Transitioning one property to a nonsmoking policy can be a challenge. But 49 properties? That’s no small feat. NALS Apartment Homes recently undertook this task, using the communication tools in RentCafe to help smooth the process. Keep reading to learn more about NALS’ decision to roll out a nonsmoking policy, the three-phase approached it used and the effect the shift has had on marketing, leasing and retention. Why Transition to a Nonsmoking Portfolio NALS began exploring options to reduce and/or eliminate smoking across its portfolio in 2015. After polling residents and staff, researching local laws and engaging with local chapters of the American Lung Association, it was determined that most properties would adopt a nonsmoking policy. According to the NALS 2017 Annual Report, “While the negative health effects of smoking influenced our decision, we were also motivated to mitigate the increased costs of cleaning a smoking apartment, the increased risk of fire caused by smokers and the disturbance that smoking causes to nonsmoking resident and employees.” Policy Change in Three Parts NALS approached the transition to nonsmoking gradually, to allow time for clear communication and minimize the impact on residents. “RentCafe was a huge help in making our nonsmoking policy a success,” shared Kayla Campbell, marketing leader at NALS. “We used RENTCafé to send out the initial surveys, and then to streamline what was communicated about the policy in our marketing, online applications and email correspondence. We also used the calendar and announcement functions in the resident portals to ensure the transition date was top-of-mind.” Phase 1 (2015): Surveys NALS sent out surveys to gauge interest at the properties, determine primary resident questions/concerns to address and to see which specific buildings were already effectively nonsmoking. Phase 2 (2016):  Notice of Intentions A notice of...

Multifamily marketers gathered in Huntington Beach, California, for the 2018 Apartment Internet Marketing (AIM) Conference on May 6-9. This year’s event focused on the latest digital marketing trends and technologies. “Marketing executives are increasingly called on to shape the resident experience and manage the pace of innovation,” shared Steve Lefkovits, executive producer of AIM. “We’re delighted to have Yardi and RentCafe as partners in educating the industry about the future.” Some conference highlights for multifamily marketers: Customer Experience Matters Customer experience is the new marketing. At the AIM keynote, Charlene Li, principal analyst at Altimeter and co-author of Groundswell, challenged marketers to examine relationships and experiences. “If you’re not focusing on the customer experience, you’re working on the wrong things,” emphasized Li. Why does customer experience matter? Because the data says so! According to resident satisfaction data from J Turner Research, Q1 2018 apartment reviews grew by 78% as compared to Q1 2017. The average number of reviews per property has grown 20% since Q1 2017, averaging more than 86 reviews per property. The study found a strong correlation between online reputation and resident satisfaction. Resident experience matters, and it influences renter and prospect purchasing behavior. In a session on customer engagement and loyalty, Joseph Batdorf, president of J Turner Research, stressed, “Resident satisfaction matters. Making sure they’re happy affects their willingness to renew a lease.” Customer Engagement Also Matters To create a better customer experience, you need to engage your customer from the get-go and keep them engaged throughout their time with you. Where can you innovate your customer engagement strategy? Create a well-rounded engagement strategy. Implementing a multi-source lead attribution model can help marketers more accurately assign value to each touchpoint in the buyer journey. Market to common values to bolster your engagement. Sticking to common...

Yardi has entered an exclusive three-year agreement securing RentCafe as the title sponsor of the Apartment Internet Marketing Conference (AIM). “We are excited to announce our partnership with AIM. We believe this is a great opportunity for us, for AIM and for the attendees because ultimately, we are all laser-focused on innovative digital marketing,” said Esther Bonardi, vice president of marketing at Yardi. A Powerful Partnership AIM is the only industry event focused exclusively on educating multifamily executives on advances in internet marketing, advertising and branding. Executives gain insights into web technology and applications, mobile platforms, lead tracking and in-home technology as well as resident retention and communication techniques. RentCafe, a leading multifamily marketing solution, unites marketing and leasing functionalities in a single, easy-to-use platform. Prospects, residents and staff benefit from its intuitive interface and groundbreaking features. “Marketing executives are increasingly called on to shape the resident experience and manage the pace of innovation. That starts with initial impressions of a community, and flows through to communications, social media, service and amenities,” shared Steve Lefkovits, executive producer of AIM. “We’re delighted to have Yardi and RentCafe as partners in educating the industry about the future.” “RentCafe has seen tremendous growth by adding innovative marketing features for the multifamily industry. Through this partnership, we can support the key foundations of the conference, providing exactly the kind of cutting-edge solutions that attendees have come to expect from AIM,” said Bonardi. What to Expect at AIM This year, keynote speaker Malcolm Frank will explore the topic of marketing automation with “What to Do When Machines Do Everything.” Automation is a key area of opportunity for organizations seeking to achieve greater efficiency and customer engagement. Frank will offer strategic guidance and actionable steps to help AIM attendees and their organizations excel in the...

