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Renting to Students: 4 Steps to Marketing to College “Renters-in-Training”.

Jan 28th, 2011
by jameswb.
2 comments

As we near the end of January, if you rent to college students it is time to make sure you are geared up to rent your September 2011 availability. 

What?!  Already?

Absolutely, this is a demographic that is focused on finding and locking in the best apartment for Fall Semester.  At this point, they are considering who their roommates will be, what they want in housing for next year (party place, jock dorm or library) and where the best location will be. 

Step One:  Determine who will be renewing and who will be vacating.  You need your availability as soon as possible.  Many students want to finalize their housing before finals (as early as April).  (Ideally, you can build this language into your Lease.  If it is not in your current Lease, make sure to add it at renewal.  In the meantime, offer an incentive for current residents to renew or give notice early so you can get the apartment re-rented.)

Step Two:  Let people know—Advertise.  Once you know how many apartments you will have available for the new school year, determine what your closing ratio is and therefore how much traffic you have to generate.  Ideally you will get a lot of traffic through Craigslist.  However, you should also send flyers, post on your Facebook page, e-mail blast, etc. your current residents offering a refer-a-friend special.  In addition, advertise in the student newspaper/web site.  Also, speak with the student affairs offices to let them know you have availability and ask them to refer students to you.  Find out when any housing fairs are taking place so you can participate.  Make sure a banner is on the building (where municipal codes allow) letting prospects know you are renting–and how they can find out more about you.  If you have the ability to text for information or instant message, this is a great resource for students.  Remember, this is a very tech-savvy demographic.

Step Three:  Understand your market.  Student housing can be a challenge because you are marketing to students (“Where’s the party!”) and parents (“You’ll keep my baby safe, won’t you?”)  You will have parents touring with their off-spring.  Therefore you have to market to both.  Remember the parental hot-buttons:  safety, security, well-lit common areas, consistent management and for you to protect their babies.  Now consider student hot-buttons:  Close to campus, fun, a place to meet potential dates, exercise room, bike storage and privacy.

Step Four:  Make sure your Lease and paperwork are ready:

Deposit amount:   Are you renting by the bedroom or by the entire unit?  With student housing it can be a helpful marketing tool to break it down into cost per occupant.  You may be able to push your rental rates because $400 per occupant (assuming four occupants) doesn’t sound as expensive as $1,600 for the unit.  If you have been in business for a while, review what your average damage charges have been at lease-end and charge that amount.  If you are new, look at what your comps are charging. 

Lease considerations: 

If you are new to student housing, make sure you have the ability for parents to co-sign the Lease.  Students have no rental history so they are difficult to qualify.  In addition, if the parents are on the Lease, you can contact them if issues come up.  Make sure your screening is consistent.

Clarify that each person on the Lease for any given apartment are responsible for the entire rent (‘jointly and severally’).  This is helpful when the inevitable roommate disputes arise.  Consider offering roommate referrals—pairing people to alleviate the fear of being left holding the bag for the entire rent amount.  (However, due to liability concerns make sure there is an understanding that you are making no guarantees.)

One complaint of student housing is that it is often a seasonal business.  Make sure to specify that you allow only one year Leases.  In this way they start at the beginning of the school year and end right before the next school year begins.  (This does make turnovers a challenge; however, your owner will appreciate the revenue.)  Determine if you are comfortable with your residents subletting to summer students.  If you are a high-demand property in a high demand location, you can have stricter guidelines.  If you are on the periphery (aka ‘location-challenged’) or in a new lease-up, you may want to reconsider that.

Policies and Procedures:  Students are very impressionable.  As ‘Renters-in-Training’, remind them that they are creating their credit and landlord histories from this time forward.  Many will understand that their behavior will have results in the future.  Others will not (see notes about parents co-signing above!)  Let them know up-front what your expectations are.  Make sure to cover what is and is not acceptable behavior.  For instance, there will be parties; make sure your language addresses parking and how many people are allowed to visit an apartment.

Renting to students can be fun and rewarding.  They bring great energy to your world too.  Follow these basic steps and you will be geared up to have a positive ‘higher education’ experience!

Cheers!  Jim Baumgartner | Rent Soda

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Praise For RENT SODA’s Nov 12th Profiling Your Way to MORE Leases!

Nov 29th, 2010
by daisynguyen.
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Have Money – Need Apartment. PS Don’t Irritate, Annoy or Otherwise *iss Me Off!

