Journal of Property Management

You can also make revisions to your current residents’ profiles due to personal and business changes during the year. As rental rates increase, the annual salary requirements of your residents will increase. By reviewing your resident profile, you can determine if your current residency will be able to absorb their rental increases.Changes in rental rates have a direct relationship with the resident profile. Is your marketing strategy meeting your goals of attracting residents who can afford living at your community, today and next year?

It’s important to find out what businesses are located within a one- or two-mile radius of your building that can support the community. Often, specific rental incentive programs for these businesses need to be developed and promoted through various marketing tools—from postcards, to flyers, to letters, to human resource departments.

To make such programs more successful, telephone calls and actual visits to businesses are vital, allowing more direct communication to “sell” the benefits of the apartment community to employers who could promote the property through their internal newsletters, magazines and company manuals. Some management companies go even further, meeting people in their business parking lots with donuts and hot coffee while they hand out their flyers.

Changing or adding to your existing amenities will also impact your resident profile. For example, if your apartment community has a tennis court that residents do not use, review the resident profile and results from a survey; you may find that you can and should convert the tennis court to a basketball court, or something else that residents will use and appreciate.

SHARPEN YOUR COMPETITIVE EDGE

Once you understand your resident profile, it’s a good idea to shop the competition. Mailing flyers on a regular basis to tenants or residents at nearby apartment communities, office buildings or retail centers, is an effective way to capitalize on your competitors’ weaknesses. The average resident will move within a one-mile radius of their current dwelling unless there is a significant increase or decrease in their salary. Adding your property to the many leasing Internet sites (more potential residents are choosing this venue), as well as improving your signage to attract potential renters who drive by your properties, are tried-and-true ways of marketing properties.

Marketing database companies should be able to provide lists of both residential and business addresses in specific locations. Companies that can inexpensively mail your flyers and postcards, as well as companies that can facilitate e-mail blasting to multiple recipients, are valuable resources.

A property management company can also market to potential clients by sending solicitation packages (postcards, flyers, use of Internet and Web advertising) that provide a quick and attractive overview of its operations. Send only as many solicitations as you can and follow-up with telephone calls the following week. You should also look at the legal sections of newspapers and magazines to find out who is seeking permits to build properties. Contact lending institutions and the courts to let them know you manage foreclosed

properties, or that you offer services in receivership.

Just as you must review your resident and business tenant profiles for your clients’ portfolios, you must also review and evaluate your current management services and clientele. Perhaps it is time for your company to consider single-family management. Once the market conditions change, single-family properties become inventory for sale. Have you thought about managing homeowner associations? Associations not only provide a source of management fees but also compliment a single-family management and residential sales department within your firm. What about adding expert witness services? You may have staff members who can provide this service to the legal community.

There are many options to explore when it comes to diversifying your services. Make sure you review all the possibilities.

REVIEW & REDUCE

Along with increasing and diversifying your services you also need to focus on the second part of getting back to basics—reviewing operations and expenses to find ways to cut costs.