Mike Brewer
Today Show – Is it time to consider renting?
Take a look at this video clip from the today show.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Response from NAA:
Many of you may have seen the segment that aired Tuesday morning on The Today Show about residents negotiating rent with their apartment owners. Please click here to view the clip of the interview between Meredith Vieira and real estate agent Barbara Corcoran about the rental market in these tough times.
Scenario: If a current resident or a prospective resident comes to your community’s leasing office and demands free rent and any other unreasonable amenities/concessions, be prepared to speak to the value of apartment living. Do not simply give in to their requests.
First and foremost, apartment staff must consider Fair Housing. It’s the law. What you offer to one resident, you legally must offer to all. And, whatever “deals” that may be offered to residents should first be put in writing by the owner and shared with the leasing staff. Leasing professionals should not “wheel and deal” with current residents or prospective residents and should not offer “rogue” renewal agreements.
Following are some other key “selling points” to use in such cases:
1. For current residents who are seeking a renewal, owners should consider offering the same concessions as they would to prospective, first-time renters. Again, details of such “deals” should be communicated in writing to leasing agents from upper-level management.
2. If a resident specifically mentions “The Today Show” segment, remind them that the guest on the show is from New York City, which operates in a different “type” of rental and economic climate (i.e. condos). What is acceptable in NYC does not necessarily equate to conditions in Seattle, Denver, Orlando or (fill in market) from most of the rest of the country.
3. Tout the benefits of living in a professionally managed apartment community, compared to signing a lease with inexperienced owners of condos or single-family homes. Staff at professionally managed communities are experienced and capable of serving their residents’ needs in an effective way.
4. Mention that the ownership of some single-family homes and condos can be unstable in today’s economic climate and these properties run the risk of suffering foreclosures in the near term. Apartment communities owned and managed by established companies are more stable, as their owners invested in these homes for the long term. Operating apartment buildings is their core business. They are not in it as part of a get-rich-quick plan.
5. For communities owned or managed by large firms, remind prospective residents that they have set their rents based on yield management software, which determines rental rates on a daily basis, using sophisticated formulas and algorithms, and that the resident truly is getting the best price, based on the competition, in that specific submarket.
6. If your community offers flexible lease terms (such as a monthly or six-month plan), promote the benefits of signing a lease under those conditions to create more flexibility for these residents’ lifestyles. And with a set rent rate, these residents are living “inflation free,” especially if they lock in their leases for longer term leases, such as two years.
National Apartment Association: NAA Link | 4300 Wilson Blvd., Suite 400 | Arlington, VA 22203
phone: 703-518-6141 | fax: 703-248-9440 | Feedback
Today Show, Apartment Rental Market
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Renter’s Resume and 1-Click Leasing
I had a “what if” moment on Saturday…
What if we created a business model that was predicated on a renter’s resume and resulted in 1-click leasing. The renter’s resume, in short, would include everything we collect on our traditional property applications with the difference being a third party validating all the information to include some sort of score. Then, somehow we push this information through our various posting sites to include ILS’s like Apartments.com, Forrent.com, our own websites, etc. The theme would be ease – not unlike buying a book at Amazon.
The essence of the business model would lead to one click leasing via our various websites and offices. I could see craigslist posts, forrent pages, apartment.com pages and even our very own websites embedded with a renter’s resume one click lease widget. Not a reserve this apartment button, rather a one click and your done button. If you really needed it, there could be an option that reserved an apartment until the prospect had a chance to view it. And, in that case the sales person, via their respective property manangemnt systems, could do a one click lease contract pre-populated with the renter’s specific information. Throw in a couple of digital signatures, a credit card swipe and an automatic emailed .pdf and your done.
Related: Equity Residential Renter’s Resume
one click leasing, one click apartment leasing
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Daylight Harvesting Ballasts
I wonder if we have an opportunity for savings with this product. In light (pun intended) of current (pun intended) economic times our budgets need a charge (pun intended). Okay – enough with the puns – we all need to be cognizant of areas we can save money and utilities is a big one. I will be handing this idea over to our facilities team tomorrow for further study.
Multifamily Green, Green, Utility Savings
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Reinvent the business card
I got my new business cards this week that included my twitter and blog identities. After feeling like I accomplished something cool, I started thinking there is so much more I could add. In terms of design I think my business card has to tie to my on line identity. So, next time around I will include my Linkedin and Facebook identities and possibly my avatar.
My primary point here is that the business card is/has changed – do you agree?
Apartment Business Cards, Multifamily Business Cards, Multifamily Marketing
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62 Homes – A case study
Yesterday we did due diligence on an apartment community that we will begin to manage on 2.1.9. I hesitate to add too many of the specifics at this point as I have not discussed the use of social mediums with ownership. However, I do hope they allow me the opportunity to create a real time case study via this blog and the Twitter community. If all goes well this study will play favor to a number of advantages. Here are two of my thoughts for starters;
Increased Visibility
The use of social mediums and the creation of a real live and in the moment case study will bring attention to this otherwise lackluster (I use that term with all due respect) deal. The property is a classic destination deal located at the end of apartment row in an out of the way Saint Louis suburb. The city restricts the use of banners, bandits or any other free standing signage. Additionally, there is no monument sign of any sort. I think the use of social media will certainly augment our efforts to market the community and ideally it will mitigate our spend.
Community Builder
As we all know the real beauty of social mediums is the ability to communicate openly with our consumers. And, I think involving the current resident base in our turn around effort will bode huge in building the community. My thought here is to capture material in off-line spaces to build inventory for the various on-line spaces. Any and all offline events will be Flip’d and pic’d so as to provide material for a Facebook fan page and a community blog. Resident testimonials will be the keystone in building what will come to be vibrant place of social interaction. Over time the thought would be to harvest a community brand that residents, employees and prospects rave about. Ultimately the community will become self sustaining. Quixotic? Maybe. But, never underestimate the power of an energized crowd.
I look forward to providing some benchmarks in the very near future that we can measure our successes against. And, by all means, feel free to chime in with comments, suggests and constructive criticism.
Your looking forward to putting a dent in the multifamily universe collaborator,
M
Apartment Management, Multifamily Management, Apartment Marketing, Apartment Social Mediums
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