What Renters Want with Jessica Fiur: Why You Should NOT Use Facebook at Your Community
It seems like everyone uses Facebook. You use it. I use it. Your weird aunt who still plays Candy Crush and keeps sending you requests to join for some reason uses it. So, it’s been pretty much decided in the apartment industry that it’s necessary to have a community Facebook (and Twitter, and, for some enterprising communities Instagram) page to communicate about what’s going on at the apartment. In fact, many people view this as not just necessary, but, essentially, mandatory. But what if it’s not? Think about it. When you use Facebook, sometimes posts get buried, or people just…
What Renters Want with Jessica Fiur: Property Management Lessons from the Golden Globes
Did you watch the Golden Globes last night? If you missed it, you missed out. There were gorgeous movie stars, gorgeous dresses, flowing champagne, George Clooney in a tuxedo and property management lessons. Seriously. In case you missed it, here are some property management lessons I gleaned from watching the awards show. Go for mass appeal. Unlike the Emmys or the Oscars, the Golden Globes give awards for both movies and television. And they also have separate categories for comedies and dramas. There’s pretty much something for everyone, unless you’re one of those people who only likes the book, but even…
‘The Accidental Economist’ with Jack Kern: Oil Prices Slip Sliding Away
I think in many respects being an economist means you look at things the same way an urban planner does but with a much longer time horizon. A planner thinks about what initiatives make the city better today. An economist thinks about what is happening now that will affect what the city will look like, but much further into the future. I have been amused by the national punditry that keeps talking about how great it is that oil prices have declined (a polite word when in fact prices did what David Caruso did when he left the show NYPD…
What Renters Want with Jessica Fiur: Celebrating Thanksgiving at Your Student Housing Communities
It’s that time of year. Time for turkey, stuffing, and young adults coming home to their parents’ house with a mountain of dirty laundry. Around Thanksgiving, many students head home, which will probably leave your student housing community pretty empty in the coming week. Before everyone clears out for the holiday, here are some things you can do around the community to make the holiday easier. Offer shuttles to the bus/train station. The week of Thanksgiving, since many of your student residents are probably going to be traveling, a great feature you could offer your residents is a free shuttle bus…
What Renters Want with Jessica Fiur: Should Your Community Have a Guest Suite?
There are amenities, and then there are amenities. Sure, gyms and car changing stations and swimming pools are all well and good. But what about a guest suite? An amenity that will prevent that weirdo friend from college (whom you haven’t talked to in 15 years but is going to be in town and wants to catch up, which you just know will involve lots of tequila on his part while you can maybe have one or two, but, seriously, there’s work tomorrow, and you have to get the kids to school and oh my god, when did you get…
‘What Renters Want’ with Jessica Fiur: Are You Doing This Crucial Step for New Employees?
In high school, I got a job at a well-known undergarment chain store at the mall as a sales associate. My first day at work, I was given a tape measure to wear around my neck and was told to stand in the front of the store. I knew nothing about the different fabric or styles or even prices. I had never worked in a store before, let alone with customers. As the day wore on, both the customers and I got more and more frustrated as they would ask me for help finding a particular item, and I had…
Guest Blog: Leading the Pack: Technology Trends that Give Multifamily Executives the Modern Edge
By Nat Kunes, Vice President of Product, AppFolio Property Manager In today’s competitive market, multifamily professionals need to bring their “A” game. While the market ebbs and flows, finding the best team to run your business and making the most cost-effective decisions are always going to be essential components of a strong business strategy. Making sure you have the most modern tech tools to keep an edge is essential. Don’t let your current management practices prevent you from saving time and money, and adding more value to your properties. We recently commissioned SurveyMonkey to uncover the success secrets among the nation’s…
‘What Renters Want’ with Jessica Fiur: Kids of Today’s Renters are Tomorrow’s Renters. Here’s How to Get Them.
When many apartment marketing teams put together their marketing plans, they usually target adults. OK, sometimes student housing communities will target the students, but really, even then it’s mostly to their parents. But why shouldn’t they? Adults are the ones with the money. Why bother marketing to kids? After all, they’re noisy and messy and usually can’t afford the rent. Teenagers are even worse. Completely useless! (Trust me, I used to be one.) Except… Except that the kids will grow up to be teenagers, who will grow up to be adults, who will, in general, want to move out of…
‘What Renters Want’ with Jessica Fiur: 5 Reasons Renting Trumps Owning (As Told by a Former Renter)
To [poorly] paraphrase that old commercial for bald guys, “I’m not just an editor for a multifamily publication, I’m also a renter.” Or, at least I was. Recently, I bought a house. So, bye bye, renting, at least for the foreseeable future, and, hello, bright pink walls if I so choose (not that my husband would necessarily go for that, but he’s the only hurdle), growing equity (fingers crossed) and lingering guilt about ordering a $4.30 carmel macchiato when I have mortgage payments to make (totally worth it though). And, though I was, and am, focused on the positives of…
‘What Renters Want’ with Jessica Fiur: Why You Should Steal the Coca Cola Marketing Plan for Your Apartment Community
Diet Coke is amazing.* You know that as a human being with taste buds, and if you somehow don’t like it because you don’t drink soda and are, in fact, a robot, then you know people who like it. Either way, you definitely know the brand. Coca Cola, if the company chose, probably wouldn’t even need to advertise anymore and could still turn a profit. Yet, it still advertises. And its new marketing plan is genius. You’ve totally seen it: The bottles say “Share a [Diet] Coke [Zero] with” and then they have a name. Have you found your name?…