Apartment marketing
Microsoft’s Surface has some real competition
Coming to a leasing office near you…GestureTek
As I understand it there are a select few communities out there that employee this kind of technology and I assume it won’t be too long before we see some mass adoption. Can you imagine the cool factor this brings to a leasing office. I imagine it brings a whole new meaning to virtual tour.
Source: CrunchGear via TechCrunch via Twitter – I hope I got them all.
Open Conversation
It’s 5:00 am and I am thinking about open conversation with prospects, residents and vendors. Just this week, to speak to the point, we had some great dialog with Jeremy, the GM from apartmentratings.com. It’s this conversation that got me thinking about the next feedback medium.
The sites like Yelp.com and apartmentratings.com and blogs in general are great places for starting and carrying on conversation. Would it not be even more engaging to carry that conversation to a real time platform like Twitter? You think company heads are scared of social media just wait until that conversation goes live. It’s one thing to do customer service over the telephone or even in person. What happens when a resident, prospect or vendor prefers to have that conversation over Twitter for the whole world to see? It’s not like you can say no. If you do they will start the conversation without you. And, the conversation will likely be an adverse one. Talk about game changing. It will require a whole new level of professionalism and tact. It jazzes me to think about it.
If marketing really is a conversation and expectations are rising all the time then suffice it to say Twitter or something like it is the next avenue. Maybe there is a day where apartmentratings.com or a site like it employees a real time conversation platform. What do you think?
Apartment Search Companies: Here is an idea for you
I ran across this site today; Homethinking. Amongst other things they provide a neighborhood comparison tool that is very cool. That is even though Saint Louis is yet again not a choice. Frankly that is not shocking to me but I digress.
As a society we are creatures of habit and as such when we relocate we like to surround ourselves in like kinds digs and locales. What better tool than a neighborhood comparison database. I think you have a chance of winning fans, at least to the extent you can do the research for those creatures who like familiarity.
Just a random thought on this random Saturday of mine.
Apartment Marketing: Don’t miss the 2009 AIM Conference
This is the can’t miss conference of the year:
Denver, CO (PRWEB)
October 13, 2008 — Multifamily’s must-attend Internet conference is
right around the corner and is packing more depth of content with the
addition of Advanced Sessions to the 2009 Apartment Internet Marketing
Conference (AIM). Early registration is now available for AIM 2009,
which will take place in Denver, Colorado from April 29 – May 1, 2009
at the Denver Marriott City Center. Attendance is limited to employees
of multifamily investment and management firms.
Visit http://www.aimconf.com for more information as the agenda develops and to register for the conference and book a hotel room online.[Read more here]
Apartment fundamentals
To preface, I am an optimist and believe there are niches in every market that will produce positive results. That said, I think that we are in for a very cold winter that might extend into Q3/Q4 of 2010.
Look at this headline and think of the ramifications for the multifamily space
There are more than six million more job seekers than job openings
nationwide — an average of 2.9 unemployed workers per available job —
according to researchers at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.
It appears that many of the basic fundamentals turning south for the apartment as a whole. What plays out is sure to be interesting.
What do see happening in the next twelve to eighteen months?
