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‘What Renters Want’ with Jessica Fiur: Using Pop Culture as a Guide for Staying Relevant in the Apartment Industry
I totally don’t know why Katniss would be torn about her feelings for Peeta. I mean, he was always in love with her. And he put his own life in danger to protect her in the arena. But, I guess Gale is pretty attractive in that, “I’m an anti-establishment brooding rebel” kind of way. If you’re into that sort of thing. Which I’m not. Well, OK, maybe I can see how Katniss was conflicted. What do you think? What’s that? You don’t want to have a conversation about The Hunger Games with me right now because the book came out…
‘The Accidental Economist’ with Jack Kern: Baseball, Hot Dogs and Investments
“Take me out to the ballgame, and the find me an apartment.” I’ve come to the somewhat unscientific conclusion that investing in real estate has some correlative position with professional sports teams, stadiums and apartment pricing. It used to be that only major cities had ball parks. Now they’ve gotten named after powerful industry-leading firms (Chase Field, Miller Park), along with a whole host of minor league places. Recently I was in St. Louis and had the opportunity to walk around the downtown area. I am part of Cardinal Nation, having been a fan of St. Louis Cardinals baseball since…
‘What Renters Want’ with Jessica Fiur: Apartment Bathrooms and Prospective Residents
It’s a question all prospective renters want to know when they’re touring an apartment, but very few ask: Could they use the toilet? It’s embarrassing for people to ask, but why should it be? A recent article in The New York Times asked if people attending open houses should be able to use the toilets of the houses they were scoping out, and the answer was yes. So shouldn’t it be the same when people are looking at apartments? They’re going to be living there, after all. Shouldn’t they be able to make sure the plumbing works? Don’t you want…
‘What Renters Want’ with Jessica Fiur: A Reminder About the Importance of Community Safety Procedures
On Saturday, I was at a restaurant in a mall with a friend. We had just gotten our food, when all of a sudden there was a commotion. Someone screamed that there were gunshots in another area of the mall, and everyone in the restaurant ran to the kitchen to hide. The employees then ushered everyone outside through the service entrance. At the time it was complete pandemonium, and utterly terrifying. Thankfully, it all turned out to be a false alarm—a car in one of the parking lots caught on fire. The smoke from this started a chain reaction where…
‘What Renters Want’ with Jessica Fiur: Appealing to Renters Who Are Parents
Mother’s Day is this weekend! Which means that your favorite brunch place will have a line out the door. Maybe you should have thought ahead and made a reservation. Your mother was only in labor with you for 15 hours, and all she wants in return is french toast and a mimosa—is that too much to ask? Anyway, to segue seamlessly, a lot of your residents are probably mothers (nailed it!). Fathers, too. So it might be worth it to make your community more kid and baby friendly. Because a happy baby means a happy parent. And a happy parent means…
‘What Renters Want’ with Jessica Fiur: Why Standard Features are Not Amenities
I wouldn’t even consider renting an apartment that didn’t have a microwave. It’s not that I can’t cook. (I can’t, but that’s neither here nor there.) It’s just that the inclusion of a microwave in an apartment kitchen seems so standard, so basic, that if an apartment didn’t include one it would feel like an apartment from the Stone Age. (I know there weren’t apartments in the Stone Age. It’s called hyperbole. Jeez.) A microwave is not an amenity. Recently I came across an infographic on the Lincoln Property Company blog lists the top 20 amenities, according to the NMHC. Included,…
‘What Renters Want’ with Jessica Fiur: 5 Things Apartments Should Copy from Hotels
I don’t know about you, but I love staying at hotels. You don’t have to make your bed, you get to look at generic paintings of sailboats or flowers, your key looks like a credit card, you get a free pen, you can make a fort in a king-sized bed…the list goes on and on. So it’s not surprising that some apartment communities are adding more and more features that mirror the hospitality industry. For example, a community in New Jersey recently added a resident-only store, where residents can grab a coffee or pick up other essentials. This is a…
‘The Accidental Economist’ with Jack Kern: A Tunnel that Needs a Lot of Light?
“It’s a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it’s a depression when you lose your own.” —President Harry S. Truman, 33rd president, 1945-1953 History repeats itself in a lot of ways, but not typically how I would expect it to. Punditry, for whatever it’s worth isn’t an exact science, like psychology. OK, I just upset a bunch of psychologists but be thankful you’re not an economist. Uh-oh now I’ve upset a bunch of economists! But you’ve got to admit the amount of information swirling around about the lifeline of apartment rent health, the employment and unemployment numbers can make…
‘What Renters Want’ with Jessica Fiur: Social Media Takeaways from the US Airways Pornographic Twitter Incident
“With great power comes great responsibility.” If that statement is good enough for Spider Man, it’s certainly good enough for social media managers. Because mistakes on social media, especially professional pages, can happen very quickly, and be seen by thousands of followers in an instant. Take, for example, US Airways’ latest social media gaffe. The company’s official Twitter account tweeted a pornographic image involving a woman and a US Airways’ branded toy airplane. (I’m not going to link it, so use your imagination. Or don’t. Seriously. Don’t.) The tweet was in response to a customer who had complained about a…
Guest Blog: The Significance of Environmental Sustainability
By Elam Hall, Crescent Communities Sustainability is a popular catchphrase. But what does it really mean? At Crescent Communities, sustainability drives everything we do. We define “sustainability” as a focus on the environment, community, health, happiness and economic viability. Every time we begin a project, we look for ways to preserve or maintain land spaces and natural resources, including maximizing trees saved. Ultimately, all of our properties have sustainable features. One such example is Crescent Alexander Village, a new, 320-unit multifamily community in our hometown of Charlotte, N.C., that is both NGBS Green Registered and on track for designation as…