Georgia Techies Dating.....

For those of you not affiliated with either the University of Georgia or the Georgia Institute of Technology, this Saturday's football game between the two bitter rivals is commonly known as "Good Old Fashion Hate."

In the spirit of such things, I bring you this gem. The Georgia Tech Class of 76' Where are they now video......



"Type A I'm not, comfortable, caring, and concerned about a relationship... I am"

Don't ignore Apartmentratings.com

With every passing day, the internet becomes a larger decision making tool for today's consumer. One of the most widely used decision making tools is a consumer testimonial. In the apartment industry these testimonials are most commonly found on the site Apartmentratings.com

The well documented problem with this site is that it can quickly become a vehicle for upset residents to vent about their problems. While some issues posted on this site are accurate and honest, many are the result of the resident being evicted, or fined for breaking the rules of their lease. While these posts seem quite obvious to anyone in the industry, prospective residents who use this site to decide which communities to call home, may not be able to differentiate between honest feedback and eviction rage.

Jeffrey Lee, from NAAHQ.com has his take on it here. "When renter Candice Chung was deciding between two apartments in Arlington, Va., she turned to past residents at both communities to help her make her choice. On the Web site ApartmentRatings.com, she found a network of renters from both communities sharing compliments and complaints about their experiences. One community had 100 percent positive ratings, with commenters mentioning specific things they liked about the community, such as its friendly management. The other, a commenter alleged, had rats.
“After that, I was really adamant about getting the apartment with high ratings,” Chung says. “I liked that the management left responses to the comments, like ‘Thank you for your comment.’ ” The responses reassured her that management was responsive, she says. As to the rats: “How would I ever have known that otherwise?” she asks."



The question on everyone's mind is how do we manage our property's online reputation? It is silly to ignore and just assume that prospective residents won't react to our prior residents beef with management. Studies show that not only do consumers take notice, they are using this information to make a decision.

The answer is to be proactive with ApartmentRatings.com The first way to be proactive is to have a the manager pay the fee and provide feedback to all post (both positive and negative). When someone sees that management is taking an active roll in addressing issues at an apartment, it shows that the manager cares about the community.

The second way to combat this problem is to have happy residents post good things about the community. Anytime a happy resident comes into the office, we should have Apartmentratings.com pulled up and ready for posting. We should then invite the resident to share his or her experiences on the site. Just asking someone to post later does not insure that it gets done. We must already have the site pulled up, and then we must ask them to take 2 minutes to write a brief testimonial while we make them a cup of coffee or get them a refreshment.

These two easy steps can do wonders for your property's online reputation. If we can surround the negative comments, by many positive comments, it shows the prospect that the negative comment was left by a disgruntled tenant who may have been facing fines or eviction due to their inability to follow the rules of their lease. Which as we all know, is typically the case. The bottom line is this, don't ignore your property's Apartmentratings. While the real reasons for most negative postings are very apparent to us, the prospect takes them to heart.

RIP UGA VII

The University of Georgia's beloved mascot Uga died yesterday of a heart attack.
RIP Uga VII.

Marketing to parents on a college property

Surfing the blogosphere today I came across an interesting story on NAA's blog. It is titled College Enrollment Is Up, But Is Student Housing?

The post talks about the countercylical nature of community colleges during a down economy. Basically, 4 year institutions have seen a plateau, or enrollment stagnation, while commuter schools and community colleges have seen a drastic increase in enrollment. The reason is that many people view the slow job market as a time to further education.

The problem this poses for the Multifamily Housing Industry is that the majority of community college students live at home with Mom and Dad. That is almost 3.5 million students who are living at home.

Maybe the secret is to market to the parents. I'm sure that Mom and Dad dream of those empty nest days, and they would love to get their kids out of the house. Rather then flyering the local community college, how about sending a direct mailer to the student's home and have it addressed to their parents? Have the post card talk about how economical by-the-bed leasing can be, and how for just 400$/month they can get their kids out of the house.

This is a great post from Copyblogger titled What My Five-Year-Old Taught Me About Marketing.
This is a great read as it really dives into the underlying meaning of some of today's advertising.
Here is a section of the post that really grabbed my attention

Most advertising is based around associative conditioning, which is taking something that you already like and pairing it with something that they want you to like. Or with someone you already like, in the form of a celebrity endorsement.
You may be standing up and denying angrily that you don't fall for any of those things, but billions of advertiser dollars say either that you’re quite unique or that you’re mistaken. Maybe you don’t come out and say, “Ooh, Tiger Woods. I want that!” but it happens anyway — deep down, at the inner child level.

Everytime I look at a property website and I don't see people in the pictures I wonder why the Multifamily Industry doesn't believe in associative conditioning. The best marketing minds in the world subscribe to this way of thinking. I would bet my bottom dollar that they are right.

