: CLASS's Proven Strategies
A guide to the CLASS approach: tailored leasing and marketing plans, immersive onsite specialists, wider property visibility, and a thorough leasing review.
Read the post →Maximizing ROI with CLASS: How Our Leasing Consultants Fill Apartments Quickly
How CLASS leasing specialists fill apartment vacancies fast, from tailored leasing and marketing plans to closing leases and protecting your investment.
Read the post →Why You Can Trust the Leasing Specialists at Class
Four reasons rental property owners rely on CLASS: decades of experience since 1984, training services, a commitment to innovation, and a proven track record.
Read the post →Take Your Single-Family Rentals to the Next Level With Class
How CLASS helps real estate investors get more from single-family rentals through property management training, marketing strategy, and occupancy support.
Read the post →How Class Can Help You Meet Your Leasing Objectives
How CLASS helps property owners hit their leasing goals with a tailored leasing strategy, marketing that elevates your brand, and hands-on team training.
Read the post →Helpful Tips for Marketing Single-Family Rentals
Marketing tips for single-family rental owners: diversify your channels, develop a consistent brand voice, stay persistent, and cultivate tenant referrals.
Read the post →4 Leasing Tips for Apartment Owners
Four leasing tips for apartment owners: streamline application vetting, prepare units before tours, present the unit well, and recommend alternative units.
Read the post →4 Advantages of Owning Student Rental Properties
Four advantages of owning student rental properties, including steady housing demand, competitive rents, lower upgrade costs, and reduced marketing spend.
Read the post →4 Things Your Leasing Staff Should Be Doing
Four habits that separate strong leasing agents from average ones: selling with confidence, focusing on the prospect, listening closely, and following up well.
Read the post →Are You Staging Your Model Apartment?
Home staging basics applied to model apartment units: why neutral styling wins, when to hire professionals, how virtual staging works, and why lighting matters.
Read the post →Creating Community In Your Complex
Holiday events, charity drives and dog days give residents a reason to meet each other, lifting retention and reviews across your apartment community.
Read the post →How Presentable Is Your Property?
Three questions about presentation — how the grounds, the buildings and the interiors look — that decide whether prospects picture themselves living there.
Read the post →Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow’s hierarchy applied to the leasing office: meeting prospects’ needs for area knowledge, decision help, rapport and honest answers about safety.
Read the post →The Pros and Cons of Pet-Friendly Apartments – Part 2
The downsides of pet-friendly policies: property damage that outruns the deposit, liability disputes, and residents quietly exceeding your pet limits.
Read the post →The Pros and Cons of Pet-Friendly Apartments – Part 1
Allowing pets widens your applicant pool, builds community among dog owners and creates new revenue through deposits and monthly pet rent. Part one of two.
Read the post →The Pros and Cons of Apartment Amenities – Part 2
Part two weighs the downsides of amenities: installation and maintenance costs, potential liability disputes, and the risk of a poorly executed feature.
Read the post →The Pros and Cons of Apartment Amenities – Part 1
Part one of a two-part series on apartment amenities: how laundry, gyms and pools attract renters, retain them for longer and help build community onsite.
Read the post →Why Millennials Choose To Rent
Financial pressure, flexibility, access to trendy urban areas, less upkeep and built-in community explain why Millennials prefer renting to buying a home.
Read the post →Things You Should Know About Lease-Ups
What a lease-up period demands of a new community: an experienced team, constant communication with investors and crews, and creative early marketing.
Read the post →The Spots You Miss When Cleaning Your Apartments
The spots residents forget on move-out day: behind the toilet, door frames, baseboards, light switches, around appliances and inside the washing machine.
Read the post →Finding the Right Price for Your Apartments
Pricing apartments too high scares renters off and pricing too low raises doubts. Studying the competition and the local market points to the right number.
Read the post →How A Leasing Company Can Make Your Life Easier, Pt 2
Part two explains ongoing leasing services and walks through the CLASS process, from the start-up meeting and market research to closing leases onsite.
Read the post →How A Leasing Company Can Make Your Life Easier, Pt 1
Part one looks at two benefits of hiring a temporary leasing company: a researched marketing strategy and training that makes your onsite team self-sufficient.
Read the post →How Important is Marketing for Getting Your Place Rented?
Why marketing language, amenities and pricing determine the calibre of renters you attract, and how the right message reaches residents worth keeping.
Read the post →Common Myths About Leasing Companies
Three persistent myths about hiring a leasing company, from local market knowledge to whether an outside team will really respect a property owner’s vision.
Read the post →Residents Who Pay, Residents Who Stay
How pricing your units correctly and partnering with a leasing company help you attract reliable residents who pay their rent on time and renew leases.
Read the post →Important Updates For Your Rentals, Pt 2
Part two of the rental upgrade series covers bathroom remodels, smart home technology, kitchen updates, built-in shelving and wallpaper accent walls too.
Read the post →Important Updates For Your Rentals
Part one of a two-part series on the rental upgrades that pay off most: fresh paint, updated flooring, new appliances and modernized lighting fixtures.
