Considering many of you are on MySpace, Facebook, and of course, Multifamily Insiders, you are essentially on the forefront of technology when it comes to the multifamily industry.

Some of you might have heard about the latest and greatest social networking tool/site out there called Twitter. For those of you who aren't indoctrinated into Twitterland yet, here is a quick summary: Twitter is basically a quick post of 140 characters of what you are doing at this very second. Instead of taking the time to email someone or even making a blog post, posting a "Tweet" gets the word out to your network of what is going on in your world. Here is my Twitter page, as an example.

So now that you have an idea of what it's all about, I read an article a few days back that made a great point about the use of social media by non-individuals. In the article, it specifically talks about candidates' use of Twitter, as Obama, Clinton, and Edwards all had accounts. What was interesting is how the three used their accounts and how those lessons can be applied to the multifamily industry.

In Twitter, you can choose who you "follow", which essentially means whose life you are reading about. They, in turn, can follow you back and read about your life. For Obama, he (or his staffers, more likely) follow back everybody who follows him. Now, Obama couldn't possibly keep up with 27,000 people's Tweets about their daily life, but sometimes perception is more important than reality. The fact that Obama could be following you means more than whether he actually has time to read your post about the wonderful omelet you had this morning.

Imagine showing interactive floorplans with furniture you can move around!

 

 

It's exciting to see more innovative architecture discussions coming out of the multifamily industry during the past year. Although "green" building is interesting, what really has me going is social-based architecture. This is architecture designed to create more plentiful and meaningful social interactions in the community. Yesterday, I came across an article about a community that has created a "food and wine" niche community that houses a temp-controlled wine room and Chef's Demonstration Kitchen. Residents can store their own wine in the wine room and the community brings in guest chefs from local eateries. (Read More)

There are so many great things about this concept that I'm not sure where to begin! First, they've made the community area a real community area. It always amazes me how developed communities have so much capital wrapped up in their community rooms, but really they often end up being glorified waiting rooms for prospects. But here, they have actually made the room useful to their actual customers!

Second, they have identified a target audience for their property. Not everybody is going to love the food and wine amenities, but that's really the point. There is no community concept that everybody loves, so if you are attempting to appeal to everybody, then you are likely truly appealing to nobody (i.e., you will get luke warm responses consistently, but those who LOVE your community will be few and far between). Now granted, haven't a food and wine niche isn't all that risky of a niche play compared to other niches, but it's definitely a start!

Third, they noted that many of their residents are "residents by choice." Wait, hold .. the train - I know what you are thinking. This goes against everything we are ever taught in America - who would ever rent by choice? At least that's what we are led to believe, right? That home ownership is the holy grail of existence... Well, apparently if you create a compelling living environment, apartment communities can compete quite well with home ownership. But the key word is "compelling", so don't expect your DVD library and once a year summer blowout to turn the tide.

I've started reading Mike Brewer's Property Management blog and am quickly becoming a fan. He truly understands the need to utilize social networking to attract and retain residents. He's also recruited Eric Brown of Urbane Apartments to guest blog, who is clearly devoted to turning traditional property management on its head. Good luck guys!

Here is a recent post by Eric: http://mbrewer.typepad.com/property_management/2008/04/the-long-tail.html

[UPDATE:  Mike has decided to blog here on Multifamily Insiders, as well!  Take a look:  Mike's Multifamily Insiders Blog]

Came across an interesting blog post today about customer satisfaction. The Consumer Electronics Association prepared a satisfaction survey earlier this year that discussed customer satisfaction and their decision to buy again from that provider*. Well, as you can see, having a satisfied customer doesn't really get them to the goal they anticipated. Instead, only the "Very Satisfied" customers seemed to really be impacted enough to be a repeat customer.

So why didn't "satisfied" produce greater results? Without more information, it's really hard to say, but I wonder if these results go back to Hygiene Theory I blogged about several months ago. What if being "satisfied" really just meant that the company had met their basic expectations, and nothing more? In other words, they provided what they were supposed to provide, but didn't "wow" them or go above and beyond. Those who were "Very Satisfied", however, may have felt that their basic expectations were met, but there were also additional perks that really provided the reason to continue to buy from that company.

For a while we've heard that the key to resident satisfaction is providing excellent maintenance. Now although you know I think that is really only half of the equation, it is still vital to keeping your residents from running around with pitchforks trying to tar and feather your onsite team. But what exactly does providing great maintenance truly entail? Well, here are my three important aspects to providing great maintenance:

1) Understand The Problem - As I'm sure you know, residents will sit on maintenance issues for a long time without informing the office. This can be due to not being able to come into the office during work hours, getting a voicemail on the phone, or sometimes just plain laziness on the part of the resident. However, even if you are not aware of the problem, you will be blamed for it in their eyes, no matter the cause. I know that sounds ludicrous - how are you supposed to help them if they don't tell you? Well, sometimes life isn't fair, so you have to be more proactive in making sure all their problems are taking care of.

First, make sure they have plenty of avenues to contact you. Maybe you have one night a week where you keep the office open late, or maybe you have a resident portal they feel confident will get the message to you in a timely manner. Second, I recommend asking your resident if there is anything you can do for him or her every time they call. For example, if they call to find out about pet restrictions, take the time to ask if everything else is ok and if they have anything you need to take care of. This will make a great impression on your residents and will make sure you have full knowledge of the community around you.

Lastly, make sure you take the time to fully understand the problem and clearly communicate to your maintenance team. If your maintenance personnel have to leave the unit to get additional parts, it is wasted time and not efficient. Plus, it extends the time in the resident's apartment, which can be frustrating.

The "green" movement has really hit its stride, which of course means that it is well on its way to being overdone in marketing (if it's not already there). So I'm wary of starting up a green-centered campaign because prospects might start seeing that as less than sincere as everybody jumps on the green bandwagon. That said, I'm still in favor of the actual plan of limiting waste, increasing recycling, etc, so it amazes me how few properties have paper recycling in the most obvious place - the mail room! Ninety percent of all that junk mail serves no purpose as it goes directly in the trash, so it makes sense to have a recycling box there. Just please don't try to sell yourself as a "green" community because you put one recycling box out!

Today I received a comment on my MySpace from a friend with the attached picture.

 

 

I'm not on the construction/building side of the multifamily industry, so I may be a little out of my area of expertise on this one, but I have one question to pose: Is now a great time to renovate? Assuming you can get financing, which right now is a pretty big "if", raw materials might be extremely inexpensive. I admit I don't know this firsthand, but it seems like a good bet that with the extreme slowdown on the housing market, excess inventory is probably readily available. A good buyer should be able to get strong discounts for all sorts of materials, from lumber to fixtures. Of course, this assumes that you aren't fighting for your life in the current economic condition, so everything is relative, I suppose.

Just something to think about...