I wonder: Should Forrent.com, apartmentguide.com and apartments.com begin to build on-line communities for our residents? Should they harvest user information in an effort to follow residents beyond the point of purchase like rent.com does? One would argue that they would rob from their credibility with advertisers and I would argue that if you are taking care of residents it really doesn’t matter.
Would it be advantageous for them to build portals for property management companies in lieu of companies doing for themselves? Wouldn’t it be smart to add value to both the consumer of their products as well as the consumers that use them. It’s kind of B2B2C business to business to consumer. Somehow the three entities have to merge in a synergistic relationship that lasts well beyond move in. It has to be done without the intent to cannibalize our community base like rent.com does.
That said, they could take a space like mypad and instead of or better, in addition to being just a blog they could turn it into a social media community that apartment residents all across the country subscribed or became members of. The community would have the blog, a forum, links to forent.com, useful tips on moving, resident-management relations, etc…
Here is my logic: the more sites we see that pay residents to move (like rent.com or apartmenthomeliving.com) the less relevant forrent.com, apartments.com or apartmentguide.com become. I’m not suggesting they go away. No way. All are very reputable and solid companies with brand recognition. However at some point it makes more sense for the consumer to take a check to move than it does to commit to a product via a non-paying source. Especially in light of $4.00 gas.