Multifamily Technology 360°

Mike Mueller's Next Move: Acquiring CallSource's Multifamily Division

2012-02-03T08:31:00.001-05:00

Multifamily technology entrepreneur, Mike Mueller, has acquired CallSource's multifamily vertical and plans to relocate the company's operations to Scottsdale.

Terms of the deal, which closed Thursday, were not disclosed. Mueller said the acquisition positions CallSource Multifamily for its next phase of innovation and growth which includes the subsequent move to Scottsdale and the creation of 40 local jobs.

CallSource Multifamily provides key strategic services to enhance an apartment community's ability to track marketing spend, increase lead conversion rates and improve employee performance. Its services allow apartment owners to direct their marketing and employee dollars for maximum return. Powering these services is a technology platform that tracks more than 11 million calls and monitors those calls for optimal leasing opportunities and prospects.

"CallSource Multifamily is the leader within the industry and we know that clients will be delighted by the seamless transition as well as the additional innovative offerings that will be rolled out in the future," said Mueller, who has a long and distinguished career in the multifamily industry. Mueller was one of the first people to visualize how the Internet could change the way owners and managers market apartments and recently sold VaultWare™, the industry's first online apartment reservation system, to MRI Software.

"The CallSource Multifamily business aligns perfectly to my history of innovating consumer-centric marketing and leasing solutions," added Mueller, who will serve as president and CEO of the company.

Jerry Feldman, Chief Executive Officer of CallSource, commented, "CallSource has been serving the multifamily industry for 21 years. And I have known Mike for 15 of those years. I am excited to have him and our multifamily team take our products and services to the next level."

Joining Mueller will be Mark Sadosky, chief sales and marketing officer; Len Ksobiech, chief financial and operating officer; Doug Chasick, chief learning officer, as well as an experienced team of CallSource Multifamily management and personnel.

About CallSource Multifamily
CallSource Multifamily provides key strategic services to enhance an apartment community's ability to track marketing spend, increase lead conversion rates, and improve employee performance. Its unique services: CallTrack, LeadScore, Telephone Performance Analysis, LeadManager, LeaseSaver, and Online Learning Management System allow a multifamily business to direct its marketing and employee dollars for maximum return. Powering these services is a technology platform that uses more than 85,000 numbers tracking more than 11 million calls, of which over 4 million are listened to and scored for multifamily businesses across the country. CallSource technology is responsible for tracking and monitoring tens of millions of dollars in leasing opportunities.

About Mike Mueller
Mike Mueller was one of the first people to visualize how the Internet could change the way apartment owners and managers market their properties with one of the industry's first Internet Listing Services, AllApartments.com, a company he founded in 1996. It was later merged with Realtor.com and went public as HomeStore.com in 1999. Over the last 13 years he has been an early investor in companies like RealPage, LeasingDesk, MyNewPlace and most recently VaultWare which he founded and sold to MRI Software in late 2011. His focus continues to be consumer-centric marketing and leasing solutions for the multifamily housing industry and has been acknowledged as a pioneer by numerous organizations and publications. With his CallSource acquisition, Mike plans on taking prospect lead acquisition to a new level through the use of multiple emerging technologies including mobile-enabled devices like smartphones.

Why do apartment listings have such terrible pictures?

2011-11-23T08:53:00.001-05:00

That's not from me ... I'm just passing along the message.

Don't believe me? See for yourself:

Think about this for a minute -- this is coming directly from a prospective renter:

I'm in the process of looking for apartments right now, and a ton of them just have horrible-quality pictures that tell me nothing about the place. Is there some incentive for people to keep on doing this?

One search on Craigslist shows exactly what the questioner means. Here's one example (posted by a professional management company):

What is that supposed to tell me as a prospect?

Now I'm no photography expert, but it seems to me like quality photos shouldn't be that big of an issue today, even if a professional photographer isn't in the budget.

Some Basics

I dug into this a bit further, looking for some basic tips about taking better quality photos. It didn't take long to find some great resources. Here's an example of some suggestions from Apartment Therapy:

Light: Take advantage of daylight. When using artificial light, use as much as possible. Don't use a flash as it can create shine and glare...

Wide Shot: Stand as far back as possible in the corner of a room. Try to center the good stuff in the middle and cut out as much of the ceiling as possible. If you don't have a wide-angle lens and the room is too small to capture all at once, then do a piece at a time.

Close-ups: Don't zoom in but rather step up to whatever you think is an interesting detail in your apartment. Frame it well, meaning make sure that there are other things in the photo that complement it. It is also a good idea to get above the scene rather than meet it at eye level.

Focus: If you don't have a tripod, try to lean the camera on something stable each time you take a photo. Clarity is crucial.

Perspective: Don't take all your photos from the same vantage point. Stand on a chair, lay down on the floor, get on your knees...

Great stuff. Now let's put some of these tips to use.

Taking Better Apartment Photos

We need to make it as easy as possible to take better photos, and we also need a (relatively) readily-accessible device that doesn't require a physics degree to operate.

A quick look at Flickr shows that the most popular camera used by photographers contributing to the site is a device a number of us have in our pockets right now -- the iPhone.

THIS is great news. First, because it's in your pocket, ready to fire at a moment's notice. Second, it's a respectable camera, especially if you have the latest edition (the 4S), so no need for a high-end DSLR. Third, it has a library of awesome apps to help you take better photos and share them online. Oh, and it shoots HD video, too. (I've focused on the iPhone for the purpose of this post, but there are also many photo-related apps available for Android phones ... try starting here.)

Get More Out of Your Cameraphone

So how exactly do we use the iPhone to take better pictures? Just like with any other camera, the right accessories can make all the difference. Here are just a few of the apps you might want to try to get more out of your iPhone camera:

Camera+: Features include an image stabilizer, exposure editing, cool effects and more.

Instagram: Add gorgeous filtered effects or tilt-shift blur. Share photos to other popular social networking sites.

Big Lens: Edit photos by setting the aperture, changing periphery blur levels and adjusting background to add a very professional look to your images.

Gorillacam: Take time-lapse photos, use the timer or use the built-in level to make sure your photos are straight.

Color Splash: Give photos a dramatic look by converting them to black and white, while keeping your chosen details in color.

Photoshop Express: Basic photo editing, including cropping, filters, effects, borders and more.

Flickr: Share your amazing photos with the world, and geo-tag your images to let people know where to find you.

Not one of these apps costs more than $1.99 in the iTunes App Store, and many of them are free.

Beyond the software, there are many external lenses and other accessories that you can add on to get even more out of the iPhone camera. (Tom Martin offers some great tips in this presentation.)

With a little bit of time & effort and a slim device that many of have in our pockets, we can significantly improve the photos we're posting on our property websites, ILS ads and Craigslist posts.

Now it's your turn. What tips do you have to take better property photos? What's your favorite camera or photography app?

Want to see some great photos? Check out some of the most interesting photos of apartments on Flickr.

NMHC OpTech 2011: Top Tweets from Day One - #NMHCTech

2011-11-08T10:41:00.000-05:00

Many in the industry have descended on Dallas for this year's edition of the NMHC Operations and Technology Conference, which kicked off yesterday with a keynote presentation from futurist Jack Uldrich.

In case you couldn't make it to the conference (yours truly included), here are some of the highlights from those in attendance at yesterday's sessions, 140 characters at a time:

Want to follow along during today's roundtable discussions and sessions? Just follow the search #NMHCTech.

How Much Bandwidth Does Your Property Need for the "Internet of Things?"

2011-10-24T14:17:00.000-05:00

So you think a 3Mb connection for each resident is sufficient? Maybe 5-10Mb if you have "tech-savvy" residents like students?

Sorry, that's just not going to cut it.

Take a look at the graphic below, shared by Cisco. (If there's any company that knows networking, it's them.) The money stat?

"By the end of 2011, 20 typical households will generate more Internet traffic than the entire Internet in 2008."

That's only three years ago, folks.

This goes way beyond websites and email ... the "Internet of Things" includes devices that have never been part of the network before (think appliances, access control systems, lighting systems, background music, sprinkler systems, etc.). Considering that the typical apartment community is often 200 households or more, that's a LOT of bandwidth. (Netflix usage alone can be enough to slow Internet speeds to a crawl at many properties.) If we assume that a fair number of these devices will be wireless, that's also a LOT of Wi-Fi spectrum getting pounded ... so be aware of potential interference issues. And all of this doesn't even account for any devices that property owners are installing to help properties run more efficiently.

The question is, what are you doing about it now to make sure you aren't losing these connected residents later? How are your ISP partners stepping up to help address potential bandwidth bottlenecks at your property? (Even if the numbers shared here don't pan out by the end of the year, it can't be that far off.)

I'd love to hear how you're planning for the "Internet of Things" and how it will affect multifamily (positively or negatively).

by visually via

IPv6: The new Internet Protocol and why you should care

2011-03-22T14:18:00.000-05:00

This is a guest post from Bill Szczytko. Bill is the IT Manager for Maryland Management who loves handling the challenges of driving prospects and creating computer programs. Read more from Bill at BSitko.com.

* * * * * * *

Some experiences in life can turn your bad mood into good. A love note from your spouse, a smile and kiss from your kids, your mother-in-law staying for the weekend ... okay, maybe not that one.

There are other things, like learning about Internet Protocol ANY version, that do just the opposite. Why then should you continue reading any further? Sure, this topic might be considered by some to be "Boring but important" but this stuff is crucial to understanding where the internet is headed. The Internet as you know it HAS to transform over the next few years or it risks not working at all.

There's lots of Geek language in here. To help ease your pain I'll be slapping up these icons to let you know when the Geekery is about to get pretty deep. Feel free to skip that section, look it up for more information, or stab yourself in the eye with your pen.

What is Internet Protocol? Does it have anything to do with Facebook?

