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I imagine ... A stream of new products designed for older consumers who seek not to "give in to" the aging process ... but to confront and transcend it. - Tom Peters
As an industry, are we ready for active adults? My prediction - they will want to live where Gen Y lives. Period. End of sentence. They will be right in the face of Gen Y, doing all the things that Gen Y does so be ready!
The best definition that I have read comes from Localism.com. Before I paste it, I wonder why For Rent, Apartment Guide and many of the other major ILS don't have some real localism built into their search.
Localism is the valued point of connection, a place of meaningful
interaction. It's where neighbors and local merchants share what's
happening in their community. It's people collectively communicating
the unique flavor and nuances of where they live, work, eat, and play.
Localism is 'Old-School' in a New World portal. It's reminiscent of
an earlier day when people shopped where they lived, and everyone knew
their butcher. Localism makes the world smaller and more personal. It
reacquaints and re-establishes the lost bonds between neighbors. It
revives and restores the relational elements of what neighborhoods used
to be, and should be.
Localism provides the environment where residents and business
owners can create a micro-social network uniquely attuned to their
individual communities. Together, they use multi-media to paint a
canvas of local color and texture. Their Localism 'Neighborpedia'
becomes an extension of who and what they are.
Would it be fair to say that Twitter is not unlike Google in a lot of ways. The biggest difference being that you get 100% relevant information back. If you don't have a Twitter account, get one.
Yesterday I asked Lisa Trosien for a couple ideas on a pool party theme. She gave me a few and then put a Tweet on Twitter and in no time I received three of four new ideas. It was better than Google in someways because the results were completely relevant. Maybe there really is something to that hyper-localism trend flying around.
Great post by Seth Godin. [Link Here
My biggest takeaway came in this sentence;
*The tragic mistake of demographics and media planning is that they overlook the single most important issue: is the person you're talking to ready to listen?*
We can do all kinds of homework relative to attracting the right target audience and guess what; if they are not ready to lease then you are not relevant. The key to me then is to find a way to determine attention in advance.
Any thoughts?
We received this comment from David (Thank you!) on the grace period for rent post. I must say, I am leaning toward a very strict very aggressive stance in this area as evidenced by David's example. There really are very few acceptable extraordinary reasons for ones rent to be late. Price point to me should not be the driving factor for policy. In the hierarchy of needs, this should be first and foremost.
David's comment:
*My company started eliminating our grace period at all of our new lease-up projects in Atlanta (currently 3 properties; 1 in Midtown Atlanta and 2 in the Perimeter Center area north of Buckhead). Rent is due on the first and considered late if not received by the first. There is a $200.00 late fee if paid late. At first I wasn't sure how this would work, but we haven't had any complaints and our delinquency is actually lower than normal at those properties. Part of it might be attributable to the type of residents we attract in the areas the properties serve and at our higher than average price point, but to me it really boils down to instructing your residents on what you expect. Sitting down and clearly explaining their lease when they move-in is a big reason why this works.*
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posted from Gmail: Stay Fluid... http://mbrewer.typepad.com/property_management/
Are you getting the result you want? It is my belief in life that we really do “Teach people how to treat us”, and to add to Mike’s Post, we teach our residents how to pay their rent.
At Urbane, Rent is due on the first and late on the second. We assess and enforce a $50 Late Fee on the second and a $100 late fee on the fifth. If rent is not paid by the sixth, Seven Day Notices, including legal fees are prepared and processed. We work hard to have non paying residents evicted from the apartment within a fifty day window, pending how quickly our court cases come, which limits and deceases our exposure.
There are certainly exceptions, but not very many. Our lender doesn’t accept any exceptions regarding our mortgage payments. Some may think this is too harsh, but being a Start Up Company, approaching our five year anniversary, we simply did not, do not have the cash flow luxury of making loans to residents, because when they do not pay on time, that’s what happens, the management company has agreed, by default to loan them money.
I can tell you too, that we do not get any push back on this topic. It is made clear at the lease signing, and just isn’t a problem. But to have effective and prompt collections, one must also be on their game regarding Credit and Background Checks, and be disciplined enough, even in a high vacancy situation to turn away questionable credit history. There certainly are lots of schools of thought on who should be approved and who not, regarding credit and payment history, and we would love to hear your feedback and experience as to what works and what has not for your property.
Why do we offer a grace period? Do we do it that way because that is the way it's always been done? Because it is standard in the industry? I see it as enabling bad behavior.
I do assume there are property management companies out there that charge late fees on the second if rent is not paid. I would like to hear from you - do you see it as a hinderence to your business?
What does our community think? Leave us a comment.
And, have a compelling weekend. M
I signed up for a newsletter this morning and not seconds after I did this email arrived in my inbox:
As lead editor, I'd like to thank you for subscribing to SmartBrief
on Workforce, the daily briefing that delivers bright ideas for
managing people. You'll receive your first newsletter shortly.
In the meantime:
I am so pleased to welcome you to our SmartBrief on Workforce
community and look forward to answering any questions or comments at workforce@smartbrief.com.
Best,
Megan Conniff
Lead Editor
Made me think: What if we had a (Insert Property Name Here) Welcome Kit? An email version. It would include all the obvious things not to mention a surprise or two. Now maybe this already exist and I just have not seen it yet. If so, pass on some examples for us all to see.
If not, I am giving the charge to one of the talented people I work with. Stay tuned as we will share what we come up with.
M
Found this over at Lifehacker:
Google Maps wants to help you get where you're going on foot with a new
option to switch your step-by-step driving directions to walking
directions.
That is my Qik user name. What is Qik? It allows you to stream real time video right from your cell phone. From download to shooting the first video it took all of :25 seconds. Then I get the, "We're sorry, but something went wrong." message.
I'll report more on this as I make it work.
In the mean time, can you imagine the possibilities? What if leasing consultants now made a Qik video for every prospect they toured. It would be 100% unique and since it's real time, there would be no need to fiddle with uploading video. That would be a big advantage over the FLIP. Then again the gives you the ability to edit.
Once, I get it to work I will embed a video here for you to check out.
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