Multifamily Industry News and Trends

  What is Lifecycle Programming? Lifecycle Programming is a way to automate customer lifecycle marketing for Multifamily.It combines customer lifecycle marketing efforts from employees and the digital workforce to build stronger customer relationships. Let’s dive deeper.   How Does it Work? Using a series of plays, Lifecycle Programming provides targeted content to customers. The customer’s stage in the lifecycle determines the play used. Each play is a collection of email topics to send to customers in a particular stage of the lifecycle. A play contains a mix of automated drips, triggered alerts and eBlasts.All together, these emails work to move customers from one stage to the next.  Plus, they are faster and easier than traditional email marketing campaigns! Automation is the key to making Customer Lifecycle Marketing for Multifamily work. Each of the email types used in a play involves some degree of automation. Let’s learn a little more.   Triggered Alert Triggered alerts have the highest level of automation. These emails rely on ambient intelligence to sense and respond to an event. Trigger events can be a result of a property’s action or prospect’s action. Property triggers result from property management company actions. These can vary from price changes to policy changes. Prospect triggers are a result of actions taken by the prospect. Events like submitting an application or clicking through an email are prospect triggers. Take a look at the chart below. It makes it easy to see how little agent effort is required. For example, a prospect may only click through emails featuring one bedroom apartments. The system uses that information to infer the......

What is Customer Lifecycle Marketing? Everyone knows in business the customer comes first. Customer Lifecycle Marketing is founded on this principle. The goal of Customer Lifecycle Marketing is to send content to leads based on their stage in the customer lifecycle. What is exciting for a prospect may not matter to a dead lead and vice versa. So why would you send them the same content? Plus, customers who received emails specific to their stage in the customer lifecycle have a 72% higher conversion rate. Did we mention? Marketers who use segmented email marketing campaigns experience a 760% increase in revenue! Let’s see what this looks like for Multifamily. Still confused about CLM? Download the Customer Lifecycle Marketing Infographic.   How Does it Work? Every potential Multifamily customer falls into one of the following zones: Prospect Zone Resident Zone Dormant Zone So let’s take a look at the normal lifecycle for a Multifamily customer.   The idea is to get every lead into the Resident Zone. A.K.A.the zone where you are making money. Obviously having full occupancy forever is a fantasy, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t form your strategy with that goal in mind. Norman Vincent Peale said it best, “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” That’s what we are doing with Lifecycle Programming.   How to Put it into Play We have developed ready-made ‘plays’ to make the transition from each stage to the next as easy as possible. And maximize the number of customers in the Resident Zone!     By engaging with each customer at every step of th......

Say no to interview intuition and use behavioral science to make an objective call.  Once upon a time, I was hired as a recruiter for a high-end employment agency. It was a positive experience and I did well in my position. I had a strong team of coworkers, so I was surprised to learn that they had implemented a personality test for new hires at our company. I was immediately curious and asked if I could take the test. Afterward, I was told I had “failed”. My manager laughed when I asked, “Failed what? Are you telling me I have no personality?”   She had no answers for me and simply said to stop worrying about it.  What was the meaning of this silly test? Turns out it wasn’t the job for me. I’m easily bored and need exciting experiences to keep my attention. Hunting for CFO’s and accountants wasn’t engaging for me unless I was able to steal them from another company and make a lot of money doing it. Yet, even that high was short-lived for someone who thrives under stress and excitement. This is probably why I love the always adventurous property management industry and find myself working in it now.  Over the years, we can perform jobs that are either perfectly suited for us or leave us wanting more and lacking in productivity as we become stale. The assessment I took back then could have given me the tools I needed to find my perfect position faster, and my employers th......

