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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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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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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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4 Easy Ways to Attract More Applicants for Your Vacant Rentals

Marc Courtenay — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 23:29:36 +0000

Success, like great ideas, is not always in the conspicuous or necessarily intuitive. Some of life’s most important solutions lie just below the surface of the “Sea of the Obvious.” Let’s look at 4 simple ideas that will motivate and facilitate the rental application process so you can draw a larger number of applicants like metal shavings to a powerful magnet.

Create a way for applicants to apply online. The technology to do this is already exists and some better, faster options are on the immediate horizon. When you advertise your listings, highlight how the application process is simple and fast, and give them a link or web address. To learn more yourself I suggest you check out the following: http://www.appfolio.com/property-management/online_rental_application

Spread the word with shameless enthusiasm. Often with the good intention of looking professional or being overly concerned with appearing desperate, we narrow our solicitation strategy. From Craigslist to Facebook to LinkedIn to your local media’s online services, there are many ways to attract applicants. Consider some inexpensive advertising, but try and think outside the box. A good example is to advertise with companies that give free information, have millions of “page views” and “unique visitors” per month, and know how to use the internet to attract “eyeballs” and brand yourself online. A trusted source that I’m aware of can be found at www.maps.com/Advertising. Contact them and see what kind of special promotional offers they currently have available.

Create some strategic alliances with realtors, credit unions and independent merchants in your area who need your help. Find creative ways to “cross-promote” and incentivize them to keep their ears open or post “for rent” notices in their stores and offices. If you’ll help other businesspeople in your community to reach their goals, they’re likely to want to help you reach yours. Along the way you’ll learn more creative ways to fill those vacancies and make your management business more profitable.

Contact all your existing residents and sponsor a resident referral program. For example, offer a $30, one-time rent reduction for every qualified (you set the criteria for what constitutes qualified) referral who fills out a rental or lease application. You may also want to offer a one-time, one-month-only rent credit if your existing resident refers a potential renter to you and that referral actually signs a rental agreement and moves in.

There are many other clever ways to motivate applicants to apply. If you have a good idea or a helpful suggestion, please leave a comment at the end of this article. Thanks!

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Protecting Your Brand Online

Charity Hisle — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 22:05:12 +0000

When I was growing up we lived near three grocery stores in Pensacola, Florida but were only allowed to shop at one. My Dad was the assistant manager at a grocery store chain called Delchamps. (Don’t worry, the Delchamps brand has been out of business for a long time!) If Dad wanted to keep his job, the rule was that we could not shop at another grocery store. If we, the family, were seen shopping at another grocery store, he could be fired.

By having this rule, Delchamps was attempting to protect their brand image. They wanted to make sure that no one got the wrong idea about why an employee would choose another grocery store to shop. This is back in the days when loyalty was expected from employers and employees, before Enron and WorldCom.

Things have changed today, and most businesses do not put purchasing requirements on employees. However, one thing that hasn’t changed is that brands are still worried about how employees represent their company – most especially online. Many businesses do not know where to begin or even recognize a need to set web employee behavior standards.

If Delchamps were still in business, I’d be willing to bet they would’ve done the following to maintain their company brand online:

Written a clear policy which covers employee social media interactions.

Hosted training sessions for employees to ensure they each sign off on company social media policies.

Educated employees on trademark infringement – because even if an employee infringes upon a trademark without your knowledge, your company can still be held liable.

Given employees permission to blog, tweet, Facebook, speak about their company, but would have been very clear about limitations on content.

Set guidelines on how to speak of their competition. Beware of what you say about your competitors online to avoid defamation lawsuits.

Delchamps was big on loyalty, even as a child I understood the expectations. Do your employees understand your company expectations for online behavior? Do you require your employees to sign a social media policy?

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Rental Income with a “Home Away from Home” Approach

Marc Courtenay — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 18:01:25 +0000

There are many ways to help owners expand their base of income and to market yourself as a property manager that’s going above and beyond to help your clients succeed.

Recently I learned of a company that had their “Initial Public Offering” (IPO) on the Nasdaq stock exchange. It reminded me of an opportunity that property managers are able to create in their own backyard. Austin, Texas based HomeAway, Inc. (Nasdaq:AWAY) operates as an online marketplace for the vacation rental industry. Its online vacation rental property marketplace enables property owners and managers to market properties available for rent to vacation travelers who rely on the company’s websites to search for and find available properties. The company’s website (http://www.homeaway.com) offers property listings, photographs, pricing, availability and contact information for vacation homes.

The company publishes detailed property listings, including photographs, descriptions, location, pricing, availability, and contact information. It also sells complementary products, such as travel guarantees and property management software and services. It’s a smart business model and successful people I know have been looking for something like this for a long time.

One couple told me, “when we go on vacation with our half-grown kids, one hotel room is too cramped and two hotel rooms for a week is more expensive than renting a house.”

How does one find a short-term house to rent? Typically, it means calling a local real estate agency that has a limited number of rental properties available. If you don’t find what you want, you have to call another agent, and this process is often a pain in the neck. HomeAway takes this highly fragmented market and consolidates it, offering just what people need at their particular price point. With millions of second homes in resort areas sitting on the market unsold, many of them will ultimately be offered up for rentals, increasing both inventory and affordability.

So why not consider this as an additional service that your property management business can offer? This would be especially valuable in resort areas or in parts of the country where people come for extended stays (university towns, state capitals or hubs of major industries). Try presenting this idea to selected owner-clients who may want to use some of their rental units or houses for this purpose. It will remind them that you’re a reservoir of not only reliable management but also lucrative suggestions.

