What Renters Want with Jessica Fiur: How to Get Your Residents Exactly What They Want for Mother’s Day

Get your last-minute brunch reservations and flower orders in, because this Sunday it’s Mother’s Day! Are you doing anything for your residents? There are a lot of ways you can show your appreciation to your mother residents, but the key is to know what mothers actually want. (Hint, it’s certainly not an ugly heart necklace that a washed-up actress from a ’90s television show is selling. That hint is also for my husband.)

So what do mothers want?

To be left alone.

No chores, no waking up early, no Sesame Street when she could be marathoning Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt on Netflix. It’s cliche, but cliches become cliche for a reason. Which is also a cliche. The cycle continues.

As property managers, if you can do this for the mothers in your community, not only will you have happy residents, you’ll have great word of mouth, positive social media reviews, all that good stuff.

Here’s how to do it.

Offer coupons for cleaning services. I can say with absolutely no hyperbole that vacuuming is the worst thing in the entire world. On Mother’s Day, give your mom residents the gift of laziness. Which is an amazing gift. Offer coupons or gift certificates to preferred cleaning vendors. This also benefits you, because if the apartments stay clean, if a resident moves out, it will be easier to get the apartment ready for the next renter.

Have arts and crafts activities in the common areas. Have card-making stations or other arts and crafts set ups that will keep the kids entertained and allow them to make something for mom. Encourage dads to bring the kids so that moms can have some time by themselves before everyone comes back with their macaroni necklaces.

Make breakfast baskets. Breakfast in bed is a cute idea in theory, but a super sticky one in execution. Plus, then there’s cleaning after, which we’ve already established is the worst. Why don’t you hire someone to make omelets in one of your common areas, or  have a bunch of muffins and packaged juices set up. Moms could be welcome to join, but if you also got “To go” boxes, families could run down and get a delicious breakfast and bring it back to their moms.

Have a mimosa bar. It has juice, so it’s healthy.

Hire babysitters. Have an hour or so in the evening where kids can be dropped off. Babysitters could have a few activities—games, DVDs, sitting quietly, you know, fun kid stuff. Is it ironic to celebrate being a mom by getting rid of your kids for a little bit? Sorry, I can’t hear you. I’m drinking all the mimosas.

Happy Mother’s Day, everyone! Are you doing anything for your residents, or do you have any other ideas? Post your ideas below!

-Jessica Fiur, Senior Editor