Property Management

Want More Rent?

Color, Color, Color, add Color! Painting your units with color WILL start your trek to Break from the Pack. It is easy and you can afford it. What if you couldn’t afford not to? In today’s economy you can negotiate a deal with your local painter, and not just an accent wall, DIFFERENT colors in different rooms.  It is as simple as choosing a few 6-8 different color pallets as options, and paint away. If you want to stand out from the folks across the street, start with color.

Want to really stand out, use COLOR and Low Emitting Paint, and start the path toward a “Greener Building” This stuff works, and is easy to implement, but……………., don’t ask, everyone will tell you no. Be the renegade, do it anyway and see the results in a unit that rented faster and for higher rents.

More to follow on Getting More Rent…………., and Thank you Mike for allowing me to articulate my thoughts and views on How to Break from the Pack herein on this venue.

The electronic guest card as a measure of media spend

Who cares about click through, impressions, page-views, video views, floor-plan views, etc... What really matters is did the prospect take action. Did they fill out a guest card requesting more information? Did they send the property an email?

That is what super marketers care about and advertisers that serve them should be ready. Measurement is becoming more and more granular.

What does Gen Y want in an apartment

I attended a conference in Denver this past week and one of the speakers did an interesting thing. She brought five people up on the stage that were part of generation Y and asked them a series of questions about apartments.

I thought I would spend the next four or five posts talking about the feedback she got as it was very interesting.

The first question (paraphrased), "How would you define the perfect apartment?" Now this question could have gone two ways, 1. A description of the interior space of an apartment home. or 2. Anything other than that.

The answers surprised me as they spoke mostly to things that did not have to do with an apartment interior. Here are the answers the panel gave:

• Sense of Community
• Classes: yoga, pilates, fitness coach
• Fitness center
• Community parties
• Modern looking buildings
• Gated parking
• Modern look and feel on the inside (hardwood floors)
  
• Business center
• Covered parking
• Close to mass transit
  

Technorati Tags: Gen Y apartments, marketing to Gen Y, apartment marketing, property management, mike brewer

Powered by ScribeFire.

Road rage meets apartment marketing

For Rent Magazine posted a piece on road rage this past week and I found it interesting that Portland, St. Louis and Seattle rank amongst the most courteous cities. I wonder; how does one research courteous drivers? Outside of that, I have lived in all three of those cities and driven on the roads of Los Angeles, which bagged the honor of most aggressive drivers, and I can't say one there is a clear leader in the courteous department.

In my experience Portland was the worst but maybe thats because I commuted an hour and half one way. Seattle was a close second. There I commuted one hour each way. St. Louis is the best. My commute here is a brisk walk across the street to my office.

All that being said, I wonder if we can create a marketing campaign around rage. We could rent one of those moving billboards and have them roam the freeways during rush hour. We could use the tagline: Feeling the rage? If your commute is making you anger consider relocating. Call  XYZ apartment company.  I'm not sure that associating rage and anger with your product is the right thing to do but maybe there is a way to play with this.




Technorati Tags: Road rage, test of character

Powered by ScribeFire.

Apartment move in gift idaes

Swash is a really great idea for a new apartment move-in gift especially those of you who manage student properties. This line from their ad says it all:

"Swash helps keep the clothes you love to rewear feeling clean and fresh. So Mr. This shirt on the floor isn't really that dirty and Lady These jeans fit me too perfect to put them anywhere near water, you finally have a way to deal with small stains, wrinkles and odors. Just Swash it out!"

How many times have you moved with a laundry basket full of dirty clothes packed in the Uhaul? I know I have. You new apartment residents will love it.




Technorati Tags: Swash, apartment marketing ideas, mike brewer

Powered by ScribeFire.

How is your "on-hold" marketing?

Have you ever been put on hold while on the phone with Southwest Airlines? Try it, call them today and ask them to put you on hold. You may want to change your message after you do.


Technorati Tags: apartment marketing, property management, mike brewer

Powered by ScribeFire.

Social media: creation of the niche

Social media is doing nothing more than comingling perfect target 
audiences. They are taking most of the guess work out of finding those you want to market to (Myspace, Facebook). How we harness that is the next question. Go where they are and quit trying to get them to come to you. (For  Rent and Apartment Guide).

Stay Fluid...

Differentiate by being different

Looking back over my life in the context of Christmas gift giving I have come to notice that the act in and of itself is becoming less and less personal. In my youth, I received actual physical gifts, in my mid to late twenties gifts came in the way of a gift card and this year I had a code sent by email for gifts on Amazon to be delivered at a later date.

I can't help but to think that as we adopt technology more and more into the mainstream of the apartment marketing business, it will become not unlike this years' Amazon gift. Impersonal and lacking in emotion.

Now some of you would argue that the coveted 18 to 34 year old market desires to be communicated with via email, IM and or the tools provided by Facebook, MySpace and the like. I would agree with you and in the same breath say that in that case a card in the mail carries more weight than it used to given the advent of all this  technology.

People will always cave to the personal touch. Think about it your own personal relationships. Did you enjoy the last time your spouse sent you a text in the middle of the day more so than the foot massage he or she gave you after a long day at the office? Did you enjoy the 334th email forward your Mom or Dad sent you this year more so than the hug they gave you at Christmas?

That being said, I think one way to be different in today's market is to be more like we were 10 years ago. That is certainly not to suggest that all the above mentioned tools don't have a place in the apartment business. They do. And they will morph into a more and more successful way to communicate going forward. It is to suggest that the hand-written thank you note will always have affect and relevance.

I have put together an agenda for a team meeting tomorrow and it includes one item.

• Thank you cards

Technorati Tags: apartment thank you cards, apartment marketing, mike brewer

Powered by ScribeFire.

The leasing office of the future

So data is very important when it comes to target marketing. And, collecting that data is becoming more and more sophisticated as technology invades our ever more open lives.

[Click here] to see the restaurant of the future and let's brainstorm the possibilities of data collection for our business.

[Take 20 seconds out of your day and click here to comment]

All in the name of savings

You have undoubtedly heard of maximizing your mortgage payment by paying 1/2 of your payment every two weeks in lieu of once a month. The fact is you would pay one full payment more in the year than if you paid the traditional way.

Well with that in mind what if we as owner/managers partnered with a local community bank and promoted; All in the Name of Savings.

The promo would encourage people to pay 1/2 of their rent every two weeks thus creating a surplus that we would match $1 for $1 up to $200 or whatever we deem. And, if they renew with us what if we deposit their concessions dollars in their savings account in lieu of giving them rent credits.

With electronic payments becoming more mainstream, it could catch on.

Tell me what you think by clicking [here]