Read the post →How to Make Sure Your Apartments Never Stay Empty
Four practical ways apartment owners can keep units from sitting vacant: move-in specials, pet-friendly policies, added amenities and a leasing company.
Read the post →Leasing Services | Renting to the Right People
Responsible residents protect the value of a property. Why good renters attract more good renters, and how a landlord’s own behavior shapes that cycle.
Read the post →Class Inc. | Websites to Post Your Listing On
Beyond Craigslist: why Zillow, Apartments.com, HotPads, and Homes.com are worth learning if you want your home or apartment listing to reach more renters.
Read the post →Class Inc.| Tips for Utilizing Craigslist for Apartment Marketing
How to optimize an apartment listing on Craigslist: descriptive thumbnail titles, clear photos, bulleted details, and consistent reposting to stay visible.
Read the post →CLASS Inc: Tips for Leasing to the Student Demographic
Seven tips for leasing to college students: keep current residents happy, work with the university, stay flexible on price and dates, and pick durable finishes.
Read the post →Apartment Vacancy Solutions: Reasons to Choose Us
Why property managers outsource leasing to CLASS: tailored plans, on-site research into competing communities, and temporary or permanent leasing assistance.
Read the post →Apartment Vacancy Solutions: Join Us
What life looks like as a CLASS Leasing Specialist: paid travel across the country, hands-on training in Atlanta, benefits, and a positive company culture.
Read the post →Apartment Vacancy Solutions: Our Services For You
An overview of CLASS leasing services and leasing training: how a specialist studies your community and competitors, then builds a plan or trains your team.
Read the post →Apartment Vacancy Solutions: Get Digital
Build a stronger digital presence for your apartment community with a usable website, easy contact forms, social links, SEO, maps, posted hours, and live chat.
Read the post →Apartment Vacancy Solutions: Visuals are Key
Visual marketing drives apartment tours. How bullet points, professional photos, furnished shots, floorplans, video, and clean web layouts fill vacant units.
Read the post →Leasing Services: First Impressions Count
First impressions decide leases. Practical guidance on appearance, grooming, and personal habits for leasing representatives showing apartments and offices.
Read the post →Saying Sorry Is Easier Said Than Done
A delayed Delta flight and the apology email that followed show why every on-site team needs a planned service recovery process for the inevitable pitfall.
Read the post →Marketing to Millennials: 5 Tips to Using Instagram
Five practical Instagram tips for apartment communities marketing to Millennials: vary your posts, engage followers, use hashtags, post often, and design well.
Read the post →Apartment Living: What About Generation X?
Generation X is often overlooked between Millennials and Baby Boomers. Interviews reveal what these renters want from an apartment, community, and location.
Read the post →The Tiny Home Movement: Tiny Apartment, Big Benefits
Why Millennials and Baby Boomers are downsizing into 400-700 square foot apartments: lower costs, a greener footprint, creative decor, and zero maintenance.
Read the post →Creating a Novel Incentive By Justin Coleman
Matching competitor concessions kills their novelty. How to build incentives around what future residents actually want instead of defaulting to free rent.
Read the post →Don’t Lose Your Prospects: Applying Behavioral Economics to Leasing
Scarcity, loss aversion, and the endowment effect explain why prospects hesitate, and how leasing teams can phrase availability and closing lines differently.
Read the post →Leasing Services: Leasing Tips And Suggestions: When Renters Have Issues and Concerns
Listening is the first step when renters raise concerns. Meet early, repeat what you heard, ask how they want it fixed, and set a deadline for the repair.
Read the post →Apartment Vacancy Solultions: Using Facebook as Part of Due Diligence in Tenant Screening
How property managers use public Facebook profiles during tenant screening, plus the fair housing risk of acting on protected-class details you happen to see.
Read the post →Apartment Vacancy Solutions: Leasing Your Rental Property- Always Have A Perfect Photo
Photo tips for leasing a rental property: show the rooms that matter, shoot from many angles, ask residents to tidy up, and open the blinds for more light.
Read the post →Need marketing materials? Canva will help you design them.
Canva gives non-designers a free, web-based way to build flyers, posters, and social posts for an apartment community, using ready-made marketing templates.
Read the post →Why is the NBA Advertising on HGTV?
The NBA advertised on HGTV and Nickelodeon to reach casual fans. Three creative event ideas apartment communities can use to reach new prospect pockets.
Read the post →3 Helpful Tools To Implement At Your Apartment Community
Three leasing tools worth testing at your apartment community: 3D floor plans, a reputation monitoring dashboard, and a text-based assistant for prospects.
Read the post →Apartment Vacancy Solutions: Common Challenges Property Managers Face
Retention, operating costs and lease flexibility are the pressures facing property managers today, and what each one means for your community's bottom line.
Read the post →Apartment Vacancy Solutions: Avoid These Property Management Mistakes
Five costly property management mistakes, from missing management agreements and weak leases to mishandled security deposits and missing move-in forms.
Read the post →Leasing Up: Increase Occupancy With Our Training
Long vacancies may point to a training gap, not a soft market. CLASS offers tailored leasing training covering rapport, phone technique and marketing.
