What Not To Wear!

What exactly is Business Casual Attire or Professional Attire?

As a business consultant to the apartment industry, I am asked a LOT, "What's fair leasing agent compensation? Is their a leasing commission structure you would recommend?"

There is no easy or short answer to this question, so let's take a round about way of discuss it.

By now everyone knows the importance of having an effective online classified strategy as part of your property marketing efforts.   For many communities, advertising on sites like Craigslist make up a significant share of the total prospect traffic for the property (over 50% in some cases).  But how do you know if you are getting the most from your online classified advertising effort?

Reprinted with permission from Multifamily Executive, a publication of Hanley Wood Business Media © July 2010

Fresh off of its June 30 release of one of the first multifamily apartment search applications for the iPad, Highlands Ranch, Colo.-based REIT UDR is rolling out an electronic renewal system that has been in development for the past 20 months.

Tell me what's wrong with this scenario.....

A leasing consultant just showed an interested couple a model apartment and they're very excited about picking out their actual new home. The leasing consultant sits down with them and says,

"Ok, let me take a look at my detail here.....hmm....ok, it looks like I have a B1V in what we call building 2, which is really 1700 Shady Lane, on notice for August 2nd, but the cleaner, painter and maintenance will have to go in, so maybe we can schedule a move in for August 5th."


Some of you may be saying to yourselves that nothing's wrong. Sounds just like a conversation you have with your prospects every day. Well, here's the thing....this leasing consultant has given them way too much information, included terms they don't even know and taken away their initial excitement for the community! Sometimes we get so caught up in our jobs and don't think about little things like that. We know what we're talking about, but it doesn't mean the person on the other end of the conversation will. A better response for that leasing consultant would have been...

"Fantastic! I see we have a beautiful 2 bedroom home in the Magnolia plan that you just saw that will be available for you to move into on August 5th! It's on 1700 Shady Lane, a popular building with views of the lake!"

See how much better that sounds? The leasing consultant has given all of the same information, yet kept it simple and exciting for the prospect!

K.I.S.S. is something I learned on Day 1 of my first Journalism class in college. It stands for Keep It Simple Stupid. We have a tendency to overthink and overspeak all of the time. But sometimes we have to remember that the person on the other end of the conversation doesn't need to know everything. Sometimes offering too much information or information they're not clear on can just make the real facts get lost in translation. You can apply this rule to every aspect of your job, whether it be dealing with prospects, residents, vendors or co-workers. Think of it when you're on the phone, when you're writing resident communication or when you've got someone sitting in front of you. I guarantee you it's a tactic that will never fail!
Morgan Oney, CAM
www.getmoreleases.com  No set up fees, no monthly fees, no lead fees...pay one low price per successful lease!

"Forget about fictional, glitter-skinned teen vampires. You’re far more likely to have your blood sucked by bed bugs." So says Lynn Bruno, of MSNBC.com.

CHEEZ'N'RICE!

The story captured my attention when I was listening to the news this morning, and my interest was piqued because I've chuckled every time I've seen  a reference to "BedBugs" in property management. I know this is not my usual topic, but wow...Victoria's Secret has bedbugs? That's just freaky and thought it would spark some interesting chatter on the matter..

(Before you get upset by the concept, please see the disclaimer at the end!)

Hazing in college is an interesting thing:  Not only does it weed out those who are not fully committed to the idea of the frat or sorority, it creates an unbelievable sense of loyalty after that initial period.  But why is that?  It sounds counterintuitive that the organization puts the person through hell, and yet the members are somehow more connected to the organization after the fact! 

The reality is that however horrible it might be, surviving hazing ends up being an accomplishment, earning the ability to gain seniority within the group.  They have “paid their dues”, and if they left the group, the significant cost of hazing would be lost.  In this sense, their experience in the group gets better over time, first after surviving hazing, and later by rising in seniority. 

Creative Ways To Retain Residents At Renewal Time

So often we focus on leasing and being creative with our marketing that we forget about Resident Retention. We think oh we don’t have to market our current residents they already live here at our community. That is the wrong thought process, marketing does not stop the moment they sign a lease, it’s a continuous thing. So let’s focus on some creative ways to market renewals and to get the current resident to stay a current resident. Especially now in these times when we are all competing for each other residents. I was reading a past issue of Rent and Retain magazine March/April 2006 and discover a fun list of 21 methods to deliver lease renewals. I tweaked some and added a little here and there! I really hope you enjoy this and have fun! There will be lots of more fun and creative ways to market current residents to stay coming your way soon!