The internet as you use it today relies on a method of communication called Internet Protocol v4. No matter the device you use, this protocol is getting you online.

Let me give you an example: let's just assume that the internet is a made up town in America. Every house in this town has its own unique address. That's no different from real life right? It would be pretty confusing to the USPS if people in the same town had the same address. How could you get your mail delivered? You'd end up with a brown bag covered magazine and someone else would have your AARP membership card. Chaos.

Next, think about how you'd get to someone's house in this town. You write down their address, look up the directions on Google Maps, and find out the route to take to get there. When you type http://www.google.com into a web browser, Internet Protocol needs to look up the address too. It accomplishes this look up using Domain Name System. Once it finds out the route to get there, it then "drives" your packet of data to the destination FAST.

So every device that wants to use this Internet Protocol thingy needs a unique address?

Yup. In some form or another. (I'll explain that sentence in a minute.) Unlike my real world example where you're just driving over to someone's house, Internet Protocol is a two way street. Which means running over to Sally's for a nooner would require her to then come back to your house. That won't work. See, once your packet of data has been given the correct address to go to ... that packet needs to get home. It's why the packets have to be able to find each other; hence why they must be unique. The IPv4 spec (Geeks love calling things spec) uses 32-bit addresses which limits you to only 4,294,967,296 possible unique addresses. That's a ridiculous amount of addresses. Except there's one problem; by the end of this year, we'll be out.

"Honey, put the Private sign on the hotel room door and come here."

You might find this really crazy, but we would've been out of addresses a long time ago except for one thing. Private addressing. I won't pretend to know the makeup of your corporate offices but I'm willing to bet they use a private address scheme. Typically when computers are in the same building, they will all communicate with each other. There's no reason why they all need to have their own unique internet address and so under the Private address scheme they can share one.

Here are the 3 ranges of private addresses:

* Class A: 10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255
* Class B: 172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255
* Class C: 192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255

Hey ... you! Wake up! Stay with me now. I thought I'd lost you. You were sleeping pretty hard there. Bottom line is these private IP's are not routable; meaning Internet routers will ignore devices that have these addresses. Because they aren't routable on the INTERNET you can use them for private addresses. You can then have multiple devices all talk to each other and yet share only one Internet IP address. Get it? Good ... let's move on.

So we need IPv6 because even with private addresses we're STILL running out?

You're a fast learner. Back in the mid 90's IPv6 was chosen because some seriously smart Geeks saw the end of the internet. The new version gives you an absolutely ridiculous amount of addresses that you can use. It's based on 128 bits vs 32 bits as IPv4 was. This means that we'll have 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 available addresses. Yes ... umm, THAT number. I mean honestly I don't even know how to say that. Just crazy. (It's undecillion actually.)

So if IPv6 has been out since the late 90's why aren't we fully using it yet?

Well, that's the real question right there isn't it? Remember ... every device in existence today uses IPv4. Most routers are still using it, servers, workstations, Internet lines ... the entire backbone of the internet is still utilizing it. People don't like downtime so how do you convert EVERYTHING to the new spec? For now IPv4 and IPv6 are working side by side. Remember that this is a software problem. Network cards and network switches could care less what spec you're using but still, how do you get every device to start speaking a different language and not mess stuff up?

Slow and steady wins the race

Over time everything will need to be converted. As multifamily companies just trying to grasp the impact social media has on our business, should we even shifting our attentions for this? Yes. Here are some things I think you should do to get ready:

* Find out if your IT staff is trained in IPv6. I've glossed over the complicated topics here but trust me when I tell you that reading the IPv6 specification on a full stomach is bad. If your IT staff doesn't understand IPv4, then they aren't really your IT staff but terrible imposters. Knowing IPv4 isn't enough though. It will take some reading and research before they're ready to take on IPv6. Before you just barge into the IT staff's office to tell them about this make sure you call first ... you don't want to interrupt them playing World of Warcraft. Just sayin'.

* Is your network provider ready? Is your internet service IPv6 ready? It's going to take some phone calls but before you can start using IPv6 on the internet, you'll need your internet to be IPv6. Wow, talk about redundant.

* Is everyone running an IPv6 ready Operating System? Windows XP has had support since SP2 but it's off by default. Windows Vista (CRAP!) and 7 have it on and ready by default. OS X has had support since version 10.4.8. How up to date are your operating systems and if not what will it take to get them there?

* What about your actual applications? Can they handle IPv6? This will require talking to your PM vendors as well as your web hosting vendor. Switching your network over only to find out you can't run Yardi internally would be very very bad.

So there you have it. IPv6 is coming to an Internet near you. No one is saying you need to switch tomorrow but plans should be in place to begin your transition. This new protocol isn't going to rent you new apartments, it won't turn your units faster, and it won't keep your staff motivated but it will insure that everyone can access email, your property management software and Facebook. Now, what is more important than that?

Over-Hyped Technology You Think You Need But Probably Don't Yet

2011-01-06T13:44:00.000-05:00

Since the advent of the AS400, we've been hankering away for technology to help us rent and manage apartments. We seek it out in the corners of the Internet, we buy into every single ILS that comes along and we attend every conference in the hope that something will help us rent that apartment we've had sitting for 6 months. We are like addicts and there are plenty of vendors out there who know it.

Skepticism is good. When it comes to purchasing though I am pretty skeptical about everything. It's good to be that way. There's nothing wrong with making sure new technologies fit. The things I'm going to talk here about ARE good technologies. Are there clear and legitimate reasons behind the hype? I'll let you decide:

Revenue Management.

This is probably the #1 technology running rampant around the industry today. You're probably horrified that I included it here. Just because the top folks are pumped about something doesn't mean the smaller fish need to give a hoot. Here's my cautionary tale:

Pushing your rents. Duh. This is the fundamental methodology for increasing your NOI. A lot of industry professionals live by the vacancy percentage. While it is certainly relevant, it is just one piece of the puzzle. It's possible to have a higher NOI with an 8% vacancy than a 4 or 5%. My point is that you should be pushing your rents anyway. Let me let you in on a little secret. You don't need a computer system to tell you that it's okay to push. You know your market, you know your personnel, don't replace that knowledge with just a computer system.

Comparable information isn't very reliable. Revenue Management systems include this data in their number generation. Most people that have been in this industry for a while know that this data is terrible. You call around ... the agent remembers what the price was last week but it's gone down since then. They're having a bad day and don't feel like researching. Or they know you're the competition and want to mess with you. Pick your excuse ... these numbers don't really tell the whole picture. Use them as a baseline ONLY. Are you comfortable using systems that use this data? Lots are ... are you?

Changing your rents daily causes chaos. How can you successfully manage and market all of your online sites and paper advertising when the price today isn't the price tomorrow? I understand that hotels turn most of their people daily and so these daily (or hourly) price changes really do benefit them. We don't turn that many apartments daily, weekly or even bi-weekly. It's hard for me to fathom conditions that require prices to jump around so often. It makes renting apartments difficult. I truly believe that the 6 through 15 month price grid can be intimidating for some at first. Is there such a thing as too many choices? Prospects just want to know how much it is per month. They saw $899 and they want that ... after all, it was just yesterday.

"Holding an Apartment" online.

Sometimes too much information is just that. Too much. Certain managers have apartments that they like to push. Whether it's a higher commission bonus or a better value; no one can do it better than your agents. The Internet offers great information to your prospective residents. They are more empowered than ever to make smart decisions. At the end of the day they want to put their hands and eyes on what apartment they are going to live in. It's a yearly commitment. It isn't a 1 or 2 day stay. Hard to convince me that most people will commit sight unseen.

Higher Conversions? I'm sure that the conversions from "holding" an apartment are higher than normal. How it can hurt you is it pulls apartments off of your availability that you might be able to rent to your other qualified people. Is it worth it to you to hold an apartment for $10? You could also be affecting your rent amounts (check my topic #1) for that unit type just because two buddies got hammered and reserved some apartments. It is a much stronger commitment to hold an apartment while in the office than online ... $10 not withstanding. I would love to see numbers on how many people actually pay the fee and what rent range the apartments are.

Twitter.

Blasphemy! Twitter is a fantastic medium to engage with others. It's one big cocktail party 24 hours a day. Your residents are people with lives. They have families, kids, parents, drama, and bills. Just like you and I. I feel that what a lot of residents want from their Property Management company is transparency. Come and fix their sink when it's clogged and accept their rent but otherwise stay out of their lives. For those that don't want you to stay out ... they'll use Facebook. It's a much better place to engage with your residents. Sure, use Twitter to listen to what others are saying about you. But from our experience thus far, it's been virtually no one. Do we advertise our presence on Twitter? A little. But we see no need to. No one wants to engage us there. Someday? Maybe ... but not now.

iPad.

I'll be honest, when I first heard about this "thing' I was intrigued. Apple is known for pushing the boundaries of interaction with their devices. This thing is an interaction grand slam. It's amazingly cool and using it is a pleasure. Once I hit the lottery I'll go out and purchase one. For the majority of us Property Management folks is it really going to rent us more apartments? Will we see NOI increases once it hits our leasing offices? I'm skeptical.

Is being cool ... enough? As I said, you know you want one. That's the pull I think that's driving this "We have to invest in this" fad. Are there some relevant technologies you can use with it? Sure. Property Management systems will not work on it. For those of you that use VaultWare (They will never talk to me again I'm sure ... read #2) they do offer an iPad application. Sure you can enhance tours with this thing. But I revert back to my original point: will it REALLY rent you more apartments? Come on ... think about it. If it truly does that I'd have to question your leasing agents ability to rent. Ouch (sorry I know), I'm extra cranky today.

Property Management Software.

