CLASS Leasing: Buying And Selling

Here is a great video that breaks down the process of buying and selling, in terms of what goes through a prospects mind before a purchase is made. It relates to any field and market, because regardless of the situation, we are all buyers and sellers at some point in time.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: MUST READ

This article from Multifamily Insiders is definitely one of the better Craigslist tips write-ups I have come across and does a great job outlining all of the key points that goes into posting ads. The goal in posting on Craigslist is to be seen and drive traffic to your property, but these two things can only be accomplished through the creative work a user puts into their listing. The title I used for this blog is an example of how effective a simple title change can be, which is what every person that searches on Craigslist sees first. Therefore, get creative with your listings and see how people are postings titles already and do your best to make your title unique. Have fun with your postings, because always remember that Craigslist is completely free!

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Website Redesigning

Redesigning a company website can be quite the daunting task, especially in terms of obtaining views and relevancy for the website. Search engine optimization has to be taken into account when developing a website, because if the website cannot be found when searched, then the money used for designing the website is money down the drain. Designing a website is a science in itself, but Multifamily Insiders offers some great tips to consider when developing a website in order to get the most bang for your buck.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Embedding Social Media

I have written numerous blogs about social media and it is no surprise that social media is the waive of the future for marketing in general, especially in the apartment industry. Joining the endless list of social media websites is only a small piece to the puzzle when it comes to utilizing social media and the many benefits that it offers. Once an apartment community page is created in all of these websites, then it is every person's responsibility to spread the word about these pages. By letting as many people know as possible about these social websites, an apartment community can take advantage of the already established customer touchpoints to increase the popularity of an apartment community. Here are two great articles courtesy of Freshnetworks and Apartmentfinder that harp on the importance of embedding social media.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Foursquare

With the many social networking websites that there are in the web-based world, there is yet another that made its' debut back in the early part of 2009. Foursquare is a web and mobile application that allows registered users to connect with friends and update their location. Much like Twitter Foursquare is an interactive social site that allows users to post status updates, in regards to where they are currently located. The added benefit of Foursquare is that businesses are actively involved, in that when one updates their location, they may receive an update from a local business to their location offering a special, or discount of some sort. Therefore, the more times a user visits a location, the more likely they are to receive benefits from businesses for their loyalty by visiting. This is definitely an up and coming social media site, so take the time to learn about Foursquare, because it is yet another way to get a business's name out into the social wire.

7 Quick Steps to Foursquare Marketing
Ten Foursquare Marketing Campaigns
How Businesses Are Using Foursquare

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Top Ten Social Networking Sites

Marketingcharts.com via data collected from Hitwise established the top ten social networking sites and forums as of September 2010. It comes as no surprise that Facebook is number one by a landslide, but take the time to do some research on the other nine. If your property is not advertised in all ten of these sites, then it's probably time to start researching all of these sites and getting information about your property on all of them.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Impressive Apartment

Price will always be an objection that one will encounter on a daily basis working in the apartment industry. It never fails that even if an apartment were offered for free, someone will still complain about it being too expensive! With that being said I happened to stumble upon a particular apartment that "expensive" is not quite an extravagant enough word to use to describe the price of this ONE apartment. This apartment is currently being rented out by Will Smith and his family and is located in New York. Make sure to not miss the monthly rent price. It's pretty hard to miss. Quite impressive.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Holiday Apartment Decorating

It's that time of the year to unpack all of those holiday decorations and turn your apartment into a shrine for Christmas! Decorating an apartment is usually no easy task, because you have to get a little more creative without the use of a front yard. Therefore, more decorating efforts should be geared towards the interior of your home, but make sure not to forget to take some time to string those Christmas lights on the balcony or porch. Here are some useful websites to give you additional ideas to help with your holiday decorating:
Decorating A Smaller Apartment For Christmas
Decorating Your Small Apartment
Decorating Your Balcony For Christmas

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Holiday Events

This is typically the time of the year that many apartment communities count their losses and plan on having a "slow leasing" season. Less outreach marketing is usually executed, because it is viewed as being done for nothing and fewer resident events are planned to work towards resident referrals, since no one is looking to move. These thoughts are huge misconceptions and can be detrimental to the upcoming productivity an apartment can see come the early spring time. Just because it is cold does not mean that there are not people moving, because there are always individuals looking to move all year long! If anything there should be a boost in outreach marketing during the winter time, in order to capture every piece of traffic possible. There should be more resident events planned, so residents will be more inclined to invite potential prospects to boost resident referral move-ins. With that being said I have compiled a list, with the help of Resident Events, Multifamily Insiders and Rent Soda, of great holiday community ideas to keep those residents happy and keep that traffic flowing all through the holiday season:

1. Post holiday door hangers on each residents door wishing them a Happy Holidays
2. Schedule Christmas caroling gatherings for residents
3. Have volunteer Christmas present wrappings in the clubhouse for those that are wrapping challenged individuals
4. Hold a kid's night in the clubhouse to allow parents to finish their Christmas shopping in the early evening and not have to worry about getting a baby-sitter
5. Host a resident Christmas dinner in the clubhouse, in which every resident brings some sort of food
6. Sponsor any kind of community service project (i.e., Clothing drive; food drive; toy drive; blanket drive; Salvation Army bell ringers; soup kitchen volunteers; etc.)
7. Instead of just accepting packages in the clubhouse, deliver the packages to the residents in the evenings as a little gift delivery
8. Offer doorstep recycling pick-up for all of the empty package boxes and used wrapping paper
9. Turn the clubhouse into the North Pole with a visit from Santa for any children looking to have their picture taken
10. Put-on a cookie exchange social or a pie mingle, in the clubhouse, in which every resident brings a dozen cookies, or pie, of their choice and have eggnog for the adults
11. Hold a Christmas card contest for all of the children in the community
12. Have a "decorate your balcony" contest
13. Put-on a wreath making event and invite all residents to the clubhouse to learn how to decorate/make a wreath
14. Holiday movie night in the clubhouse/movie room showing any Christmas movie favorite

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Winter Resident Contest

With winter just right around the corner, it is time to switch gears when it comes to resident retention and attracting prospect ideas. One great contest idea either for a resident prize giveaway, or a nice opportunity to offer a prize concession to a prospect is...a snowman building contest! What better way to take advantage of living in an area where there is a large abundance of wintery mix and get residents/prospects involved than constructing unique and festive Frostys'! Announce this as a resident referral game allowing residents to invite friends and I guarantee you there will be a large turnout.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Facebook Facts

Since I just finished reading the Social Network, which I absolutely recommend, I thought it would be interesting to share some impressive statistics about Facebook. When reading these numbers keep in mind that Facebook was created only 6 years ago...

-There are more than 500 million active users on Facebook
-50% of active users log on to Facebook in any given day
-The average user has 130 friends
-People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook
-About 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States
-The average user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events
-It's estimated there will be over 630 million users by 2011
-There are only two countries, China and India, that have larger populations

Incredible.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Resident Events

I wanted to do a blog today about some great resident event ideas for the Holiday Season, so like any other search I ever perform, I started with Google. Upon maneuvering my way through the search results, I came across a website that I had never heard of that was linked into Multifamily Insiders. The website is actually called www.residentevents.com and was created by Multifamily Insiders as a way for property managers to search all of the great resident event ideas that have been posted on multifamilyinsiders.com that tend to get lost in the archive. This website and Facebook page are packed full of events that will get residents involved, which will therefore encourage not only resident retention, but also resident referral. Browse through both and see what you can find!

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Holiday Season Marketing Idea

With Christmas right around the corner, it is time to start making an extra push to get those leases before the holiday season is in full force. There is no such thing as a "slow season," but only a time of the year where you must market a little harder to drive those prospects in the door. With that being said here is a great holiday marketing idea that you can utilize for the season.
Candy canes are very inexpensive treats that are extremely popular this time of the year. Since this candy is basically only recognizable this time of the year, why not use them as a marketing tool? Purchase a large amount of candy canes, as well as ribbon, and design a holiday festive quarter page flyer with your property's information on it. When you've put together the candy canes with your property's flyer, distribute them to any place where people may gather for holiday events, or any place where children may be (i.e., Christmas tree lightings in town center; malls where Santa's may be; day cares; elementary schools; etc.)
Most places should be more than receptive to this holiday treat, because everyone loves a candy cane this time a year!

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: If You Think Your Apartment Is Small...

There are two big complaints that you will always here from prospects, regardless of what part of the country you are in: price and size of the apartment. In terms of price, the apartment could be offered for free and someone would say that it is too expensive. The apartment could also be 3,000 square feet and someone would ultimately say that it is too small. This is a common occurrence everywhere, so the next time someone objects to one of these two things, just think of this article and smile.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: The "More Seasoned" Apartment Community Charm

Often times prospects will look at apartment communities that do not have all of the bells and whistles as out-dated, or just too old. This is a common misconception that is unfortunate, due to the fact that older apartment communities are often times able to offer things that the newer apartments are not. With an older apartment community there typically comes a much more established reputation, since the community has been around for much longer and more than likely has long term residents. An older apartment community will be on a larger piece of land allowing for more lavish landscaping with larger trees and grassed areas. In addition, the floor plans will definitely be larger in an older apartment community than it's newer counterpart. As you can see there are many selling features that an older apartment community will offer, so do not overlook the "more seasoned" neighborhoods.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Thanksgiving

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!!