Read the post →Leasing Services: Case Studies Show Our Services Work
Wondering whether outside leasing help actually works? CLASS points to its case study library as evidence and offers a free consultation to talk specifics.
Read the post →Why Rent? 2/2
Part two on the case for renting: no large down payment, freedom to relocate, no property tax bill, and renters insurance that costs far less to maintain.
Read the post →Why Rent?
Four advantages renters have over homeowners, from zero maintenance bills to shared amenities, and how leasing teams can put them to work with prospects.
Read the post →Ad Copy: An Art and A Science
Ten guidelines for writing rental ad copy that gets calls: sharp headlines, key features, location benefits, honest positive language and a clear next step.
Read the post →Class Inc: a Comprehensive Leasing Agent
How CLASS works with a property: a 48 Hour Express Program, competitor visits, market analysis and a tailored marketing plan built around your community.
Read the post →4 Ways To Utilize Snapchat At Your Apartment Community
Snapchat as a leasing tool: collecting usernames, then using sneak previews, follow-up messages, contests and incentives to reach residents and prospects.
Read the post →How to Handle Unhappy Residents
An upset resident in the leasing office is not a crisis. A step-by-step approach to listening, apologizing, agreeing on fixes and following up afterward.
Read the post →Getting Comfortable with ‘No’
Fear of rejection quietly caps closing ratios. How exposure therapy and the Rejection Therapy game can help leasing agents get comfortable hearing ‘no’.
Read the post →Leasing Up is Easy When You Know How to Create a Great Rental Listing
Round out your rental listings with amenities, neighborhood highlights, a headline that sells and descriptive language that makes a unit feel like home.
Read the post →Tips from Our Temporary Leasing Agents on What to Include in Listings
An eye-catching listing attracts better residents. The essentials every rental ad needs, from a strong photo to unit specifications and building details.
Read the post →Take Great Photos With These Tips From Our Leasing Specialists
More guidance on listing photography: which rooms and amenities to capture, how many images to post, and why shooting from many angles pays off every time.
Read the post →Why You Need Great Photos: Professional Apartment Vacancy Solutions
Great listing photos bring prospects through the door. Practical advice on shooting empty apartments, using natural light and knowing when to hire a pro.
Read the post →Leasing Services: How to Keep Good Tenants
Good residents are worth keeping. Why honesty and fast responses to maintenance requests do more to hold on to reliable renters than any other single habit.
Read the post →Utilizing SWOT Analysis
A simple SWOT analysis helps apartment teams see the big picture. How to assess your community's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats each month.
Read the post →Communication is Key
Leasing up new construction depends on tight communication between management and the construction team. Practical tips on meetings, tools and deadlines here.
Read the post →Are You In Need Of Apartment Vacancy Solutions?
CLASS helps property managers fill vacant apartments with proven leasing and marketing techniques, plus team training for new construction and student housing.
Read the post →Apartment Vacancy Solutions: The Solution Youve Been Waiting For
Free rent and waived deposits have not filled your vacancies. Short on-site training from CLASS gives your team a proven method for lifting occupancy.
Read the post →Smoke Free Community: Good or Bad Idea?
Prospects increasingly ask whether smoking is allowed. Going smoke free can cut turnover costs, reduce complaints and become a selling point in itself.
Read the post →No Upgrades? No Problem!
Your comps renovated and you did not. Four ways to sell an un-upgraded apartment: find your edge, stage a mini-model, price the math, renovate case by case.
Read the post →Will There Be An Oversupply Of Product In Student Housing?
New student housing keeps arriving fully amenitized. What happens to communities built ten or fifteen years ago, and will the market absorb all that product?
Read the post →Small Leasing Tip to Overcome Big Objections By Justin Coleman
Old cabinets and dated appliances do not have to cost you a lease. Name the drawback first, frame it as a positive, and prepare three answers for each one.
Read the post →Shop Your Comps! By Danny Soule
Renters now shop more communities than ever. Shopping your competitors builds market knowledge that turns a leasing consultant into a trusted advisor.
Read the post →Communication is Key By Kristi McMillin
Residents post angry reviews about odd renewal increases because nobody explained revenue management software. Communicate the why and avoid the backlash.
Read the post →Why Your Tenants Are Leaving | CLASS Leasing Services
Resident turnover is part of the game, but poor customer service and an unloved apartment drive much of it. Fix those issues and residents stay longer.
Read the post →Marketing in the Age of Nearly Perfect Information - By Justin Williams
Consumer review sites now shape apartment decisions more than advertising. How to invite reviews, protect a property’s reputation and learn from criticism.
Read the post →The Power of a Checklist By Kristi McMillin
Surgeons and pilots rely on checklists, and so does CLASS. See how a 48 hour checklist and a follow-up checklist keep leasing basics from being overlooked.
Read the post →Airbnb. Good for travelers, but bad for the market? By: Justin Coleman
Airbnb is a bargain for travelers and extra income for owners, but in tight markets it may pull long-term rentals off the board and push rental rates higher.
Read the post →CLASS Product Review: ApartmentList.com
A CLASS review of ApartmentList.com: its mobile-first search, pay-per-tour pricing, geo-tech lead attribution and what it all means for cost per lease.
