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‘What Renters Want’ with Jessica Fiur: Should You Go Trendy When Staging an Apartment?
I’m having a bit of a crisis. I recently moved, and while I’m still procrastinating unpacking some boxes filled with non-essentials, I’m really excited about decorating. That’s where the crisis is coming in. I love the chevron pattern (that zig-zag pattern that you’ve totally seen absolutely everywhere lately). You can get chevron throw rugs, picture fames…it’s even a terrible nail art design. It’s fun, it’s stylish and it’s trendy. And there lies the problem. Should I decorate with something that everyone else is using? Sure, it’s a nice pattern, and it’s important to decorate to your own taste regardless of…
‘What Renters Want’ with Jessica Fiur: Why Your Staff is Your Greatest Amenity
At my apartment community, there is a morning and afternoon shuttle that takes residents from the apartment to the bus stop and vice versa. The usual shuttle driver is friendly (but not overly chatty), remembers which building to drop people off on the way home and, most importantly, is prompt. He’s on vacation this week though. The sub is fine…but he wants everyone’s life story, and isn’t there right away when the bus comes. So we all wait outside. In 90-degree heat. I know, I know. Cry me a river, right? Why don’t I also complain about something of equal…
‘What Renters Want’ with Jessica Fiur: How to Keep Up with Changing Tastes in Amenities (Don’t Be Like ‘The Lone Ranger’)
Did you see The Lone Ranger last weekend? Of course not, no one did. Why? Many movie goers aren’t flocking to see a reboot of a TV western from the ’50s. And superhero movies are currently the movie genre du jour (see: Iron Man 3, Man of Steel, etc.). Plus Johnny Depp already did the somehow-sexy-while-wearing-too-much-makeup thing years ago in Pirates of the Caribbean. It goes to show, you can throw tons of money at something that was popular years ago, but that doesn’t guarantee success. Tastes change. Same goes with amenities. The New York Times recently ran an article about how some amenities…
‘What Renters Want’ with Jessica Fiur: 6 Ways to Appeal to Helicopter Parents
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s that handsome guy playing Superman in Man of Steel! (Just got whiplash on that one.) Nope, it’s a helicopter…parent. Loads of them, actually. And they’re everywhere. You’ve heard of them, right? It’s that new set of parents who love their babies so, so much and just want the best for them, even though little Sam and little Matilda are now in their 20s. Before, these parents would complain to schools over every little infraction. Then, they came to rel=”nofollow”job interviews with their kids. And what about when Sam and Matilda land that job…
‘The Accidental Economist’ with Jack Kern: Sunbelt Denizens Creating Rental Units
A gambler with a System must be, to a greater or lesser extent, insane. – George Augustus Sala (1828-1895), English Writer and Journalist Sun and fun, how can you possibly get that wrong? Of all the places you can go to get away from it all, two are now bringing it with them. Both perennial favorites of the rental cognoscenti, Florida and Nevada, made the news again for having big gains in foreclosure activity. Foreclosures are becoming synonymous with accidentally creating rental units. It works something like this: House originally bought for $350,000, great neighborhood, nice area… except the over-extended buyer can’t…
‘What Renters Want’ with Jessica Fiur: What to Do About Residents Who Break Up
It’s a tale as old as time: Boy meets girl. They fall in love, or at least fall in like enough that they’re together all the time and finish each other’s sentences and have their own language and are really irritating their friends. So they decide to move in together, because rent is expensive, their roommates are annoying and they spend all their time together anyway, and really, how different could living together be. Then it’s all cool for awhile until boy discovers that he can’t stand girl’s laugh anymore and girl is sick and tired of picking up boy’s…
‘What Renters Want’ with Jessica Fiur: The Oldest Real Estate Trick in the Book
My husband and I were recently looking at apartments in New Jersey. We looked at two apartments in a community, and they were nice. Really nice. But I still wasn’t ready to make a commitment to a whole year there, and wanted to look at a few other places first. (To quote Cher Horowitz from Clueless, “You see how picky I am about my shoes and they only go on my feet.”) So we left the community and went to a couple of our other apartment appointments in the area. After we were done, we went to the mall (because when in Jersey…)…
Guest Blog: Ways You Can Make Move-in Day a Pleasant Experience for Your Renters
By Madoline Hatter, Changeofaddressform.com For many landlords, the renter is the one who puts food on the table and keeps the lights on in the house. But without someone to rent your property, it sits there not making a single dime. Because of this, you want to keep your renters happy. People want to feel welcomed into their homes, and what better way is there to do this than to make move-in day a pleasant one? Starting out the landlord-resident relationship on positive footing can make for a great experience for everyone involved. 1. Offer to help—Offering to help your…
‘The Accidental Economist’ with Jack Kern: Past Performance is No Guarantee of Past Performance
“The straight line, a respectable optical illusion which ruins many a man.” ― Victor Hugo, Les Misérables I was so pleased to attend the NMHC Apartment Strategies Update Conference and Board of Directors meeting in Boston on May 14th and 15th. Along with the usual suspects extolling the virtues of why it’s great to be in the apartment business, a number of very well thought out presentations were shared. I am, as many of you know, a forecaster who enjoys reviewing massive amounts of data in the hope that I can glean a pattern that will indicate an unlikely trend….
‘What Renters Want’ with Jessica Fiur: 4 Things Property Managers Can Learn from Arrested Development
This is a very important weekend. Sure, it’s Memorial Day and the unofficial kickoff of summer. There will be barbecues. And many of us get a day off from work. Whatever, though, right? The big news is that Arrested Development is coming back on Netflix! [Pause for an awesome music interlude.] This show, which first aired in 2003-2006 for three seasons, is back after popular demand for a fourth season. And as property managers, there’s a lot you can take from Arrested Development. No, seriously. Well, it’s worth a shot at least. What are you, chicken? Just because an idea…