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Facebook As A Book?

I stumbled upon this ad and really cannot believe that no one has thought of doing this before. Of course it would be an ever changing book, but at the sametime, it was very nicely done by this company and is a very neat idea.

Enjoy and have a great weekend!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Marketing On Any Budget

There are many facets to marketing and how exactly they relate to the apartment industry. Marketing is neither something that should necessarily break the bank for a community, nor is it an area that even requires an exorbitant amount of funds in order to see results. With more and more prospects learning of apartment communities through social media and word of mouth, websites such as Craigslist, Twitter and Blogs are becoming more and more useful. In addition to these websites providing material about communities to the online viewers, they are all also 100% free. Marketing is an ever changing field, but here are some great areas to utilize resources to without having to spend a fortune in doing so.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Holiday Community Events

Getting actively involved in the community is always a great thing, especially around the upcoming holiday season. Since apartment communities have a large abundance of individuals in close proximity, this allows for a large number of people to become involved in any organized holiday activity. In addition to bringing an apartment community together, residents are able to bring friends and family into the mix to help out with these holiday events. Here is an article about ideas for numerous events for the upcoming holiday season!

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Let Your Residents Know You Care

There are many apartment communities out there that do all they can to get prospects to lease at their community and then those same individuals become nothing more than another rent paying tenant. Residents should be just that. They should feel like they are "residing" in a neighborhood and are apart of it, just as they would if they were living in a house on a cul-de-sac. By making residents feel like they are apart of something, this will not only make their living experience that much more enjoyable, but it will also increase the amount of resident referrals a community will receive. There are many things that you can do to add a neighborhood feel to a community, so make sure you're getting your residents involved and watch the positive attitudes that roll through the door!

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Maximizing Google Places

With today's prospects becoming more and more reliant upon online searching for apartment communities, we have began implementing more and more online material into the training course. One such site in particular that we have began to focus on is Google Place Page and what each prospect sees on each property's Place Page. It is important that all of the material on the page is accurate and up-to-date, because this page is typically, or should be, the first page that pops up when a community is searched. Jay Ehret put together a great tutorial about managing a Place Page and allows you the ability to maximize the page's potential.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Keeping A Positive Attitude

To get you through the mid-week lull, here is 10 tips, courtesy of Jim Baumgartner of Rentsoda.com, that are guaranteed to improve your mood and let you radiate that positive mental attitude!