Read the post →5 Ways To Increase International Student Leases By Justin Coleman
Five tactics for student housing communities that want more international student leases, from multilingual websites and staff shirts to cultural events.
Read the post →10 Blog Topics for Residential Property Managers by Patrick Venturella
Ten practical blog topics for residential property managers, from special events and neighborhood guides to resident interviews, maintenance tips and humor.
Read the post →CLASS RESULTS: SUCCESSFUL REHAB DESPITE REPUTATION ISSUE
A case study of a 230-unit class B community whose rehab investment was not converting into leases, and the occupancy and revenue gains CLASS delivered.
Read the post →Best of the Best: The Power of Positivity
CLASS believes attitude controls outcome. Two leasing specialists show how a positive mental attitude produces results on senior and low-activity properties.
Read the post →Tough Property? No such thing to a CLASS Leasing Specialist!
CLASS is only called in when a property has leasing problems. Two leasing specialists show how attitude and persistence turn a difficult assignment around.
Read the post →Resident Retention: As Easy as 300-200-100
A simple resident retention routine: knock on every resident’s door 300, 200 and 100 days before their lease expires to show management genuinely cares.
Read the post →Making the Most of Apartment Photos By Kristi McMillin
Why staged listing photos beat empty rooms, and how virtual staging lets a community show a furnished apartment without buying a single piece of furniture.
Read the post →Apartment Leasing: How To Know How To Close Your Prospect By: Justin Coleman
Hard sell or soft sell? How to read which approach a prospect needs, why rapport decides the answer, and why you must always ask for the lease at the end.
Read the post →The Best of the Best
Two CLASS Leasing Specialists recognized for exceptional work: Bryan Baer’s leasing results and Coty Edwards’ client relationships on assignment in Chicago.
Read the post →CLASS Response to $60,000 Fair Housing Penalty By Kristi McMillin
A $61,500 Fair Housing penalty over a single question shows why consistency in what you ask every prospect, and documenting it, protects your community.
Read the post →When The Power Goes Out! Leasing Tips….
A shopped tour during an internet outage exposes three fixable habits: leaning on technology, off-season photos, and offering too many floor plan options.
Read the post →Training Tip: Focus on Role-Playing By Kristi McMillin
Why role-playing belongs at the center of leasing training, plus four tips for making your practice sessions realistic, useful and genuinely challenging.
Read the post →Craigslist Changes It’s Rules: by Justin Williams
Craigslist banned embedded images and live links for listings. Why the change matters less than you think, and how to make your posts stand out anyway.
Read the post →Preparing for Leasing Appointments By Kristi McMillin
The research a leasing agent should do between the phone call and the tour: where prospects live now, why they are moving, and where they currently work.
Read the post →Customer Service Trumps Amenities by Justin Coleman
With new communities opening nearby, customer service is the one advantage an established property fully controls, and improving it costs nothing at all.
Read the post →Get More Out Of Your Leasing Team!
Four tools to get more from your onsite hires: assessment software, conversion and closing ratios, ongoing retraining, and shuffling your leasing staff.
Read the post →Apartment Leasing Tip: Effective Follow-Up By Justin Coleman
Five follow-up methods every leasing agent should use after a tour: the phone call, email, handwritten note, text message and the well-timed workplace visit.
Read the post →GAINING A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE BY KRISTI MCMILLIN
Amazon’s drone delivery plan as a lesson in differentiation, plus six practical steps a property can take to build a real competitive advantage over comps.
Read the post →Apartment Marketing Tip: Keeping Up With Craigslist By Justin Coleman
Craigslist dropped HTML ads, so sources must be tracked by hand. Ask prospects which ad they recall to learn which titles, wording and posting times work.
Read the post →THE WORK DOESN’T END AFTER A SUCCESSFUL IPO BY KRISTI MCMILLIN
What Twitter’s post-IPO push to engage new users can teach leasing teams about probing for prospect needs and turning that interest into signed leases.
Read the post →Creating Unique Ancillary income
Inspiration from La Guardia’s iPad terminal: low-cost resident services that customize the living experience and open up new ancillary income streams.
Read the post →Get Creative on Amenities for Today’s Digital Student By Matthew Sheasby
Guest blogger Matthew Sheasby on why unlimited technical support may be the amenity that matters most to digital-native residents in student housing today.
Read the post →Apartment Leasing Tip Of The Day By Justin Coleman
Two guest card techniques for leasing calls: how to ask for a phone number so prospects give it, and how to use an area code to build genuine rapport.
Read the post →What You Can Learn From a Gum Commercial By Kristi McMillin
What a Wrigley gum campaign teaches apartment communities about replacing flat feature lists with emotional benefits that make prospects connect and lease.
Read the post →Responding to a Negative Facebook Post
How to handle a negative comment on your community’s Facebook page: thank the poster, take the high road, and turn the complaint into a visible public win.
Read the post →Apartment Residents Complaining? Here’s The Top Ten Things They’re Saying: By Justin Coleman
The top ten apartment resident complaints from a J Turner Research study, and how attentive onsite teams can prevent most of them before they ever start.