Okay, ha ha... this last one is just to see if you're paying attention. We love our Property Management software. It does everything we want it to do with hardly any fuss. They are so intuitive, aren't they? I do want to mention one thing though. I would love to see more players in the field. Yardi and OneSite are awesome software packages but they come with so many features that most smaller fish don't need. We all probably only utilize 45 - 55% of our current PM software yet you pay for 100% ... remember that.

Conclusion? Don't cancel your LRO or VaultWare. Don't delete your Twitter handle. But if you're thinking about these technologies remove the NEW FACTOR and ask yourself before you invest your money whether it's right for you and whether you actually NEED it. I urge caution and skepticism before you dive into any new technology you see.

Afterthoughts. I'm a skeptic. It's what I do. I love technology and I personally jump on the bandwagon for everything new. The companies I mentioned are all leaders in our industry and have created excellent software packages. I am trying to generate conversation, and I'm hoping you'll participate.

Happy renting, everyone.

5 Lead Tracking Trends to Watch in 2011

2010-12-21T22:15:00.002-05:00

This is a guest post contributed by Doug Chasick, CPM®, CAPS, CAS, Adv. RAM, CLP, SLE, CDEI.

In today’s competitive leasing climate, to maximize profits you must maximize marketing. For instance, do you know how many authentic leasing opportunities your marketing efforts really delivers? Giving unprecedented insight into the true source of leads, lead tracking technology gives you the ability to precisely measure which marketing sources perform the best allowing you to make adjustments accordingly. But lead tracking technology is much more than just unique tracking numbers ... in fact, here are five things to consider for your lead tracking program in 2011:

• Call Tracking – Reveals the true cost, effectiveness, and ROI of a company’s marketing. It captures every caller’s phone number and, often, name and address for follow-up. It identifies calling patterns and possible scheduling issues.

• Lead Scoring – Provides an analysis of calls to remove non-leasing calls from the calculation of conversion ratios and to stop abuse of tracking numbers by residents, employees, or vendors.

• Telephone Performance Analysis – Grades and monitors call-handlers to indicate when further training or support is needed. Leasing performance and training effectiveness generally improve with the ability to review your call-handlers recorded calls with prospects.

• Dynamic Number Insertion – Employs advanced call tracking technology that allows you to identify the source of each lead sent to your website in real-time. Prospects visit your website and specialized software identifies where and how that lead originated. Based on this information, the telephone number normally displayed on your web page is dynamically replaced with a tracking number.

• Owner’s Analytics – Reviews portfolio and regional data and compares management performance with that of other operators in the same market and sub-market. This can demonstrate to owners that moving assets to another management company may not always improve results.

You can’t truly manage what you don’t measure. Today’s lead tracking technology not only measures your marketing effectiveness, it also provides you with the data needed to make informed decisions on where to focus your marketing efforts to achieve maximum results.

In future posts, we're going to take a closer look at each of these items and how you can use them to improve your marketing programs for 2011. Do you have a specific question you'd like us to address, or a story to share about your own experience with lead tracking technology? How are you currently tracking the success of your marketing efforts? How do you think each of the items mentioned above will evolve in the year ahead? Tell us in the comments ... we'd love to hear from you.

Doug Chasick is Senior Vice President of Multifamily Professional Services for CallSource. Contact him at: (888) 222-1214 or: DChasick@CallSource.com.

Survey Says: Renters Shy Away from Social Media During Their Apartment Search?

2010-12-07T16:14:00.003-05:00

"More Than 70% of Apartments.com Users Are Active On Social Media,
But Only a Quarter Use It to Shop for a Place to Live"

Apartments.com recently conducted a survey of 850 visitors to their national website to find out how active those apartment hunters are with social media, how it affects their apartment search and where they choose to live. (My first reaction: I'm not sure how many people are searching for apartments on Facebook or Flickr. But I kept reading.)

According to the survey, "71 percent of Apartments.com visitors are 'active on social media,' but only a quarter use it during their apartment search." (Actually, assuming similar survey methods, this number is up significantly considering the data presented by SatisFacts back in March.)

Now, there's no real qualification of what "using social media during their apartment search" means (or even how "social media" is defined), but it stands to reason that most apartment hunters are likely starting their apartment search on Google or Craigslist, rather than Facebook or Foursquare. However, I could easily see apartment hunters sharing a link or simply asking their friends for opinions or feedback about a specific property that has made the cut to their short list. (More on this in a bit...)

In any case, the majority of renters indicated they are not checking out social media websites to find a place to live. (This makes sense.) That said, renter search behavior is always a moving target -- 70 percent of the survey respondents who said they do not use social media during their apartment search indicated they would either consider using it or are on the fence.

Why apartment hunters use social media as part of their search

The survey found that most renters consult multiple online sources before choosing where to live. (Who wouldn't, right?) Of the 71 percent of apartment hunters already active with social media, obtaining supplemental information including recommendations, visuals and special offers topped the reasons they tap these websites during their apartment search. (OK, now this is starting to make sense...) The respondents ranked the top five benefits of using social media during their apartment search as:

1) Finding additional apartment community information and recommendations (58.1%)
2) Seeking photos and videos of apartments (54.7%)
3) Searching for apartment listings (52.7%)
4) Hunting for special incentives and offers (46.8%)
5) Sharing apartment information with friends and seeking feedback (20.7%)

Social Media: For Prospects or For Residents?

In addition to the absence of social media during the apartment search, more than 90 percent of survey respondents said they are not "connecting with their current apartment community via social media." As Apartments.com states in their release:

Reasons for why this number seems high can be attributed to the lack of apartment communities participating in the social media space, or not getting the word out to residents, and the growing number of new renters hitting the market.

Nearly half of all respondents said either their apartment community does not have a social media presence or they simply do not know about it. (More than 40 percent of the respondents also said they do not currently live at an apartment community, so take that for what it's worth.)

While this might seem like an epidemic, I hardly think it's an issue that is exclusive to the multifamily industry. Ask that same 90 percent if they're connected to their local grocery store, or plumber, or family restaurant "on any social media website," and I'm guessing that the answers would be very similar. People largely participate in social networking to connect with friends, not to receive marketing messages from businesses.

Of those who are connected to their apartment community on one or more social media sites (8.2% of the respondents), here were the reasons why:

Where do we go from here?

Here's what Chris Brown, Vice President of Product Management at Apartments.com, had to say:

As social media continues to evolve online communications, we believe more apartment communities will follow suit and become more visible in this space. Residents will likely be receptive to interacting with their apartment communities in this way, especially if the content is meaningful. Our survey tells us that residents want to connect with their apartment community through social media to receive special offers, gain access to other residents and to keep current on community news and events.

He's exactly right about meaningful content, and that can go well beyond offers and updates about community news.

While nearly two thirds of all survey respondents said they are social media users, most are only active on Facebook. Nearly 35 percent indicated they check Facebook as often as every couple of hours and 32 percent visit at least once a day. This is a sharp contrast compared to their activity on any other social media websites. On average, more than 65 percent of survey respondents have never logged on to Yelp or Foursquare (Do you need to login to Yelp to benefit from others' reviews?), and more than half have never visited Twitter or MySpace. Now you can start to see why it's important to define what we mean by "social media" for the purposes of these discussions.

So what are the takeaways for apartment marketers?

* Embrace reviews (and open dialogue in general). People want them. Apartment Ratings isn't going away. Deal with it and make it work for you.
* Go multimedia. People don't want 2-D floor plans. They want video tours, interviews with property staff, photos of decorated model units, common amenities & resident events, and resident testimonials.
* Syndicate your deals. This one's a little dicey, because the content still needs to be relevant to a large part of your audience that may not be searching for an apartment right now. That said, if prospects are looking for reviews on Yelp, wouldn't you also want them to see your current special there?
* Make it easy to share your content. Do you have features like the ShareThis widget and the Facebook Like button on your property website? Prospects want the opinions of their friends; making it easy for them to share your content and get feedback about your community provides a service to your prospect and exposes your brand to more people in the process.

You can see more details from the Apartments.com survey here, and Brent Williams already has an active debate on this data over at Multifamily Insiders.

What do you think? Does this match your company's experience with social media? Will social media grow in importance as part of the apartment search process? Are we still asking the wrong questions, as some commenters have suggested over on MFI? I've presented the data (with some commentary along the way) ... the comments are yours.

To receive a copy of results from future surveys like this, please contact Tammy Kotula at Apartments.com.

NMHC 2010 "OpTech" Conference: Try It, Analyze It, Improve It

2010-11-23T10:01:00.000-05:00

This recap of the 2010 NMHC Apartment Operations and Technology Conference is a guest post contributed by Kim Duty, VP of Communications for the National Multi Housing Council.

How to Do Business Smarter, Quicker, Better

Leading apartment executives gathered last week in Dallas, TX for the 2010 National Multi Housing Council Property Operations and Technology (OpTech) conference. While there was a lot of healthy debate at the conference, it is clear that sophisticated technology-based tools have dramatically changed the apartment industry in the last 10 years. From marketing to pricing to data mining, apartment companies are leveraging technology to transform their communications and their operations.

As AMLI’s Greg Mutz noted: “In an information age, information is the currency of the realm. We are trying to use tools to reduce procurement costs, increase productivity and increase residents.” And he added that authorizing sufficient training dollars is critical: “These tools are only as good as the people using them, so don’t be cheap about training. The Israelis have the same airplanes as everyone else but they use them better because they train better.”

Deane Dolben of The Dolben Company cautioned that “it’s easy to spend more on technology than it will deliver back, especially for a medium-sized company. We focus on our people and make sure they don’t forget about doing their job because they’re spending so much time on technology.”

If there was one theme at the conference it was the need to continue to advance the industry's embrace of technology to do business smarter, quicker, better. "Go out there, try it, keep analyzing it and change it to improve it," said one presenter. And if you want to know where technology is headed, go to a college campus advised another.