Nov 4th, 2010
by daisynguyen.
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In today’s apartment marketplace, when a prospect walks into your doors, they are READY to lease from you. With all the information available on the internet, your facebook page, your twitter account, your website, apartmentratings.com – believe me. They’ve seen it, and your prospect is STILL interested. They may as well have a sign around their neck that reads, “Have Money, Need Apartment.”

What’s preventing you from leasing to them?

I call it the PS factor. They sign around their neck that reads, “Have Money, Need Apartment,” should also have a postscript that reads,

P.S. Don’t IRRITATE, ANNOY, AKA Don’t *iss Me Off – Otherwise You WILL Lose Me!

I’m sure you’ve never annoyed, irritated or *issed your prospects off, or have you?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7ACFZeCZwo

Here are 5 sure fire ways to lose a perfectly good & ready prospect AKA What NOT to Do When Leasing Apartments:

  1. Assume I want the cheapest apartment you have available. Start off selling me on price and price alone: Contrary to popular belief, finding your next apartment HOME is not a decision solely based on PRICE alone. ASK, LISTEN, OBSERVE and use the information you find to your advantage. When shopping for a home, most people do not try to find the cheapest thing they can find. CASE-IN-POINT: I recently did some apartment shops in a busy downtown market. I was dressed appropriately. My boyfriend and I asked to see a luxury unit in the 1500 – 2000 square feet range. We did not mention any budget. They leasing agent did not ask or try to pre-qualify us. Keep in mind, this is a luxury apartment complex, with rents in the $3000 – $5000 range. She immediately took us to what she referred to as the “entry-level” apartment unit. I was appalled. It wasn’t 1500-2000 square feet, it was 900 square feet. For whatever reason, she decided to show us the cheapest unit. Had I been a snobby, willing to over-pay prospect, I would have been insulted, irritated, and a TOTAL waste of my time. Instead I reminded her we had asked for a 1500 – 2000 square foot unit, this apartment did not meet our needs. She replied that those are the most expensive units, only available on the top floors, where a premium was charged. (WHAT? Remember, I never mentioned that I had a budget, but it was obvious that she couldn’t believe ANYONE would pay THAT much for an apartment unit!) We finally did get to the larger units. Don’t assume it’s all about price. Especially if you are in a luxury market, what drives people to spend money on luxury expenditures is NOT price. Because of the economy we are currently in, because of the financial pressure going on in OUR lives, don’t assume that your prospect has those same financial pressures. And NEVER NEVER NEVER, in any way shape or form, imply that you are showing them the cheapest most affordable unit – unless they specific ask for it. Cheap has a negative connotation. DON’t start off on a negative note. You’ve just irritated me.
  2. Make Long Excuses: If there are questions or objections, keep your answers short and sweet and move onto something positive. If I’m asking about the parking, don’t give me a long-rambling excuse on why the parking is $50.00/month. Just let me know what it is and move on unless I have an objection. If I inquire about moving in on the 27th of the month instead of waiting until the first of the month, don’t give me a long excuse of why  I can’t or go through a long list of things you’re going to have to take care ofo just so that I can move in a couple of days early. – I don’t care about why it puts you out. Just let me know if you CAN or can NOT, or if you need to check on it and then move on to something positive. There is no need to make excuses for anything. It’s a waste of time, and I’ll start to wonder if you’re always making excuses for anything/everything that happens….Now you’ve gotten me wondering, and I am even more irritated!
  3. Show me things I told you I am not interested in: If you do, it’s a total waste of my time – you must not respect my time, I’ll assume you didn’t listen to me when I told you I wasn’t interested in XYZ, and you just gave me information overload. CASE-IN-POINT: The same agent above, surprisingly asked us if we had any pets. We stated that we didn’t. As we were going through the tour, she showed us the pet spa, the doggy park, and the pet-only elevators. This added another 15 minutes to our tour. I reminded her that we had no pets, and in fact, I have terrible allergies to pets. (Hoping that she wouldn’t continue to show us all the pet amenities.) If I was an deathly-allergic-to-pets prospect, seeing all the amenities that they offered to pet owners would have scared me. AND, we had a lunch appointment at noon, and she was quickly eating up all our time with pet amenities and cheap units instead of showing us what we really wanted to see. Now I am TOTALLY irritated.
  4. Overload me with information: Don’t regurgitate your entire sales brochure to me. If I tell you I’m only interested in 3 things, give me those 3 things. Don’t overload me with information. Not only will you inundate me, I might even feel stupid. I don’t lease from people who make me feel stupid. CASE-IN-POINT: Same apartment building mentioned above, I named the 3 most important things to me were a.) 1500 – 2000 square feet b.) closet space was EXTREMELY important to me c.) common area entertainment spaces like pool or clubroom. The apartment building was also a green building, seeking LEED certification. As a prospect, I thought that was “nice,” but I didn’t really care to find out where the cabinets came from, how the air in the building was used to heat & cool adjoining units rather than heating/cooling the existing unit therefore conserving energy, or what the content of the “recycled content carpet” was made of or how. All this was explained to me in excruciating detail, all while eating into my upcoming lunch schedule….NOW they’ve escalated from irritating to annoying.
  5. Rush me: I’m not talking about trying to close a lease on me – I’m talking about trying to rush me and get me out of your office. If you have something better to do, do it. When I’m in your office with a sign that says, “Have Money – Need Apartment” and YOU have vacancy. I’m the most important thing on your schedule. If you look at your watch too often, or seem to rush from model to model to amenity, and try to move me along – I’m not feeling the love. Actually, I’m feeling quite the opposite – you must not want me. If I’m going to live here, I need to feel that you will service me, and not rush me through everything, including my first meeting(s) with you! I once had a TV salesman tell me that he wasn’t going to call the other store to look for my tv unless I was going to buy it from him – all I had asked for was 5 minutes to talk it over to my boyfriend. There were no other customers waiting around for help, and the store was pretty slow. My feisty reply was, “If you’ve got something better to do in the next 5-10 minutes, go do it. Before you do it, please find your sales manager for me, so that I can ask him to find me someone who has 10 minutes to sell me a TV.” Now I’m royally *issed! Congratulations! You’ve just lost my sale!

