‘What Renters Want’ with Jessica Fiur: Is Your Apartment Like ‘The Avengers’?

This weekend, I finally was able to go see The Avengers. It was just as full as explosions, witty quips and plot holes as one could have hoped for.

Anyway, even if it’s not going to win any Oscars, it definitely was a lot of fun.

And it’s perfect to model an apartment community after. Seriously.

Here are five things you can take away from The Avengers for a more successful apartment community.

Hulk clean up nice. Want to come to apartment sundae party. But no sprinkles will make Hulk angry. You won't like me if there are no sprinkles.

Have the “You got chocolate in my peanut butter,” You got peanut butter in my chocolate” effect. The Avengers took a bunch of things that are good alone and mixed them together for something awesome. Who would have known they would have even worked well together? Like Thor and Captain America. Or that girl from How I Met Your Mother and Samuel L. Jackson. Or Robert Downey Jr. and my dreams. Same goes for apartments. A business center and a lap pool? Sure, why not? Subway access as well as a covered garage? Works for me! Building happy hours and paying rent online? All these things combined would make an awesome apartment experience for your residents.

People are more willing to put up with an inconvenience if it’s an attractive package. In the movie midtown Manhattan is pretty much destroyed. But, hey, who cares. Look how good looking those heroes are! If you’re doing renovations on your community that will inconvenience your residents, like if you’re redoing the gym and people won’t be able to use it for awhile, make sure when you’re done it looks good, and everything is state of the art. Because then people will be happy, and it will increase the value of your community. If you inconvenience them and, say, only add a weight set or something, all you’re going to hear is complaints.

Know Your Audience.  People don’t go see The Avengers for deep philosophical meaning, intelligent conversation, or a brutal picture of honest human emotion (which is good, because that sounds like a really boring movie). They go see it to see things explode and Scarlett Johansson in a form-fitting costume. Are your residents mostly young professionals? Then make sure to have dry cleaning services, a fitness center, and pizza places on speed dial, and don’t waste precious space on a daycare center. If it’s seniors housing, don’t design the building so that all the apartments are walk-ups. But always have make your own sundae parties. Like Scarlett Johansson in a tight costume or Mark Ruffalo only in torn pants—that’s something people of all ages can enjoy.

Practical, schmatical. Does it look cool? Thor had a cape, even though we learned from watching The Incredibles that that could be a hazard when going into battle. That dude who played Hawkeye didn’t have sleeves on his costume, even though he was hanging out in an area where debris was coming down and people were shooting at him (not that sleeves could stop a bullet, but still). Black Widow never fully zipped up her costume, because apparently cleavage helps defeat bad guys. Who are we to judge? Anyway, obviously don’t throw money away on something in an apartment just because it looks cool. But looks do matter. Have you updated the kitchens in your apartments with stainless steel and granite yet? Gotten rid of the gold trim and frosted glass bricks in the bathrooms? If people like the look of the place, they’re more likely to rent there.

You can’t please everyone. Personally, I wasn’t a huge fan of The Avengers. I didn’t see some of the individual movies, so I didn’t know all of their backstories. During the first 10 minutes, I had no idea what was going on. I didn’t really care about the “interesting” fanboy tidbits my husband and brother told me about after. (Example, did you know that the part after the credits was filmed later and the guy who played Captain America grew a beard for another role, and that’s why he wasn’t showing his face? Nope. Did you care? Me neither.) I’m clearly in the minority though, because this movie broke all sorts of records and I’m sure there will be a sequel, which I’m sure I’ll see. Not everyone is going to be happy at your apartment. There’s always someone who’s going to complain. And you’ll go nuts trying to please everyone. The trick is to weed out the things that you should fix (the walls are paper-thin, there should be a way to pay rent online, the security camera is broken, etc.) and the things that are just complaints that you could just take into consideration (I don’t like the movie you played during the recent screening party). Try to please everyone, and you’ll say, “Hulk smash!” (Though it would be hilarious if you did that while only wearing purple pants.)

How else could apartments be like The Avengers? Did you like that movie?

-Jessica Fiur, News Editor

Photo credit: DFree