Apartment Operations
Choosing Not To Do
“The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.” – Michael Porter
You may want to read and reread that last line a couple of times. [It’s okay – I’ll wait…..]
I think for many of us, me included, it’s usually more along the lines of what do we do next? What is the next thing to tweet? What is the next platform to try? What is the next marketing idea stone that needs to be turned over? How do we differentiate? How do we compete?
All good questions and likely good stimulates for conversation. But, what we leave out is equally if not more advantageous in forming an effective strategy.
What are you choosing not to do this year?
Related material: Two Lists You Should Look at Every Morning
Pic Props: TSLBO
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Multifamily Monday: Out-Prepare
What is the key to crushing the competition or better yet; what is the key to creating new markets? He who preps best wins most.
My high school basketball coach’s favorite truism was; perfect practice makes perfect. He was relentless with his disciplines, focusing always on the basics; ball handling, proper footwork and hard-core defense. Shooting was always secondary to the core of our workouts. Not any less important but, in his mind, done better when the other things were mastered. As a result, we won many more games than we lost and we became better people in the process.
As you head into another week of routine, take on a mantra of: out-prepare. Be ‘that guy’ or ‘that gal’ that speaks from a good posit on everything related to your property or your portfolio.
Feel free to share your successes and or your shortcomings with us.
Your focused on Out-Preparing multifamily maniac,
M
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The rise of the LED
While ’12, ’13 and beyond look a little more promising than the past two to three years; we still need to be mindful on the spend side of things. We are constantly looking for ways to save and we think LED technology may be a helper.
Out with the Old and in with the New
2012 marks the year that Edison’s staple lightbulb gives way to the heir apparent CFL. But wait, what about the LED bulb? The wait comes in the way of a $50 spend for a single bulb. The ROI on a number like that is likely too little for multifamily owners to get real excited.
But wait, with a little leg work you can find LED for sub $10. I spotted the sub $10 bulb about a week ago at the local Home Depot. Now, I am a bit skeptical as the brand was not one I recognized. And, the technology is new on the scene. So new that claims of 50,000 hours of bulb life are hard to believe.
Nevertheless, we are sourcing the bulbs now. Our intent is to pick an apartment community with multiple buildings that are individually metered. We are going to benchmark the electric use in those buildings and then outfit the common area spaces with the LED bulbs. And, then wait 60 to 90 days and compare the bills on a month over month basis. Once we have that data we will do a cost benefit analysis and publish the results.
What are you doing in this first quarter of ’12 to bring some revenue to the bottom line?
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After Hours Lock Outs
We have all taken the 3 am call for lockout service. “Hi, I locked myself out of my apartment; can you have someone from your team come and let me in?”
And we all have some form of the following:
Apartment Lock-Out Policy
If residents lose their key or become locked out of their apartment, the following options are available: [loosely adapted from a quick search result on Google]:
- During posted regular business hours (excluding holidays), residents may come to the main office for assistance.
- After regular business hours, but before 9:00 pm, residents may contact the emergency phone number provided on the office door or the recorded message, and a staff member, if available, will open the door.
- After 9:00 pm, no lockout service is available, and residents have the option of calling a locksmith at residents’ own cost and expense.
Is it Customer Service or a Serious Liability?
I do admit that I see the people side of this in that we want to be there to assist with any after-hours calls, no matter nature.
I also see the downside in that many of us do the service but charge for it if it is after hours.
In that case, right or wrong, I see severe liability in asking my service team to collect a check, cash, or money order before handing out a key.
I also see an obligation in asking them to rifle through a resident’s file to compare and contrast ID’s against written records.
Or, even worse, they just take the resident’s word for it.
In any case, I am looking for some quick thoughts on the subject.
Is it a good move to stop doing lockout service altogether during off-hours and leave residents on their own?
Your always wondering multifamily maniac,
M
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Fill Your Marketing Balloons With More Than Air
JHerzog · · 14 Comments
I was recently given the privelege to co-moderate a brainstorming session on the topic of marketing. The session was held for members of the apartment management industry at various stages in their careers, from leasing agents who have been in the industry for 2 months to property managers with 10 years of experience. My topic was old school marketing. Old school referring to anything not social media. More specifically, tools such as resident retention, outreach marketing, Craigslist, etc. The idea was to get creative juices flowing, discuss what’s working, what’s not working and maybe learn a few things to take back to the rest of the team.
I was surprised by the lack of marketing knowledge…and for that matter, the lack of creativity. I heard the same 3 “best practices” from a majority of the groups: Generic signs and balloons for drive by traffic, generic Craiglist ads and monetary resident referral incentives. I heard questions like: “What do you say when you’re marketing to a business?” and “It’s ok to send thank you cards and gift baskets to businesses who refer someone to you?” Leasing agents and PMs who had no knowledge of free additional ILS marketing template tools like VFlyer and Postlets, who had never thought past posting a flyer with a resident referral rent credit in terms of using residents as a marketing tool, and those are just building blocks. It’s as if they were told that marketing is something only a rocket scientist can figure out.
First let me say I’m not exactly saying the 3 best practice items listed above are crap, I’m simply saying that they shouldn’t be IT. Also, I’m in love with social media and believe it’s an insanely valuable tool, however 1. It was not my topic to discuss and 2. I also think that personal touch and those face to face human interactions through outreach marketing and resident appreciation events are valuable, and combining the 2 forms is fabulous! (Read Urbane Media’s QR Codes blog). But I’m not sure I believe you can be effective with social media if you don’t even know the basics of effective old school marketing tools. And if no one is teaching or motivating their team on the basics of marketing, then I doubt that there is any social media marketing in place anyway.
So I guess what I’d like to learn from this eye opening experience is: Am I way off base in believing that some old school marketing techniques are still a valuable tool in the industry? Is someone teaching your staff about marketing? Do you believe that one can effectively use social media tools without ever having learned/practiced old school marketing strategies?
Title courtesy of Melissa DeCicco
Photo credit bloggingoutloud
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