Rick Ellis posted this list on a newsgroup I am a part of, and he let me repost it here. Some are obviously a bit more realistic than others, but it should get the creative juices flowing, regardless!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

We have been brainstorming some of the more outrageous rent and ancillary
income sources for our apartment communities. Here are some of our ideas
and yes, they are a bit out of the box. Admittedly, some are even
ridiculous! May I hear your sane and insane ideas for getting any
additional revenue for your apartment communities? Go ahead...the sky is
the limit!

Check some of these revenue generating ideas and share some of yours:
* Bidding for the "best" and closest parking spaces ­ one year commitment
and then the bidding process is offered again
* Commercial naming rights for your apartment community - "The AT&T Market
Square Apartment Center"
* Automated after hour lost key retrieval Stations- paid by credit card
* Elevator advertising by video screen or poster
* Billboards on apartment buildings or rooftops
* Bed and Breakfast facility incorporated into the apartment community
* Extended stay executive suites (specifically designed for business
travelers) incorporated in a section of the community
* Roof top rights sold to local electricity providers for solar panels
* Lease out secure wine cellar spaces for Residents' vintage wine
collections
* Lease for an additional fee "Smoking Apartments" with special high tech
ventilation equipment that will not interfere or concern other residents.
* Renting out your clubroom facilities on weekends to religious
organizations (This may not be a good idea but if done properly, it is not
a fair housing issue)
* Offer apartments that include a "safe room".
* Build floorplans with a REAL office...one room built out like a high end
commercial office with all the furnishings.
* Add a heliport on a building top or other empty space with landing fees

I'm a big believer that one of the main reasons we struggle with turnover so much in our industry is the process of renting itself. We tend to not act like we are renting a home, but just a temporary one-year hiatus until they find their next temporary one-year hiatus. And this mentality is built into the lease itself. Right from the start, there is an expiration date on their lease, that puts the requirement on the resident to actively think of whether they want to stay or find something else by that particular date. The problem is, we don't want our residents to actively think!  :)  When that process starts, it puts them into a "buying mode", which is where advertising works most effectively.

Take cell phones, for example. Do I have a clue as to what cell phone plans are out there? Not at all! I am satisfied with my phone and my service and, most importantly, my plan auto-renews at the same price. So I'm never put into a buying mode unless my phone breaks or a really incredible competing product comes along. So there is never a pre-defined date that I'm supposed to make a decision as to whether I should stay with Sprint or find something else. And yet this is exactly what we are doing with our leases!

Once a person goes into buying mode, they transition from being completely oblivious about competing products to actively looking and considering every one of your competitors. So what to do? My first thought is to make leases auto-renew, and you could even probably get away with an inflation adjustment every year without putting them into a buying mode. However, this may or may not be legal. So in the short term, maybe a little bit of psychology could help. What about instead of calling it a "lease end date", call it a "renewal date" and have this concept and frame of mind instilled into the resident/prospect from day one. I know it sounds small and insignificant, but it may be enough to slightly alter the perception of the date from a defined ending to just a day to do paperwork.

Any thoughts? Any other ideas that could stop a resident from going into buying mode?

AptConnect on Multifamily Executive:

http://www.multifamilyexecutive.com/industry-news.asp?sectionID=550&articleID=733522&refresh=true

So as many of you know, I was fortunate enough to go to Italy last week, which I might blog about later on. But for now, I want to focus on my trip home, which included a 9 hour flight to Newark, New Jersey and then another 3 hour flight to Houston. Unfortunately, there was bad weather in Newark (and more on the way), so we ended up being stuck on the tarmac for 3 extra hours. Terrible, huh? Surprisingly, not so much. Granted, I wasn't thrilled with the 3 hour delay stuck in the airplane, but it was strangely not nearly as bad as other delays I've gone through, solely because of the way the pilot handled the situation. Immediately when he found out that we were stuck, he took the time to tell us EXACTLY what was going on. He gave us the impression that we now knew every piece of information possible. Then he said he would keep us updated every 20 to 25 minutes, which he did consistently. One of the biggest frustrations in delays like this are the uncertainty. Are we going to be there for hours? What's the hangup? Is the flight going to be canceled? Are we going to be able to get a snack while we wait? Answering these questions didn't take away the frustration of having to wait for three hours, but it allowed us to sit back and relax, confident that we would had all the information possible.