Read the post →An Apartment Shopping Experience by Kristi McMillin
Five tours, almost no questions asked and a single follow-up. What a discouraging apartment search reveals about greeting, personalizing and follow up.
Read the post →3 Ways to Use Vine and Instagram at Your Property
Short video gave apartment marketers a new follow-up tool. Three playful ways to use six-second clips with prospects, residents and your on-site team.
Read the post →When It Comes To Apartments And Millennials, Know These Key Points: By Justin Coleman
Millennials marry later, trade square footage for location and hesitate to buy a home. What that means for communities competing for their signatures.
Read the post →Apartment Amenities…What Do Residents Use? By Justin Coleman
Racquetball courts and putting greens sit empty while pet areas and Wi-Fi earn their space. A leasing view of the amenities that residents actually use.
Read the post →THINK BEYOND THE WALLS OF AN APARTMENT BY MICHAEL COAKLEY
Granite and resort pools only reach part of the student market. A consultant argues that privacy, technology, community and services add far more value.
Read the post →Not seeing results from marketing? You may be doing it wrong. By Kristi McMillin
Throwing marketing at the wall wastes money and morale. How target marketing and segmentation help you reach baby boomers, Generation X and 20-somethings.
Read the post →Can Cause Marketing Work In Multifamily?
Renters increasingly choose brands that back a cause. Here are three ways to build charitable giving into a community marketing plan without a large budget.
Read the post →Apartment Application Of The Week by Justin Coleman
A smartphone app measures a room by holding the phone to each wall. How exact dimensions make a tour more memorable and answer objections much faster.
Read the post →“WOW” Apartment Prospects With Your Service By Justin Coleman
A brand new community no longer leases itself. Since you cannot change the building, compete on the one thing you control completely: customer service.
Read the post →How can your leasing team learn from JCPenney’s failure? By Kristi McMillin
A retailer dropped coupons and discounts, and revenue fell twenty percent. What price framing, urgency and the need to win teach apartment leasing teams.
Read the post →5 Tips For Converting Phone Calls to Walk-Ins.
Most callers already researched you online and just want to confirm rent and hours. Five habits that turn a quick phone inquiry into a tour on your site.
Read the post →Multifamily Insurance Marketplace Update
Wind and hail deductibles, roof valuations and law and ordinance limits are all shifting. What apartment owners should review before renewing a policy.
Read the post →CLASS Reports From the Frontlines. 2013 By-the-Bed Student Property Leasing Trends by Kristi McMillin
Notes from a by-the-bed lease-up at Texas A&M: students paying their own rent, demanding shorter leases and signing the entire lease online, sight unseen.
Read the post →APARTMENT LEASING TIPS AND STRATEGIES: DON’T STOP THE CRAIGSLIST ADS! BY KRISTI MCMILLIN
An industry article said to abandon Craigslist. Here is the case for keeping those free listings, drawn from real lease-up results at a class A community.
Read the post →When It Comes To Tracking Apartment Marketing, Get The Specific Source! By Justin Coleman
Drive-by, online and property website are not real traffic sources. How to ask better questions so every lead points to the marketing spend that earned it.
Read the post →RESIDENT REVIEWS: WHO’S LOOKING AT THEM, ANYWAY? BY KRISTI MCMILLIN
Renters read reviews long before they ever call. How to ask residents for feedback, earn positive ratings and respond well when a negative post appears.
Read the post →Don’t forget the parents!
Students pick the community, but parents write the rent check. Three practical ways to reach the decision maker who was not in the room during the tour.
Read the post →LIHTC properties will affect the Multifamily market in 2013. By James Vanar
A wave of low-income housing tax credit properties is reaching the end of its restriction periods, and HUD's faster approvals are reshaping the market.
Read the post →Are you ready for the Facebook Graph Search? by James King
Facebook's social search engine changed how renters discover communities. Practical ways to grow page likes so your property surfaces for their friends.
Read the post →3 Tips For A Smooth Apartment Management Change by Justin Coleman
A resident's view of a management transition gone wrong, and three ways an incoming management company can inform, stay transparent and earn goodwill.
Read the post →Leasing Tips: Avoid The Price Question
Most callers already know your rents. Three ways to deflect the price question and steer the conversation toward value selling and rapport building instead.
Read the post →December Apartment Leasing Tips
Most leasing decisions involve someone who never toured. How to identify and win over the roommates, partners and parents who influence the final choice.
Read the post →Disruptive Apartment Marketing: 3 Great Examples
Traditional apartment marketing blends in. Three disruptive campaigns, branded toilet paper, odd imagery and a burrito bike, that got renters' attention.
Read the post →5 Pros To Using Revenue Management Software In Multifamily By Justin Coleman
Five site-level benefits of revenue management software in multifamily, from empowering leasing consultants to retiring concessions and easing follow-up.
Read the post →Halloween Fun Facts, from Stephanie Footer
A quick roundup of Halloween trivia, from pumpkin production and candy corn history to how much Americans really spend on costumes, chocolate and candy.
