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10 More Pinterest Tips for Property Managers!

Charity Hisle — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 01:58:15 +0000

In our last post about Pinterest, we discussed why each property management group should have a Pinterest account. But how do you get creative with your account without being too salesy?

Here are ten more ideas for using Pinterest for your communities:

1. Create an account for your property management group then create a pinboard for every community.
2. Pin items of interest by category, here are a few ideas for categories:
a. Interior design ideas: create a board for each room of the home.
b. Fitness and Food: create a board that emphasizes healthy living and recipes.
c. Shopping lists: create a board as a handy move-in resource for new residents.
d. Create a board for each of your leasing agents with different themes.
e. Share an organization pinboard for unique storage ideas.
3. Have a Pinterest contest! Start a contest for prospects and residents to pin pictures of your community or have a scavenger hunt to find all of the items located on a contest board.
4. Create a board for good books or inspirational quotes.
5. Have a board for local restaurants.
6. Share local coupons and deals.
7. Comment on other pins.
8. Pin pictures of your communities and link to their websites in the description.
9. Add the pin button to your websites so that people can easily pin photos of your communities that they want to share with others.
10. Share photos of community events on Pinterest then share to your community Facebook wall.

Please share a link to your Pinterest page below so that we can all follow one another!

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How to Attract “Generation Y” Residents for Your Rental Properties

Marc Courtenay — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 20:05:33 +0000

Believe it or not, there are up to 80 million people between the ages of 16 and 29 who will be filling your vacancies in the year ahead. They are often called “Generation Y.” Also known as the “Echo Boomers”, they are the children of that other gigantic demographic, The Baby Boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964). Born between 1981 and 1995, they’re already having a huge impact on entire segments of the economy. And as the population ages, they will become the next dominant generation of Americans. So whether you call them “echo boomers,” “Generation Y” or “millennials,” they already comprise nearly a third of the U.S. population, and currently spend $180 billion a year of their own and their parents’ money. They are a force to be reckoned with and not to be ignored.

How to Attract Them to Fill Your Vacancies?

To begin with, you have to reach them on a technological level. They don’t read newspapers and aren’t likely to even read their mail. They are multi-taskers with smart phones, iPads, music downloads, and text-messaging on their Internet-connected devices. They are totally plugged-in citizens of a worldwide community. Communicate to them like their favorite smart phone and computer-tablet company does. Have you been to an Apple store lately? It’s absolutely packed with Echo Boomers! Think about it, do you know anyone between the ages of 16 and 29 that doesn’t have either an iPhone, an iPod,or an iPad?

Go to Apple’s website and see for yourself how they grab and hold the attention of this enormous generation. Watch the videos that they use to speak to the heart of their interests and how Apple motivates them. When it comes to having a place to live, this generation doesn’t mind living with their parents as long as tolerably possible. Yet at some point they want their privacy and independence. What they don’t seem to want is the responsibility or financial obligations involved in owning their own place. My own two (my daughter, a Generation Xer, and my son born in 1981) both have chosen to rent or lease their respective housing.

Forbes recently had a relevant article titled, “Housing the Echo Boomers—Next Big Real Estate Opportunity?” and it is a must-read for property managers who want to attract this age group. In the section titled, “What Will They Want?” the author emphasizes that “…most of Generation Y seem to want modest homes, the demand of which may be indicative of their young age. But it might also represent a demographic shift against large housing that is often overpriced and unnecessary.”

So if you’re using smart phone and online applications to advertise rental properties to this group, make sure you focus on affordability, easy upkeep, and the manageable size of your rentals. The Echo Boomers have been polled in recent years, and they value not only economy, but also ecology. They want to live in as green and environmentally-friendly a home as possible. If your units are energy efficient and have features that show respect for the planet, make that part of the theme for your advertisement. Appeal to their priorities and let them know that you understand what they’re looking for.

This massive generational group is rediscovering the joys of marriage, partnering and raising a family. Again, reach them through their technologies and stress that your rental housing is close to work, school and their kind of social areas. Accentuate the point that housing which is centrally located will save them money so that they can afford other things in the area and be closer to where they work or can find additional employment.

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Should Your Property Management Company Investigate Pinterest?