World Water Day is March 22! This international holiday encourages individuals, businesses, and governments to explore ways to reduce water waste. For your property, water conservation comes with additional benefits. Boost resident loyalty and reduce turnover with these World Water Day tips. Get Acknowledged for Your Efforts You may already have measures in place to cut water usage at your property. If your residents don’t know about them, they can’t appreciate your efforts. Use RentCafe’s easy text or email messaging tools to communicate with residents about the steps in place to reduce water usage around the property. Perhaps you use well water for lawn maintenance and have the irrigation system on a timer with rain delays. Let your residents know! Little details go a long way towards building loyalty. Let Common Spaces Advertise for You There were plenty of ways to conserve water and market your water consciousness to residents and prospects. Promptly fix water leaks, particularly those in public spaces such as pools, community restrooms and property irrigation systems. Residents can see the needless water waste—they will also note your responsiveness to stop it. Use EnergyStar® and WaterSense®-rated appliances in public spaces such as community kitchens, laundry rooms and the leasing office waiting room. Savvy residents—and prospects—will recognize these cost-saving logos and associate your property with efficiency and global consciousness. Automate Savings for Residents  Most residents want to save money on their utility bills. You can build loyalty when you show how your property reduces their utility costs each month. Submetering, for example, cuts costs by 10-26 percent. Residents also like to know that they are paying only for the water and energy that they consume. Use Yardi Utility Billing to gather and related submetering savings to your residents. Go for Major Impact...

Linda Greenwaldt, an IT specialist with CommonBond Communities, has a well-rounded understanding of the affordable housing industry. She has turned units and worked her way up to help manage properties. Her career path has given her a unique perspective to her current role in IT. She asked, “What can we do to make the process more efficient, for prospects, residents, and staff?” Yardi RentCafe for subsidized housing is a robust multifamily marketing and leasing platform. It simplifies marketing, SEO, SEM, online leasing, and resident engagement. Greenwaldt and the CommonBond team saw the potential for RentCafe to simplify operations for prospects, residents, and staff. CommonBond recently implemented RentCafe. The nonprofit organization is rolling out the software to its 11,000 residents at a pace of about five properties every two weeks, beginning with property websites and resident-facing services. “It’s a lot easier in RentCafe,” says Greenwaldt. “We’re to the point now where the websites are awesome.” CommonBond’s new property websites include modern layouts, user-friendly navigation, easy access to floor plans and pricing information. When prospects are ready to make a decision, online leasing is available. “I really like the way it all works in RentCafe. It’s so much easier to manage RentCafe marketing than lots of separate components. I’m not a web designer, but I can throw myself in RentCafe and achieve consistency between sites,” says Greenwaldt. RentCafe goes beyond prospects’ first steps to improve the resident experience. In the RentCafe resident portal, renters can file and track maintenance requests, receive updates on community message boards, and access a variety of ways to pay their rent. “I’m loving the resident experience in RentCafe. Residents have so many options in how to pay,” says Greenwaldt. “Credit card payments, ACH payments, reoccurring payments, Walk In Payments (WIPS). We...