These are 5 Sure-Fire Ways to Loose the Sale/Lease. Don’t let it happen to you!

Have you seen any annoying or irritating things that killed a sale recently? Leave us a comment and share!

Don’t GET IT? RENT SODA! GET IT!

-Daisy Nguyen in Minneapolis, Minnesota MN

CEO/President

RENTSODA-small

Offering Apartment Marketing, Apartment Business & Operations Consulting & Apartment Industry Training

Web: RentSoda.com Email: Daisy {at} RentSoda(.)com

Become a fan of RENTSODA on facebook.  Connect with RENTSODA on LinkedIn!

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Top 12 Tips: Apartment Model on a Shoestring Budget

Oct 15th, 2010
by daisynguyen.
1 comment

Have champagne taste and a beer budget? Need a model apartment to help you lease, but on a shoestring budget?

A client told me yesterday that they read my blog, “Got Vacancy? Apartment Models – Is it a DO, a DON’t or a CAN’t Afford?” and during their budgeting process, the sites that struggled the most with vacancy, budgeted for models. BUT, the budgets were “scrubbed” and the model expenses were taken out.

There are lots of creative and affordable ways to model an apartment! The great news is, you don’t have to go ALL OUT – you just need to make an impression! If your prospect is looking at 4-8 other apartments – how do you make yours MEMORABLE?

Here are my top 10 budget conscious tips for whipping up a model on a dime!

