Sarita LaTorre's Blog

The leasing office/clubhouse (we will refer to as leasing office) used to be a place where leasing professionals meet and greet their future residents and complete the necessary paperwork to lease an apartment.  Now, this area is the masterpiece that is the crown jewel of the community.  The leasing office encompasses the senses to subliminally create a sale. 

When a prospect walks into a leasing office, he or she is greeted by an elegant, visual showpiece that represents the core of the community.  The leasing office is the eye candy that first greets a prospect.  There are designer couches and artistic paintings tastefully exhibited in the leasing office and clubhouse.   The latest in flat screen TVs and trendy furniture proudly announces that the prospect has arrived to the destination.   The prospect will also notice some goodies displayed in decorative flair in conspicuous places throughout the leasing office/clubhouse.  Homemade cookies, candies, apple pies, appeal to the palatable senses and invite the prospect to partake in treats laid out.   The prospect also hears calming music tacitly playing throughout the clubhouse.  There are also the latest in technology that allows the prospect to touch a screen and peruse through the pictures and floorplans available at the community.  These factors all help to invite and attract a prospect to stay and feel comfortable, allowing the prospect to anticipate and contemplate living at the community.  That's fascinating!

You may not think these perceived particulars work, but, making a prospect feel welcomed and special goes a long way to create a sale.  It is now up to the leasing professional to complete the reverie and fortify the picture of living at the community.  With all this being said, it is always unbeknownst to me why the office and clubhouse is sometimes in disarray.  When the office is in disarray, the prospect feels unwelcomed and intrusive.  It also gives the impression that the office staff is unprepared.  This is a bad sign to a prospect and he or she will probably not rent at the community if this is the case.

In the October 2009 issue of Units magazine, distributed by the NAA, there is an article about the online presence and rating apartment communities throughout the U.S.*  In particular, the storyline focused on ApartmentRatings.com and the comments left by past and present residents.  If you are not familiar with ApartmentRatings.com, the online forum is a database where residents and ex-residents rate their respective communities. 

The site displays an average score based on reviewers' opinions on parking, maintenance, construction, noise, grounds, safety and office staff.  If you have never been to the site, I highly recommend you do.  Perhaps, your apartment is rated by your residents on ApartmentRatings.com.  It's always good to know what your residents are saying about you.

Word of mouth advertising has always been a strong marketing tool in the multifamily industry.  This article begs the question, how many of us actually know what our residents think about the job we are doing?  Does your community issue satisfaction surveys and do you take these comments seriously?  If not, you probably want to do all you can to stop losing residents and prospects.  Go ahead and type in your apartment community's name in a search engine.  You are almost sure to see ApartmentRatings.com appear on the search if you have comments on the forum.

In a recent seminar at Columbus Apartment Association, Kate Good, National Speaker, Marketer and Creative Consultant for the multifamily industry, gave a speech regarding the current effects of the economy on the multifamily housing sector.  I read pieces of the speech and was enthralled by the data collected by Ms. Good and the points about the changing face of the renter.  However, one of the observations, the increase of specials and concessions offered in today's market was very concerning.  .  According to Ms. Good, approximately 70% of communities nationwide are offering concessions, everything from one month to four months free.  You can view this blog written by Chrissy Wills at http://kategoodblog.blogspot.com/.

I have spoken to many people in the industry and found they are divided about specials and concessions offered by communities.  I guess you can say they are "necessary evils".  I say this because renters are researching communities more effectively now than they did even five years ago.  As prospects click on the homepage for apartment communities they are immediately greeted by pop-ups about free rent.  Now, I am seeing the internet coupon used.  By the way, I think internet coupons are a smart way to track traffic.   Without specials and free rent, some potential renters are skipping the community altogether.  It's the WIIFM effect. 

In my opinion, giving away so much free rent undermines the integrity of the pricing scheme at the community.  Why not re-evaluate the rent scheme and compete with your competition on market rent instead of effective rent?  I see a lot of management companies using price optimization systems such as Rainmaker LRO  and Yieldstar .  I think this is great.  So, why the need to add specials when these programs are suppose to optimize rent?  I think we need more communication (and accurate data) among management companies to ensure that the market is sustaining a true price value.  After all, management companies are spending valuable money and resources to make sure they can convert lookers to leases.

OK...so you have this one floorplan that just will not move. Your manager just annouced an amazing special to lease the apartment. You start making phone calls to prospective residents. You keep getting voicemails because most of your prospects are at work. You can always send a quick email with pretty words and urgent messages to entice your prospects. So you send the email and you wait for the them to call back. But, I am sure other communities are doing the same thing as well. So, you need to stand out and be unique!

You can create a mini website to push the apartment. Google Sites is a great tool for this. Perhaps your IT department can help you with a website template site as well. All too often we fail to utilize the strengths of the IT team when marketing. However, that's another blog topic.

I created an account with Google. I love Google - I can do almost anything I want to market the homes and communities. I use the Google Sites (http://sites.google.com) to create mini websites to email to my leads.

Hello there! It's a beautiful day in Denver.  The sun is shining; the temperature is crisp and refreshing.  Perfect for touring...but, where's the traffic?

Has everyone experienced lower than normal traffic in the last couple weeks?  What are you doing to increase the traffic and leases at your property?

Communities are using move in psecials to attract prospective residents. Some communities are prorating one to three months rent, others are waiving up front fees.  However, when using specials a community needs to look to the future and to retention.  Is prorating concessions going to hurt the ‘bottom line' in a year?  Every community needs to sustain a healthy NOI at the end of the month. 

All too often, we (multifamily leasing professionals) come to work eager to score some money by convincing a prospective resident to live at the community.  We show a prospect the community amenities, walk through the prettiest pathway to the apartment, and allow the prospect to roam through the home trying to figure how his or her life will fit in.  We then take the prospect back to the leasing office and ask for the deposit down on a smashing new home.  The meeting ends, sometimes with a promise from the prospect to return with the application.  The prospect leaves only to repeat the scenes at another community.  Did we satisfy the fundamental desire for wanting an apartment home?  Have we truly taken the time to walk on the other side?

I recently relocated from the east coast to the American West.  So, I started apartment hunting for a home my family and I could be comfortable in and start our lives in Denver.  I thought I had an idea of what I was getting into.  Was I ever surprised! 

I had it all planned:  my preferred place to live, my preferred rent amount, and my preferred apartment.  I headed out to find my home in Denver.  For three days I was apartment hunting and I realized that nothing was going according to my "preferred" plan.  I became frustrated and hopeless annoyance started to set in.  I could not believe that this was happening.  I was in the industry and I thought I had all the tools at my disposal.  I looked at about ten apartment homes and either the prices were not working, or my furniture would not fit or the community was not in the desired school district.  My car was filled with colorful, elegant pamphlets and brochures from the communities I visited.  So this is what it felt like to be on the ‘other side'.

Hello Leasing Industry Superstars,

I am back to blogging...this time from the leasing desk. It is good to be back. I am now in Denver and LOVING it.

A month and a half ago, I did the unthinkable thing. I packed up my family and moved to mid-America. Needless to say, this was a risky move. I had no family or friends here. I just followed my heart and considered what is the best future for my kids. Denver won and so far it has been a blast.