There's No Place Like Home

During my Unconventional Marketing webinar, I was asked to post a blog about my Round Robin Open House event.  It's a simple and fun idea which gets your team and the residents involved while highlight what makes your community special and memorable.

Years ago, I was asked to troubleshoot a 30-year old community that had recently been added to our portfolio.  This community had struggled for some time under the previous management company and the owner was understandably anxious to see immediate results.  

This community was challenged not only from the previously ineffective management, it had an occupancy issue due to 19 recent evictions.  The existing residents were distrustful of us coming in and felt we would be just as incapable as the prior management.  We were also dealing with a reputation problem as the community directly across the street had a history of criminal activity and our community was grouped in by association.  Even changing the name of the community had very little impact. 
 

I created an event called the Round Robin Open House where we selected 4 vacant apartment homes to showcase.  Each apartment home was decorated in a different theme (Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Wizard of Oz, Goldfinger, and It’s a Wonderful Life).  The theme for the open house was “A New Take on an Old Classic”.  In addition to the decorations, each apartment home had a monitor with the movie playing and snacks/drinks tied into the theme.  There was also an associate dressed in costume on hand in each apartment home for questions and to highlight specific features of the floorplan.

When prospects arrived to the community, we completed a guest card, took their driver’s license and gave them a community map indicating where the apartment homes were located.  The prospects were then able to tour each home at their leisure and speak with the associates.   After touring the apartment homes, each prospect would return to the office to retrieve their driver’s license at which point an attempt to close would be made.  We also had a large board in the office listing the available apartments and as they were leased, we would put a large star over it.  The star was a replica of the one used on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  If the prospect was not ready to commit to a lease, the associate would set a second appointment for a return visit.

The event was hugely successful in accomplishing the following: it introduced the change in management in a dynamic manner, it marked a sharp contrast to the community across the street, and it significantly established our management company as the exact opposite of what residents had experienced with the previous company.  We also invited the existing residents to the event so they could see the wonderful changes happening to their community.  The event showed we cared not only about leasing to new residents but retaining the valuable residents already living there.