So far we have covered how Google will take over the Multifamily ILSes’ business with their Apartments Knowledge Graph. But, property management companies (PMC) can get more leads from Google by building their Apartments Knowledge Graph. How Can a PMC Build Its Apartments Knowledge Graph? Google does not single-source the data for its Apartments Knowledge Graph. Here is an example of the different sources needed to build Google’s Apartments Knowledge Graph:   Let’s dive into how you can use each source to position your apartment well with Google’s users. #1. Fill in the Info Section on Google My Business Your first change should be made in Google My Business: Go to Google My Business Pick your location Select the “Info” section  Fill out the fields to make your knowledge graph as complete as possible #2. Write a Wikipedia Article Next, write a Wikipedia article about your property. Google loves to use Wikipedia as a resource and will use it to enhance your knowledge graph. For example, here is the description of a property from a Wikipedia article being displayed in its knowledge graph: #3. Push Information to Google Using Structured Data on your Website Google uses structured data to assemble its Knowledge Graphs. Structured data is a machine-readable format to pass information to Google. Here is an example: The following steps are slightly technical, but not crazily so. In general, web developers should provide this functionality out-of-the-box, so you don’t have to do this. If your web developer does not provide this, you can build one yourself: Go to s......

Investing in property is no small affair; investing in property and deciding to rent is even scarier. However, knowing exactly what you’re getting yourself into in advance can help save a lot of headaches. So, before making your final decision, take a look at what the potential benefits and downfalls of renting a property. The Pros When weighing out the pros and cons of renting your property, the advantages seem to be slightly outnumbered by the disadvantages. However, the pros are more powerful, and if you put in enough time and energy into research before investing, it can pay off. Property is always in high demand and often much more predictable than other markets. It makes it a long-term investment that you can benefit from for years to come. Perhaps the most motivating factor is a monthly rent. Such a stable income is hard to argue with, as occupied property means monthly rent checks that go straight into your account. Monthly rent can also help settle your monthly expenses if you’ve purchased a property with the help of a bank loan. Another big plus is property value growth over time. Your property value increases, and you can bring in so much more income over the years without you investing more. However, this is where proper research is vital. If you invest in an upcoming area, your property can experience a significant rise in price. There are also many tax benefits you can claim and take advantage of to deduct your costs annually when owni......

Dealing with tenants’ maintenance requests is one of the biggest issues landlords face, especially with so much (rental) competition around. Tenants know that they can get the same or better service for their buck virtually wherever they turn. It is giving them a confidence boost to demand their landlord’s active involvement in their apartment upkeep, repairs, and all other pending issues, no matter how trivial. Naturally, every landlord’s goal is to keep the tenant’s happy; on that note, we’re listing a few ways that can help you get on top of your tenants’ demands and find the best solutions for both insignificant and significant requests. Have a Plan Whether you are dealing with your rental property yourself or through a property management company, the best way to handle your tenants’ requests is to have a plan for maintenance requests. That way you’ll respond promptly as requests come through, and you’ll know what do. Outline how the tenant should notify you of any problems Chart your response timeframe Keep a list of local contractors, such as plumbers, electricians, and general contractors to be ready should something urgent happens   Know the Law Running your property rental business needs to be done within the landlord/tenant law for you to execute your rights as a landlord. Since this law considerably varies from state to state, make sure you’re within the right one to avoid any potential problems. Also, it’s crucial you stay within both federal and state legislation. Most states have clear guidelines on how soon you’re required to res......

Take a deep dive into the three differences between apartment and hotel searches on Google Maps. A Shift is Coming The Apartments Knowledge Graph is very similar to the Hotel Knowledge Graph. Above, we compared the two on a search page. Now, let’s compare them on Google Maps. A close look at the comparison shows there is a shift happening in the Multifamily industry. Maps View Google Maps’ results for a Hotel and an apartment building are almost identical. But there is one vital difference: there is no pricing info for apartments.   List View The story is the same for its list view. They are very similar except for pricing.   Single Property View How about the result view for a single hotel vs. a single multifamily complex? Once again, the only differences are: Price-based Search Amenities Let’s zero in on those differences:     Difference # 1: Price-based Search Google has sophisticated price-based search for hotels. Specifically, its knowledge graph has prices for the same room: From different online travel agencies For various travel dates     There is no pricing on the apartment side.     Difference #2: Amenities For a person searching for a hotel, its amenities are key in the decision-making process. While the Hotel Knowledge Graph has amenities, the Apartments Knowledge Graph does not.           Difference #3: Booking Options When a prospect is ready to act, it is important that they have the option to book a tour online, just as they ......