Read the post →10 Tips For Posting Apartment Craigslist Ads By Justin Coleman
Ten practical tips for apartment Craigslist ads: unique titles, standout formatting, photos, pricing choices, posting times, keywords and consistency.
Read the post →Hiring Generation Y: IQ vs EQ
When hiring recent graduates, emotional intelligence predicts workplace success better than raw intellect. What to ask candidates during the interview.
Read the post →Exploring Risk Exposure in Multi-Family Developments.
An insurance view of three risks apartment owners overlook: data breach and network security, tenant discrimination and employment practices liability.
Read the post →Multi-Family Site Selection Due Diligence
A civil engineer's checklist for multifamily site selection: utilities, transportation, topography, zoning and master-planned community considerations.
Read the post →Proactive Apartment Leasing
Being proactive turned a struggling student property around. The outreach, merchant partnerships and campus marketing that lifted occupancy to 90 percent.
Read the post →What Do Generation Y Renters Want? I’ll Tell You… By Justin Coleman
A Generation Y renter explains what he looks for in an apartment: square footage, price, cell and internet connectivity, and above all else, location.
Read the post →Marketing Trends of 2012 (Updated) by Justin Coleman
Revisiting a year of apartment marketing predictions: video tours, community videos, QR codes, Google +1, Facebook pages, Twitter and texting for follow-up.
Read the post →Property Taxes: The Downside of an Up-Market
A hot multifamily market invites higher property tax assessments. Why owners should review assessor records and consider a local property tax consultant.
Read the post →Handling a Challenging Assignment
Difficult properties are the norm in third-party leasing. How two CLASS Leasing Specialists turned slow-starting assignments into steady lease counts.
Read the post →C’mon Man!
Three habits that quietly cost apartment communities leases: hiding market rent behind specials, skipping a Google Place Page and neglecting show units.
Read the post →The Best of the Best
Attention to detail separates good leasing from great. Two CLASS Leasing Specialists show how small gestures and reframed objections lead to more leases.
Read the post →Your Apartment, Your Style
A guest post on making a rental feel like home: choosing a floor plan, painting the walls, refreshing your furniture and carving out space for your hobbies.
Read the post →The best of the best
Why a single CLASS Leasing Specialist's results ripple out across the whole company, plus recognition for two colleagues who earned client trust this week.
Read the post →The New Google+ Local: Your Property’s New First Impression
Google+ Local puts reviews, scores and resident photos front and center in search results, making online reputation management essential for every property.
Read the post →5 Unique Way to Follow Up With Your Prospects
Longer renter search times make follow-up critical. Five tools worth adding: re-targeting ads, workplace visits, testimonials, Facebook reach and texting.
Read the post →Best of the Best
Recognizing two CLASS Leasing Specialists whose outreach marketing and organization turned around a Chicago community and a challenging Texas student lease-up.
Read the post →The perfect compliment to interim financing
Bridge loans secure underperforming assets but leave owners exposed during lease-up. Contract leasing defers the risky hire and accelerates absorption.
Read the post →Making A Model Apartment Feel Like Home
Prospects decide within 30 seconds of walking into a model. Practical staging advice on furniture scale, decor pricing and why fake food can backfire.
Read the post →The future of Multifamily
Thousands of unfinished subdivisions sit ready for a housing recovery. If Millennials stop shunning ownership, multifamily could face serious oversupply.
Read the post →Want to effectively reach out to prospects and residents? Text them.
Text messages get opened far more often than email. How communities can build an opt-in text database and add texting to their prospect follow-up routine.
Read the post →It’s time to increase your rents!
Price is not the top factor renters care about, yet leasing teams keep leading with it. Why owners should rebuild the value sell and push rents with confidence.
Read the post →Student Housing: What Do Students and Parents Want?
An NAA survey of students and parents reveals what each group looks for in college housing, from word of mouth referrals to staff, safety and fast internet.
Read the post →Apartment Lease-up Case Study
A Jacksonville class A lease-up in a saturated market: how limiting shown units, tightening hold terms and cutting specials lifted qualified walk-in traffic.
Read the post →Speed Roommating
Speed roommating pairs renters who have a room with renters who need one, a low-cost event idea for filling hard-to-lease two and three bedroom floor plans.
Read the post →Let’s get personal
Mass e-blasts get ignored. Thirty sincere, personalized emails drew a 70% response rate and proved that relationships still drive multifamily business.
Read the post →ShowMyProperty.tv
Why every apartment community needs a property video, and how a professionally produced tour can lift marketing reach far beyond a simple walkthrough clip.
Read the post →Lease-up in 60 days: 5 Easy Steps to Quickly Increase Your Occupancy.
Before slashing rents, owners should fix the basics: a real web presence, online reputation, a tight tour route and show units, and disciplined follow-up.
Read the post →Top 10 Highest and Lowest Net Operating Expenses Cities
Where is it most and least expensive to operate an apartment community? NAA survey rankings of the ten highest and ten lowest net operating expense cities.
Read the post →Looking To Boost Leasing Numbers and Resident Retention?
A community raffle rewards prospects and current residents at the same time, lifting tours, on-time rent payments, referrals and marketing visibility.
