Property Management

Change the Game, a post by eric

What if we Changed the Game, Blow Up what we are currently doing!

and turn the typical apartment web site on its head, and created an Experience Site, that acted and felt more like a Social Media Site and less like a apartment web site. A site that was so cool, hip and added value to the resident or potential resident, that looking at the available apartment was secondary to the experience of visiting, and participating in/on the site, and that we were able to evoke Emotion and Engagement with the resident/potential resident, so that when/if that potential visitor ever needed, wanted or otherwise was going to rent an apartment, they picked you without even considering the other guys, and you created Your Own Blue Ocean.

Where did all the TV antennas go? A post by eric

While walking with Gus this morning, our mostly wonderful little Bull Terrier friend, strolling through the local neighborhood, I happened to see a guy working on his chimney cap, which diverted my attention to what has become as extinct as the dinosaurs, a TV Antenna. I remember as a kid my Dad getting a new a antenna, then a new rotor, then a really big tower for the antenna, all in the name of getting better reception for those handful of channels we were glued too most of the time, all four or six of them. Well, how many of those ole antennas do you see now? At least in our neighborhood I didn’t see anymore. And, I bet that antenna sales people, antenna tower installers        and the like never imagined that would all go away, heck every household had one, and every strong wind blew them down so it was a fat cat business, right, but,…………………………………………………….…not anymore, they are mostly all gone

What if Apartment Marketing were changing, right now, and evolving just the way the antennas left us, full service gas stations left us and all the other things that evaporate into a new way of doing business, Are You prepared, is your property prepared, do you have the training in place to meet and embrace Social Media, or do you just not believe it and are passing it off, maybe we all should pay a little closer attention, as the way in which products, including apartments are being marketed today IS changing, with or without our individual approval.

Kijiji; eBay's attempt to be like Craigslist

Kijiji is eBay's foray into the online want ad business. It appears to work in much the same way as Craigslist except that the look and the feel are, in my opinion, a bit superior. Check it out [here].

Apartment Marketing; Social Media

Take a quick look at this graph I found over at BusinessWeek. Under the guise of [Meet them where they are] I'm thinking we all need to be blogging and creating social media sites in order to capture the attention of the golden demographic we are all after.

Video meet Craigslist

I am still looking for a video tour that includes a real leasing consultant taking us on a real tour of a community. Please let me know if you have seen one.

RealPeopleRealStuff might just be the place we see one show show up in the near furture. The site hosts video based want ads for a wide range of stuff and things. They even have a Real Estate: For Rent category.

Who will be the first to try it out?

Some people should not be in charge of the flier

This is copy from a real life flier that was set to go out to residents communicating an annual 4th of July BBQ;

Come and join the staff at (Community Name was inserted here) as we have our annual 4th of July BBQ!!!

                                    B.Y.O.C.
                    (Bring Your Own Chicken)                        

                        We’ll supply the sauna!

Direct Mailers

"We curse the spam that clutters our email boxes but turn around and authorize millions of pieces of junk mail to go out to support our new business." -Seth Godin

I've been trying to come up with a way to articulate what I think about direct mailers that go out to competing properties and today I had a;"Yeah what he said," moment. It came when I read a blog post from Seth Godin that contained the line above and it was crystal clear to me.

I have always despised the thought of direct mailing a competitor, it's tacky and underhanded marketing to me. I much prefer to develop a relationship with our competing manager's such that we would have no qualms over referring business to one another. Direct mail them and what chance do we have of developing that relationship. In my opinion, none.

Not only that, consumers HATE junk mail and that is what direct mailers are. We live in an attention economy and JUNK mail is not the way to gain one's attention. In a Green Economy residents might view it as wasting a tree and that's not cool!  Remember from a few posts back we all need to capture our fair share of GREEN from the Green movement so don't upset them by killing off more forests.

Today, my company will send out over a thousand such such mailers direct to our competitors residents and we will destroy our chance at relationship.

Why?

Because we want to give the appearance to our owners that we are doing something. I think just because we can and just because we think we should, "give the appearance," doesn't mean we should.

Attitudes are contagious

Seth Godin speaks to the word vibe in his most recent post. It reminds me of the quote, Attitudes are contagious, is yours' worth catching.
I've seen it over and over in our industry, those rental and leasing offices that operate with a high level of positive "can do" energy seem to carry that buzz right into closing a high percentage of deals. And conversely, those offices that carry a dismal level of "here's every reason why we can't do that" energy seem to struggle with even getting prospects in the door.
Thanks Seth for the simple but powerful reminder that leaders must work to set the vibe everyday!!!

Citizen Marketer meet Craigslist= Full House

I am putting the final touches on a new idea I have been working on, it's called My life My style My apartment and it works like this;

We have a property positioned between two of the most prestigious Universities in St. Louis and right down the street from three major regional hospitals.

Objective: Fill my house!!! Put heads on beds!!!

Target: anyone who qualifies. (I don't buy into the whole segmentation bit but that is another story)

Strategy: To employ any and all that qualify to become citizen marketers for us. We are creating email blast, posters and fliers to communicate the message.

The Message: Using a tiered resident referral (make sure that it is legal in your state) system and full instruction on how to use Craigslist and Backpage we intend to bombard the market with user generated content that leads to the Conveyor Belt I've mentioned a couple of times now. That is not to mention encouragement to use blogs and social media sites like Facebook and Myspace My life My style My apartment!

YouTube Community Tour

This YouTube video of an apartment community feels to formal and stiff. I applaud the effort however because they are trying to break into the new medium.
I think the perfect video includes a real live person touring the community and speaking as if you were right there with them.