  1. All white or ivory walls can be overwhleming. Painting an entire unit can be overwhelming and time intensive. Consider an accent wall! For the price of paint and minimal work, you can really make an apartment POP by painting 1 wall. Not only will this create visual interest, it will draw the attention directly to THAT wall.
  2. Kitchens – can use accent walls too! Instead of accent tiles which are expensive, consider painting the space underneath cabinets an accent color. This will make that area POP!
  3. Speaking of kitchens, if you have bare counter space, consider some kitchen accessories, like fake potted herbs, oven mitts, cookbooks. Artfully arrange them on the counter top to cut up the space and create visual interest. Don’t overdo it – you’ll just end up with clutter. You can “model” a kitchen and warm it up with an accent splash and a few accessories for less than $100.00.
  4. Buy some scented candles or scented plug-ins that have food smells like cinnamon, vanilla or chocolate. SCENT is a GREAT way to make an impression! Nothing to heavy of overwhelming. Create a feeling of home through SCENT!
  5. Instead of trying to model the entire unit, just model the family/living room area. Cut your model costs dramatically by modeling JUST the family room/living area, and making it as comfy/cozy/welcoming as possible. If your prospects can imagine living in that apartment unit, you’ve hooked them.
  6. Instead of placing a TV in any room you are modeling, consider a large piece of framed art/print, approximately the size of a TV. Prints/Art are more visually appealing, and you can pick the colors in your print/artwork. Additionally, art/prints are easy to place and easy to move. Flatscreen TV’s are expensive, heavy and many times require installation.
  7. Bathrooms are an EASY and inexpensive way to make an impression. A bright or patterned shower curtain, a couple of colorful towels in a basket or artfully placed on the towel racks, some colored soaps, perhaps an art print, and some scented candles/scented oils/scented soaps can REALLY make a bathroom feel less sterile, and more spa-like. Accent walls can work in bathrooms too! The picture to the left is a great example of all the bathroom tips – accent wall, bright patterned shower curtain, bright accessories. This entire bathroom can be modeled for about $100.00 – and WHAT an impression!
  8. Closets – place a few colorful hangers or wood hangers on the rack. Place logo’d retail shopping bags (2-3) into the closet space. (i.e. Express, Victoria’s Secret, Ann Taylor, etc.)
  9. If you are able to model the bedroom, stick to full or queen sized beds/headboards that take minimal space. (Not only to save space, but to save on the budget! Use small side tables with clean lines, whenever possible. Bedding is a GREAT way to make colorful splash, OR, if your room is colorfully painted, consider all white bedding. Use fluffy pillows and fluffy bedding.
  10. For any furniture, accessories, etc., shop at your bargain stores. They don’t have to be comfortable or functional – they just have to look good. I love TJ Maxx, Home Goods, Close-outs, Ikea, etc. For big furniture pieces, if you have time and energy, try craigslist.
  11. Need inspiration? Here’s my FAVORITE apartment decorating site: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ – they have GREAT tips for decorating apartments. Lots of pics. Visually appealing. GREAT ideas.
  12. And don’t forget one of the most important things you can do to a model or any vacant apartment – CLEAN. Make sure everything is clean and fresh. All counters, carpet, flooring, windows, bathroom surfaces – EVERYTHING. CLEAN may be an expectation, but if your model or vacant apartment is dirty, it will drive your prospects AWAY.

And remember – you don’t have to go ALL out. Just OUT. Make an impression. Be memorable. POP!

Don’t GET IT? RENT SODA! GET IT!

-Daisy Nguyen in Minneapolis, Minnesota MN

CEO/President

RENTSODA-small

Offering Apartment Marketing, Apartment Business & Operations Consulting & Apartment Industry Training

Web: RentSoda.com Email: Daisy {at} RentSoda(.)com

Become a fan of RENTSODA on facebook.  Connect with RENTSODA on LinkedIn!

Follow RENTSODA on Twitter!

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Top Ten Tips for Leasing to Seniors

Oct 12th, 2010
by jameswb.
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According to the U. S. Census, there are 35 million seniors in the U. S. today—12.4% of the population.  Over the next decade that percentage is projected to grow to 16.5% (53.7 million people).  How do we attract this population to our community?

  1. Attitude is key.  Remember who you are marketing to—not just your senior prospect but also their kids and influencers.  Don’t approach your customer as ‘old’.  Studies show that we routinely think ‘old’ means ten years older than we currently are!  Talking down to your senior prospects will kill your sales.  Try to avoid words like senior, old or elderly.  Today’s seniors do not see age as something that is determined by the number of candles on a cake. 
  2. Seniors do use the internet (in fact senior use is growing by leaps and bounds); however, they still heavily utilize print.
  3. Depending on your budget you will likely have multiple marketing campaigns (a primary one for your senior customers and ancillary campaigns for influencers).  Design your senior-focused print advertising to be easily read and understood.  As we age the way we perceive color changes and larger print is appreciated (no smaller than 11-point).  Avoid serifs, italics and fancy fonts.  Color ads draw attention (to the exclusion of black–and-white). Avoid reverse copy and maintain good white space.  Keep your message on-point and clearly highlight the benefits.
  4. It’s all about relationship – take the time your demographic needs (and they will need a lot of it). Seniors appreciate the personal touch.  Relax your pace to match your prospect.  As we age relationship becomes more and more important.  Who you are is as important to them as what you are saying. 
  5. Your senior prospects have seen and done a lot in their lifetimes.  They are skeptical (life can do that to you!)  Have testimonials that you can share.  Better yet, have resident hosts at social events, use a resident’s apartment as a model or stop and chat with residents along your tour route.  Create opportunities for your prospects to socialize with your current customers.  Credible testimonials work. 
  6. Be real.  Be direct. Your customer has a lot of experience; they will be able to see through flash.
  7. Always ask for the sale; however, do not use a hard close or scare tactics.  Remember, this is a major move for them.  In some cases they have 30 or 40 years worth of possessions to sort through and dispose of before they can even make the move.  The name of the game is to not ADD to the fear but enforce the newfound independence they will have moving in to your community.  Your job is to solve their problem and present your offer.
  8. Highlight why the move to your community will help them remain active and independent.  A great fear is having to rely on others for basic everyday life functions.  What do you offer that will enhance their lives?  Define what your customers need; do you have it?  The senior housing market is changing quickly.  Baby Boomers are demanding a level of quality and service that far exceeds their predecessors.  In the past, buildings became ‘senior’ buildings because the population aged in place and never left.  Today, your customers are expecting much more.  (Expectations might include van service to doctors, shopping centers and events; library/business centers; hot meals; fitness centers; hair salons and even happy hours!)
  9. Senior prospects fear being taken advantage of.  The use of guarantees can be very helpful in imparting confidence.  This might be the time to employ fully refundable holds.  Don’t cop an attitude if your customer takes advantage of it, they may be testing you.  If you handle the situation with grace, your likelihood of eventually closing the sale is very strong. 
  10. Don’t forget the old-fashioned hand-written thank you note.  The time and effort it takes to send a personalized note will be valued and appreciated.