Charity Hisle — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 01:48:28 +0000

With over 4 million users, Pinterest is now in the top 10 list of social networks! It is a unique (and public) website that allows users to organize and share images and videos from across the web with one another. Think of Pinterest as an online bulletin board!

Pinterest provides the opportunity to visually demonstrate to others what is happening below the surface – all the while linking back to the original source of the image. People pin inspirational, educational, entertaining and fun photos and videos making each pinboard unique to the individual pinner.

The opportunities for local businesses, like apartment communities or real estate agencies, are endless!

10 Tips for Using Pinterest for Property Management

1. People are more likely to follow full pinboards than sparse ones.
2. Connect your Facebook and Twitter accounts to make sharing seamless.
3. Use the Pinterest ‘Pin It’ extension in your Google Chrome browser to pin on the fly!
4. Add contributors to your boards to bring personality and distribute the responsibility.
5. Don’t forget to “like” pins you may not want to repin.
6. Tag other Pinterest users in comments by typing the @ symbol before their name.
7. Add the $ symbol to the pin description to add a price to the banner of your photo.
8. Download the Pinterest app to your smartphone to pin on-the-go around the community.
9. Search for pins about your local community or sports teams to repin and follow.
10. Go to pinterest.com/source/__________.com to discover all of the pins that originated from a particular site.

Remember: use good keyword-rich descriptions of pins you upload for your communities for SEO purposes. Pinterest is invite-only – please comment on this post for an invitation of your own.

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What is Twitter? Part 1 of the Twitter Series for Property Managers

Rental Housing and Apartment Rental Market Trends for 2012

Marc Courtenay — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 20:40:48 +0000

The year 2011 will go down in history as the year when the rental housing and multifamily apartment rental markets began to tip in favor of owners and landlords. In many areas in the U.S. like Los Angeles, Dallas, Phoenix, Chicago and Miami, the vacancy rates lowered compared to 2010.

Other areas like Cleveland, Ohio, Denver, Colorado, Houston, Texas, Atlanta, Georgia as well as the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Areas of California saw vacancy rates flatten out or improve somewhat during 2011, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

The 2012 Forecast for Multifamily Rental Markets

The apartment rental market (aka multifamily rental housing) is expected to see vacancy rates drop from a nationwide average of 5.0 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 to 4.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012, again according to the NAR. Multifamily vacancy rates below 5 percent generally are considered a landlord’s market with demand-supply factors usually leading to higher rents and higher capitalization rates for owners.

Areas in the U.S. with the lowest multifamily vacancy rates currently are Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2.4 percent; New York City, 2.7 percent; and Portland, Oregon, at 2.8 percent. According to the NAR, the average apartment rent was projected to rise 2.5 percent by the end of 2011 and another 3.5 percent in 2012. That’s an amazing 40% increase year-over-year! Multifamily net absorption is likely to be around 238,400 units all tolled for 2011 and 126,600 in 2012. The number apparently drops in 2012 because of a considerable reduction in supply. The true measure of change in total demand is net absorption. Gross absorption is often an inappropriate and potentially misleading indicator in terms of understanding and evaluating changes in total demand for rental units.

How Rental Housing is Being Advertised and Vacancies Filled

2012 will see the expansion of rental housing being advertised online or via sites that correlate to the explosive growth in the usage of Smart Phones and tablets such as the Apple’s iPad. The following video is a reminder of how many property managers around the nation are choosing to advertise vacant rentals using the worldwide web and why (click here). Property managers are also finding that social networking sites, like Facebook and Twitter, can be another great channel to market vacancies. Specialty websites like RentVine.com have been used by an increasing number of owners and property managers to expand their advertising of vacancies online. That trend should continue and grow in 2012.

The number of houses going into foreclosure increased exponentially in 2011. As a result, the number of displaced former homeowners looking for rentals increased to record levels. The good news is that the year 2012 looks very bright and promising for the property management industry and for both single and multifamily rental housing owners.

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30 Tweet Ideas: Part 2 of the Twitter Series for Property Managers

Charity Hisle — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 16:00:17 +0000

Twitter is one of the most difficult social networks to explain and to learn for property management professionals. Often I hear questions like, “What do we say?” or “Who are we talking to?” Let’s try to clear up the confusion today! Assuming you already understand what Twitter is (link to post #1), we’ll get down to the nitty-gritty details.