"1. Attitude change. Many scientists theorize that we have the power to catch happiness. In fact, often we are the cause of our own unhappiness. How often do we take the negative spin on an event—be it an election, a co-worker’s action or a series of red lights. When you feel a rush of negativity stop and ask yourself what the positive side of the event is.
2. Watch your self talk—the majority of what we tell ourselves is negative. Self talk is the chatter that goes on inside ourselves; it is how we talk to ourselves. Know that you can handle everything that comes your way. When you own this attitude and learn to trust your ability, you will see these difficult situations as a challenge instead of as a threat. Do your thoughts make you happy?
3. Practice gratitude. When I feel a funk coming on, I stop and start listing all of the things that make me thankful—no matter how small. I am amazed at how quickly I snap out of it. No matter how bleak the horizon, I always discover that I have a long list.
4. So life isn’t fair—or is it? Several years ago my brother pointed to a neighbor’s beautiful house with two luxury cars parked in the drive and commented, “They are golden. Nothing bad has ever happened to them.” I suspect that we all have trials and tribulations that will make us who we are supposed to become. Some of us had our ‘classes’ early; others will have to go to summer school. If you are going through a trial right now, ask yourself, “Okay, what am I supposed to learn from this” and then get the lesson done! Who wants a retest?
5. I am responsible for my HAPPY! Own it. The next big promotion, gift, etc. will not make you happy. If you are not happy now, no job, thing or person will make you happy. What can you do for yourself that will enhance your happiness?
6. Live in the now. There has been a lot of writing about practicing mindfulness and living in the now. It really is powerful. Let tomorrow unfold and quit worrying about what you didn’t do or what you did to screw up today. We always have a second chance, you can’t change the past, enjoy today and tomorrow will unfold.
7. Think of others. Get out of our head and focus on someone else. Helping others puts your problems in perspective and increases your happiness.
8. Find meaning in your life. What gives you purpose? People who are strongly spiritual are better able to cope with difficulties and are generally happier.
9. Expect the best. You get what you expect. If you expect the worst you will rarely be disappointed.
10. Be kind to yourself. Practice some good habits:
-Get enough sleep. Most of us cheat our sleep to get more done. However, our lack of sleep often impedes quick or quality work.
-Find something to laugh at. Researchers at the University of California did a study in which a group of men watched a funny video. Their levels of stress hormones dropped significantly while their pleasure-inducing endorphin levels rose 27percent and growth hormone levels rose 87 percent.
-Do one thing at a time. Most of us are proud of our ability to multi task; however, studies show that this increases our blood pressure.
-Say no to activities that you do not enjoy. This will relieve you of the added stress and free up more time to do what makes you happy.
-Build and participate in community. Numerous studies have shown that those of us with an active social circle are happier and more fulfilled.
-Minimized the ‘little boxes’ in your life. My friend, Theresa Rose (http://www.theresarose.net), talks about getting rid of life’s time-wasters: television, cell phones, computers, video games, etc. Not only do these things sap your energy (she refers to them as ‘Mojo-busters’), they rob you of your most precious gift: time. (And while you are at it, skip the news for a while. Have you ever noticed what a downer that is?)
-Breathe deeply and get outside: bike, hike or garden. If you have a dog, walk it. Did you know that pets buffer stress better than spouses do? Aromatherapy can be beneficial too. (Rosemary makes you more alert and lowers your anxiety. Lavender increases the brain waves that indicate heightened relaxation.)
-Do things to reduce stress in your life (exercise, expressing creativity, maintaining supportive friendships, keep an organized home—a refuge or safe place, etc.)"

Enjoy and have a great Wednesday!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Amenities And Your Prospects

This summer Apartment Guide released a list of the Top 15 amenities that prospects searched for on ApartmentGuide.com. Although this list can't be used as a guide for all apartment prospects and will definitely vary depending on property type and location, it is still an interesting list nonetheless. The surprising thing about this list is the fact that the "bells and whistles" amenities (i.e., Fitness Center and Swimming Pool) are at the very bottom of the list! This proves a terrific point that prospects are looking for things that pertain directly to their actual apartment, because that is where they will be spending all of their time. Here is what Apartment Guide prospects were searching for:

1. Washer and Dryer in Apartment
2. Pets Allowed
3. Air Conditioning
4. Some Paid Utilities
5. Washer and Dryer Connections
6. Dishwasher
7. Balcony
8. Garage
9. Cable Ready
10. Furnished Available
11. Fitness Center
12. Swimming Pool
13. Short Term Lease Available
14. Gated Access
15. Oversized Closets

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Virtual Reputation

Here is another interesting read about the growing topic of handling one's online reputation and not allowing the reputation to be made by disgruntled residents, or others with ill-intentions. This will only continue to become more and more of a necessity for a property to acknowledge and not view the online reputation as a mere formality, or something not worth addressing.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Prospect Demographics

Here is an interesting read from Multifamily Executives about the misconceptions that may be had with three very popular demographics in today's apartment industry.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Apartment Search Engines

With all of the apartment related websites around, it can be a headache keeping up with which ones your property should be listed in. Therefore, I wanted to figure out which apartment search sites were the most highly used by prospects when searching for a new apartment. This would not only be interesting to determine, but it would also be benefecial for a property that is on a tight budget and can only afford to list with a few sites. According to PR Newswire here are the Top Ten apartment search sites for the first quarter of 2010:

1. Rent.com
2. Craigslist.org
3. Apartments.com
4. 4walls.net
5. Forrent.com
6. ApartmentFinder.com
7. Move.com
8. ApartmentGuide.com
9. MyNewPlace.com
10. Google Maps

Pretty interesting list when you consider that two of the top ten (Craigslist.org and Google Maps) are absolutely free to be listed on.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Handling Online Reviews

Here are some additional tips and steps to handling online reviews, courtesy of Mark Juleen:

"1. Respond

- Create an email account like satisfaction@ or info@ that you can use to create an account at ApartmentRatings.com or other sites. Have that email address forward to a central marketing or cust. satisfaction person that can forward the alerts and notices to the appropriate parties. (Be sure to consult with your CIO, Dir. of Communications, or Dir. of Marketing about create online user names)
- Take time to respond to reviews about your properties. Thank people for taking the time to write a review and respond appropriately.
- Apologize when necessary (even if the customer is wrong), and share the email address where they can further discuss their concerns.
- Don't have your on site teams do the responding. Have a dedicated corporate person (ie- regional, etc.) respond as they won't take negatives so personally.
- The idea is to show others that may read the review that you are listening and care, and to attempt to take the conversation away from the review forum by suggesting other channels of communication.
- If you haven't responded before, respond to at least the most recent 3-5 reviews for the property.
- If the review is from someone Anonymous, don't feel obligated to engage further than thanking them for the review and directing them to discuss further at the email address you share in the response.
- Avoid getting into a debate online with a customer. Try to respond just one time, and if you need to write a follow-up response direct the person to engage with you at your email address.

2. Monitor

- Be sure to set up Google Alerts for your property names, and your management company name.
- By replying to reviews on ApartmentRatings.com you can then subscribe to future reviews.

3. Survey

- Don't just sit back and wait for the unsolicited feedback. Survey your customers yourself to get a pulse on how you are doing. Online reviews won't be as shocking if you already know what some issues are.
- Include surveys or feedback forms on your resident portals and/or websites.
- Utilize old school comment cards for service/maintenance feedback.

4. Encourage Online Reviews

- No, I'm not suggesting you "game" the system by asking all your favorite residents to leave a review. However, make it known to everyone where they can leave online reviews.
- NEVER pay for reviews
- Include links to review sites on your website or in email messages. I recommend including links only to review platforms that do not allow anonymous posts. (Sorry ApartmentRatings.com you're off that list.)

5. DON'T JUST IGNORE IT

- I think it is a mistake to ignore reviews. While some of the reviews you will get are not necessarily a great summary of what your property is about, that doesn't mean you can ignore them.
- Keep an open mind and investigate. In the end, you know where you stand on an issue, and you can choose what types of responses (if any) are necessary.
- It's better to leave a response than do nothing at all. (ie- "Thank you for your review. So we can further assist you please contact us at satisfaction@blahapartments.com.")

In general, embrace the feedback. While it's not all easy to swallow, it can be an eye opener. Some of it will be exaggerated and untrue, but don't let it get to you and at least show that you are listening. Use it as a tool to build a better business and better processes."

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: MUST READ Regarding Craigslist Changes

I have been slowly updating everyone on all of the changes that Craigslist has put into place just recently, but up until now, I have not heard the specifics about the changes. This article was just posted Friday on Multifamily Insiders regarding all of the new policies that Craigslist has put into affect. Since we rely heavily on Craigslist for driving in great traffic, everyone please read this article, so none of these things begins happening to your postings.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Another Search Optimization Tool

Everyday I am proven that I have only began to scratch the surface in terms of learning details about search engine optimization and the tools that can be utilized. This morning I was doing some research and came across another neat feature that Google has that can be used not only when searching for keywords, but also when creating a website/blog and trying to determine relevant keywords to use. As a rule Google will only recognize a website as relevant if it has approximately 7% of its wording recognized as keywords. Basically, this rule keeps an individual from creating a website with nothing but keywords in hopes of making his/her website that first to pop-up when similar words are searched. Therefore, it is benefecial for one to use surrounding wording of these keywords as an opportunity to put relevant words to the keyword search. This idea is also known as latent semantics. For example, if your keyword that you are trying to highlight is "apartment" or "apartments," then some good surrounding supporting words in your paragraph would be: "housing"; "rent"; "property"; etc. In addition, if you are trying to highlight the word "apartment," it would be benefecial to make sure you include the word "apartments" in the body of your wording as well. The "s" on the end makes a significant difference. Try it out for yourself and simply place a tilde (~) in front of your search word after your search it without one and see the difference in the results that pop-up.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Bedbugs And New York

Here is an article that sums up how much of an epidemic bedbugs are becoming for at least one major US city. It's amazing how large of a problem such a small pest can cause.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: The Fun Side Of Marketing

En lieu of it being Friday, I wanted to share, in my personal opinion, one of the greatest commercials made from one of the best companies from a marketing stand point to ever exist. This company has managed to build a marketing dynasty with a brand symbol that has no words. I think you'll recognize it. Make sure your volume is on.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: A Site That Monitors Your Site

I have done numerous blogs about Apartment Ratings and other sites where individuals can go and post reviews about apartment communities. In addition, I have also advised everyone to constantly search your property on Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. in order to keep yourself up-to-date on what individuals are posting about apartment communities. Google Alerts is a website that allows you to see what people are posting/searching about a certain topic of your choice (i.e., Your apartment community). Also, you can actually enter in your email address and Google Alerts will send you an update when someone has searched or posted something about your entered topic. This would be a great thing to track if some new marketing material is implemented and you want to see if your search traffic increases as the marketing material hits the streets.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: How Are People Using Their Phones?