Yardi’s powerful multifamily marketing and leasing platform, RentCafe, achieved double-digit year-over-year gains in 2017. The robust tool has also expanded to five markets. RentCafe helps multifamily professionals attract prospects, convert leads and retain residents via dynamic property websites, advanced SEO and SEM capabilities and convenient resident portals. Continued Growth “RentCafe demonstrated measurable success in 2017, reaching over 4.7 million licensed units,” said Patrick Lawler, director of RentCafe product development at Yardi. “One of the very exciting patterns we saw last year is the increase of online lease execution. The interest in electronic signatures continues to grow and we anticipate this to be widely-adopted in 2018,” added Lawler. RentCafe experienced the following gains: Platform adoption increased 34%, resulting in 4.7 million units Online leasing rose by 54%, creating over 4.2 million leads Online work orders expanded by 45%, generating over 4.8 million work orders eSignature adoption grew by 310%, exceeding 2.2 million eSignatures Online payments grew by 51%, totaling more than $18 billion “Yardi never stops innovating. It always raises the bar,” said Belinda Torres, corporate marketing director at Continental Realty Corporation. She has noted firsthand how RentCafe improves SEO, significantly increasing leads through nudge marketing for the company. Other RentCafe users include industry leaders such as Pinnacle, Continental Realty Corporation, The Bozzuto Group, and Monarch Investment and Management Group. Recent client highlights include a 34 percent lead conversion rate and a 20 percent increase in time spent online as a result of RentCafe. “Our clients’ successes are proof of our ability to respond quickly to industry trends and client demands for new features,” said Lawler. New Markets In addition to the flagship RentCafe product developed for apartment homes, the platform has expanded services into other markets. Users can now implement RentCafe’s powerful features for self-storage, affordable, student, senior and military properties. RentCafe is part of the Yardi...

The new RentCafe Senior Living Resident App makes lets residents and families manage payments, maintenance requests and more on the go! While we are all used to seeing young adults glued to their smart phone screens, increasingly senior citizens are logging on to mobile devices and taking advantage of everything mobile apps have to offer. According to a recent study from the Pew Research Center, since 2013 the number of seniors who own smart phones has nearly doubled to roughly 40% of adults over 65. Smart Phone Freedom Smart phones have a lot to offer older adults, not the least of which is the ease with which they can connect with loved ones. With advent of online banking and one-click purchasing, seniors have begun to adapt to an era of convenience and (almost) instant gratification. In fact, the Pew Research Center found that “for Americans ages 65 and older who own a smartphone, having one in their pocket is a liberating experience.” Communities Go Mobile For senior living communities, the ubiquity of mobile devices amongst residents presents an opportunity to enhance communication and improve comfort and care. In the past, many senior living providers depended on paper forms to handle all manner of resident interactions, from account management to maintenance requests. Going digital has changed that dynamic, and with the advent of mobile apps, communities can now empower residents to take charge. RentCafe App makes it Easy Earlier this year, Yardi unveiled the latest update to its innovative Yardi Senior Living Suite with the introduction of the RentCafe Senior Living Resident app. Offering the convenience of mobile payments and maintenance requests, the RentCafe Senior Living Resident app provides residents and their families with easy, secure access to account information via iOS and Android devices....

A savvy group of marketers joined us for learning, networking and fun at the bi-annual Yardi Marketing Forum (YMF) in Baltimore last week. During the event, attendees explored the latest trends in digital marketing, tips and tricks to optimize outcomes, and real estate technology. As noted by Esther Bonardi, Yardi vice president of marketing, the event is “all about helping you tap into your inner marketing genius.” Here are some of the top digital marketing themes covered: Get in touch with your audience As marketers, we’ve traditionally divvied up our target audiences by demographic information. In today’s noisy digital landscape, we need to meet our customers where they’re at. Speakers Brad Downs, vice president of marketing for the Baltimore Ravens, and Brad Batesole, staff author at LinkedIn, shared strategies to better reach target audiences. Drawing from his fifteen years of experience in sports marketing, Downs stressed the importance of moving from brand first to fan first. “It’s that fan first mentality. Our fans are incredibly important to us. Fans want to feel as important as they are,” he said. By focusing on fans first, opportunities to engage and foster fandom become easier to identify. Downs demonstrated that life stage marketing goes beyond traditional demographic segmentation, resulting in better customer experiences, tailored events and increased engagement. For the Ravens, life stage segmentation resulted in targeted fan development campaigns focused around women and adolescents. This included Purple, a community building initiative to cultivate the female fan base, and RISE, a football outreach program for local children and high schoolers in emerging Ravens strongholds. Life stage segmentation helped draw 130,000 fans to Ravens marketing events,  development of an international audience, and an average attendance of 71,000 people at each home game. At Wednesday’s marketing master class, Batesole...

