Topic: Keeping in touch with your residents

I have a large 400 unit property. We have a hard time reaching out to our residents without having to take several hours and put notices out on more than 300 doors. What things do you do to get info out to your residents that do not include door to door? Thanks for the help!

When we need to get a minor message out, we sometimes put fliers in the common areas- laundry room, by the mailboxes, etc.

BUT- for retention, I make the effort to go door to door to ensure that my residents know I REALLY care about them. If money is tight, print the notes half-sized, two on one sheet.

To save time, I do it tag-team style. Put all the notices in a messenger bag, one person carries the bag, another person carries the tape. I hold the notice on the door, My assistant sticks on the tape, then he tears off the next strip of tape while I get out the next paper while we both walk to the next door.

We make sure to do mass posts when we wont encounter a lot of residents who will stop us with questions. We can post 100 notices in less than 15 minutes! :)

Are you doing anything to collect email addresses from your residents? Could you try sending an update from a system like MailChimp?

Our application has a place for their email address. So I created a spreadsheet in Excel that has their address, name, phone number and email address. I have several that communicate that way.

Email. Sometimes I call them just to see how everything is going. I know you can't do this with that many units, but I believe it's good sometimes just to call.

The type of residents I have get super annoyed by phone calls, and some hate getting notes on their door. I try to get emails too and use this as the primary contact method for minor communication. We keep their email address in the accounting database and the forms database (we have to double enter everything!)

I have a "resident information update" form that I have everyone fill out at lease renewal. It's not optional.

It's probably available in the file bank, but if anyone wants a copy of it, let me know. :)

I like your idea of resident information update and would to get a copy of it./ thanks for the article and for the offer to share your good idea.

Chuck

I don't see the "resident information update" in the file bank, Rose. Would you mind uploading it and we'll make it active?

The form has been uploaded to "misc documents": Resident Information Update . :)

It is a word document so it can be customized. I find that using these at lease renewal, residents assume that is is part of the required lease renewal forms.


Editor Update: I approved the file and linked it here in this post.