In the technological world that we live in these days, most individuals cannot survive without their cell phone. People are more likely now to have a cell phone as their primary means of communication than they are to have an actual land line. Cell phones are not just being used for solely talking either. Here are some interesting statistics from a study done by Ruder Finn in February 2010:

-91% of mobile users are using their phones to go online to socialize
-62% are using instant message
-58% are forwarding emails
-40% are sending general content
-38% are forwarding photos
-43% are connecting to social sites
-62% of mobile users are using their phones to manage their finances
-46% are using online banking
-40% are checking credit card statuses
-33% are reading business related blogs
-49% of mobile users utilize their phones to go online to advocate
-45% are posting opinions on social networking sites with the easy access to
breaking news via cell phone
-Mobile phone users are 76% less likely than traditional internet users to utilize
the internet for learning purposes.
-Learning requires time and patience, which cell phone users typically are in
short supply of.
-Although, cell phone users are 95% more likely than traditional internet users to go online, in order to stay informed about current events.

Kind of interesting statistics with some of them being a surprise and others not really coming across as surprising, as a cell phone internet user myself.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Managing Your Online Reputation

The apartment market has changed dramatically in the past decade. Whereas ten years ago when a prospect would drive-by a property banner and immediately call the community phone number to setup a tour, nowadays prospects do their research online before calling the apartment community. Traditional marketing is still able to be controlled by the apartment community with printed flyers and brochures, but the online reputation can often be made by disgruntled former and current residents. Don't allow your online reputation to be made by someone else. Here are a few easy ways to maintain control of what is said about your community:

1. Search your apartment community daily on a multitude of online sources.
Google, Yahoo, Bing, Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, Rentwiki and especially Apartment Ratings, are all sites where individuals will not only search for your community, but are also sites where damaging comments could be posted about your community. It is important that you always familiarize yourself with these sites to know what exactly is being said about your community in the online world.
2. Once reviews are located about your community, it is pertinent to read and respond to these reviews. When addressing these reviews it is just as important to resond to the positive reviews as it is to the negative reviews. Thanking a resident for a positive review shows that you are concerned with establishing a rapport with not only those previous, or current residents, but also the future ones. When responding to a negative review, it is extremely important to maintain a professional approach and also to directly address the negative comments made. Don't let any of the objections posted go unanswered, because it will make any negative statements appear that much worse if you pick and choose which ones you addresss. Google will allow you to directly address a review through Google Places for free, but some sites, like Apartment Ratings will require an annual fee to be able to address the reviews as a manager. Trust me. It is well worth the fee to directly respond to these negative reviews.
3. Google Alerts is a great way to monitor what is being said about your community via Email. Google Alerts allows you to receive notifications daily in regards to any new information that is appearing online about your community. It's as easy as entering your community specific name and a select email address and you will begin being notified when your community has new information posted about it online.
4. Create numerous property specific websites in effort to be able to control some content about your community. There are a large amount of free apartment related websites that allow you to post your community for free, but a popular few are Facebook, Twitter and even Blogspot, or Blogger to create a property specific blog.

It is very important to monitor what is being said about your community online. It only takes one negative statement to sway that interested prospect from visiting your community, so keep that in mind and become an online expert about your property!

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Making A Model Apartment Without Breaking The Bank

Furnishing a model apartment can often be a burdensome load for a community, due to the often large amount of money it can take to purchase all of the furnishings. The model apartment needs to be done in a way that shows the true potential of the community and is the only opportunity the community has to make a good first impression on the prospect. The model should be done in a way that the prospect feels invited and should not be done above the scale of the apartment community with the prospect getting the feeling that the apartment is out of his/her price range. Setting up a model apartment is an important thing to have at a community, but does not need to break the bank in order to be effective. Here are some great ideas for a model apartment that are inexpensive, but will still have your prospects wanting to join your community.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Generation Y

Here is a great slide show about the most populating generation in the United States..Generation Y. Generation Y is made up of those individuals born between 1979 and 1996 and has slowly taken over the apartment renting industry. This is absolutely the generation to familiarize yourself with, because they will makeup a majority of the prospects that you will deal with on a daily basis.