Submitting an application for affordable housing is a daunting challenge. Tax returns, paycheck stubs and bank statements are just the beginning of what applicants must provide to qualify for a unit. Proof of eligibility for housing assistance is a must since public funds often support rents below market rate. Federal, state and local housing agencies have policies and procedures in place that ensure affordable housing resources only serve qualified residents. In the past, affordable housing providers kept files with thick stacks of paper as proof of each resident’s eligibility status. Providers also keep similar files for denied applicants to document why a household was determined ineligible for housing assistance. Affordable housing providers are taking a modern approach to minimize paperwork and staff hours necessary to qualify residents. With online applications, providers are not only saving administrative costs, but also better documenting their resident files and boosting compliance with fair housing regulations. Rather than handing applicants a stack of forms to fill out, housing specialists can now direct applicants to an online portal to submit everything needed to qualify for a unit. RentCafe Affordable Housing from Yardi makes this possible, and it’s becoming more and more common throughout the industry. Just how big is the RentCafe Affordable Housing trend? More than 100,000 housing applications have been created online since the product launched in 2016. That’s more than 6,000 per month, and the numbers are growing every day. “Affordable housing applications have evolved from cumbersome, paper-based hassles into easy, online workflows. Applicants can submit documentation from their home computer or mobile device. That freedom saves applicants from taking time off work to come into the office for a lengthy in-person interview,” said Dave Kessler, vice president of affordable housing and PHA at Yardi. “If you consider...

Little makes us happier than hearing about a client’s success with one of our products. Unless that same client is experiencing success with three of our products! We recently had exactly that happen when we sat down to chat with Belinda Torres and Heather Palmer of Continental Realty Corporation (CRC) about their experience with RentCafe. It turned out that CRC wasn’t just getting positive results and feedback from using RentCafe, the company was also seeing measurable returns by extending its marketing platform with both RentCafe CRM and RentCafe Reach. Keep reading to see how CRC improved their online presence, lead tracking and organic traffic with a suite of integrated marketing solutions. Meet CRC CRC was founded in 1960. Headquartered in Baltimore, it’s a full-service multifamily and commercial real estate investment and management company. It uses Yardi software to manage a diversified portfolio featuring nearly 10,000 apartment homes and retail centers consisting of more than 3.5 million square feet of space. Better Websites Before adopting RentCafe, CRC had a corporate website that hadn’t been redesigned in a decade and didn’t have individual property websites. “There wasn’t any SEO value,” said Torres, corporate marketing director at CRC. “Keywords and alt tags weren’t being utilized. There was nothing to help a prospective resident find us.” CRC used RentCafe to create marketing websites for every multifamily property in its portfolio. CRC also uses COMMERCIALCafé to create websites for its commercial properties. “The websites that we have now are attractive. Photos and tours are what people want to see, and we’ve been able to give that to them with RentCafe,” said Torres. The sites are mobile-friendly and allow the marketing team to upload videos and custom content for each community. Applicants can apply online and receive and submit all...

The 2017 Canadian Multi-Res Tenant Survey conducted by Informa Canada showed that 85% of renters take less than two months to find their rentals. Your marketing website and ILS listings through RentCafe are designed to help get their attention during that crucial time. But for a truly effective marketing approach that makes the maximum impact during those two months (and beyond), there are a couple more tools you can add to your toolkit. RENTCafé CRM and RentCafe Connect are two solutions that integrate with RentCafe and Yardi Voyager to better manage prospect, applicant and resident workflows. RentCafe CRM simplifies leasing and resident services by putting everything leasing staff needs in one mobile interface, making it easier to follow up with leads and provide expert service from anywhere. RentCafe Connect is a budget-friendly contact center solution that supports your team with automated call answering and on-demand live support – so prospects and residents get the service they need 24/7. Using these tools in conjunction with RentCafe helps property managers improve onsite efficiency while managing the prospect to resident lifecycle, as well as improve spend and retention. Take a closer look at the four benefits of integrating your marketing strategy using the tools in the Yardi Marketing Suite. Simplify Operations Connecting these three solutions automates the entire leasing process, increasing visibility for you and your staff. When online leads and applications come through RentCafe, your prospects’ data instantly appears in RENTCafé CRM – no duplicate manual entry required. Follow-ups are automatically scheduled based on your custom criteria, giving your staff a clear picture of what needs to happen next to convert each lead into a lease. There are follow-ups for residents too that help automate the move-in, move-out and lease renewal process, making this a true...