Read the post →Resident Retention Strategies
New move-ins mean little if residents keep leaving. Four retention strategies that help on-site teams keep the occupancy pendulum swinging the right way.
Read the post →Apartment Bathroom Wish List
Renters have strong opinions about apartment bathrooms. A survey of over a million residents reveals the features they love, the ones they want fixed.
Read the post →How Should A Facebook Page Be Used For An Apartment Community?
How an apartment community should really use a Facebook Page: engage residents, strengthen property SEO, and keep an 80/20 mix of general to property posts.
Read the post →Generation Y and Apartment Leasing
What Generation Y renters expect from an apartment: fast included internet, online communication and rent payment, and a location close to everything.
Read the post →Apartment Leasing Follow-Up
A firsthand account of one Atlanta community's relentless follow-up, and why most properties still neglect the practice that most affects their occupancy.
Read the post →The Excitement of the First Day of Leasing
A reflection on remembering your first lease, the excitement a new leasing specialist brings to the office, and whether that feeling should ever fade away.
Read the post →RentMineOnline
How tiered resident referral incentives work, and why RentMineOnline extends referrals into residents' social networks and email contacts automatically.
Read the post →What Apartment Renters Want...
Findings from an Apartments.com renter survey: why people move, how far ahead they search, what matters most in their criteria and where they look online.
Read the post →Effective Follow-Up
Why skipping follow-up wastes hot leads, and how few leasing agents actually do it well, plus three outside guides to following up with prospects properly.
Read the post →Apartments.com
Apartments.com pledged a dollar to the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless for every new Facebook like, aiming to raise $25,000 to help end homelessness.
Read the post →Bee Creek Apartments
A look at Bee Creek Apartments in Branson, Missouri, a new luxury community with resort-style amenities and a drawing for a free apartment for a year.
Read the post →Mid-America Apartments
Mid-America Apartments' Open Arms Foundation provides free temporary housing for families displaced while a loved one receives medical treatment away from home.
Read the post →Atlanta Apartment Association
The Atlanta Apartment Association runs the Can Can Ball, the largest food drive in the country, raising thousands for the Atlanta Community Food Bank.
Read the post →Lane Management, LLC
Atlanta-based Lane Management gives back through an annual food drive, local partnerships and the nonprofit Community Life Concepts for low-income residents.
Read the post →Aspen Heights
How student housing developer Aspen Heights turns every signed lease into housing and education for people living in severe poverty through its Africa program.
Read the post →15 Holiday Ideas For Apartment Communities
Fifteen resident event and outreach ideas to keep apartment traffic moving through the cold winter months instead of writing off the slow leasing season.
Read the post →Social Media Marketing
Why every business benefits from a free social media presence, and where the growth of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn may be heading in the years ahead.
Read the post →Importance Of A Positive Attitude In Apartment Leasing
Why a positive office atmosphere helps prospects picture themselves at home, plus dozens of real morale boosters shared by onsite teams across the country.
Read the post →Apartment Amenities And Leasing
Apartment Guide's ranking of the top 15 amenities renters search for, where in-unit washers and pet policies beat out fitness centers and swimming pools.
Read the post →Facebook Page Tips
Twenty practical steps for building an apartment community Facebook Page that actually gets seen, from posting habits to vanity URLs and cross-promotion.
Read the post →Apartment Leasing And Locators
How apartment communities can build working relationships with locators through office visits, open houses, desk-reference frames and consistent follow-up.
Read the post →Keeping A Positive Mental Attitude
Ten tips from Rentsoda's Jim Baumgartner for beating the midweek slump: change your attitude, practice gratitude, live in the now and be kind to yourself.
Read the post →Facebook By The Numbers
A short Friday link post pointing readers to a Mashable infographic of Facebook statistics, with a note of amazement at how the numbers just keep climbing.
Read the post →Taking “Going Green” To The Next Level
Post Properties installed Atlanta's first multifamily electric vehicle charging stations, a sign of where green amenities in apartment communities are headed.
Read the post →Low Marketing Budget? Go The Guerrilla Route
What guerrilla marketing actually means, and how apartment communities on small budgets can use creative, low-cost tactics to get their name into the community.
Read the post →First Impressions: Don’t Blow It!
First impressions form in seconds — for people and for properties. Why curb appeal, a tidy leasing office and a polished staff decide a prospect's opinion.
Read the post →The Model: More Than Just A Staged Apartment
Choosing, placing and decorating a model apartment: how many to stage, which unit to use, and how to furnish it so prospects can picture living there.
Read the post →14 Steps Towards Zero Resident Turnover
Fourteen practical ideas for cutting apartment resident turnover, from maintenance and lease terms to community building, targeting and hardship programs.
Read the post →Leasing To Senior Citizens
What leasing teams should know about age-restricted senior communities, the misconceptions about reaching seniors, and why this market keeps on growing today.
Read the post →Price Objection
Why a renter's price objection is usually about value rather than cost — and how raising perceived value at your community can raise occupancy along with it.
Read the post →Top 50 Branded Facebook Pages
A look at Ignite Social Media's ranking of the 50 biggest branded Facebook pages, and what smaller businesses can learn from how those brands engage their fans.