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CLASS Leasing: Sweat The Small Stuff

I am finding that many communities are experiencing a substantial and unanticipated drop in traffic, which could come as a result of multiple reasons. That, coupled with increased move outs due to econonmy drop-offs/job loss, has resulted in less than desirable occupancy percentages. In addition to increased marketing efforts, it’s important and timely to keep in mind that the little things do count. Rather than gazing out the window and wondering where all the traffic went, and speculating on when it might come back, take action and clean up your act for when it does start rolling in again.
A few suggestions:
• How many times have you pulled into a business thinking you might buy something, and pulled right back out because the place just didn’t look well kept? Do the little things: Clean the windows on your front door. Wash the coffeepot. Clean the golf cart. Have the clubhouse vacuumed daily. Examine your entry mats. Make sure there's no trash around the entrance to the property. Don’t forget the restrooms.
• Visit your competition. Have lunch with a competitor and see what kind of numbers they have been experiencing. Yes, they are your competition, but they are also another link into the traffic market.
• When was the last time your community’s clubhouse and exterior windows were cleaned? If you're still thinking, then it has probably been too long.
• Pay close attention to the your appearance and the appearance of your team. A positive and professional image is a very comforting thing for a prospect to walk into.

Above all, persevere. Weather the storm. Make every contact with prospects and residents count. Look at your community, your team, your competition and decide what you need to do become THE community of choice. Then become that community. Do it just a little better than the rest and trust me, your prospects will definitely notice when they walk through those leasing office doors..

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Making The Investment With Marketing

Marketing is a forever ongoing process that is only as successful as you make it, in terms of constantly distributing materials to spread the word of your businesses name. There's no telling when there will be that one day that you distribute a flyer and that one person that must have an apartment home today comes to your community and leases as a result of the marketing information he/she saw. Jay Conrad Levinson put together a great excerpt explaining the methodology behind the benefits of constantly distributing information:

"1. The first time a man looks at an ad, he doesn't see it.
2. The second time, he doesn't notice it.
3. The third time, he is conscious of its existence.
4. The fourth time, he faintly remembers having seen it.
5. The fifth time, he reads the ad.
6. The sixth time, he turns his nose at it.
7. The seventh time, he reads through it and says, "Oh, brother!"
8. The eigth time, he says, "Here's that confounded thing again!"
9. The ninth time, he wonders whether it amounts to anything.
10. The tenth time, he will ask his neighbor if he has tried it.
11. The eleventh time, he wonders how the advertiser makes it pay.
12. The twelfth time, he thinks it must be a good thing.
13. The thirteenth time, he thinks it might be worth something.
14. The fourteenth time, he remembers that he wanted such a thing for a long time.
15. The fifteenth time, he is tantalized because he cannot afford to buy it.
16. The sixteenth time, he thinks he will buy it someday.
17. The seventeenth time, he makes a memorandum of it.
18. The eighteenth time, he swears at his poverty.
19. The nineteenth time, he counts his money carefully.
20. The twentieth time he sees the ad, he buys the article or instructs his wife to do so."

Keep this in mind everyday you are distributing your marketing materials and keep pounding the pavement!

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CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Resident Life Transitions

Interesting article that tracks the typical moves correlating with a resident life span.

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CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Acronym To Know-SEM

Per Wikipedia, SEM, or Search Engine Marketing, is a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs) through the use of search engine optimization, paid placement, contextual advertising, and paid inclusion. SEM is a relatively new concept and will slowly revolutionize the way that searches and marketing go hand-in-hand. Research this new phenomenon and see what you can learn.

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CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Addressing Consumer Opinions

Nowadays, individuals rely heavily upon word of mouth when it comes to making decisions, especially when choosing an apartment home. Never has there been a time when consumer opinion has been see easily accesible as it is today with technology and social media websites. Therefore, it is of upmost importance that employees know what exactly is being said about their companies, in order to educate themselves and be prepared for possible objections brought up as a result of these consumer opinions. This article gives great insight into the benefits of knowing consumer opinions and how effective they can be.

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CLASS Leasing: Fun Ad For Friday About The Power Of Google

I know I have written a few blogs in regards to Google and the importance of Search Engine Optimization. To reiterate, the closer a company's website is to the top of the Google search list, the more benefecial it is and the more likely an individual is to click on these websites. This video highlights this point to the extreme and will probably make you shake your head and laugh.

Enjoy and have a great weekend!