Why work so hard to attract this demographic?  Your senior customers will be amongst your most loyal residents and will remain as long as their health permits.  In addition, you will find that they do much to enhance their new community.  The investment in time it takes to build these relationships will continue to build dividends.

Cheers!  Jim Baumgartner | Rent Soda

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#1 Most Important TIP for Apartment Resident Retention

Oct 8th, 2010
by daisynguyen.
3 comments

With so many choices available, the price competitiveness of the market, and concessions still a tool that lots of apartment communities still use to entice renters, the best way to control vacancy loss is to close that back door – retain your existing residents. What’s the most important thing you can do to increase resident retention and lower your resident turnover?

Here’s my #1 most important tip I can give you regarding your resident retention plan: RESPECT your residents and genuinely APPRECIATE their business. OK, so maybe that’s 2 tips – just consider it my two-for-one tip deal!

The reality is, no matter what the rent is, whether its $500.00/month, or $5000.00 a month, its likely the BIGGEST check your resident writes every month. Find ways to let your residents know you respect and appreciate them as residents of your apartment community! If you can find ways to show them you respect and apprecaite your them as residents, the higher your likelihood of turning them into life-long residents!

This may sound like an easy no-brainer, but the reality is, it is so easy to forget – it is something you have to work actively to remember and practice.

When I work on affordable communities, I am always amazed at the amount of complaining I hear in the site staff – they can’t identify with the residents – they find it hard to believe that anyone would live at ABC DUMP apartments, they complain about how small the units are, and its common for me to hear, “I could NEVER live in a place like this!” They frown upon the community of hard working adults – the same community that pays their paycheck! This kind of attitude rubs off, and can be felt by your residents.

My 17 year old son, Alex, recently bought his first car. He had been working and saving up for the past 3 years and had saved up $6000.00. To a cars salesman, $6000.00 is probably one of the smaller deals that he can land in a week. But, to my son Alex, he wasn’t thinking, “Gosh, I’m going to buy the cheapest, crappiest card I can find on the lot,” he was thinking, “I am going to find the best looking, biggest value I can find!”

No one intends to be cheap or settle for anything less than the best – its whatever they can comfortably afford.

Another way to look at this: If you were to go into a retail store month after month and write them a check for the same amount as you typically spend on your monthly rent – how would that store treat you?

Whether you are in the Nordstrom’s shoe department income bracket, or the PAYLESS Shoes store income bracket, I am willing to bet the sales person who helps you out every month will learn to love and appreciate your business.  How would they do this? I’m also willing to bet they would know your name, know your preferences, make it convenient and easy for you to shop at their store, accommodate your needs, and thank you each and every time you make a purchase.

In our industry, we are so used to getting a monthly rent check from our residents, its so easy and convenient to forget to do simple things like remember everyone’s name, be helpful, find ways to make it convenient for your residents to live in your apartment community, make it easy for them to LIVE at your apartment community, or even say THANK YOU every month! – At times, I see the exact opposite behavior in our community offices – our residents walk in, and we ask them to wait, we look up – irritated that they interrupted the time we had set aside to do paperwork, they tell us about a leaky faucet – and we ask them to call a designated number for service requests, we charge for such easy conveniences as faxes and holding packages, we receive the rent check in a drop box, and never say THANK YOU – we do everything to practically show them the door out.