What do I Tweet About?
1.   Upcoming events at your community: parties like pool, holiday, Superbowl
2.   Introduce new employees: include a photo and first name
3.   Welcome new residents: ask if new residents have a Twitter handle
4.   Make important announcements: power outages, pest control, etc.
5.   Share local community events: concerts, theaters, restaurants, museums, college game day, etc.
6.   Reply to questions about pricing and availability
7.   Share community pet photos
8.   Say thank you to prospects: ask for Twitter handle
9.   Share content like newsletters
10.   Share evergreen content: policies and emergency evacuation routes
11.   Participate in tweet chats
12.   Tweet with other local businesses
13.   Re-tweet local business tweets to share deals and updates with your residents
14.   Share other businesses via Twitter with #FollowFriday
15.   Resident referral bonuses (if applicable)
16.   Share photos from previous events
17.   Host a Tweet-up for your city
18.   Share updates from a movement or a charity (Movember, Breast Cancer Awareness)
19.   Share local coupons and deals from Groupon and LivingSocial
20.   Share the weather report for your area
21.   Receive and respond to maintenance requests
22.   Have a contest: think scavenger hunt
23.   Share fun trivia and quotes
24.   Use employees, residents and community pets in your profile photo
25.   Share individual Twitter handles on employee name badges
26.   Promote the out-of-work employee stories (What does Jane do for a hobby? Can you share Mark’s BBQ recipe?)
27.   Talk about things that aren’t business related
28.   Share green living and cleaning tips
29.   Share pet-lover updates: local vets, pet spa’s, pet sitters, etc.
30.   Ask questions about what people are doing this weekend or for a holiday.

What not to Tweet About?
Politics or controversial public issues
Religion or spiritual beliefs
Specials, sales or concessions
Do NOT complain about residents, employees or work situations

Try to keep it positive, upbeat and authentic and you’ll do just fine! For those of you that are just getting started, we have Twitter How-To’s coming up next.

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Always Ask Residents if Something Needs Fixing

Lisa Trosien — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 16:00:33 +0000

I remember when I first started in the apartment industry, someone told me to always ask my residents if there was anything in their apartment that needed fixing. Now, at the time, I thought that was kind of odd. Why would we ask if there was something WRONG with our product? That seemed … I don’t know…almost as if we had no confidence in our own apartments. But because I was instructed to do it, I did it. And guess what? It worked.

Every time a resident either called our leasing office or came in to the office in person, I always said, “Is there anything in your apartment that needs some attention?” OR “Are there any outstanding maintenance issues in your apartment that we can take care of?” OR “Do you need us to come in to you apartment to repair anything” OR “Is everything working all right in your apartment?” (You see, I got bored with asking the same old question, so I changed it up every single time I asked it.) And almost every single resident had *something* that needed attention. I might have been a leaky faucet. Or a loud blower motor on the furnace. Or maybe even a bi-fold door off the track. But there was almost always something. And they were all very grateful that I had taken the time to ask if there was anything they needed.

Yes, it creates work. But it does so much more. It keeps the small problem, like the leak, from becoming a big problem. And it lets your residents know that you care about keeping their home repaired, safe and something they can be proud of. So remember to always ask. And you’ll reap the benefits immediately.

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What is Twitter? Part 1 of the Twitter Series for Property Managers

Charity Hisle — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 23:53:15 +0000

“Fish where the fish are.”
Believe it or not, the world has not abandoned Twitter, in fact, just the opposite. While Facebook and Google Plus use are declining, Twitter is gaining users globally. The average user sends a half a Tweet per day and the site has reached 360 million registered users.

What is Twitter, Anyway?
Twitter has been called a micro-blog but I like to think of it more like a bulletin board for the world. Everything from natural disasters to in depth discussions takes place on this public forum. Brands are using Twitter to communicate with prospects and customers, provide timely customer service and even to increase revenue.

Conversing on Twitter:

Twitter will allow you to share your messages in 140 characters or less.

Create user-friendly usernames: keep the name as short as possible, make it memorable, avoid punctuation. Consider something like AshleyParkRockStars, ParkPlaceCares or something that would inspire a human response.