Gartner has predicted, by 2020, 85% of customer interactions will be managed without a human. This can be both a scary and exciting statistic for the multifamily industry. Based on LeaseHawk CRM user data in 2017, more than 75% of all communications to properties were handled via telephone call. With phone calls being such a personal form of 1-to-1 communication it can feel uncomfortable with the thought of a robot making a personal connection with a prospective renter on the other line. However, with the insurgence of voice assistants like Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa, the general population is getting more comfortable with talking to voice assistants. This has led to the growing trend of people expecting an instant response when they shop or search for an apartment.  Today’s renter is accustomed to having information available on-demand, at their fingertips. Property Owners and Managers are already preparing their customer service workflows to integrate automated assistants to help alleviate these challenges. And, they’re starting to see real benefits and savings for doing so. Here are 3 ways automated assistants are making properties more productive.   1. Answer Calls After Hours Leasing offices are missing calls after-hours. On average, multifamily professionals miss 49% of all calls to their properties. Many times, this is happening when the leasing agent isn’t available, or the office is closed. Have you ever asked yourself: What is happening to all those missed leads? Zillow reports that 52% of callers, especially night-owls like Millennial and Generation Z renters, will never cal......

      With 88 percent of residents preferring to communicate via email and 90 percent of text messages being read within 3 minutes of delivery, property managers can no longer ignore the fact that the mainstream expectations on how a resident prefers to communicate has changed. It makes sense - texting friends and family is second-nature, it’s only natural that they now prefer to communicate with their property managers in the same immediate and convenient channel. It's also minimally time invasive and gives your residents the opportunity to stay connected no matter where they are or what they're up to.Still not convinced? Here are four reasons you should seriously consider embracing text and email as a day-to-day way to communicate with your residents:Reason 1: Bye-bye Baby Boomers, hello Millennials We’re all witnessing a paradigm shift away from baby boomers and over to the future of business growth in millennials, specifically in the housing category. According to Pew Research, millennials have surpassed baby boomers as the largest living generation and are driving up the rental market every month. To meet this shift, property managers need to embrace the communication channels that this new generation has grown up with. More importantly, they must provide experiences that allow everything to be resolved on a smartphone without them having to pick up and call. This new-age group is a large percentage of the renters that will be shopping and comparing your community, and ultimately determining whether or not they want to sign or renew a lea......

  The usual tactics to boost revenue from property rental is acquiring as many properties as possible. While this may be a valid method for those who are in the property business per se, when it comes to “regular” people that have just a few properties to rent, a better approach would be to focus on their current portfolio and see what they can do to earn more without investing more. Let’s talk: Minimize Turnover Turnover is one of the worst things for everyone in the property rental business. Every turnover costs money and going through tenant after tenant will cost you more than you’ll earn. Apart from advertising costs, there are costs of vacancy, patching and painting walls, replacing and repairing flooring, or fixing anything else left broken by your previous tenant, etc. But, how do you minimize turnover and keep the right tenants in place? There are several points to it: Lowering the rent: Although this may sometimes be counterintuitive, it does show the tendency to increase revenue, long-term and here’s why. When tenants don’t have to pay high rents, they appreciate the place they live in and usually tend to keep it in good shape as if it were their home. Also, they are less likely to leave. Customer service: Whether you have a property manager or personally manage your properties, you’ll keep your tenants in place if you treat them with respect. The more professional you are, the longer they’ll stay, meaning – make sure their concerns are valued and their reasonable reques......