CLASS Leasing: Internet

I wanted to share a great clip from the Today Show back in 1994 at a time when a new form of technology was being released. It's amazing to watch this video and just realize how far we have come in only 16 years in terms of technological advancement. Watching this video definitely makes you wonder...what new concept will we be marveling about now 16 years down the road??

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: College Properties

Renting to students is a topic that I will definitely talk about more in-depth in future discussions, due to the fact that it is a huge market in the apartment industry, but it is an entity all in itself. There are certain things that must be done differently when it comes to leasing-up a student property, because you are dealing with a much more impressionable crowd than your typical renters. Students are typically concerned with what their peers are doing for living arrangements, so a property's reputation and word-of-mouth amongst students is huge for leasing success. Marketing at a student property can be very straightforward, because the majority of the material needs to be focused in a much more isolated area, being as many places as possible on the college campus. Jim Baumgartner from RentSoda posted a great discussion about renting to students on Multifamily Insiders and gives additional insight into the logistics behind running a successful student property.

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CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Locator Marketing

If you are currently in an area where locators are predominantly used by prospects, then it is in your best interest to establish a strong relationship with as many locators as possible. Locators are looking to accomplish two things: they want to find the ideal apartment for these prospects based upon the prospect's interests and price range; they would also like to find the properties with reasonable locator referral percentage payout for their gift of bringing prospects to the property. Locators will ask the main questions about the current price of an apartment community, as well as the amenities that the property offers to compare to what the prospect is looking for, but their final question will always be what the locator referral is.
With that being said if your property is neither the newest on the block, nor does it have the highest referral fee, then it is very crucial to establish a working relationship with these locators. Visiting the offices of the main locators to drop-off breakfast/lunch is definitely a good start to introduce yourself as a leasing agent. This in turn is a great lead-in into holding a locator open house to tour the property, so that way the locators are familiar with your product and will be able to personally tell these prospects what the property is like.
To push your property even more to the locators, purchase numerous 5x7 picture frames and in the picture portion of the frame insert a brief synopsis of your community's information. This is something that the locators can have as a desk reference for your property that will be easily viewed by prospects right as they sit down at the locator's desk. Prospects will be much more inclined to immediately ask about your property if it is the first thing they see when they meet with the locators.

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CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Move-In Quickly

Vacancies are an apartment community's worst nightmare and the longer apartments remain vacant, the more money that is continuing to be lost each month. Leasing Specialists strive to fill the vacant apartments as quickly as possible, by any means necessary, to get an apartment community fully leased up. There are times when the leases may be rolling in, but the move-in dates for these prospects may be after a specific deadline that a community has to meet (i.e., refinancing). Therefore, in order to expedite the move-in dates, it is often a great idea to throw-in a very inexpensive additional incentive for quicker move-ins, such as a DVD player, or to offer to waive a pro-rated move-in cost to get the prospects in the door sooner. With the gift incentive option, the cost of the DVD player could be as low as $40, but will typically get some prospects more willing to pay a little bit more of a pro-rated rent to move-in sooner. On the flip side waiving a pro-rated rent in order to sway prospects to move-in will not necessarily help the immediate income, but it will boost the occupancy in a hurry. Both options are absolutely worth the outcome of increasing your occupancy quickly, while also reducing your hold over loss. With either option use them sparingly, because you want the prospects to feel the urgency that this is a very limited opportunity for them to take advantage of.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Craigslist Keys *MUST READ*

I will always be a huge supporter of marketing via Craigslist, because it never fails to be a full proof way to get great marketing out to the public and best of all...it's FREE!! With that being said Craigslist has come under a little bit of fire last year as a result of the extensive amount of spam that continued to be posted to the Craigslist website. Therefore there have been some changes to the website, ultimately for the better, but it's important to know what exactly has changed. Daisy Nguyen from Multifamily Insiders put together a great list of information about Craigslist that is a must read for anyone planning on posting to the site, which should absolutely be done. Taking the time to read through this list of guidelines is very important in order to get your listings on the site to receive the feedback that can come from Craigslist.

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CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Marketing Idea For The Day

When establishing a marketing plan for a community, it is always important to first determine where exactly the pre-existing traffic is coming from. Every community will be different depending upon the location, property style, floorplans offered, etc. More times than not a good source of traffic will typically come from word of mouth from current residents to friends and family. This is a great place to start marketing ones community, because if resident referrals are successful in a community then this is the easiest marketing one can possibly do. You don't even have to worry about driving around the city to distribute marketing material! With that being said a great way to push resident referrals to residents is to have a drive-thru breakfast once a month at the property. Pre-packaged bags with breakfast basics (i.e. fresh bagel, granola bar, fruit, juice, etc.) can be put together and a table can be setup at the entrance/exit of the property where residents will be passing-by. In addition, a resident referral flyer can be stapled to the bag, so that way residents can once again be reminded about the incentive available to them for referring potential prospects. This not only shows that a community cares about its' residents, but it's also a terrific way for residents to be able to brag to their friends how great their community is!

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Email Etiquette

Since the adaptation of e-mail into the corporate world, it has all but replaced picking up the phone and dialing an individual's number as the most convenient means of communication. E-mail basically ranks in between a phone call and a text message as both a personal means of contacting someone, since you still have to have their specific e-email address, but not as personal as a phone call, since the message is still communicated without a face-to-face conversation. With that being said one must be careful when it comes to using e-mail as a source of contact, because just as with a text message, things can still be taken out of context with the slightest misstroke of a computer key. Therefore, Multifamily Insiders established some simple guidelines and rules to be followed when using e-mail and although many of these seem simple enough, you may be surprised to learn that you are guilty of a few of them.

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CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Townopoly

This is kind of a unique marketing idea that can really be used in any size city, but I feel like would have a larger impact on more tight-knit, smaller community oriented cities. Townopoly is a spin-off of the popular board game Monopoly and is based on the same premise of purchasing properties, building real estate, etc. The personalization of Townopoly comes from replacement of Monopoly spaces with businesses in the local community. Basically, each business would purchase advertisement spots on the board game just as they would purchase billboard space, or classified ads space. From the apartment community standpoint, there can be two approaches as this. An apartment community can purchase a real estate spot on the actual board game, or the apartment community could be the main organizer of the game. Both venues would allow for expansive name recognition in the community, therefore ultimately leading to more traffic and leases. Plus this would just be a fun thing to get the entire community involved with. The board game is done through Pride Distributors and sounds like a great idea!

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Mobile Marketing Webinar

Multifamily Insiders will be offering a great opportunity to learn more about the path apartment community marketing is heading down in the form of mobile marketing. This webinar will be put on January 26th and will be filled with very useful information about the new concepts being introduced into our industry. Mobile marketing will only continue to become more and more popular as smart phones endlessly cease to revolutionize the ability to communicate, as well as the convenience of internet searching from the palm of one's hand. I encourage everyone to take the time to register for this free webinar and expand your horizons about mobile marketing.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing

CLASS Leasing: Resident Events

I have become a big fan of the website Residentevents.com. This site is full of great material not only geared towards current residents of an apartment community, but also ideas for ways to drive-in prospective residents into a community. After all, one of the best ways to drive qualified prospective residents to a community is through the help of current residents referring their friends, family, colleagues, etc. Multifamily Insiders just posted a tutorial about the Resident Events website, so take the time to watch this short film to see all the benefits offered by this great site.

Enjoy!

CLASS Leasing