•Remember the first initial letter is to have all the information they need to renew their lease. You can still deliver it in a fun and creative way! 

1)  Wanted Poster- This is great if you have a picture of your resident. Get some cream color paper to make it look aged. Scan the picture and write “WANTED-YOU to renew your lease!” 

2)  “Seems Like Only Yesterday”- Do the same thing with the wanted poster but write “It Seems Like Only Yesterday that you moved in. We’ve had a great year. Please stay for another!” This would also be cute in a card. 3)“We can’t bear for you to leave!”- This would be cute with stuff teddy bears (you can fined them at the dollar store) or go to www.plushinarush.com. Make a cute card tie it around the bear neck and hand deliver to the resident that has put in notice. You can even have a special just for them. 

I noticed throughout my time on site that so many leasing consultants don't respond to leads properly. More than likely, it's lack of training and lack of experience. Lucky for you, both of these situations can be easily overcome!

I recently conducted a little experiment and emailed 10 properties with the same question...."how much are your 2 bedroom apartments?" Here are the responses I received....

4 properties responded simply with their price. That's it! No introduction to their community, no offer for a tour, nothing!

3 properties responded with a good response-introduction to their community, photos, invitation for a tour, etc.

3 didn't respond at all!

So that means 70% of the properties I contacted pretty much let me walk away. Here I was, for all they know, a perfect prospect. I'm already interested in the property because I took the first step to contact them. The rest was in their hands and they blew it!

I don't want you to blow it! Here are a few tips to follow when responding to email leads. Follow these with EVERY SINGLE lead you get and I guarantee you'll see an increase in your leasing!

1. Have a general response already prepared that you send to every prospect. The response should be informative, descriptive, inviting and most of all, grammatically correct! And don't forget to use spell check! Make the prospect feel as if you're genuinely happy that they've contacted you and you're excited to help them find their new home. This is a great place to highlight specials, however, if you have a community on the high side for rent, I don't recommend including it right up front unless a prospect specifically asks. Let them fall in love with your community before they see the price so that they can appreciate everything they're getting.

2. Send them a copy of your e-brochure or if you don't have one, create an Information Guide to attach to your emails. Your Information Guide can be written in Word form and saved as a PDF so that anyone should be able to open it. You can include anything you'd like that will help the prospect learn about your community without actually visiting. I usually make my Information Guides like this:

Page 1. Introductory letter to the prospect, thanking them for inquiring about the community, describing the community, and inviting them to learn more.
Page 2. Create a photo collage of your community. The more photos, the better! A picture is worth a thousand words.
Page 3. Create an informative, descriptive and unique guide to the features and benefits of living in your community. Use your imagination and creativity when formatting your list!
Page 4 (more if needed). Include floor plan images. Under the plans, talk about the unique features of that plan and what makes it special.
Page 5. Create a list of the top 100 reasons to live in your community. I love this one!
Page 6. At the end of your guide, include your rental application and rental criteria.

3. Ask every lead when they're available to come in for a tour! You want to seem approachable. Sometimes people are shy and don't know the procedures for renting an apartment. Make them feel comfortable and lead the way. This is your first opportunity to create a rapport with them.

4. Follow up with everyone! Within 24 hours of their first contact, follow up and ask them if they have any questions about the information you sent and see when they're available for a tour. Treat them just like a traffic that's already walked through your door-follow up until you have a result! They already like your community-don't stop until they lease with you or tell you they've leased somewhere else!

I hope you find these tips helpful. You have someone whose already interested in your community by the time they contact you. Take advantage of that! Don't let another lease walk away from your community!
Morgan Oney, CAM
www.getmoreleases.com No set up fees, no monthly fees, no lead fees! Only pay for success!

As part of our mission we are constantly looking for new and creative ways to explain complex ideas.  We get a lot of questions from property managers wanting to know what really is behind the mystery of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). 

SEO is the process for getting search engines like Google to recognize your website as a credible source for searches conducted on their engines (also called organic search).   As you probably know SEO is an important part of any web marketing strategy.  However, understanding all the complexities of SEO is not easy.  So, a few Gurus over here put together a short video that tries to explain SEO in more simple terms.  Enjoy the video and let us know what other property marketing topics you'd like to see us explain.