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One of the main factors that will make or break your apartment budget is the quality of resident you attract. A high-quality resident is someone who pays rent on time, treats the unit and apartment community as if it were their own home and is courteous to the neighbors. High-quality residents not only make your life easier, they make you and your passive investors more money in the long run.
Sure, low-quality residents can help you increase your occupancy rate in the short-term. But they will negatively impact other important financial factors longer term. Low-quality residents lead to higher turnover costs, both due to more frequent turnovers and more expensive, lengthier turns. They also lead to more expenses associated with evictions, higher bad debt (i.e., uncollected debt after a resident moves out) and a higher amount of delinquent rent.
Therefore, the successful apartment syndicator or property manager will proactively implement procedures with the purpose of attracting the best-qualified residents in the area. This approach minimizes the number of low-quality leads and maximizes the higher-quality ones, which has a positive feedback effect: Attract high-quality residents to your apartment and they refer your apartment to others, which brings in more of the same caliber.
As a result of building a portfolio of over $300,000,000 in apartment communities, I have identified seven market strategies that attract these high-quality residents.
1. Maximize Internet Advertising
According to Zillow’s 2017 Consumer Housing Group Trends Report, online tools are the No. 1 way that renters are searching for their home (87%), followed by referrals from a friend, relative or neighbor (57%). Therefore, an online presence for your apartment community is a must. This starts with having a URL and website for the apartment community.
Next, all of your “for rent” units should be listed on a variety of online real estate and apartment listing services, with the most effective ones being Apartments.com, Craigslist, Realtor.com, Trulia and Apartmentfinder.com. You should also market your listings on social media, including Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.
To optimize your rental listing, make sure it includes a clear and accurate description of the unit and the community, highlighting the major selling points. Invest the few hundred dollars into having professional pictures taken.
2. Hire Locators
A locator is an apartment rental agency that helps prospective residents find their ideal apartment community based on their specific needs. Therefore, locators can be great resources for finding high-quality residents.
To find apartment locators in your market, Google “apartment locators in (city name).” Then, reach out and offer them a commission of the first month’s rent for providing you with a converted lead. (Fifty percent commission is standard).
Once you’ve hired a locator, provide them with weekly email and phone call updates on your current unit availability.