There are variations on this theme, like offering short-term rentals for corporate executives, graduate students with families, or for retirees who want to test your area by living there for a few months. In these challenging times it pays to think outside the box and create the strong reputation that you are a property manager who’s also a source of good ideas. The “Home-Away-from-Home” rental concept is just starting to catch on. See if it can benefit you and your clients.

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Zillow Shares Sell Like Hot Cakes

Aimee Miller — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 22:57:18 +0000

Even as the housing sector continues to be unpredictable it was exciting to see the Zillow IPO on Wednesday July 20th. Zillow priced its IPO at $20 per share and the stock quickly doubled right out of the gates. Around when this article was published it was trading closer to $34.40 which is a 72% increase from the initial price.

Even though Zillow is not yet profitable, the company sold 3.46 million shares in the IPO. They are getting closer to profitability and the revenue growth is good – Zillow reported $30.5 million in 2010 and $17.5 million in 2009. This IPO does come at a tough period for the housing sector, which still has not made any kind of a sustained recovery. Does this IPO indicate that investors believe in the profitability of the residential property sector? Or is it just increased confidence in the technology sector as a whole?

Source: http://money.cnn.com/2011/07/20/technology/zillow_IPO/

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Why Should I Rent from You?

Lisa Trosien — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 22:52:33 +0000

Your ads are compelling. Your website is easy to navigate and your floor plans are right there for me to review. I might even be able to place my furniture on them if you’ve got that functionality on your site.

Even better, your property is priced right and has great curb appeal. But, I’m still not sold. If I was, I probably would have reserved an apartment online. What’s missing? Probably what’s missing from most websites, leasing offices, collateral materials, property videos and more.

Q. What’s missing? A. Testimonials.

I need to know that other people like – or even better, LOVE – living at your property. And I haven’t seen one word of a testimonial on your site. So, what should I do? Well, I’ll do what everyone does in this day and age of social media – I’ll Google your site and see what comes up under your name. And believe me, there’s a wide variety of sites with opinions to share these days. If it’s not ApartmentRatings.com, it’s Yelp.com, or even a relative newcomer (at least to me), InsiderPages.com. And that’s where I find your property’s testimonials.

Not all of them are positive, but that’s okay. Like most people, I’m suspicious of products that have 100% positive ratings. But, I find it interesting that you haven’t responded to a single review on these sites. Why wouldn’t you take the time to respond? Your lack of participation on these sites tells me a couple of things (and I might not even be correct with my assumptions, but that’s not my problem – it’s yours).

1. It tells me you don’t care what people say about your company and your product. Isn’t that just a little bit arrogant? Can’t constructive criticism help you create a better product? And provide better service?

2. It tells me that you don’t even want to engage your clients in conversation about their experiences. Hmmm…how will you treat ME if I have an issue?

Would all of this been avoided if you’d have had testimonials on your site? Maybe, maybe not. But don’t you think that in this day and age of social media and word of mouth (let alone word of mouse) recommendations, you’d have thought of this?

Start using testimonials in your leasing office, in your models, on your website and even on your collateral materials, to distinguish your property management business from the competition. Have a variety of demographic groups in your testimonials. The 65 year old empty nester couple might not relate well to the 22 year old roommates fresh out of college in their first jobs, you know?

A couple more rules about your testimonials:

1. Use photos. People want to see who provided the testimonial.
2. Be specific. Have your residents give details on what they love about living at your property.

Why send people searching for reviews? Provide them for your prospect residents. They’ll soon become an invaluable selling tool.

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5 Rules for Avoiding Craigslist Scams

Mary Girsch-Bock — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 22:31:16 +0000

In the last few years, Craigslist has become an indispensable resource for just about anything. One of their most popular sections is Apts/Housing, which covers everything from monthly move-in specials to single family home rentals. While property management companies advertising larger, multi-unit apartment rentals have little to worry about, the single family homes category is ripe with scammers looking to rip potential renters off.

One of the most popular scams involves posting under-market homes for rent. The listing appears professional, with high-quality photos frequently included. The only problem is that the home is not owned or managed by the person listing it! Instead, they wait until someone shows interest in the property, and then convince them to wire a deposit to their bank in order to hold the rental.

The other scam, which happened just a few days ago in Albuquerque, NM, has a bogus home renter provide keys to a home that had been foreclosed. The scammers broke into a lockbox, removed the keys and gave them to the family eager to rent the home, only after receiving both first and last month rental deposits.

These scams do not affect legitimate property management companies directly. Many management companies consider Craigslist a very good way to market home rentals online. But like any other Internet site, property managers need to proceed with caution when placing properties on the Craigslist.

Limit the information you post online. When listing a rental home, list the area, post some photos, but don’t include a street address. If someone is interested, they will contact you. This eliminates possible vandalism, particularly if the home is vacant.

Get as much information as possible from anyone showing an interest in the home. Casual inquiries are just that. For those who wish more detailed information about the home, be sure to collect personal information from them, particularly those wishing to view the home.

If possible, always take someone with you when showing a home.

When accepting deposits, don’t assume that a money order is risk-free tender. There have been several instances of counterfeit money orders being used for rental deposits. Wait until the money order clears before issuing keys.

As with anyone or anything, be leery of an offer that appears too good to be true.

Remember, it helps everyone if Craigslist scammers are exposed. There is a place for legitimate property managers on Craigslist. Ridding the site of scammers will give your listings and your company the credibility that it deserves.

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