CLASS Leasing: Creating A Blog For Your Community

Creating a website can often be very time consuming, as well as extremely expensive for many businesses to produce on their own. Often times an individual must be hired to actually design the page for a company, taking some of the personal touch out of the companies hands. An alternative to getting an expensive website designed is for the company to produce a daily blog.
Blogging is extremely user friendly and best of all, it is absolutely free. There are many benefits to creating a company blog, including: quick and easy; very inexpensive to setup; provides easy access to company news; its search engine friendly; it makes the company appear easily accessible; it allows the company to appear authoratative; its a relationship building opportunity for the company; it allows the company to gain insight to their customers; it's very easy to update and maintain.
Here is the website to get your blog started. In addition, there are many things that you can blog about, especially when it involved talking about apartment related issues/events. There's no right or wrong way to blog, so have fun with it and get to blogging!

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CLASS Leasing And Craigslist

I did a blog about a month ago about utilizing Craigslist as an effective marketing tool for any community in the country. Craigslist is without a doubt one of the easiest and most cost effecient ways to market any community, because it is totally free! Here is an interesting article in regards to Craigslist and some things to keep in mind while posting on this website. The last thing you want to have happen is put all of that hardwork into designing ads and not have they make it to the prospects eyes.

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Technology Then And Now

Everyone that has been alive for at least 20 years has been apart of the most technological advancement time period in history. Computers have become smaller and smaller while the capabilities of these same computers has become larger and larger. This simple picture really puts things into perspective where technology was just ten years ago and where it is now. Kind of crazy.

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Innovating CLASS Leasing And Apartment Communities Nationwide

Unless you completely just don't use a computer, which if you didn't you wouldn't be seeing this blog, then you have probably searched something in Google recently and noticed something different. Now, as you type in Google's search bar, the search actually begins the second you begin typing. You've been witness to Google's new innovative enhancement..Google Instant.
Google implemented this new search technology on the basis that individuals normally type slowly, but read quickly. Therefore, by allowing the search to begin the second someone types a letter in the search bar, Google is saving that person 2-5 seconds per search by predicting what he or she are looking for. Google estimated that with this new abbreviated search innovation, Google will be saving searchers a total of 3.5 BILLION seconds a day. That's 11 hours saved...EVERY second!
Reducing the search time for a user is without a doubt a plus, but how does this effect what each individual will select when search results appear before the person finishes typing? This is a question that will ultimately be brought up when websites that would normally be clicked on are not visited as often, due to the searcher clicking on websites that appear before they are finished typing. This is why the wording in businesses websites is so important, in order to ensure that their website appears immediately once any initial relevant typing is entered. Experiment with this new feature of Google by pausing after typing each letter of your search and see what search results you get each time. You'll be surprised.

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Success From Two Of The Best

Success is ultimately what drives people in everyday life. No one wakes up in the morning not wanting to take that next step towards bettering his or her self at work, or in life. En lieu of the Forbes list just being released for this year, here is a great article from two individuals that started at the bottom and made it to the top through their own personal drive.

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Creative Ideas Article To Get The Day Started

Here is a great article to start the morning that offers 21 creative ideas for renewal time for residents. Although the article is geared towards current resident retention, many of these very inexpensive ideas would also be great for prospective prospects as well. In addition, making a good impresssion and keeping current residents happy is extremely important when it comes to resident referrals. If the individuals living at the community are not happy, then resident referrals will become nearly nonexistent, because no one will want to recommend the community!

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NOI...What Does It Mean??

No, NOI is not an acronym that you would associate with text messaging, which has slowly expanded, but at the sametime shrank the English language. NOI is a very important business associated acronym that you may not hear about very often.
NOI stands for Net Operating Income and is basically how a business measures their success. NOI refers to a company's operating income after operating expenses are deducted, but before income taxes and interest are deducted. If this is a positive value, it is referred to as net operating income, while a negative value is called a net operating loss (NOL).
You might think of NOI as the number of dollars a property returns in a given year if the property were to be purchased for all cash and before consideration of income taxes or capital recovery. By more formal definition, it is a property's Gross Operating Income less the sum of all operating expenses.
Essentially, in the real estate/apartment community world, NOI is the net cash generated before mortgage payments/taxes with housing and after specials are taken into consideration wit apartments. Therefore, the higher the NOI, the better for the apartment community, or homeowner.
Now you can say you know what NOI means.
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Megacommunities: Too Much Of A Good Thing?

Very interesting article about the complicated issues involving "megacommunities." Do the positives of these massive structures outweigh the consistent negatives?

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