Is this how you want to be treated when you are writing the biggest check you can possibly afford to write every month? Would you continue to live there?

How do you show your residents how much you respect and appreciate their business?

Don’t GET IT? RENT SODA! GET IT!

-Daisy Nguyen in Minneapolis, Minnesota MN

CEO/President

RENTSODA-small

Offering Apartment Marketing, Apartment Business & Operations Consulting & Apartment Industry Training

Web: RentSoda.com Email: Daisy {at} RentSoda(.)com

Become a fan of RENTSODA on facebook.  Connect with RENTSODA on LinkedIn!

Follow RENTSODA on Twitter!

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Eight Tips on Renting an Older Property

Oct 6th, 2010
by jameswb.
4 comments

Prime 70's Mansard

A client recently asked, “Do you know of any information on how to rent older properties?”  Her property was built slightly before most of us were born. 

Early in my career I was spoiled rotten.  I did lease-ups of new construction luxury sites.  When I had to do an analysis on an aging Class C property I turned my nose up and sniffed, “They should just invest in a flame-thrower.”  My cronies and I were amused; however, several years later I had several of these little flame-thrower targets in my portfolio.  Imagine my shock (and embarrassment) when I realized that these were the assets that threw off the majority of cash in our organization.

So what do you do when you find yourself adrift on an aging property (not old enough to be charming or cool but too old to be hot and trendy)?  Do you wallow in self-pity and stare in envy at your new, amenity-rich neighbors?  No way!  Beat up the new kids on the block with a stripped down, value approach!

  1. Rent the basics—not the bells and whistles.  Why pay for what you don’t need?  Remind your customer that they are not paying for amenities that they will never use.  (How many people actually use the pool or cardio room?  They may say they will but end up not having the time.)  Remind them that “The money you save on rent can be applied to the things you really want!”
  2. Buy the upgrades you will actually use:  Want a kick-butt health club with spin and Pilates classes and machines that actually work?  The health club industry is suffering just like the rest of us and they are offering deals!  You can get a membership very inexpensively.  Better yet, negotiate a property or portfolio discount and create resident clubs (boot camp, spin, Pilates group, yoga group) to go to the health club together.
  3. Mature landscaping is GREEN!  Highlight the fact that you have mature landscaping that adds beauty to your residents’ world.  Older properties often have extensive grounds; do you have an area that could be dedicated to a community garden?  Garden plots and compost piles are easy and inexpensive to create.
  4. Focus on design plusses: 
    1. In the Pre-ADA years room sizes tended to be larger.  While unit square footages may have stayed pretty consistent, where space is allocated has not.  New construction design mandates larger bathrooms and kitchens to allow for wheelchair access.  This has resulted in smaller bedrooms.  Families and roommates will appreciate more space in these rooms.
    2. Older properties tend to have larger balconies.  In some communities this is not an issue but many people enjoy the opportunity to step outside—whether for a cigarette or fresh air break.  Due to the costs of balconies, often these are value-engineered out or downsized today.
    3. Galley kitchen?  We have heard a lot lately about ‘foodies’; however, consider your demographic:  do they eat in or out?  Many of our residents never use anything but the refrigerator and microwave.  So if they comment on the small size of the kitchen, determine if they are asking out of habit or if they do like to cook.  If they are foodies, all is not yet lost—advise them on how they can extend their kitchen into an adjacent dining area through the use of butcher blocks, microwave carts, IKEA islands, etc.
    4. Focus on what you can do to be better than your competitors:
      1. Focus on EXCELLENT customer service.  Can you get your work requests done faster?  Can you offer custom painting at renewal time?
      2. Add conveniences for your customers:  free use of the fax machine, selling stamps, free movie rentals or free photocopies.
      3. Create regular resident events like book clubs, biking, a sand volley ball team, etc. to encourage community.
      4. Solid construction is an older feature you should brag about!  It is unlikely that any of your parts were pre-fabricated off-site.  Everything was carefully handcrafted with pride right there!  This means that your building is probably solid and relatively quiet.
      5. Older properties tend to be in great locations closer to business and entertainment centers.  Promote neighborhood ‘walk-ability’, convenience to business centers, nearby green spaces, entertainment venues, transportation and key arteries.
      6. Got charm?  Sell it! Anything that is different sets you apart from your competitors.  Your job is to draw attention to it and tell your customer why it matters to them.