Marketing Dominates the Agenda

In a clear evolution from a conference that was once focused on what kind of wiring to run to properties, the dominant theme at this year's event was marketing with an emphasis on measurement. As Drucker & Falk’s Dan Haefner noted, "if you can't measure it, you can't manage it."

Gone are the days when subjective "I think, I feel" beliefs guided marketing strategy. Today's companies are using key performance metrics to refine their advertising programs, analyzing cost-per-lead, cost-per-lease and visit set ratios. Panelists recommended cutting any source that costs more than $50 per lead and focusing on those ad sources costing between $20/lead and $50/lead when refining media buys.

They warned, however, that properly sourcing leads is a big problem in the industry. One analysis showed that 70% of leases were attributed to the wrong source. They urged companies to use call center data and guest card matching through a lead management system before deciding which marketing sources to keep.

Conversion rates are equally dubious. Keith Dodds (AIMCO) reported that when they experimented with not holding site staff accountable for conversion rates and to instead accurately report traffic, traffic was up 50%. Don't make decisions on bad data was a recurring mantra. We have too much data and not enough tools to make sense of it was another.

Firms agreed that lead tracking and revenue management have to work together in developing a marketing strategy, since firms make money by pushing rents. Using today's data-driven tools, companies can adjust their lead streams depending on whether they are pushing occupancy or rents.

Contrarian Jonathan Holtzman (Village Green Companies) challenged the industry, stating that he believes “as an industry, we are spending 75-90% too much on marketing; generating more traffic than we need for the number of empty apartments we have.”

Social Media: “More Art Than Science”

One of the key topics at the event was marketing, with a vigorous debate on whether social media is a productive outlet for apartment firms. While apartment executives may disagree about how much of a firm's resources should be allocated to social media, they generally concurred that there is a major industry shift underway in how the industry communicates with its customers.

During a debate on the pluses and minuses of social media, Jamie Gorski (The Bozzuto Group) argued that social media is crucial because it “protects and extends your brand” and lets you hear what your customers are saying about you. "To say that it hasn't generated any leases is missing the point. Social media is just another form of communication with your customer," said Gorski. "Would you not answer an email?"

AvalonBay’s Kevin Thompson said that social media augments your firm’s marketing plan, making your company more relevant: “Search engine optimization and enhanced customer service alone make social media worthwhile.”

Arguing the other side, Donald Davidoff (Archstone) replied that social media creates a lot of activity but not a lot of results and isn't easily quantified. Asked whether social media could be an external link strategy to drive traffic to the company's web site, Davidoff reported that bounce rates from Facebook are twice as high as from an ILS.

Todd Katler (BRE) concurred that there are lots of ways to keep your apartments full that don't involve Facebook or Twitter, plus social media is not scalable. Both agreed that they may feel differently in three years and conceded that it is important for reputation management.

Thompson said firms should “either embrace social media or don’t do it at all. Don’t do it halfheartedly. If you do it and don’t do it right, it’s worse than not doing it at all.” To be successful, stop thinking of yourself as a marketer and start thinking of yourself as a publisher.

Despite the disagreement, it was clear from the hallway conversations and other panel discussions that figuring out social media is high on the industry's "to do" list for 2011.

Industry Needs to Embrace Apartment Ratings

One thing the social media panel agreed on was the importance of embracing apartment rating sites like ApartmentRatings.com and Yelp because apartment residents are using them to make leasing decisions and they have enormous relevancy in organic search results.

Drucker & Falk’s Dan Haefner shared their initiative to get supportive residents to post ratings. He says the company has spent less than $200 a site on education and awareness building and has gone from a 20% rating to an 80% rating. Once they get above 80%, they link the property site to the ratings site.

What's the Next Big Thing? QR Codes

Last year's buzz word — mobile marketing — was still a hot topic this year, but firms report that their mobile applications are getting more traction with existing residents. Greg Lozinak (Waterton Residential) reports bounce rates (users clicking away from the front page) of 50% for prospects with their mobile campaigns, but just 30% for residents. Lozinak reports that 61% of their resident portal traffic is mobile, compared to just 39% of prospect traffic.

He explains that today's renter cohort is more likely to leave their apartment without their wallet than their cellphone. "It's their first screen of choice" he says.

This year's buzz was about QR (Quick Response). These easy-to-produce bar codes can be added to brochures, billboards and web sites. They can store text (instant coupons), URL links, geographic coordinates and more, and anyone with a smart phone or a mobile phone with a camera can scan them. Research reports that 71% of consumers polled are willing to download and use mobile bar codes.

Lynette Hegeman (Gables Residential) reports they are building a mobile landing page prospects would land on after scanning the code. They are also developing one for residents and using it to link to Facebook, maintenance requests, event calendars and more.

When asked "What's next?," one speaker advised: "If you want to know what's next, go to a college campus and see where technology is headed."

Don't Forget the Current Residents

Despite a noticeable emphasis on marketing, using technology to serve existing residents was a common theme. As Laurie Baker (Camden Property Trust) said, "residents find us online, can apply online, then they move in and we put notes on their doors." In focus groups, residents told them they hated having notices put on their doors.

When asked about budget priorities for 2011, firms cited using technology to drive resident retention and create a better user experience. This includes allowing online renewals, deploying revenue management for renewals and creating touch points at different times in the relationship.

Reiterating last year's takeaway, panelists said repeatedly that the way the industry communicates with existing residents has changed. Half want to be communicated with via text or email. But the industry needs an IT solution for resident communications. Property management systems don't have fields for Twitter or Facebook accounts or the ability to designate preferred communications, much less act on them.

Revenue Management

Another recurring conference theme was revenue management software and the way it's transforming the industry.

During the downturn, some companies disabled their revenue management due to fear that it would lower rents too quickly. Riverstone's Walt Smith said he could count on his fingers the number of clients who trusted it when rents were going down.

But AvalonBay’s Leo Horey said revenue management “works through all phases. But these are tools and they have to be used in conjunction with other tools and systems. Don’t just turn it on and let it go; adjust it.

Mutz agreed, saying it’s an amazing technology if it’s used right. Now his firm is working on rolling out a module for renewals.

Best Technology Advancement

Opinions varied about what the most important advancement in the past five years has been. Mark-Taylor’s Dale Phillips said online availability is the key: “Not just digital pictures of the floorplan, but an interactive display that can show how far the unit is from its parking space and other details.”

One sign of how far the industry has come in just a few years: Mutz said 67% of his firm’s leases this year will be online. “Three or four percent of the time we first meet a new resident when we hand them the key, just like a hotel.” Many of these sight-unseen renters tend to come from overseas, so making your web site available in different languages definitely appeals to them.

Mutz added that online leasing/marketing is important but said that data mining is “light-years ahead of 10 years ago.” Using a Human Resources example, he said: “Every employee gets a grade on 10 metrics, and each position has its own metrics. The key is: don’t make them drink through a fire hose, get it down to more manageable bite-size amounts so they can change their performance.”

Missed a session? Catch up!

Presentations from the conference are available to NMHC members here. Visit NMHC's Flickr Page for photos from this year’s event. The Council has also created a Social Media Listserve to allow members to exchange ideas and pose questions on the topic. For more information, visit www.nmhc.org/goto/socialmedia.

Mark Your Calendar for Next Year!

Next year’s 2011 NMHC Apartment Operations and Technology Conference & Exposition will be held in Fort Worth, TX, November 6-8, 2011 at the Omni Fort Worth.

What are your top technology priorities for 2011? Does marketing top the list, or are you more focused on operational issues? Leave your takeaways in the comments.

Multifamily Tech Talk This Thursday: Green Technology Trends

2010-10-26T14:24:00.001-05:00

Electric cars, alternative energy sources, energy management, smart irrigation systems -- a lot of people are thinking about all kinds of new ways to save energy and resources. This Thursday, we'll apply some of those ideas to the multifamily industry when we ask Ryan Merkin (Steven Winter Associates) and Joe Coletti (EchoSign) to join us for the next installment of our Multifamily Tech Talks. You can register for this free event here.

Ryan and Joe will cover the latest in green technology trends, including:
* Technologies for new developments
* Best practices and new ideas to make existing properties more efficient
* Tools to help your office improve operations and use less paper & resources

If you have specific questions or topics you'd like us to cover, please feel free to email me anytime up until the event.

Want to get your mind going in the right direction? Just think about some of the ideas suggested in this recent ad from IBM:

Some of this technology exists now, and you could be using it to make your properties more energy-efficient and attractive to potential renters. Want to learn more? Join us for our free webinar at 3 pm Eastern this Thursday, October 26 -- register here: Green Tech Trends for Apartments. I hope you can join us!

Don't drive traffic to your website unless you intend to do something with it!

2010-08-12T13:30:00.003-05:00

We all have heard about the definition of insanity. Let me throw a new one out there. It is spending time time writing blog, designing a website, participating in discussion forum and not focusing on lead generation or lead conversion.

I am amazed by how little focus is spent on these two critical aspects of online marketing strategies! It is like going to play football without a playbook! You need to first design your calls to action in your website, you need to observe performance and measure results. Then you need to change, refine and improve that very process on a continuous basis. It should be at a minimum a weekly task.

Think about a retail store (your website is a like retail space!), and that store owner creates creative adds, enticing offers and has a beautiful design inside. The customers are wowed but once they have been in the store they realize that the staff is not up to par, not responsive or they simply don't greet you a way that is engaging. The likely outcome is that you leave without buying anything. Everything has worked, until it matters most! This could be equated to not picking up your phones or not responding to leads timely. It could also be responding to leads with a very generic, "canned" form.

So let's take a moment and look at our playbook, let's focus on the plays when we are within 10 yards of a touchdown (a touchdown here is getting a lead engaged in conversation). The 90 yards already traveled mean absolutely nothing unless you have a way to convert!