With 30 senior living communities across six states, Merrill Gardens provides a lifestyle approach to senior housing that’s unique to each locale they inhabit. By designing each community with characteristics unique the area in which they reside, Merrill Gardens creates a comfortable and welcoming environment for residents so they can relax and feel at home. “We take great pride in the fact that we spend a lot of time making sure that our communities, especially the senior side have a place to live that is like a home,” says David Wiedeman, Business Systems Analyst for Merrill Gardens. “It’s a place you want to be. With activities integrated into the community, our residents aren’t living on an isolated island but are going to events and participating in clubs and other activities. This keeps everyone active and connected.” Making the switch to an integrated platform allows Merrill Gardens to avoid missed billing opportunities and increase revenue. Previious a CFO for a property management company, David was once a third party consultant for Yardi. When Merrill Gardens began implementing the Yardi platform, David and his team worked side-by-side with Yardi to ensure the switchover went smoothly. “If you have the vision of what you want, Yardi can build it,” says David.  “Yardi has a good knack of hiring people who are really good in their fields, they are specialized but can also be creative and help us meet our needs across different channels, including the residential and senior sides of our portfolio.” As part of his role as Business Systems Analyst, David spearheads software infrastructure and administration for Merrill Gardens, overseeing all Yardi modules as well as software implementations throughout the company. A big supporter of the single stack solution, David feels Yardi provides an unmatchable combination...

Submitting an application for affordable housing is a daunting challenge. Tax returns, paycheck stubs and bank statements are just the beginning of what applicants must provide to qualify for a unit. Proof of eligibility for housing assistance is a must since public funds often support rents below market rate. Federal, state and local housing agencies have policies and procedures in place that ensure affordable housing resources only serve qualified residents. In the past, affordable housing providers kept files with thick stacks of paper as proof of each resident’s eligibility status. Providers also keep similar files for denied applicants to document why a household was determined ineligible for housing assistance. Affordable housing providers are taking a modern approach to minimize paperwork and staff hours necessary to qualify residents. With online applications, providers are not saving administrative costs, but also better documenting their resident files and boosting compliance with fair housing regulations. Rather than handing applicants a stack of forms to fill out, housing specialists can now direct applicants to an online portal to submit everything needed to qualify for a unit. RentCafe Affordable Housing from Yardi makes this possible, and it’s becoming more and more common throughout the industry. Just how big is the RentCafe Affordable Housing trend? More than 100,000 housing applications have been created online since the product launched in 2016. That’s more than 6,000 per month, and the numbers are growing every day. “Affordable housing applications have evolved from cumbersome, paper-based hassles into easy, online workflows. Applicants can submit documentation from their home computer or mobile device. That freedom saves applicants from taking time off work to come into the office for a lengthy in-person interview,” said Dave Kessler, vice president of affordable housing and PHA at Yardi. “If you consider it...

We’d need 4.6 million new apartments by 2030 to meet demand for rental living and keep prices in check, reports the National Multifamily Housing Council. That’s about 373K new units each year on average, a number that’s rather optimistic considering the pace of apartment construction in the last decade. So how feasible is this plan? A recent study from RentCafe on the apartment market suggests the country’s growing renter population need not be too concerned. According to data from real estate data provider Yardi Matrix, apartment construction is at a 20-year high, with most of our country’s biggest cities seeing significant upgrades in rental stock. After a slow post-recession period, the market started rebounding in 2012 and by 2014 new supply had amounted to more than 237,000 units delivered in one year, well above historical averages. Between 1997 and 2006, annual completions averaged 212,740 units. In 2017, apartment completions are expected to top 345,000, a 21% increase compared to last year’s deliveries when more than 285,000 units saw the light of day. Hot Urban Markets See Rents Softening as Developers Ramp Up Apartment Construction After peaking in 2014 at 5.1%, monthly rent prices rose just 1.5% to $1,316 in May, the lowest annual growth rate we’ve seen in more than three years. In 2017, the average U.S. rent is expected to increase a modest 3.9%. Does this mean apartment prices are finally taking a break from rent growth? Apparently so, and thanks to intensified apartment construction, that’s even the case with some of the country’s historically tight (or rather outrageously expensive) markets. Close to 6,200 new units entered the San Francisco metro area in 2016, with approx. 5,400 apartments expected to be delivered this year and another 9,500 under construction. While demand is still strong...

