Woodfield Investments’ Apt. Communities One of First to Go Live on ApartmentGrade.com

The apartment community ratings site

Eugene Gilligan, Contributing Editor

Homepage of ApartmentGrade.com

Ashburn, Va.–Woodfield Investments is among the first multifamily companies to commit to having their communities rated and posted on ApartmentGrade.Com.

The apartment community ratings site, launched in February of this year, will allow prospective renters to see how their current residents feel about living in their community.

Lucas Haldeman, CEO and president of ApartmentGrade.com, says he is satisfied with the site’s growth, and reports that it is now in the top 10 search results when the words “apartment ratings” are entered into Google, and reaches the top five in some metro areas.

ApartmentGrade.com asks current residents of an apartment community to rate each of a series of seven statements, which remain constant in each survey, with a one rating meaning “strongly disagree” to five for “strongly agree.” The answers are weighted, with the rating received in response to the statement “Please rate the overall level and quality of service you are receiving at this community” receiving the greatest emphasis.

Apartment owners can either authorize Apartmentgrade.com to use data from some resident surveys, such as CEL Associates’ REACT survey, or ApartmentGrade.com will provide the survey to owners, asking them to provide residents’ email addresses.

If an apartment community’s owner or manager is uncomfortable with the grade assigned to the property, Apartment.Grade.com will re-rate the property for free if desired. Also, ApartmentGrade.com will only post those comments that the owner or manager has authorized.

“We’re looking to highlight the best properties, not expose the bad ones,” says Leigh Curry, president of Curry Conduit Services, and a partner in ApartmentGrade.com. Postings to the site are free, as ApartmentGrade.com is paid if a prospective resident clicks through from a property featured on the site to an internet listing service.

When prospective residents do a city, zip or state search on ApartmentGrade.com, they see all pertinent communities in that search parameter that are currently rated by ApartmentGrade.com. Each community listing also has a Google map, physical address, telephone number, rent ranges, and bed and bathroom options.

While Curry said the listings are useful to prospective renters, they can also be valuable to owners who want to benchmark their properties against their competitors, and also can provide tangible evidence that improvement might be needed at a community.

The four Woodfield Investment Communities that were rated by ApartmentGuide.com include: Elizabeth Square in Charlotte, N.C.; Woodfield Saint James in Goose Creek, S.C.; Woodfield South Point in Charleston, S.C. and Woodfield Glen in Raleigh, N.C.

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