What Renters Want with Jessica Fiur: The Benefit of (Actually) Free Resident Programs

You might pay a little extra in the short-term, but it can pay off for you big time in the long-term.

jfiur_infocusBy Jessica Fiur, Senior Editor

Recently, a friend of mind told me the property managers at her apartment had just started offering rooftop movie nights.

This sounded amazing. Movies? Outside? With the possibility of popcorn and contraband wine? What could be bad?

Oh, right. It would be noisy. People would definitely be on their phones Instagramming how much fun they were having, which is always distracting during a movie. And what if you remember the wine, and the corkscrew, but forget the glasses? I mean, I guess you could drink out of the bottle, but you’re not an animal. Sigh.

She also mentioned that—coincidentally, I’m sure—her rent was going up exponentially.

Offering cool new programs for your residents is great. It’s a low-cost way to make residents happy and get great word of mouth (screening a movie is certainly cheaper than building a new state-of-the-art SoulCycle or CrossFit studio, or whatever the latest fad is). Which is why you shouldn’t charge them for it. Residents might go to an event. They might not. Either way, if they find out that they’re suddenly paying for these awesome programs in the form of higher rent, they might start looking at different apartments come lease renewal time.

Read the entire blog here.