This post was written by Frédéric Guitton of activSalesAgent. Frédéric moved from France in 1996 and joined activSalesAgent in 2009 to introduce a live chat solution for the real estate industries. Frédéric's expertise is in Internet engagement processes, Web analytics and customer follow-ups.

Online tracking technology can give you lots of data, how can you leverage it?

2010-06-15T14:24:00.006-05:00

We all understand the value of tracking our online traffic and its behavior. There are many great tools out there to gather that information. From Google analytics to Omniture and many more! Unfortunately I often come accross organizations that have the systems in place and the data available but do very little with it. The "corporate team" gets to see it and take some actions based on that information but it is quite limited. I will say that many certainly have teams dedicated to managing that effort but most don't.

If you look at a concrete example of how this data could be used it is not complicated. Each of your community probably has its own website (maybe within a main corporate domain). Each of these websites is an extension of your leasing centers. Wouldn't it make sense to share what is happening inside these spaces with the interested parties? Give your regional managers or property managers a simple way to access information about what is happening inside their online retail space? I for one would like to know if their are many people coming into my online space to learn more about my community or the communities in my area. With such information you would be able to engage your teams in giving you ideas and feed back about ways to best capitalize on the traffic. As they see the value and the exposure they get they will also help you drive more traffic to their online retail space. It is about leveraging your teams to help you increase your online performance.

So how is that done?
It is actually quite simple. You need to set up separate tracking for each site or speak with your service partners to create a limited access to that information based on their responsibility levels. I certainly would not grant access to the global data to a large group of people but keep it in direct relationship with what they are responsible for.

Everybody understands how valuable the internet is, unfortunately there are many inefficiencies in how/ where we spend money to drive traffic to our sites. As local managers are responsible for their expenses they will become partners in evaluating the quality of the traffic and its true value to their business. At the end of the day it has to be about gaining more leases, higher price per square foot and increasing customer satisfaction. So take a moment to evaluate how you can get your local teams engaged into a conversation about their online retail spaces.

Senior Housing: Is iPad the Right Web & Email Solution for 55+?

2010-06-14T09:53:00.000-05:00

The iPad is everywhere … everywhere you turn, newspaper, television and websites and the official announcement of iPhone 4 took place last week as well. Spending a lot of time in airports and seeing the recent increase in road warriors toting the iPad for personal use, I’ve been searching for a senior user that is carrying one on an airplane.

On my recent flight to Phoenix I sat next to Mary, a 74 year old widower that lives between Phoenix and the Chicago suburbs, who had recently purchased an iPad and was using it on the flight. I struck up a conversation with her for about 30 minutes about her purchasing decision regarding the device. Some of the highlights from our conversation were:

* She wanted something to travel with that had email, web, books, movies, etc. in one place
* She had an old PC at home but had not used it much because it was old and slow. She would use her PC maybe once a week and uses her iPad everyday now to research her interests
* When asked if she would buy an iPhone, she said that her Motorola RAZR worked just fine. There was no feature that she needed to have “upgraded” with a new phone.
* She said she didn’t want a netbook because she was not good at typing
* When asked about writing letters, spreadsheets, etc., she said she didn’t know what Microsoft Office was … she prefers to handwrite letters and notes.
* She wanted to buy an iPad when it first came out but bought the 3G version as it was recommended by the guys at the Apple store Genius Bar based upon how she was going to use the device.

When asked about common complaints such as lack of USB ports and printing, she said she didn’t own a digital camera and that her grandchildren and kids emailed her pictures. She did say that she wished she could print out her boarding pass for Southwest though.

Mary’s profile is simple and I would hardly classify her as ‘techie’ nor your typical early adopter but for someone shopping for a simple solution that met her needs at a price point she was comfortable with.

Will seniors migrate to the iPad? Over time I believe that the price point and the fact that the device is truly a personal computing device rather than a laptop (business), more seniors will migrate to the iPad versus purchasing a netbook. Look for a rumored price drop around Christmas to spur the iPad as great gift from kids or grand kids or as an upgrade like the profile of Mary above. Is this the silver bullet for silver tech? No, but the elegance of its design and its price point make it a compelling device for the 55+ crowd when compared to other computing options in the market today.

What do you think? What are the opportunities for senior housing to leverage the iPad? Let us know what you think in the comments.

This is a guest post by George Patton that was originally published on Senior Housing News. George is the Publisher & Editor of SHN.

Successful Online Marketing has Only Three Possible Outcomes: The Three Musketeers.

2010-05-31T20:51:00.009-05:00

Successful marketing means one thing and one thing only, the consumer was compelled to take action. That will happen in one of three ways, in person, via phone or via the Internet.

What happens after an anonymous web shopper has found information compelling enough to justify connecting or simply a great call to action. Let’s look at the 3 different possible paths and explore how this could play out… The possible outcomes are exactly the same as with any other marketing strategy; in person, via phone or via the internet. (Athos, Porthos and Aramis… Uhm… Where is d’Artagnan?)

1/ (Athos) In person: Getting a prospect to visit you is always best. Once you welcome a visitor nothing else should take precedent, make sure they know how important they are but be strategic. Ask for a few minutes to verify that you have everything ready (refreshments, paperwork, keys to visit units), place your cell on vibrate. Notify others that you are busy and handle any possible conflict in advance. First impressions are everything, if your first contact is in person; make sure they see that you are in control.

2/ (Porthos) Via phone: Knowing how to handle a phone call is a skill set that is often overlooked or downplayed. I received a great advice about how to handle a call-in. Once a call is identified as being a prospect place them on hold. Do it very well by simply saying this; “Your call is very important and I want to give you my full attention, could hold for one minute, I just have a quick task to complete.” Use that minute (no more than one minute, 30s is best) to pull out your prepared lead form and focus. Remember that you cannot sign a lease over the phone, so what you are selling is the value of a visit or a follow up conversation. The best outcome is to set a face to face conversation or getting the prospect to complete an application.

3/ (Aramis) Via the Internet: Reaching out online (email or registration screen) is often perceived as a low level of commitment but it is as high as any other. Note that when I say this I exclude leads with inaccurate information because these are not leads. Here is why an online prospect is a high level of commitment; a consumer shares his/her personal contact information with you without having met or spoken with you. It is certainly one of the most convenient ways to reach out and it needs to be treated with the same level of importance than any other lead source. Make the communication very personal. You should try to call if the information permits. With the internet speed is everything, so make sure you can be as real time as possible. The biggest challenge of the internet is that leads are often handled via e-mail and you are now working with one of the slowest communication tool out there. Yes the e-mails travel fast but you are dependent upon mailboxes being opened. Whenever you can, try to shift the exchange from e-mail to a phone conversation or a visit in person.

I speak in this title about The Three Musketeers without the main character thus far; d’Artagnan. Here is how d’Artagnan enters our storyline. While the internet has grown incredibly in its ability to reach more people and do it faster it is still lacking the human factor. Remember this: websites don’t sell anything, people do. Making the most compelling argument to connect in person with anonymous web shoppers has to be a center point of your marketing efforts. Here is a though, explore how you could introduce people inside your site. Enable real-time conversations and open a fourth dimension in ways for consumers to connect. Offer a simple invitation to assist an anonymous web browser. Take them out of the internet dimension and move them into conversation. This way you will be able to gain more control over the outcome by managing a live exchange rather than letting the consumer draw its own conclusions in a matter of seconds. Live chat technology enables you to do all this very well and will help you take your website to next level. Are you prepared? Why do I ask? Because your consumers are, here are some stats about Facebook chat from February 2009 (that is 15 months ago or over 225M Facebook users ago!)

300+ million chat messages are sent per day
4+ million active channels at peak
67% of users have chatted at least once (so about 117 million people)

Your Internet marketing strategies are designed around creating more opportunities to gain clients, one of the most logical ways to that is to offer web shoppers as many ways as possible to connect with you and get into a conversation.

This post was written by Frédéric Guitton of activSalesAgent. Frédéric moved from France in 1996 and joined activSalesAgent in 2009 to introduce a live chat solution for the real estate industries. Frédéric's expertise is in Internet engagement processes, Web analytics and customer follow-ups.

There is Nothing Virtual About Your Web Presence

2010-05-26T09:05:00.002-05:00

Decisions are being made by your Web shoppers.

Here is a quote from Wikipedia about what virtual means; “The term has been defined in philosophy as "that which is not real" but may display the salient qualities of the real.” When I think virtual I think no consequence, just an experience. When I hear someone describe the internet as a virtual space I can’t help but cringe. Do you actually believe this has not consequence?

Your web presence is very real and has real consequences, good and bad. The Internet is often compared by many as a brochure-like space. I look at websites everyday that are nice looking and have neat graphics. The questions I ask myself when looking at a site are simply these; “Is what we think the consumer wants, or is that what the consumer wants and the site answers a need”, and “What’s the call to action?” These questions require digging into data, looking at the web shoppers’ behavior. Explore click paths and see where to they go inside the site you have designed. Understanding your web traffic will help you make your site more relevant.

Anonymous web shoppers will decide whether you make their “list” by their online experience. It is important to take a step back and look at your site through the consumer’s eyes. Too many sites have way too much information and no logical way for a consumer to only get the information relevant to them. If a web shopper cannot get to what they want to know quickly they will go somewhere else to find it.

Too many customers go online to start their search for you to not take these matters very seriously. Whether it is what your blog says or says about you, how convenient your web-site is or how good the video/ pictures displayed in ILS platforms are. All these factors will drive a choice, the consumer’s choice to take action and reach out to you or not. That choice is made in a matter of seconds and because web shoppers can remain anonymous you will probably never find out you missed an opportunity.

A website has to be about the consumer and their expectations versus what we think they should know. It is a matter of weaving a site in such a way that their visit provides them with what they want and insert information that we feel is important for them to know. Acquiring knowledge about what consumers do once they are inside your site is a key factor in learning enough about what they go to look at.

