With rents trending down, interest rates trending up, and operators needing to become more cost-efficient, strategies that capitalize on technology are a priority to fill vacancies quickly and reduce wasted marketing spend.
Sarah Gencarella, Vice President of Marketing at Olympus Property, and Joe Coleman, COO, Decron Properties, discussed these trends with moderator Mark Ham, VP of Business Development & Branding at G5 by RealPage, during the Apartment Internet Marketing Conference in Huntington Beach, Calif.
Gencarella said she’s seeing more of a spending pivot than a spending reduction in her marketing budget.
Rents are moving a bit downward, Coleman said, but his firm is using that as an effective way of creating goodwill for the apartment industry, something that is much needed, according to Coleman, given its public perception of affordability and of being run by “greedy” landlords.
Both panelists said their companies are seeking ways to create efficiencies, and technology is helping that effort. The option to self-schedule tours has been impactful, Gencarella said.
She said she recently helped her brother on his apartment search and their rule was that if the community didn’t offer that option, they took it off the list. Gencarella said 65% of Olympus Property’s tours were self-scheduled.
Coleman said community branding has really moved forward.
“It shows your customers and your investors that you really took a thoughtful approach,” he said. “You can worry about the expense, but your investors really don’t. They point at it and say it shows you are a ‘professional’ community and that they want to see more of it, not, ‘How much did it cost.’”
Coleman spoke of adjusting to the Gen Z mindset.
“This group isn’t just representing a lot of your new hires, it’s who your residents are,” he said. “You have to give them what they want, or you lose them, especially when it comes to technology.”
Technology for the near future should help operators lease apartments further out. Gencarella said many prospects are looking to rent four months from the time they visit. “It would be great if we had something in place that alerted those residents when their ideal apartment unit at that time became available.”