Use a picture of real humans in your profile picture, perhaps in front of your community or in the leasing office.

When you “follow” someone, you’re essentially subscribing to their status updates.

Listen, look around, before you start tweeting.

Ask questions, reply with personality to questions that are asked.

Rather than following everyone at first, develop the right list of followers so that you are having real conversations with real people online.

Who to follow:

Follow residents and prospects

Follow local businesses and hometown celebrities

Follow employees and prospective employees

Search twitter for keywords including neighborhood + apartment, city + “looking for an apartment” and follow their accounts – reply to their questions if they are asking for recommendations on where to live

Follow your competitors – know what they’re doing and who they are talking too… while you’re at it, follow their followers too!

Here is a list of 100 more must-follow individuals and companies in the multifamily and apartment marketing industry (link 4).

Stay tuned for our next posts, 30 Tweet Ideas: Part 2 of the Twitter Series for Property Managers and Twitter How-To’s.

Sources:

http://www.insidefacebook.com/2011/06/12/facebook-sees-big-traffic-drops-in-us-and-canada-as-it-nears-700-million-users-worldwide/

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_plus_traffic_drops_1269_gains_erased.php

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/160712/average-twitter-user-sends-half-a-tweet-per-day.html

http://www.sociallyengagedmarketing.com/2010/10/top-100-twitter-recommendation/

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Don’t Be Like Seaworld

Lisa Trosien — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 19:41:43 +0000

On a recent family vacation, we went to Seaworld (you probably guessed that by the title of this blog post). After paying the fairly hefty entry fee, we headed straight to the dolphins because they are my girl’s favorite at Seaworld.

Upon arrival, we saw that there were still spots available for the ‘Dolphin Interactive Participation’. That’s where you get into the water and actually ‘interact’ with the dolphins. Pretty cool…and pretty expensive. “Should we or shouldn’t we?” was the discussion for the next five minutes. At long last, we decided we’d spring for the money and count it as an early holiday gift.

We arrived at the designated meeting point at 345 p.m., and watched the girls head off to get into their wetsuits and have their time with the dolphins and the trainers. Eight other kids participated and all of the parents watched alongside us and ‘oohed’ and ‘aahed’ at the appropriate times. And yes, we left feeling that although it was pricey, it was worth the money to give our daughters a ‘once in a lifetime’ experience.

Then we discovered that some families had been given discounts of $40 per person on the interaction. How did they get this? They were offered it when they paid for their tickets. Was it offered to all families? Nope. Hmmm…the discontent begins.

Fast forward to the pickup spot for the Dolphin Interactive Participation. Naturally, it’s a photo store where you can view the photos that Seaworld took of your children. Yes, the photos are lovely. Yes, they are clearly professional quality. But wow, are they expensive. And, in my opinion, sneaky, overpriced and clearly setup to take advantage of the participants.

Here’s the deal: you cannot buy individual photos until you buy a “package”. The cheapest package is $40. All ‘photos’ are simply that: photos, printed with a cheesy Seaworld border. And in this day and age of digital photography, can Seaworld simply email you the photos you want? Nope. You HAVE to buy actual photos. If you want a digital format, you have to purchase a CD of EVERYONE who was in your group (who would want that?) for ….get this…$90.

So, we’ve already found out that the pricing for the event was at best, uneven. And now, the photos seem to be set up to take extreme advantage of the participants. How did we feel upon leaving Seaworld? Mixed emotions is probably the best way to describe it. We had a great experience with the dolphins and the trainers. But our overall feelings toward Seaworld are definitely not of the warm and fuzzy variety.

So, how does this apply to you? Simple. Make sure your policies are straightforward and clear. Have your residents initial any and all lease clauses regarding late fees, bounced check charges, card fees and more. If you rely on a revenue management system to price your apartments, make sure your prospective residents know that the quote you provide to them has an expiration date. Don’t nickel and dime your residents to death for small things. Be fair, be clear and be consistent. Don’t let your prospects or residents walk away from an experience with you feeling cheated or misled.

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Tenant Referral Fees

Mary Girsch-Bock — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 21:02:53 +0000

Tenant referral fees can be a great way to increase occupancy rates without spending a lot of money advertising. There are many advantages to instituting a referral program, including the following:

You have a large network of ambassadors of sorts talking up the advantages of living at your community. Some apartment communities can have upwards of 300 to 400 tenants, and they’ll all be working for you!