Leveraging that knowledge to make that information readily available will enhance your web shoppers’ experience and help yield more out of your web traffic. Your website is an extension of your sales centers; you have a great opportunity to connect with more prospective residents online by simply making it easy for them. There is nothing virtual about that opportunity, yes it will mean investing into strong analytics, spending time reviewing them and making changes to your site. Try different things then find the optimal solution. Once you get that done then get ready to start all over again, consumers change and your web presence has to follow suit. Internet years are like dog years, they go 7 to 10 times faster .If you are serious about leveraging the internet to increase your marketing reach then the first step is to become aware about how real that space is and then know that you will have to continuously make changes.

It is worth making the effort to make you Internet presence effective because it works! Your next clients have probably seen something about your community online before they decide to make their first visit. Do you want to increase the odd in your favor? Then keep these three simple facts in mind:

1. Your website is not about you, it is about your consumers’ needs.
2. Track your web traffic in depth and modify your site according to the goals you have defined.
3. Be ready to change parts of your site on an ongoing basis, create long term partnerships with your service providers and question the efficiency of your Web marketing strategy regularly.

This is a guest post by Frédéric Guitton of activSalesAgent. Frédéric moved from France in 1996 and joined activSalesAgent in 2009 to introduce a live chat solution for the real estate industries. Frédéric's expertise is in Internet engagement processes, Web analytics and customer follow-ups.

Value Engineering: A Bit of a Rant

2010-05-12T08:00:00.004-05:00

By Tom Stender -- VP & CTO of InfiniSys Electronic Architects

This post is a bit of a rant, but I feel there is a valuable lesson to be learned here for all multifamily property owners, builders and developers.

My company was recently asked by a customer to look at adding a new telecommunications system in his building. Since we (InfiniSys) provided the original low voltage design for the building when it opened, I felt confident that the existing design of the communications rooms and the spare fiber strands we had designed for the backbone would make the new system simpler and less expensive to install -- there would be very little new cabling required.

Until we walked the site.

An actual site walk-through discovered that the low voltage contractor had installed less than half of the fiber strands we had specified, most of which were already in use by the satellite company (a PCO) providing TV and Internet service to the residents. Needless to say, if the original specifications had been followed, the owner would now not have to pay for more fiber to be installed, no doubt at a greater cost than it would have been if were done when the building was being roughed in.

Many times this is the result of owner’s value engineering (VE) to cut cost. The need to cut costs is completely understandable. However, if you are paying a professional design firm to recommend and design the most appropriate networks for your building, you might want to ask about any potential ramifications before you decide not to install something to save money. That way you know why it was designed that way and can make an informed decision about making changes.

Here's another scenario: I’ve seen the low voltage contractor will often value engineer his bid to get it at the cost level the general contractor wants. Invariably, this never makes it to the proper people to discuss when the bid is submitted, unless the telecommunications providers and/or low voltage designer are part of that loop to point out the deficiencies.

With construction costs where they are, value engineering a design is quite common to get costs to fit the budget. However, any VE should be done in a way that causes the least impact on the functionality available to the property owner and residents, not to mention leaving room for future growth as technology evolves at an ever-increasing pace. There are many ways to bring costs down with minimal repercussions ... this conversation should always include the designer. Isn't that why you hired them in the first place?

Have you run into challenges because of a design that was value engineered? What have you done to address construction costs while still maintaining services that meet your residents expectations?

2010 Broadband Properties Summit Recap

2010-05-06T14:40:00.000-05:00

This is a guest post by Tom Stender -- VP & CTO of InfiniSys Electronic Architects -- that was originally posted on the InfiniSys site.

The 2010 Broadband Properties Summit was held April 26th through the 28th in Addison, Texas. While I am not sure if the actual numbers are in, attendance appeared to be up over last year.

As in previous years, the sessions were divided into different tracks so an attendee could get the most out of what really interested them. There was the FTTH Track, the Multifamily Track, the Editors Choice Track, and a special one day Broadband for Rural Prosperity forum that was sponsored by the Rural Telecommunications Congress.

My main interest was the Multifamily Track; however, the tracks were laid out in such a way as to allow several sessions and keynotes covering FTTH and Rural Broadband to be attended as well. All of which provided a wealth of information.

The Multifamily Track contained a good cross section of representatives from various telecom service providers, property owners, low voltage contractors and other industry consultants. Each provided their own insight and expertise on the wide array of panels which ranged in topic from the Future of Multifamily Design to Resident Choice, Due Diligence, Bulk Services, and others. The subject of resident choice and multiple providers came up frequently, even on panels where it wasn’t the main subject. It is obvious that this is a very important subject to owners and providers at this point. In my opinion, this track was a great educational resource for those that were new to the Summit as well as for the folks that attend regularly, as the magazine staff planned well in their selection of subjects for the track sessions.

The Exhibit Hall held a wide array of folks ranging from the major service providers to equipment manufacturers and was open multiple times each day for attendees to peruse. There were many products and services being displayed, but a few things that caught my eye were the release of the new SWM32 module for DirecTV MFH-2 delivery (supports up to 32 apartments in a single wall mountable package) and the Foxcom repackaged BsmarTV equipment (a simple kit utilizing a single fiber and compact, easy-to-mount electronics).

As always, Broadband Properties, with the help of their major event sponsors provided for plenty of great networking opportunities.

All in all, I found it to be a great educational event, and my hat goes off to Scott Degarmo, Steve Ross and the rest of the organizers and volunteers for their efforts to help put this together. The only thing that would make it better would be to have more property owners and managers to receive the education that is available at an event like this.

What are your biggest technology questions? What topics would you most like to see covered at events like this? Let us know!

Demo: VaultWare's Leasing Tablet

2010-05-02T13:30:00.008-05:00

I just returned from the Apartment Internet Marketing Conference, where there were many extremely informative sessions about the latest trends in digital marketing for apartment companies. (This year's trends to watch: social, mobile and local.) I'd definitely encourage you to watch for the slides or go back through the Twitter stream (search #AIMConf).

To kick off the event, one of the founding sponsors, VaultWare, showed off their new mobile websites that incorporate their real-time availability service.

They also demoed a full leasing application for the iPad, which includes everything from current availability and a prospect guestcard to the latest YouTube videos and Yelp reviews of the community. Realty DataTrust's CEO, Mike Mueller took the time to walk me through all the features of the product. Here's my full interview with Mike:

Link to the full video on YouTube: VaultWare's Leasing Tablet.

What do think? Is this something you'd like to use at your property?

2010 Verizon Executive Summit Wrap-Up

2010-04-11T20:22:00.009-05:00

This is a guest post by Tom Stender -- VP & CTO of InfiniSys Electronic Architects -- that was originally posted on the InfiniSys site.

As in previous years, InfiniSys was invited to attend the Verizon Executive Summit, held this year at the Gaylord National Resort Hotel and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. It was a three-day event filled with speakers from Verizon’s sales, marketing, and engineering teams, as well as a host of their partners.

As always, Verizon took very good care of their guests -– the events included a golf outing and a trip to the National Geographic Museum to go along with the daily sessions. The event staff did an excellent job.

Vendor Updates and Bulk Pricing
During the Summit, guests were invited to the FiOS product demonstration area, where a live FiOS video setup was in place as well as displays by Suttle, Motorola, Alcatel-Lucent, 3M, and others.

Suttle was showing their new mounting plates for both Motorola and Alcatel small form-factor SFU ONT (the in-unit ONT) and the battery backup unit (BBU) for installation in their enclosure can -– this is great news, as it’s a huge space saver that will eliminate the need for the second S-One cabinet that was previously required in the unit in some installations.

3M was on hand with a demo of their “One Pass Fiber Pathway,” which is a low profile cable pathway designed for brownfield use -– it adheres directly to the wall and comes preloaded with 6 or 12 fibers. It’s a very interesting product, indeed.

Verizon execs spent a good deal of time touting their new MDU bulk pricing model (which has been on many folks’ wish list for a long time). However, it’s obvious that they still have a few hurdles to overcome and kinks to work out to fit all of the bulk scenarios that are required. As it sits, the product may be a good fit for some apartment companies, but it’s not ready for prime time for the student housing market. Verizon still has some work to do if they want to compete with the cable operators and satellite resellers in that vertical.

Verizon Concierge
One item that particularly interested me was Verizon Concierge. This free property management software service is developed and supported by Simplikate and is being offered to properties that currently have, or will soon have, FiOS services. This offering organizes all of a property’s common amenities under one interface to handle deliveries, visitor management, scheduling of property resources, etc. It also allows the building’s residents to contact each other as well as the staff. The service is being marketed as a property management system that can become, replace or work in tandem with existing backend systems -– however, it’s unclear how the system will work with common property management software platforms such as RealPage and Yardi.

Currently, the service is accessible using a web browser or as a mobile app for smart phones, but access through FiOS TV is in the works. It will also be available for use by non-Verizon customers at properties that elect to use the service. Verizon Concierge can track items for management as well, like maintenance work orders, plus it has the ability to place simultaneous voice calls to residents in the event of an emergency. All in all, it looks like there will be some real value in this free service for both management and residents and bears a closer look.

As more details about all of these items become available from Verizon, we'll be sure to keep you posted.

Rental Beast: A Better Way to Search for an Apartment?

2010-02-28T15:11:00.019-05:00

Apartment hunting can be a painful process. Just check the Twitter stream and you'll see plenty of tweets like this:

(And as popular as it has become, Craigslist is what it is.)

There are a LOT of websites that are trying different models to improve the online apartment hunting experience. The major Internet Listing Sites continue to innovate, while new competitors like Cazoodle are trying to aggregate all apartment listings in one place to create a one-stop shop of sorts. (Cazoodle's tagline: "One Search, All Apartments, Entire Web!")

