One of the most important elements of your apartment marketing strategy is your property photos.  Even if you aren’t a professional photographer, here are some creative ways and hints for taking great pictures of your property, while accentuating the best features and amenities it offers and minimizing the less desirable features.

1.)     Take pictures of rooms, not furniture.  The furniture should complement the room, so arrange the shot so that you are focusing on the entire room, not just a couch.  Prospects want to see room sizes and things like sliding doors, how the fireplace is situated in the room, how their dining room set might be placed, etc.

2.)    Exterior photos should be inviting and welcoming.  Use your property’s assets like trees, benches, and water features to welcome your prospects by including them in the frame when you shoot buildings, monuments, and clubhouses.  At the pool, showcase the lounge areas and spa.  Try taking your exterior shots at dawn or dusk when the lighting is not directly overhead.

With a variety of ways to generate a lead on the web as well as the different pricing models out there, how do you figure out which ILS platform to invest in? 

It is my belief that keeping the focus on "true" lease acquisition cost is the best way to get this one right. The key is to define what goes into cost... Let's look at 2 examples;

1. An ILS that sends 20 leads a month and generates 1 lease every other month for $200 per month. The true cost is more than $200. It is costing the time the sort through the 39 other prospects, the time to design the ad etc...
2. An ILS that costs $300 per month, generates 5 prospects and 1 lease. Now you only work through 10 prospects and depending on how you value that work this is probably your best deal...

So do you actually track these performance metrics? If so what seems to work best for you?

The apartment industry is getting very savvy towards employing social media and mobile marketing into their media/marcomm mix and why shouldn't they? The industry has a structured revolving door of customers coupled with the fact that they sell lifestyle, a perfect marriage when it comes to running positive returns from social media and mobile marketing efforts. 

In this Blog, you will find weekly (and spur of the moment) updates on mobile and social media tools that are becoming available (i.e. anyone here of augmented reality tools and how this plays into mapping and community tours?) as well as research on usage and redemption rates.

This blog will not discuss why you should be social, how to be social or other points addressed in other blogs regarding social media team level techniques as we specialize in mobile and social media applications.

We're going to try an incentive at J.C. Hart  to get our onsite teams to really focus on their Craigslist posts and see what comes of it.  Watch the video for details, and please share with the online community what you've done to improve your Craigslist postings.

As seen @ MarkJuleen.com

I first heard about Zappos.com a few years ago.  Unlike some people I first heard of Zappos.com because of their unusual corporate “culture” not because of their online shoe store.  Over the years I had read a lot about Tony Hsieh and it was a goal to get the chance to visit their world famous headquarter myself.  Earlier this year I got my chance.  What an amazing experience – words can’t describe the experience.

Tony Hsieh took the company from almost no revenue to over $1 billion in less than ten years!  And, he did it by simply focusing on building the best culture he possibly could.  The result is an industry leading brand and company that was recently bought by Amzaon.com for $1.2 billion.

If you would like to see for yourself you can take advantage of a free tour Zappos.com without leaving your desk.  Here’s the information – share it freely!

It may seem a bit odd coming from a person who makes a living, in part, as a professional speaker, but as any of my friends in this business can attest to – I am not a talker. I don’t chit chat. I am perfectly comfortable saying nothing. Our 30^th president, Calvin Coolidge, was famous for this sort of “reserve”. A Hollywood celebrity was seated next to him at a Whitehouse dinner once. This woman was known for being vivacious and lively. She turned to the President and said, “Mr. President, I've bet someone that I could get more than three words out of you,” to which Mr. Coolidge replied “You lose.” So why do I bring this up? Why on earth am I telling you that I am not chatty? Because your leasing people may not be either. I can get away with it. A leasing agent? Not so much.

Growing up and getting my start in the industry in Texas, I have certainly heard my share of chatty Cathy’s. While an unfocused and flighty person is certainly annoying to just about anyone, a person who actually has something interesting to say tends to be a good leasing consultant. Ask yourself, just how good of a rapport do your leasing consultants build with their prospects? What do they do to establish common ground, find a few things in common that they can chat about? Do they try at all? Or are they like Calvin Coolidge at a state dinner?

Forgive me community! I forgot to ask in my latest blog post, how are you preparing for your emergencies and or disasters? It's good for me to have that kind of information when I'm out and about.

All you heard about on the news yesterday, the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, was about the lessons learned during that disaster. I take it we are still learning from it. What if we were better prepared? Is it typically an afterthought, even for the day to day mundane stuff that we take for granted?

I'm excited to hear your thoughts - hopefully it will help with my approach.

Best,
Monique L Wilson
Business Continutity Specialist

It's interesting this work of preparing. Every weekend I prepare for my week of "cultivating critical connections" though the property managers and organizations I'm trying to connect with doesn't view it as cultivation. Well that's another blog post for another time. Today I'm talking about preparing.

In my world of emergency preparedness i understand and realize that every company is susceptible to disasters (or just plain ole' daily flooding, fire, mold, etc.). I say Be Prepared, Plan Ahead -- And don't let an emergency shut you down!

THE PLAN

Planning for the continuing survival of your business can be a complex and stressful task if you do not consult with an experienced professional. A professional facility manager or property owner does not question the possibility of a disaster, but asks "what could happen, and when?" Disasters (or a softer gentler term -- emergencies) such as sever storms, floods, earthquakes, fire/smoke, pipe burst, chemical or oil spills, vandalism or even, sorry to be so gorry, blood removal.

Whether it is a natural disaster or a specific occurence, a well-prepared manager/owner is ready to handle the impact of the disater on the following:

• Health and Saftety of employees and tenants
• Buildings owned or operated by company
• Equipment owned or operated by company
• Interruption to business operations
• Loss or damage to vital company data and proprietary information

We know there is a NEED to be prepared and I've shared a bit about the PLAN, next time I will tell you about SOLUTIONS.

Ok, those are my thoughts for you today. I'm preparing to spread this word this week about being PREPARED and I hope my fellow property managers are ready to take my call -- I'll let you know how that goes :-)

Have a great, productive work week community!

Monique L. Wilson
Business Continutity Specialist
www.disasterservices.com

While metro Washington, DC seems to rank at the top of the list of just about everyone's favorite apartment markets, current performance stats actually are a little stronger in adjacent Baltimore.

June's occupancy rate in Baltimore's base of about 190,000 apartments stood at an even 96 percent, up 2.1 percentage points from the late 2009 figure and 0.7 points ahead of occupancy in Washington, DC. Neighborhood-level occupancy was right around the 95 percent mark in even the weakest of Baltimore's individual submarkets, and the rate was 97 percent or better in Ellicott City/Columbia and the Towson area.