Good tenants tend to know reliable people. While this is not always entirely true, good tenants that pay their rent on time will likely not refer their unemployed cousin just to get a $100.00 referral fee.

If you work for a large property management company that currently has several rental communities, the management company can offer a referral fee for any of the properties. So if your tenant refers someone to a community across town that is in your management portfolio, the referral fee would still be paid.

Your tenants will feel like they are part of the community.

To make it easier on your staff, when paying referral fees, reduce tenant rent by the amount of the referral fee; typically $100.00. This makes it quicker and easier to process and eliminates the need to process multiple checks for tenants monthly. It also eliminates the possibility of the referral getting lost in the processing.

While the advantages are apparent, there are some things that need to be considered before implementing a referral program, including the following:

An influx of applicants that are not qualified to rent at your community. While most tenants will only refer quality applicants, others may send everyone they know. And it becomes your job to carefully screen those applicants.

Make sure your tenants know the rules: the applicant must sign a lease in order for the referral fee to be paid. Coming in to look at an apartment does not qualify as a valid referral. Likewise, the applicant must qualify in order for the referral fee to be paid.

Someone will need to carefully track the referrals that do come in and make sure that if a lease is signed, the tenant who referred the applicant/new tenant, gets the referral fee that was agreed upon.

Tenant referral fee programs can be beneficial to both property managers and tenants, if handled properly. By instituting a referral program that excites your tenants and benefits the property, you’ll have a win/win situation.

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Rental Applications: Knowing the Rules and Requirements

Marc Courtenay — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 23:44:57 +0000

As property managers, we confront the ever-changing process of attracting and qualifying new residents to fill vacancies. With the legal landscape also changing, it’s increasingly important to understand the laws governing rental applications in the state where we manage our rental properties.

Let’s begin with the state having the largest population; California. Here’s what a potential renter is told on the state’s web site for information by The Department of Consumer Affairs on the topic of “Looking for a Rental Unit” (http://www.dca.ca.gov/publications/landlordbook/looking.shtml): “Before renting to you, most landlords will ask you to fill out a written rental application form. A rental application is different from a rental agreement. The rental application is like a job or credit application. The landlord will use it to decide whether to rent to you.” Then it lists all the information that a rental application form will probably ask for and reminds the potential renter, “The application also may contain an authorization for the landlord to obtain a copy of your credit report, which will show the landlord how you have handled your financial obligations in the past.”

No matter what state you’re operating your property management business in, it pays to carefully study the instructions and clarifications that the state is posting to educate the public on their rights and the responsibilities of owner-landlords.

One of the other most populous states is Florida. The Division of Consumer Services of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has a similar page which explains the highlights of “Florida’s Landlord/Tenant Law—Summary of Chapter 83, Part II—Florida Statutes” (http://www.800helpfla.com/landlord_text.html). The State of Florida has its own style of explaining the “Oral and Written Rental Agreements” which they succinctly describe as follows: “A rental agreement is an agreement to rent property (commonly referred to as leases). Rental agreements may be either written or oral. “Most rental agreements are written because oral agreements can be subject to misunderstandings and are difficult to prove. A written rental agreement can be a formal contract, or simply a copy of a letter stating the rights and obligations of both the landlord and tenant. “Florida law requires that notices to and from a landlord must be in writing, even if the rental agreement is oral. You should always retain a copy of any correspondence to and from your landlord.”
Section 83.46(2), F. S.

“If the rental agreement contains no provision as to duration of the tenancy, the duration is determined by the periods for which rent is payable (week-to-week, month-to-month, etc.). All other terms are either those specifically addressed by law or those that are part of the agreement between you and your landlord.”

My point is that as property managers we need both continuing updates and sometimes legal guidance on what the state laws dictate and how they may have been recently changed and interpreted. Before you go to any great expense, locate, print out and study the specific text in your state’s website and make sure your rental applications comply specifically with the rules that protect the rights of anyone who may be applying to fill one of your vacancies.

In future articles I hope to offer more ideas on ways to simplify the process of making sure you have a rental agreement that is consumer-friendly and legally “bullet-proof”.

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