But according to one new player in the industry, the "show me everything you got" approach just creates more noise and frustration for serious apartment shoppers.

I had a chance to speak with the Ishay Grinberg, President of Rental Beast, a site that is trying to make apartment hunting easier, particularly for renters in large metro areas where brokers and apartment locators are commonplace.

Here's the pitch that Rental Beast makes to apartment hunters on its site:

Never pay a broker fee

Search validated listings

Get direct contact to owners and management companies

Ishay wants RentalBeast to become the "ultimate rental database," comparing it to an MLS for single-family homes. He didn't provide details about how the property information on the site is sourced, but Ishay is confident that his site's differentiator is the quality of its content. He believes that "content is king" -- he is focused on taking care of his users first, and he thinks those users will gladly pay for better listings. To access the site as an apartment shopper, it'll cost you ... plans start at $29.

To get the word out and build their userbase, Ishay's team has spent a lot of time networking with off-campus housing, corporate HR offices and other similar resources, sharing their story with anyone who will listen.

Rental Beast verifies the listings on their site -- it's free for apartment marketers to list their available units. (Marketers can post their apartments here, even if your property is outside the Boston area.)

Because the site doesn't rely on apartment operators as their primary source of income, I asked if they would be open to posting property reviews on their listings. Ishay said they're certainly open to the idea, but it's not a feature they're actively working on.

The site launched in March 2009 and is already profitable, even though it's only available in the Boston area for now. Ishay believes he has a strong model that will work well in other key "24-hour markets" such as New York City, San Francisco and Los Angeles. (All are strong markets for brokers and third-party locator services.) As an example, Ishay claimed that one REIT told him that 65% of their leases in one market come from brokers. This contact-the-owner-directly could be quite appealing to apartment shoppers and property owners who typically deal with a go-between.

Ishay sees other opportunities for the database of properties that he is accumulating, and he claims to have other interesting strategic partnerships in the works (although we didn't get into details about any of these partnerships). In general, Ishay is very open to new ideas and partnership opportunities. His primary message: "Renters should stop going to Craigslist, and come to Rental Beast instead."

What do you think? Are you listing properties on Rental Beast? If you're in a market where brokers are common, do you think apartment shoppers will use the site? What about smaller markets? Let me know what you think!

#AptChat Discusses Revenue Management

2010-02-18T10:58:00.014-05:00

Last Friday, the discussion on the weekly #AptChat focused on the use of revenue management (RM) solutions, which are software programs to efficiently determine rental pricing, while taking the emotion (and potential for overcompensation) out of the process. We're reposting the recap of that conversation here for our readers ... enjoy.

With representation from both Rainmaker (LRO) and RealPage (YieldStar) throughout the discussion and apartment operators on both sides of the fence, this turned out to be a very interesting, enlightening discussion.

First, it's important to understand what a revenue management system is and why apartment operators might want to use one. Here's how you defined revenue management software:

Gary Katz: "For those unfamiliar with RM systems, they price apartments kind of like hotels price their rooms. Prices can change daily."

Keith Dunkin: "RM systems provide the optimal blend of internal fundamentals and external data. Protects from over reacting to comps."

Keith Dunkin: "Improved Revenue Performance, Increased Visibility, Pricing Efficiency, reduced carry costs."

Steve Matre: "Classic yield mgmt, matches price to demand based on lease exp's and historic traffic, system sets price."

Gary Katz: "The idea is too not price apts too low and leave $ on the table and not price them too high and leave them vacant."

We gave both Rainmaker and RealPage the opportunity to describe how they derive their pricing. Here's Rainmaker's response: "LRO optimizes rents based on supply & demand (traffic, leasing, availability, etc). Market response is measured & prices adjust." Bruce Barfield also added that "LRO uses electronic web scraping technology to get dynamic prices."
Janine Jovanovic answered for RealPage: "YS gets factual leasing data daily from 15k+ properties across the US + 5m MPF units + any data entered on site."

On to the recap!

Are you using revenue management software for your business? If yes, why? If no, why not?

Jennifer Kennedy: "No....not sure that there is enough ROI."

Donald Davidoff: "Been using it for 9 years with multiple tests that prove the ROI."

Heather Blume: "I've worked with the software before, and talked to many clients who use it. Some love it, some don't."

Keith Dunkin: "To echo Donald at Archstone, Rev Mgmt has been in place for years with proven revenue premiums to market in 2-5%, compelling ROI."

Heather Blume: "What mgrs have said to me is that they lose the push/pull ability and it's difficult to stay competitive sometimes."

Mark Juleen: "Nearly 2 years now with Yieldstar."

Janine Jovanovic: "Managers and leasing staff have told us that they love it because it empowers them to sell more."

Keith Dunkin: "On the ROI comment RM systems have been measured consistently in up and down market and both solutions have proven out."

Trachelle Spencer: "We have been actively using LRO for over 6 years and would not go back to a manual process."

How long does an RM system take to 'pay for itself'?

Rainmaker Group: "LRO typically pays for itself in a matter of months."

How many units before companies feel they need a "pricing guru" to over see the system? (Asked by Steve Matre)

James Flick: "I would suggest 50+ properties for a dedicated individual in YS. Otherwise, use the consulting services w/ RealPage."

Janine Jovanovic: "You can outsource pricing oversight to us. Makes sense to have your own internal resource at 10,000+ units."

Trachelle Spencer: "We have 44 communities currently on LRO; there are two of us managing them. Doesn't include Lease Ups."

James Flick: "It is probably more cost effective to outsource to an experienced consultant at Realpage vs. a full time person in house."

Chris Long: "We have 150 properties and 3 dedicated resources."

Trachelle Spencer: "It is important to have pricing professionals and not have the system run independently."

How tough is it to renew someone when their rent can, in effect, go down one day after they sign their renewal?

Donald Davidoff: "Rents can go down in one day on manual systems."

Janine Jovanovic: "This is a function of market conditions not RM - happens with or without RM in place."

Leigh Curry: "What about the person who finsw out their airplane fare has decreased by $100 or hotel room by $50...fact of life."

Mark Juleen: "We have struggled the most with making renewals as fair as possible."

Trachelle Spencer: "We have processes in place to review renewals if necessary."

Along the way, there were a lot of great comments about implementation and the use of revenue management systems in general. Here are a few of the highlights:

Mark Juleen: "We played with it for the first year trying to override too much. We just let it run now."

Mark Juleen: "No more 'concessions' or 'specials' rents, just adjust both renewal and new."

Mark Juleen: "In 2009 our Rev. was up 2% in Indy while most competition has reported they are down 2%."

Lisa Trosien: "You have to know/learn how to 'sell' it to the prospect. It really does simplify the process."

Janine Jovanovic: "Prospects can do math. They like the "check writing" price. You can say "concession" is built into the price."

Trachelle Spencer: "Our communities do weekly competitive surveys. We are finding more accurate pricing online."

Trachelle Spencer: "We have classes offered by our Training Dept. Site Visits, 1 on 1's, conference calls, webinars, etc."

James Flick: "Have we aligned incentives and compensation for managers and leasing associates to get them to embrace rev mgmt?"

Lisa Trosien: "RM is great: it's fair; it increases the bottom line; it creates urgency. It removes the 'fudge factor'. I'm a big fan."

One advocate for revenue management, Mark Juleen, laid out in detail why he likes using the program over manual pricing. Here's what he said:

"MPF does market surveys for us & plugs that data into the system (at least with Yieldstar). No need for bs market surveys."

"I can review pricing and approve changes in about 20 min. for our 12 properties."

"You set a sustainable occupancy and if your team performs average you will usually sustain that."

"If your occupancy dips below the sustainable, then you probably have a people problem."

"If you outperform your sustainable then prices go up and you know your team rocks."

Even though Mark is a fan of the system, he still thinks there's room for improvement (and others seemed to agree). For more comments on this, and for the rest of the discussion, check out the full transcript.

What do you think? Are you using a revenue management system to set pricing? If so, what has been your experience so far? What can RM systems do to improve their models? Are you evaluating your options? Let us know what you think in the comments!

(#AptChat is free and open to anyone ... I encourage you to check it out!)

Tech Talks: Negotiating Better Telecom Agreements

2010-02-16T15:13:00.012-05:00

As technology seems to be evolving faster than ever, it's been exciting to watch the Multifamily Technology community start to pick up steam. Requests to join our LinkedIn group have been steady; we are welcoming new members almost every day.

As our group expands, we also want to expand the ways we are providing value to you. We recently announced to the LinkedIn group that we'll be starting a series of Multifamily Tech Talks; the series kicks off tomorrow (Wednesday, February 17th) at 2 PM Eastern with Richard Holtz from InfiniSys Electronic Architects. The topic? Negotiating Better Telecom Agreements. Whether you're negotiating (or renegotiating) deals with the local cable company, evaluating FiOS or U-verse, or trying to determine how to make multiple providers work at your property, this is a call you won't want to miss.

There's still time to register, and you can submit questions any time prior to the event. All the information about Wednesday's call can be found here. Blog readers can use the code mt360 to get 25% off the regular rate, and paid attendees will also get access to a recording of the call following the event.

I hope you can join us on the call, and I hope you find value in the Tech Talk series as we move forward. Future topics include Onsite Technology Audits, Technology Trends for Multifamily, Technology for Senior Living, Tech Students Expect and more. If you have any questions or suggestions, please don't hesitate to contact me anytime.

(And if telecom isn't your thing, please let us know. As you can see from the subgroups we've established on LinkedIn, we're striving to provide a professional forum for everything from property management & operations software, to green technologies, to online & mobile marketing, to IT and network infrastructure. We're putting together topics for future sessions, and we'd love to cover the issues that matter most to you.)