Today’s renters expect to be able to find and interact with your company everywhere, all the time. But does that mean you’re suddenly able to hire more staff for around the clock support? Of course not. Marketing automation is your secret weapon in an increasingly busy digital marketplace. Marketing automation streamlines repetitive tasks, follows user behavior and delivers targeted content to get customers into your leasing pipeline and help you keep them as loyal residents once they’ve moved in. It drives efficiency for the marketer and leasing manager while creating a more personalized experience for the customer. Watch a quick video about marketing automation. We talked with Esther Bonardi, vice president of marketing here at Yardi, for her perspective on the evolution of property marketing technology. “Property marketers have to constantly innovate to keep pace with consumer trends and demands,” said Bonardi. “Marketing automation is one way even smaller marketing teams can do that and have a big impact without breaking the bank.” 3 Ways Marketing Automation Is Changing Property Marketing Larger Reach Marketing automation tools like ILS data syndication and social media bulk posting help property marketers reach a larger audience with less effort. Instead of manually entering details like vacancy information, pricing, policies and contact information repeatedly – increasing the likelihood of human error each time – internet listings can be automatically and accurately updated across multiple sites with information from your property management software. Social media posts can be created just once and then scheduled and shared across popular platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Reach thousands of viewers each week without sucking time out of every work day. Better Service Bonardi points out that marketing automation isn’t just a way to work faster, it’s a way to market more effectively. “Marketing...

We could all use just a little more time to get everything checked off our to-do lists. If you’re a property manager at any size property, you and your team have a seemingly endless list of daily tasks, from interacting with new prospects to taking resident payments. Fortunately, modern technology is evolving to help speed things up at work. Advances in online services mean many processes that once had to be done by hand can now be automated. Recently, a few clients have shared quantifiable time savings they’re seeing at their businesses as a result of implementing better property management software. Take a look to see where you could be saving hours every month. Online Applications: 15+ minutes per application How much time do onsite teams spend entering application data? Mallory Monsma, marketing leader at NALS, estimates that online applications save its leasing agents 15 minutes each. In August of 2016, the team processed 347 applications, resulting in a time savings of 87 hours. If you’re using esignatures and completing the leasing process entirely online, your time savings will be even greater. Not to mention all the savings you’ll accrue surrounding printing, mailing, paper costs and physical storage. Online Payments: 4+ minutes per payment Monsma says that automated payment processing saves at least two minutes per check and a 20-minute roundtrip to the bank for every 10 checks. These numbers might seem small, but they quickly add up across a portfolio. In a month with 11,000 online payments, the NALS team saved 44,000 minutes (733 hours). Getting onboard with online payments also adds convenience for renters and speeds up cash flow. Roscoe Properties collects 95% of its rent electronically, quickly and on time. Mariana Estrada, vice president of operations, enthused, “That’s massive! That’s money...

Are you familiar with the Yardi Marketing Forum? This biannual event brings multifamily marketers from across the country together for three days of fun, education and inspiration. We just wrapped up our first forum of the year in beautiful Austin, Texas. If you couldn’t attend, here are the top five marketing takeaways that were shared by our guest presenters. Stop Hunting, Start Cultivating Anders Bergstrom, marketing director for Sanuk, opened the Yardi Marketing Forum with his keynote address on “Surfing the Waves of Consumer Change.” He stressed the need in every industry to build a lifelong fan base, instead of targeting consumers with marketing that kills the relationship after the sale. “When it comes to your audience, cultivate. Think of yourselves as farmers,” shared Bergstrom. “Become aware. Become curious. Become advocates for your clients.” Watch the recording of Anders’ presentation on Facebook. Dial in Prospect & Resident Communications Do you feel like your marketing messages are getting lost in today’s increasingly crowded digital space? For our session on “Getting Heard in a Noisy World,” we were joined by Nikki Crosby from Buckingham Companies, Mallory Monsma from NALS and Yardi’s Nima Farkhak to talk about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to interacting with residents and prospects. The panel consistently reinforced the need to be present everywhere your customers are. Crosby noted that Buckingham properties that use social media remarketing far outperform properties that don’t. Monsma shared email tips that have resulted in a phenomenal 50% open rate for NALS, including keeping subjects snappy, limiting frequency and scheduling the month’s emails in advance through RentCafe. And Farkhak talked about the importance of live chat, citing a case study that netted a RentCafe Connect user an $80 return for every $1 spent. “The best...

