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So last week's NAA Conference was an amazing think tank for me. Some great ideas were shared, and there was some specific highlights for me I'd like to talk about. If I missed you, I'm sorry we didn't cross paths. Hopefully next time. Enjoy.
The NAA Education Conference was a whirlwind day trip for me. I was only able to fly in on Friday morning and fly out that evening. It was a great experience! I got to match many names with faces and have a some great conversations. There were very positive comments flying around about how impactful the conference had been for the attendees as well as the exhibitors. As you can imagine, knowing that I only had 1 day to dive into the conference, I had to put tremendous faith in the airlines. There was no room for delays or flight cancellations. Knowing that I could not allow for any margin of travel error, I chose to fly Southwest. They are known for their great track record for on time departures, and when it comes to Las Vegas in particular there are no other airlines that can even come close in the reliability rankings. I don’t care for the “cattle call” although they have improved that process somewhat. I am a bit tired of the “no frills” peanuts. But I can count on them, and they did not fail me on this trip. There was a twist however. I arrived safely home on Friday night, and in the morning I found an email waiting for me from Southwest.
How much impact does word choice have in your ability to lease your apartments to prospective residents? Or should I say,
Now, if you're like me, the word "tenants" was like fingernails on a chalkboard to you just now. But there seems to be a real controversy in our industry on whether or not you should call an 'apartment' an 'apartment home'. Whether you’re dealing with a tenant who files complaints rarely or frequently, due diligence is always essential. Tracking and addressing tenant complaints in a timely manner is important not only for keeping your tenants 1. Encourage tenants to come to you. 2. Create (and use) an official tenant complaint form.
The National Apartment Association held their annual convention this last week in Las Vegas at the incredibly accommodating Mandalay Bay resort. While this was not the first national convention of sorts that I had been to, it was my first NAA convention and there were some very impressive happenings going on this week! I learned many lessons this weekend through observation, and conversation with many friends, my coworkers at Career Strategies Inc, and other conference attendees.
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What to Do With Outdated Clubhouses
For all the money that is spent on grand club houses by our industry, do they really add all that much value? Sure, they are impressive or at least are targeted to be that way to prospects, but for their cost verses benefit, it doesn't work. From my old days at Village Green Companies I built somewhere between thirty five and forty clubhouses for them. In the early days a Clubhouse, Pool and all the Jazz went for a little under a half a million, (I am showing my age here LOL). The last few I did were up to a few million, without the pool. While they seemed pretty cool at the time, they never really got used much once residents are moved in. And, what to do with that space as they age. We have an idea at the Urbane Lab, Co Work Space. What if you could transition part or all of your tied old clubhouse into a hip and cool Co Work Space that generates revenue, and potential prospects for your apartments. This is taking the old idea of a business center to an entirely different level.
I was flying back from Kentucky having been out there consulting on a couple of properties and got to thinking about fresh ideas for community amenities. What got me thinking was that they were tearing out the old tennis courts. Tennis courts once were a huge draw. Now, not so much. Here, no one was really using them and they needed extensive work. The decision was there was not ROI for tennis courts. A lot of thought and effort goes into creating amenities that will be pleasing to residents and something that will really keep them at our communities. Right now business centers, work out facilities, spas, event rooms for watching film or sports in groups with bars and kitchens are all popular depending on the community. But I started thinking what is on the horizon? What could be done with this huge space that was being dug up. I starting thinking that a community garden might be a real resident pleaser. Urban Gardens are ALL the rage this summer as environmentalism and local food come the fore in what people are thinking about. A community garden spot. The more I thought about it the more it seemed like a real cost effective way to get people feeling like their community really was home. It would be easy to do, put in some water, measure out some plots, maybe even have a community tool shed. Neighborhood gardens in the inner cities and new urbanist developments are hugely popular all across America. Why not in an apartment community? It's dirt cheap! Another huge thing I see everywhere and especially popular with younger people but catching on with all demographics is the WiFi hot spots. They are at coffee houses, bookstores, record stores, even McDonalds. The idea is not so much the opportunity to use your computer, people can do that at home. The real draw seems to be being able to congrugate with other people. Interestingly enough actually interrelating with those people does no seem to be too important. It seems more like just having other people around is comfortable and pleasing. Let's not get into the question of sitting around with people you have nothing to do with in order to communicate with people somewhere else. That's not for me to understand. But here is an idea that could really easily be carried back to our communities. Clubhouse are already set up for this but making them more of a Al Fresco situation would really be a selling feature. Maybe poolside. But the group WiFi locale is definitely a phenomenon. Why not put it to use to make gathering at "home" an amenity. There are doubtless others. How about a community dog park? Here is a concept that is also Huge in the inner city and in New Ubanist commuities. It takes pet friendly to a whole new level and makes a community really distinctive. Because it not only is pet friendly, it is owner friendly as well whith is even more important. We need to start thinking about not what traditional amenities have been but what our residents are looking for outside of their community. Bringing some of that home is a good way to insure tenent loyalty.
Well, it has happened! Someone has created a Turn Key Social Media Product Offering for Apartment Communities. That someone, being Daniel McCarthy, chairman and CEO of Network Communications, Inc. (NCI), one of the nation’s largest local media companies, with web sites and local magazines serving the housing market are launching the first commercial service providing customers with customized and individual content creation, management and distribution service.
They are calling it CommunitySherpa. It is a turn-key social media marketing service for the multi-family industry. The service, which is provided at a fixed monthly cost, provides for web development, content creation, content management and distribution, and social network maintenance. You can learn more about it at the CommunitySherpa web site. CommunitySherpa is the first of a series of internet marketing services, focused on content creation and management, that they intend to launch through their DigitalSherpa Operations division.
I learned a lesson at lunch the other day from my food. You would think that you'd be more likely to learn from a burger or even your fries, but no, this very poignant moment was brought to me by my ice cream cone.
Dairy Queen over in Redmond is one of my favorite places for frozen goodness because they have butterscotch dipped ice cream cones. Usually most places will have either chocolate or cherry, but not carry the wonderful taste of butterscotch. As I indulged in the melting deliciousness in my hand, I noticed the wrapper that they sugar glue to each cone.
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 What is the difference that makes a difference when it comes to your multifamily management brand? The standard textbook answer might include words like awareness, trust, regard or esteem. Settle there however and you miss the key ingredient. Energy. It’s All About Energy John Gerzema and Ed Lebar discuss energy and what it means to a brand in their book: The Brand Bubble. In chapter two they use a poignant quote from Woody Allen’s Annie Hall to set the stage for the difference that energy makes to a brand “A relationship, I think, is like a shark. It has to constantly move forward or it dies. And what I think we got on our hands is a dead shark.” Why is Energy Important Insider Blogs
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