Walkability Comes to MyNewPlace

2010-01-17T21:17:00.027-05:00

MyNewPlace and Walk Score Team Up to Promote Walkable Apartments

"Location, location, location" has long been the cornerstone of the real estate industry. (The top apartment search sites – as selected by the tech-savvy readers of Lifehacker – all incorporate map-based search into their interfaces.) Now, MyNewPlace (MNP) is taking the notion of prime location to the next level by working with Walk Score to deliver more information to apartment hunters using their site. (MNP is no stranger to working with third-party sites to add interactive features to their listings.)

According to MNP, they are now the first major apartment search site to incorporate the Walk Score walkability ratings on every listing. Users will be able to sort apartment listings by their Walk Score, which should provide the prospect with a better snapshot of the surrounding neighborhood. One can presume that better informed prospects typically make for more qualified leads for apartment marketers. (More on this in a bit...)

In case you're not familiar with Walk Score, it's a website that rates a property’s walkability by analyzing the address to determine what sort of amenities are within walking distance. The higher the walk score, the more "walkable" a location should be. Walkability can be attractive to prospects looking for a neighborhood with easy access to all the conveniences of daily life – grocery stores, restaurants, schools, public transportation, etc. Here's one look at how the Walk Score ratings are integrated into MNP listings:

Why Add WalkScore?
MyNewPlace believes that the addition of Walk Score to their listings reflects renters’ emphasis on neighborhood information when choosing an apartment. One of MNP's recent surveys found that 79% of renters said that local information was an important factor in selecting what apartment to pick. With Walk Score built into MyNewPlace listings, renters are now able to get a true feel for the neighborhood and determine if it will be a good fit for their lifestyle. (What else are you doing to promote your property's neighborhood?)

Apartment marketers may think they have the best location – good neighborhood, great local attractions – but this feature will allow prospects to see that for themselves. By including walkability scores in their apartment searches, MNP believes they'll be able to deliver owners a distinctive competitive advantage.

The integration appears to be part of a two-way partnership. While Walk Score offers their own embeddable "real estate tiles," MyNewPlace is also powering an embeddable Walk Score Walkable Apartments widget – you can grab it here. MyNewPlace is also sharing data with Walk Score, showing how many apartments are available in the metro area searched by the user:

For more information, check out the announcement on the MyNewPlace blog.

My take: It's not an earth-shattering announcement, but it's encouraging to see that MyNewPlace continues to add new features to their listings. 'Renters by choice' are looking for convenience, and the Walk Score data could be an interesting way to deliver that information without the prospect leaving the site. I'm curious to know if apartment marketers with suburban properties can turn the feature off if they're concerned about their score, and I look forward to hearing from MNP down the road about how features like these influence the effectiveness of their advertisers' listings.

What do you think? Will apartment hunters use this new feature? And if they do, how big of a factor is walkability in the apartment selection process? Is there any downside to this partnership?

Does ApartmentGrade Make the Grade?

2010-01-04T22:24:00.017-05:00

Last month, a new website called ApartmentGrade.com lauched with a big announcement on Multifamily Insiders. According to the site:

ApartmentGrade is a new site dedicated to providing renters with high quality unbiased reviews of apartments. We conduct independent research to find out who does the best job; from the leasing agent to maintenance requests we help you find the right apartment.

Leigh Curry and Lucas Haldeman are behind the site, and I had a chance to talk with them about it shortly after the announcement was made -- here are my notes from that conversation:

First, it's important to understand what ApartmentGrade is trying to do, as well as what it's not trying to do. AptGrade isn't competing as an alternative to Apartment Ratings or Yelp -- visitors can't go to the site to post a review of any given community. Instead, AptGrade is trying to become something of a "Good Housekeeping" seal of approval for apartment communities.

Rather than relying on comments from current or past residents, the ApartmentGrade team conducts a simple seven-question survey to judge how the property is doing. (They are currently working with at least two large multifamily operators.) They can conduct the survey for you, or you can add their questions into your existing survey program. Once the surveys are collected and validated, AptGrade lets the property owner choose which grades they would like to have featured on the site. There's no way to tell when the last survey was conducted at a property, but Leigh promises me that they'll soon have the survey dates posted.

Once the owner has selected the properties they want to feature, AptGrade sets up a profile page for the property. Any requests for more information are directed to the owner's ILS of choice. AptGrade makes money by referring these leads to the ILSs. It's unclear whether an owner could elect to send the traffic to their own website rather than an ILS, but I would have to imagine this shouldn't be too difficult to do.

ApartmentGrade will provide property marketers with special "badges" to indicate their high grades on their websites and ILS listings. To encourage marketers to post as many of the properties in their portfolio as possible, AptGrade will also provide badges for those companies that post a very high percentage of their properties' grades to the site. (I'm not sure this is enough incentive, but at least they realize the potential issue and are trying to address it.)

There is no way for readers to leave comments on individual properties at this point, although Leigh acknowledges that this is something that they made add later. As an alternative to comments directly posted to the site, they may also choose to include existing comment feeds from social media sites related to the property.

They plan to drive traffic to the site by focusing on search engine optimization and through several partnerships with apartment listing sites (ILSs).

So what do you think? Would you use ApartmentGrade? Do you think prospective renters will use it? I'd love to get your comments on this one. And if you can, check out the FIVE pages of comments on the entire subject of apartment ratings and reviews on the MFI discussion board.

Here's the full text of the announcement posted to Multifamily Insiders:

Finally there is a solution for owners and managers that are fed up with sites like ApartmentRatings.com and ApartmentReviews.net!

Announcing ApartmentGrade.com -- http://www.apartmentgrade.com -- the first web site dedicated solely to providing prospective renters with professional, credible, objective, and accurate reviews of apartment communities based on the current resident’s feedback. When prospective residents view a multifamily community at ApartmentGrade.com, they will see a review based on expert, professional, unbiased ratings of the existing residents of the community.

Who better to rate your community than your current residents?

ApartmentGrade.com:
-- Provides high quality, unbiased data from current residents to prospective residents
-- Promotes the positive aspects of apartment living
-- Highlights outstanding apartment owners and managers
-- Works with the multifamily industry, not against like other rating sites

How Does ApartmentGrade.com Work?
Using a proprietary scoring model, ApartmentGrade.com works with owners and managers that provide "internal" resident surveys or work with resident survey companies including CEL Associates, Satisfacts, J Turner Research, Kingsley, etc. We take that survey data to provide an unbiased and definitive "grade" of each apartment community based on the ratings of that community's residents.

This rating service is also free. That's right -- absolutely free. ApartmentGrade.com will also post your grade to its web site for no charge. On top of it, if the owner or manager of the community is uncomfortable with the grade assigned to your property, then we will re-rate that property for free if desired. Also ApartmentGrade.com will only post those communities that the owner or manager has authorized to be posted. You don't like your rating, we don't post it!

What do prospective residents see?
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, phone #, rent ranges, and bed and bathroom options. However to get more information on the property, if a user clicks on "Check Rates", "View Photos", "Get Driving Directions" or the photo of the community, the prospective resident is directed to the owner/manger's ILS of choice

To see some live examples of properties that have currently been rated and are posted live on the web site, please type in the following city searches:

-- Rochester Hills, MI
-- Bloomingdale, IL
-- West Chester, OH
http://www.apartmentgrade.com/search

Why should your multifamily company be involved?
Positive ratings drive engagement and demand. A prospective resident looking at two buildings side by side, similar in many aspects, rent, size, neighborhood, now have a reason to pick your property. A positive rating will not only give you a means to increase closing ratios, it can also help at renewal time.

Why leave an apartment with award winning customer service for some place unknown? ApartmentGrade.com is a partner to the multifamily housing; unlike current rating sites we are not trying to drive traffic through salacious anonymous gripes.

At ApartmentGrade.com our core goals are to provide high quality data while promoting the positive aspects of apartment living; rather than call out under performing properties and managers, we seek to highlight and promote the best operators and the best run properties.

By being a part of ApartmentGrade.com you are gaining a powerful tool -- independent confirmation that you provide a great place to live. We guarantee no other web site offers objective reviews and ratings of apartment communities like ApartmentGrade.com

To learn more:
Please feel free to contact me directly at lcurry@curryconduit.com or 609-882-3868 for more information on how your company's communities can participate immediately for absolutely no cost.

Best regards,

Leigh Curry
lcurry@curryconduit.com

Today in Multifamily Technology: December 30th

2009-12-30T07:50:00.006-05:00

Wireless Offerings Coming from Cable Companies
We can expect cable operators -- not just traditional telcos -- to set the agenda for the wireless industry in 2010. It will be the first year Cox Communications operates its own cellular network and the first time Comcast and Time Warner Cable will provide access to wireless data networks with national reach. The question for multifamily: How does a wireless offer from the cable companies affect existing agreements, and how will this impact the deals that are available to owners from the telcos? From Forbes.com

Top Ten Solar Trends in 2009
This year has largely been a painful one for manufacturers and project developers around the world, though as always, they hope for a better one next year. Among the encouraging developments for the solar-energy industry in 2009 were signs that more localities favor the idea of letting property owners pay for solar-array installations when they pay their property taxes. The article also contends that a market for building-integrated photovoltaics is emerging, as seen in deals announced by Dow Chemical and the roofing maker Johns Manville. From GreenTechMedia

Windows 7, New Smartphones Top 2009's Tech News List
From the transition to digital TV to the Amazon Kindle, here are the top stories of the year in personal technology. From USA Today

Five Tech Trends to Watch
Looking at the custom home electronics market, areas of focus in the near future include 3-D TV, affordable custom (important to note for high-end apartments and middle-market condos), streaming digital media, the retrofit market and tying electronics systems into the smart grid. Look to these trends to get a better picture of your savvier residents' expectations. From CE Pro