Read the post →One Call Move
One Call Move sets up utilities and other home services for movers at no charge — a free concierge that began as a help for soldiers returning home from war.
Read the post →What Apartment Renters Want
Findings from an Apartments.com renter survey: why people move, how far ahead they search, and why cost and online resources dominate the apartment hunt today.
Read the post →LinkedIn Statistics
A snapshot of LinkedIn's user base, household income, company pages and IPO numbers, plus a look at the newcomer aiming to challenge the professional network.
Read the post →Apartment Leasing With Pride
Two shopped Dallas communities show how much a leasing agent's pride and enthusiasm shape a prospect's impression — and whether the tour ever ends in a lease.
Read the post →“Social Twist” To Apartment Marketing
Why apartment communities should look past Facebook alone, and how a word-of-mouth expansion tool like Social Twist can spread a property's brand much further.
Read the post →Creating A More Creative Ad On Craigslist For Your Community
How to build better Craigslist ads for an apartment community using the TinyMCE HTML editor and Photobucket to include more and much larger listing photos.
Read the post →Apartment Leasing: The Right Way
A daily checklist for leasing specialists: clean tour routes, fresh model apartments, Craigslist ads, Facebook posts, follow-up calls and closing every tour.
Read the post →Unique Way Of Engaging Your Online Traffic
How apartment communities can use live chat through ContactAtOnce! to greet ILS visitors in real time and turn more online lookers into scheduled tours.
Read the post →Facebook Smart Lists
A breakdown of Facebook's Improved Friends List — Smart Lists, Close Friends, Acquaintances and Restricted — and how closely it echoes Google+ Circles.
Read the post →Facebook and Twitter: By The Numbers
A 2011 roundup of Facebook and Twitter user counts, valuations and growth figures, with commentary on how far the two social media giants could still climb.
Read the post →Marketing Trends For 2012
Eleven marketing ideas for apartment communities, from video tours and QR codes to text customer service, handwritten notes, live chat and mobile websites.
Read the post →Quick Facebook Page Tip
Give your community’s Facebook page a title that sells rather than just the property name, and choose carefully: past 100 likes you can no longer change it.
Read the post →Separate Yourself From The Competition
Most leasing calls tell prospects nothing. Ask what they want in a home, then highlight the features you have that match it, and your community stands out.
Read the post →Increasing Craigslist Leads
Post several Craigslist ads a day, write titles that stand out on a crowded page, and always attach photos, because listings without them simply get ignored.
Read the post →A quick tip to get prospects in the door
Schedule tours at quarter past and quarter to the hour. The odd time creates urgency, reads as an exact commitment, and gets more prospects to actually show.
Read the post →Marketing Your Community To Students
Five ways to fill a student property: show school spirit, reward resident referrals, advertise year-round, partner with the university, and get involved.
Read the post →Taking The High Road
Ignoring negative apartment reviews leaves your online reputation to strangers. Respond to praise and complaints alike, and never start a war of words.
Read the post →10 Things About Steve Jobs
Reflections on Steve Jobs stepping down as Apple’s CEO, and an article revealing surprising details about the man behind world-changing consumer products.
Read the post →The power of Social Proof
Social proof explains why renters trust other people’s opinions over advertising, and why monitoring what gets posted about your community really matters.
Read the post →World’s Skinniest House
A Polish home just 52 inches wide puts apartment size objections in perspective, and hints that extremely small living spaces may find real demand anyway.
Read the post →Why You Need A LinkedIn Profile
LinkedIn is your online business card. Ten reasons every working person should keep a profile, from finding past coworkers to being found for a new job.
Read the post →What’s Your Purpose In Social Media?
A HubSpot study suggests that posting more often does not guarantee greater reach, yet you will earn no reach at all if your social accounts sit idle.
Read the post →Utilizing Space
Prospects call apartments too small before they even see them. Square footage matters less than how the space is used, as small-apartment tours plainly show.
Read the post →Twitter Party
What a Twitter party is, why an apartment community would throw one, and the promotions, sponsors and prizes that turn virtual buzz into real leasing traffic.
Read the post →Tiger Woods And Negative Reviews?
How to answer online reviews of your apartment community: thank the positive commenters, respond graciously to critics, and consider a creative video reply.
Read the post →QR Code Creativity
QR codes get customers actively engaged with your marketing, and they need not be plain squares. One property put scannable codes on large sidewalk stickers.
Read the post →G+ Versus Facebook
A 2011 side-by-side look at Google+ and Facebook: user counts, friend grouping, news feeds, chat and business pages, and which one could win the long run.
Read the post →Craigslist Mobile App
Craigslist has no mobile app of its own, so third-party apps like CraigsPro+ fill the gap and make the apartment search far easier for renters on phones.
Read the post →CLASS Leasing: Additional Craigslist Tips
A quick follow-up rounding up extra Craigslist posting tips for apartments, plus a reminder that renter response varies by city so you should test many ads.
Read the post →Let’s solve your vacancy
Tell us about the community and where occupancy sits, and we will tell you what a deployment would look like.