Did you know that Baby Boomers are the second largest demographic in multifamily housing? Most companies only spend five percent of their advertising budget (and even less effort) on this growing group. Don’t be like them. We’ve got eight tips to master online marketing to Baby Boomers. State your cost—clearly—and why your property is worth it. This fundamental tip is especially relevant to Boomers. They have a lot of money to invest in companies that meet their needs. According to this Nielsen report, Boomers currently control about 70 percent of all disposable income in the US. In the next 20 years, they are set to inherit $13 trillion more. If your property meets their needs, they won’t need sales tricks to buy in. Ensure that your marketing story explains how your property can meet and exceed their expectations. They will be willing to pay top dollar. Highlight the conveniences of renting. Many Boomers opt to rent so that they can explore other interests without the burdens of homeownership. The amenities that set your rentals apart from homeownership are valuable selling features. As former homeowners, many Boomers know that property maintenance is hard work. Boomers will appreciate the assurance of prompt maintenance services. Highlight residents’ access to Online Maintenance Requests through Yardi RentCafe®. The tool will appeal to their desire for convenience. Tell the story of the active, hip Boomer. Boomers don’t want to be reminded that they’re aging. This generation focuses on an active lifestyle and exploring new interests. Feature local hiking trails, parks, and your community fitness classes on your website and social media. Let them envision living the lifestyle that they crave while in your community. Note that Boomers not done living it up. While some are caregivers and part-time babysitters for...

Applied Property Management Co. takes pride in spreading fast, convenient service across a portfolio that consists of thousands of apartment units which include market rate, subsidized housing and commercial spaces in New Jersey. Making life easier for residents and staff lies at the heart of Applied Property Management’s mission.  “Our company practices a paperless approach, starting at the very beginning—applying to live here,” says Raymond Lucena, a Yardi® specialist with Applied Property Management, the property management arm of Hoboken, N.J. developer Ironstate.  The company’s residential leasing process is 100% online, from marketing, applying and screening through lease signing and payments.  “It’s a user-friendly experience, which is a lot different than relying on paper as we did previously.  If you search our properties through Google, for example, you’ll go directly to our property websites via RentCafe®.  Our lead conversion rate is higher in the four years we’ve been using RentCafe because applications can be completed almost instantly.” Applied Property Management’s philosophy of paperless convenience extends to residential service.  “About 92% of our market-rate residents pay rent online; we expect that to reach 99%,” Lucena says.  “Eventually we want to duplicate this degree of participation in our commercial space.  We want all residents, vendors, and retail managers to manage work orders, ledgers, payments and everything else electronically.” Applied Property Management went mobile as well as paperless in the search for greater efficiency.  “We equipped our leasing agents with tablets and mobile devices.  When they’re showing a unit, they can launch the application, screen the prospect through Yardi Resident Screening™, and sign the lease on the spot, without waiting for paper documents to come through,” Lucena says. Staff technicians can receive, prioritize and document maintenance and inspections in the field with the mobile-enabled Yardi Maintenance™ and Yardi...

If you’re at all involved with property marketing, you’ve probably been part of more than a few discussions about property marketing websites and their ability to convert prospects to leads and leads to leases. Great web conversions depend on your ability to truly understand your website visitors. How do they behave on your sites? What do they care about? How easy is it for them to get the information they need and take the next step? During this week’s Yardi Marketing Forum in Seattle, our very own Tudor Manole, development project manager for RentCafe, will lead a session that takes a deep dive into user behavior on property websites through analytics, user testing, and real-time recording. For those of us unable to be at the forum in person, here is a quick synopsis of his presentation, “Gold Star for Good Behavior,” as well as a few insights that you may be able put to work on your own sites to increase web conversions. At a glance, can you tell whether a website – in any industry – will convert or not? Yes and no. Great web conversions depend on the ability to craft a simple user experience that is intuitive, uncluttered, and can be navigated without instructions. So visibly, a straightforward site with a clear user journey is a great start. But there is other data we have to take into account to create a successful website too. What is user experience and why is it important? For a website to convert leads, it has to have a user experience that helps prospects complete the conversion process instead of abandoning the site. User experience (UX) design means observing user behavior in many different ways, and natural use of product is one that should not be...