Apartment Renewal Letter Translated

Last week, I shared the renewal letter I got from my apartment community from a resident's perspective.  Today, I will dig a little deeper into the renewal letter and "translate" it from a resident's point of view.  I'm not trying to skewer my apartment community, but rather use it as an example of how residents see these types of notices from all communities.  In fact, there are going to be a lot of property managers who read this and have an almost identical renewal letter, so I hope I don't receive too much hate mail! 

The 60 Day Notice

I am required to give a 60 day notice, and yet this letter came only 64 days before the end of my lease date.  The letter says I will get a call in a day or two (which I never received), which meant that once I supposedly talked to someone, I will have effectively two days to make my decision.  It's the "we're leaving with you or without you" approach, which gives off the unmistakable impression that they really don't care whether I renew or not.

Is It Really a Renewal?

A renewal is a continuation of essentially the same service.  But when you change the terms and price, is it really renewing someone?  The letter clearly states my current lease "ends". I understand this is standard practice (and sometimes even required by law), but from a resident's point of view, it forces me  to completely reevaluate my living situation. I am now in the buying mode once again, which means that every existing competitor is now a potential suitor.  So it's not a matter of just renewing me, you have to re-sell me!

Who Is Writing This Stuff?

So if this letter is meant to sell me on the idea of staying, compared to likely getting rent concessions somewhere else, it needs to actually entice me to continue living where I do!  Here are three of the first five sentences of the renewal letter:

• I would like to extend you an invitation to renew your lease now so you can take advantage of our great rates.
• Currently, we are offering several great renewal options for your consideration.
• Listed below are just a few options that we wanted to share them with you.

Am I crazy or do all of these say pretty much the same exact thing?  This is the best sales pitch they have?  Let's face it, this is just fluff...

The Advantages to Living At My Apartment Community

First of all, they wait until the second to last paragraph to mention any benefits of living at the community, whereas the top half of the letter is dominated by pricing.  This isn't how you would lease a new resident (by leading with price), so why use this approach to renew one?

Now, once they have actually gotten to the benefits, let's see how beneficial they actually are!  The first great aspect to living at my community is a rewards card which I've never heard about before, so you can see how much benefit I've gotten out of it.  Next was "internet and fax"...  When I researched Internet access 3 years ago, Internet access reached almost 80% of people, if not more.  So I'm guessing at this point, this benefit (only available during office hours) probably impacts 15% of their audience at best.  And how many people still use a fax?  You get my point...

The third benefit is a potential referral bonus for my recommending the community to my friends.  Now, after telling me my rent has gone up $44 this year following a $100 increase the last year, is this really the best time to sell me on the idea of referring my friends?

The fourth benefit mentions the community events they put on.  To be honest, I can't remember any community events, but that may just be my memory failing me.  But what I do know is that I did not go to one, and generally speaking, only about 25% of people actually go to the big summer parties to begin with.  (Obviously, that is a "rule of thumb")  So if only 25% of people attended, that is your maximum potential impact, and of those, only a certain percentage actually enjoyed themselves, and of those, only a certain percentage enjoyed it enough to actually impact their buying decision.  (This might be a different story for an extremely active community - but mine is definitely not one of those).  So the final impact is probably 5% if I had to guess a number on it.

So do you think these "benefits" really impact a resident's decision to renew?  Considering they have never asked me why I am actually living where I am, of course they don't know how to sell me on staying!

They Are Raising My Rent For What??

About six months ago, I received a note on my door saying that my apartment community was "pleased to announce a new time-saving service and trash management solution".  In that same letter, they also informed me that I would be paying $20 per month for this great new service of trash pickup once I renewed.  I guarantee that a very large percentage of my community made their renewal decision that day.  Although Houston has fared better than other parts of the country, people are still careful about their expenditures, even cutting out the excess spending in their lives.  So do you really think this was the best time to announce that we will be forced to pay $20 a month to take our trash out? 

So now I see that my rent is planned to go up $44 for a year lease (although it's not quite that much for a 15 month lease).  This follows a $100 increase last year.  I haven't done any market analysis for my area, and I really don't want to get into a revenue optimization discussion here, but let's just say that I hope for their sake they can easily rent out my apartment for their asking price, because they are doing their best to shove me out the door.

Overall, I don't mean to bash on my apartment community.  They keep up the community well and I have no real complaints, per se.  Instead, I want to highlight how ineffective these types of letters truly are, and that residents are much more able to read between the lines than we give them credit for!

 
 (If you would like your resident communication assessed, please contact me.  I will not pull any punches, but you will be kept anonymous.)