I have posed a question on my FB page (www.facebook.com/adventuresinmichiganrealestate) that is meant for the universe but should be asked here as well. It hasn't gone viral but a lot of people have thrown in their opinions. A lot of this diatribe is tongue-in-cheek until I tell apartment people about it...and then everyone says "Hey! that happens with my units as well!"
Here is the story - This whole day starting with me pondering the fact that the addition of new tenants to an existing lease is a standard part of my day as an apartment owner. There is something socially fascinating and economically relevant here that I wanted to better understand. Here is the first mystery - In my apartments and in my experience as an owner and as a landlord it is ALWAYS that a girl rents first and her boyfriend moves in later. For me, it has never happened that the guy rents first and his girlfriend moves in later. And I mean N-E-V-E-R!
I will also add, NOT ONE SINGLE TIME has this benefited the tenant (or me). I am going to write another blog on this entire phenomenon at a later date because this wasn't the problem that ground my day to a halt.
The more I pondered the first mystery, a second one starting sifting into my head and caused me to review my entire cycle of getting new tenants. Here is the second mystery - Why are some of my buildings bursting at the seams with women? I mean honestly, the entire world is virtually sitting at a 1:1 gender ratio, but my buildings are the land of Eve! I started to review my advertisements and there it was staring me in the face - I am inadvertantly "gender targeting" my craigslist ads toward women.
How did that happen!?! I have no problem with women or men living in my apartments, but now it was clear why there are so many non-guys. Sadly I was too ignorant to avoid this. But no longer.
So I go back and read my ads. Whoa! It is SHOCKING that I am a man when I read these things now. After calibrating my eyes to recognize those subtle triggers and keywords that will (guaranteed) elicit a response from women. ("Safe", "Welcoming", "Be a part of a our community...", etc., etc.) I now have to ask - Is it any wonder that 85% of my responses are women? They are being mentally kidnapped, almost like part of a Borg assimilation, for one reason only - my complete absence of skill in soliciting men to come live in my buildings! I want the guys kidnapped as well!Let it be said that I LOVE women! Heck, my four daughters are all girls as is my wife. Even my new granddaughter is a girl and I love her more than I can describe. But how did I get wired so completely to only appeal to the fairer sex when marketing for my buildings!?! I thought FREE WILL was at play here?
That is when it occurred to me - As a guy, I have NO IDEA whatsoever of what to look for in an apartment, so how in the heck could I EVER structure the words in an ad to appeal to a guy? We should have seen this coming years ago.
My first apartment was given to us by my father-in-law for six months free. In exchange his daughter had to keep our wedding ceremony small. I was making all of $4.11 an hour as a Bank Teller and Deb was in college to be a Registered Nurse. We weren't exactly swimming in dollars. How could we say "No"? We didn't and we found he was smarter than us. A year after our "immediate family (and one grandma) only" wedding we had saved up enough cash to buy our first house. I was 21 and Debbie was 20 and I am still grateful for that gift, 30 years later (yet surprisingly enough, I am only 39 years old!) Regardless of you not being able to prove how old I am, buying that house caused me to completely miss out on gaining any skill and experience to filter apartment ads the way a guy would filter an apartment ad.
So, since the reason we are all here is to hold my hand and help me figure stuff out, what I am putting out to universe is the following request:
Please provide all and any thoughts on how to gender target my apartment ads so guys might, from time to time, want to fill out a lease. Later we will address the cycles and strategies necessary to select female tenants that would not tend to fail due to the "add a boyfriend later" scenario.
If anyone accuses me of being a bad guy, or of orchestrating my own social filter against women, well, I'm not and I'm not. I am merely trying to swing a pendulum back to equilibrium. Who am I kidding? Maybe I am a bad guy, but I am not trying to be one or sound like one or write a blog like one. I just DIDN'T sleep at a Holiday Inn last evening!
So today's lesson learned is: scrutinize your advertising and make sure the message is bringing the type of tenant that you "think" you are trying to pursue.
Smart assed comments are expected and welcome, but there are some brilliant marketers on this forum and I would like to hear some real ideas to go with what I have already discovered.
And only because it appears that I seem to forget, as far as any comments go - I am a man, I can take it!