Maximize what you have!  Be proud of the value you represent!  And don’t forget to ask for the sale!

Cheers!  Jim Baumgartner | RentSoda

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You’ve Been B-BACK’ed! 5 Ways to Turn Your B-Backs Into Leases!

Sep 8th, 2010
by daisynguyen.
3 comments

You’ve been there – your prospect apartment tour is going well, you are excited, your prospects are talking about where they are going to place their furniture, and then they utter the dread words:

We’re going to take a look at a few more places and we’ll BE BACK.

You just got B-BACK’ed! How do you turn those B-Backs into leases?

Here are 5 ways to get them BACK, and turn those B-BACKS into leases!

  1. FOLLOW-UP! While you are in the apartment tour, take your camera, and anything that your prospects say they like, take a picture of that. (i.e. “oh honey, look at the size of the closet!” -SNAP picture here. “oh honey, look at the pool!” SNAP picture here. Let them know you’ll email them the pics of all their favorite parts of the apartment tour.) I’m going to assume you’ve done some due diligence and have taken down their email address and phone number for follow-ups. After they leave, load the pictures onto a Flickr.com account, and email them the SHARE link. (Some email servers may have limits for attachments, and you want to make ensure that you don’t attach a bunch of pics that gets your email automatically moved into the spam folder.) Make sure in your follow-up email, you put something personal and friendly. (i.e. “Here’s a link to the pictures I took for you. You mentioned the size of the closet – I measured it and it’s 8×7. We’d love to have you live here!”
  2. FOLLOW-UP! Ask them when is the best time to contact them – WRITE THAT DOWN, and contact them during their most convenient times. Many times, we are following up with our prospects when its convenient for us. We should call them when its convenient for them – and increase our chances of having a “live” conversation as well as another opportunity for positive interaction with your apartment community.
  3. FOLLOW-UP! There is no 3 day rule to making a follow-up call when you’re trying to win business. If you want them to sign a lease, you’ll have to earn it. My rule of thumb: call immediately, call often. If you took my recommendation and took pictures (#1 above), call them after you send the pictures just to let them know to look for it in their email. No pressure, no salesy talk. Just a friendly call. THEN, call them the VERY next day and ask them how the rest of their apartment tours went, and offer to answer any questions they may still have. Call them a couple of days later to see if they have a decision and offer to show them another apartment that just “happened” to open up, etc.

    4. You get the idea: find ways to have positive points of contact with your prospects – don’t just call them to CALL THEM.

  4. FOLLOW-UP! When calling your prospects, always let them know how glad you are that they came in, or how happy you are that they came by. At the end of each call, either ask for their business or ask them to come back in.
  5. FOLLOW-UP! If you have an upcoming community event, call your prospects to invite them to attend. Having a breakfast for residents this weekend? Ask your prospects to attend. Have a football game showing in the community room? Invite them to join!

All 5 of my tips have to do with follow-up calls. It seems like a no-brainer, but I’m constantly amazed at how little follow-up there actually is out there. In recent “shops” that we performed, we only got a 20% rate of follow-up. We’ve been on the hunt for some office space – granted office space is a little different market than apartments, but we were FLOORED to find that the follow-up rate was even lower! (Maybe 10%!) We ended up leasing space from the person who cared the most by addressing all of our concerns, followed up with us the most, and fought to get our business. Your prospects aren’t any different. Studies show that the more positive interactions we have, the more we are likely to buy a product. Start making more positive interactions and increase your chances of closing on that lease!

Do you have any additional tips to add? Please leave a comment and add to the list!

Don’t GET IT? RENT SODA! GET IT!

-Daisy Nguyen in Minneapolis, Minnesota MN

CEO/President

RENTSODA-small

Offering Apartment Marketing, Apartment Business & Operations Consulting & Apartment Industry Training

Web: RentSoda.com Email: Daisy {at} RentSoda(.)com

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“I’m So Glad You Called Today” – 4 Phone Tips to Turn a Call into an Apartment Tour

Aug 26th, 2010
by daisynguyen.
2 comments

Phones have been around for over 140 years, so answering the phone is nothing new – or is it?

Having a great telephone conversation is one of the best and most powerful apartment marketing/leasing techniques in our industry.

It sets the stage for the rest of the leasing experience for your apartment prospect. Are you putting your best foot forward?

In the apartment business, a successful prospect call is one where we turn the telephone apartment inquiry into an appointment. What are the best ways to turn a phone call into a apartment tour appointment?