Instead of just showing a playground, why not show kids playing on the swings? Instead of just showing the pool, why not show some beautiful people enjoying it on a nice summer day? Instead of just showing the model, why not show a happy family cooking dinner together with the family dog smiling in the background?

Our marketing material should not just show the amenities, but how the amenities are going to ad value to your life. If Fortune 500 companies spend millions of dollars a year advertising this way, I think it's a concept worth considering.

My new favorite site

If your like me, you have certain sites or blogs you visit everyday in addition to checking your facebook and email. Here is another to ad to the mix. It's just a little tidbit of useless information that could act as a great conversation starter.

I give you Learn Something New Everyday!

A letter to the Leasing Specialist

Let’s do everything the right way this weekend. Let’s get to work 20 minutes early tomorrow morning. Let’s walk the tour route and make sure no one partied too hard last night and left trash in the bushes. Let’s make sure there are no spider webs in the breeze way in front of the model. Let’s make sure that all the lights are on and that the model looks, smells, and sounds like a place you would want to call home.

Let's get our balloons out early, and let's make them BIG. Let's spend 5 extra minutes and make a balloon bouquet so big that when kids drive by they are going to beg their mothers to stop because they think the guy from Pixar’s UP works there.



Let’s answer the phone on the first ring and have the biggest, goofiest, friendliest smile on our face. Let’s tell the prospect that we are “SO HAPPY THEY CALLED! because they JUST FOUND THEIR NEW HOME!!!!!!”

Let’s fill out our guest card completely. Let’s ask the extra questions like “what did you type into Google?” Let’s find out why our prospect is moving?, where do they work?, what are their hobbies?, and what is important to them?

Let's research their business online and know what they do for a living. Let’s have some treats ready for their kids and swing by the play ground so they can “test out the slide”.



Let’s remember to sell the features, not the special. Sell the value, not the concession. Sell the lifestyle, not the reduced rent.

Let’s look them in the eye and tell them it’s ok to smile because they are finally home!

Let’s track our traffic right after they leave the office. Let’s write a thank-you note while the prospect is fresh in our mind.

Let's visit the restaurant across the street and drop off some flyers and tell the manager that you will spread the word about their happy hour special.

Let's flyer 100 cars and refresh Craigslist 3 times. And let’s think outside the box when we post the ads and put something up that will catch everyone’s eyes.

Let’s tell the staff how much we love working with them and how vital they are to our success.

Let’s thank the maintenance crew for getting our units ready.

Let’s have a great weekend!

A new comp...

Since the housing bubble burst, the Multifamily Housing industry has had to deal with a new competitor: The rental home.
While renting a home has always been an alternative to renting an apartment for many prospective tenants, the economic downturn coupled with the depreciation of home values has led to many IRO's(Independent Real-Estate Owners) leasing their homes at well below market rates.
This well documented trend has taken an even newer twist. Fannie Mae just announced that they will now rent foreclosed homes to the borrowers in order to allow the family to stay in their own home.
Fannie will benefit because they can sit on the asset as opposed to re-releasing it into an already saturated market. The former home owner can benefit because they do not have to incur a moving cost while money is tight.
What does it all means for the Multifamily Industry? We have a new competitor in Fannie Mae.
Many apartment owners have been hedging on the Foreclosure market to drive a whole new demographic of renter in the door. This will be something interesting to keep an eye on.

You can see the whole article here

For the heck of it.

I was just sent this via email. Thought I would share
Who said history isn't fun


The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be. Here are some facts about the 1500s: Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and they still smelled pretty good by June. However, since they were starting to smell brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the Bath water!"

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying "It's raining cats and dogs."

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying, "Dirt poor." The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance-way. Hence: a thresh hold.

Getting quite an education, aren't you? In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme: Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old.

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could, "bring home the bacon." They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat.

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the upper crust.

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial.

They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a wake.

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift.) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be, saved by the bell or was considered a dead ringer...

And that's the truth...Now, whoever said History was boring!

Resident Retention Part 2

Good afternoon everyone. I truly hope that everyone had a safe and enjoyable Halloween over the weekend. Today I'd like to talk a little bit about resident retention and some ideas that could be implemented to help the success of this vital part of our industry.

Currently, even in our economy, volunteering is up all the way across the board in regards to age groups. People are wanting to give back and are wanting to help others. How about organizing a bi-monthly volunteer activity for those residents that want to participate? This sets you apart from other communities as a place that cares, not only about its residents, but also about the community and environment that surrounds it.

Setting up a "committee" of sorts that your interested residents could join would help. Efforts for community involvement don't need to entirely rest upon your staff. Ask for resident involvement. People want something to do and want to feel like they belong somewhere.

Lets try to think of ideas and ways that can make our residents not see us only as an apartment community but see us as neighborhoods and as home. Because if they feel they belong, if they feel like they're home, then they will continue to stay. And who wouldn't want a community full of residents that want to be involved? Who wouldn't want a community full of residents who have fallen in love with their home?