Apartment Association Offers Free, Online Market Surveys and Websites to Property Owners/Managers in Five Florida Counties

Orlando, Fla.–The Apartment Association of Greater Orlando (AAGO) is offering a free online market survey tool and free password protected apartment website to all property managers/owners in Lake, Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Volusia counties.

AAGO has partnered with Orlando-based MyRentComps.com to handle all the online market surveys. “AAGO was the first apartment association in the country to offer this free service to all apartment owners and managers,” says Gary Scarboro, executive vice president of AAGO. Owners or property managers from Daytona to St. Cloud/Kissimmee can just go to www.aago.org, update their rents/occupancies and run a free market survey on up to nine apartment properties surrounding their community.

Robert E. Smith, founder of MyRentComps.com, tells MHN, “This is the first online market survey system that is designed specifically for the property managers and the local apartment associations. Owners and managers save precious time because they don’t have to provide this information on the phone over and over again. In addition, owners can also sign up for free websites and this is particularly useful for apartment communities with 100 units or fewer.”

According to Ron Wenzel, President of AAGO and Regional Property Manager for Archon Residential Management, L.P. based out of Irving Texas, “Archon supports the MyRentComps.com program through the local apartment association here in Orlando and throughout the state of Florida.” Wenzel says the system is “very quick, easy to understand, user friendly, and an enormous time‐saver. It provides information sharing opportunities about occupancy trends and rental rates in real time and not in weeks or months.” Before using myrentcomps.com he used other industry reports, which “were released well after the fact from various other sources.”

Wenzel goes on to say these reports are “oftentimes outdated and not at all valid. “In today’s market, rents are changing weekly if not daily. We need a reliable source specifically catering to the apartment industry to give us this much needed, up‐to‐date, and factual data. This data is not at all a guess or even subjective based on who you might speak to in the leasing center on any given day,” Wenzel adds. “We are then able to formulate appropriate plans or make necessary adjustments to remain leaders in both occupancy and in effective rates across the state.” He concludes, “It is also a great resource for underwriting new deals and or existing loans which, we may not have time to either call or shop in person.”

Bonnie Smetzer, senior vice president of JMG Realty, Inc., says, “For our Florida operations, we have taken the position that our properties will no longer give market survey requests over the phone and will direct callers for this information to the local apartment association where our properties are located.”