These are  my

top favorite tried and true phone leasing techniques

to turn that apartment telephone inquiry into an apartment tour appointment:

  1. Once you have identified yourself, find a way to let your phone prospect know how happy you are that they called TODAY. – If your caller says they are looking for an apartment, you should respond with, “I’m so glad you called today!...” and follow-up the comment with your specials or other related comment. “I’m so happy you called today,” is a great way to pause the conversation and inject some personal positive attention to your caller.
  2. What’s in a name? EVERYTHING. If the caller gives you their name – use it. If they don’t, ask them for their name – and use it. People love to hear their names – it acknowledges the fact that they are an individual and not just another caller. It will help you bond with the person over the phone. Using someone’s name is very intimate. Get the name and USE it.
  3. If you are comfortable, assume that the caller wants to set an appointment, and give them a couple of choices of times you have available for an appointment. With all the information available on the internet, most of your callers already know enough about your apartment community/complex to be ready to set an appointment for the leasing tour. – Assume they want the tour and work on scheduling it. If you are not comfortable with assuming your caller wants an apartment tour, then ask them if they would like to schedule a tour.
  4. At the end of each call, always thank your apartment prospect by name for calling you!

Your call should go something like this:

RING RING!

You: Thank you for calling ABC Apartments, how may I help you? (smile!)

Caller: I’m interested in finding a 1 bedroom apartment.

You: My name is Daisy – Can I get your name?

Caller: My name is Jane.

You: Jane, I’m so happy you called today! We have some great looking 1 bedroom apartments that just became available. Do you have any particular preferences you want to share?

Caller: I want to be on the top floor.

You: Great! I have 2 apartments on the top floor overlooking the park, and …

…(more conversations, get prospect info, bond, etc.)

You: I have appointments available this Thursday at 10:15AM, 4:30PM or Friday afternoon or Saturday morning to tour our apartment community and see the apartments we have available. What time would work best for you?

Caller: Saturday morning at 10:00AM.

You: Jane, thanks so much for calling today, and I can’t wait to show you our community on Saturday at 10:00AM!

There are lots of telephone leasing techniques out there. The objective is to schedule that apartment tour. These are my favorite phone tips, what are yours?

By the way, I’m so glad you read my blog post today! THANK YOU!

Don’t GET IT? RENT SODA! GET IT!

-Daisy Nguyen in Minneapolis, Minnesota MN

CEO/President

RENTSODA-small

Offering Apartment Marketing, Apartment Business & Operations Consulting & Apartment Industry Training

Web: RentSoda.com Email: Daisy {at} RentSoda(.)com

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Craigslist-phobia: Don’t lose FREE Apartment Rentals!

Aug 8th, 2010
by jameswb.
5 comments

During my training classes I always encourage leasing professionals to use Craigslist postings. Where else can you get your message in front of hundreds of people looking to rent YOUR apartment, schedule your message to run when you want it to (and when you are available to promptly respond to inquiries) and best yet–it is FREE!

Invariably I get negative comments: “Isn’t that where the ‘Craigslist Killer’ found his victims?”

“Craigslist is just a hook-up site.”

“We tried it; all we got was spam and scams!”

Meanwhile, those who are making a different kind of killing on Craigslist cross their arms, lean back and smile smugly. They don’t want the rest of the marketplace to know the secret to their success!

Throughout history those who have quickly adapted to new technologies have survived and thrived. I’m sure there were some folks gathered around the communal campfire complaining that the wheel would never last.

Craigslist (and social marketing) is here, it’s here to stay and it is revolutionizing the way we do business. Craigslist is the new marketplace. If you want to sell your old washing machine, you list on Craigslist. If you want to share and discuss your latest haiku, you do it on Craigslist. If you need an apartment, you look for it on Craigslist.

If Craigslist isn’t one of your top three sources of traffic, you are doing something wrong. (Oh, and did I mention that it is FREE?!)

I worked with a site manager of a Class C property on the edge of a downtown area. She had several vacancies, her prices were considerably higher than her comparables (the property has off-street parking and an outdoor pool) and she could not generate traffic. We discussed her bias against Craigslist (I should add that she is an early baby boomer) and debated her fears. We asked her to just give it a try. Within one week she was a convert! All of her availabilities were full within two weeks and now Craigslist is her main source of traffic. (Did I mention her total cost of marketing on Craigslist? FREE.)

What do you have to lose…except for some vacancies?

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