7 Ways to Attract High-Quality Residents to Your Apartment Community

One of the main factors that will make or break your apartment budget is the quality of residents you attract. A high-quality resident pays rent on time, treats the unit and apartment community as if it were their own home, and is courteous to their neighbors. High-quality residents not only make your life easier, but they also make you and your passive investors more money in the long run.

Sure, low-quality residents can help you increase your occupancy rate in the short term. But they will negatively impact other important financial factors in the long term. Low-quality residents lead to higher turnover costs due to more frequent turnovers and more expensive, lengthier turns. They also lead to more expenses associated with evictions, higher bad debt (e.g., uncollected debt after a resident moves out), and a higher amount of delinquent rent.

Therefore, the successful apartment syndicator or property manager will proactively implement procedures to attract the best-qualified residents in the area. This approach minimizes the number of low-quality leads and maximizes the higher-quality ones, which has a positive feedback effect: Attract high-quality residents to your apartment and they refer your apartment to others, which brings in more of the same caliber.

As a result of building a portfolio of over $400,000,000 in apartment communities, I have identified seven market strategies that attract these high-quality residents.

1. Maximize Internet Advertising

Online tools are the number one way renters search for their home, followed by referrals from a friend, relative, or neighbor. Therefore, an online presence for your apartment community is a must. This starts with having a URL and website for the apartment community.

Next, all of your “for rent” units should be listed on a variety of online real estate and apartment listing services. Some of the most effective sites to use are Apartments.com, Craigslist, Realtor.com, Trulia, and Apartmentfinder.com. You should also market your listings on Facebook.

To optimize your rental listing, make sure it includes a clear and accurate description of the unit and the community, highlighting the major selling points. Invest a few hundred dollars into having professional pictures taken.

2. Hire Locators

A locator is an apartment rental agency that helps prospective residents find their ideal apartment community based on their specific needs. Locators can be great resources for finding high-quality residents.

To find apartment locators in your market, Google “apartment locators in (city name).” Then, reach out and offer them a commission of the first month’s rent for providing you with a converted lead. (50% commission is standard).

Once you’ve hired a locator, provide them with weekly email and phone call updates on your current unit availability.

3. Target Local Businesses And Employers

Use the current resident demographic data, which you should have collected on initial rental applications, and the surrounding job hubs to create a list of target businesses, employers, and schools in the area. You can also add local tax preparation offices, bus stops, and train stations to your list.

Print out and drop off flyers, business cards, price sheets, floorplans, and site maps to your targets, always asking for permission first.

Additionally, you can send a small gift (a gift card, gift basket, wine, toolkit, etc.) to your current residents who are employed at the business on your target list. Thank them for their residency and ask if they are willing to refer the apartment community to their colleagues at work.

4. Build a Referral Program

As established, many renters find a home through referrals. To capitalize on this, you should create a referral program and offer a bonus to any current resident who refers someone to the apartment community. A bonus of $300 paid 30 days after the execution of the new lease is standard.

To advertise the referral program, deliver notes to your residents’ doors and send out friendly emails with the details of the referral program on a monthly basis.

5. Financially Incentivize Your Leasing Staff

Most apartment owners or property management companies offer their leasing staff a small bonus for each new move-in, with $50 being the standard. In addition, you can set monthly move-in or occupancy goals and offer a larger bonus, like a $100 to $250 gift card, if they hit the specified target.

6. Hold Resident Appreciation Parties

To promote resident satisfaction and retention, host monthly resident appreciation parties. These can be as small as providing a small breakfast or wine night in a common area on a monthly basis. Another idea is to host timely or holiday-themed events, like a Valentine’s Day card-making event, holiday gift-wrapping party, back-to-school barbecue, or a Halloween costume contest.

7. Encourage and Monitor Online Reviews

The online rating of your apartment community will probably be the first thing a prospective resident will look at during their apartment search. Organic reviews are great, but you should also implement strategies to increase the number of reviews.

One strategy is to ask a resident for a review after fulfilling a maintenance request. Only use this strategy for minor maintenance requests that were addressed in a timely fashion. Another strategy is to have a laptop station set up during the monthly resident appreciation parties, which the residents can use to write a review before they leave.

Conclusion

All seven of these strategies have been proven to attract the highest quality residents to an apartment community and are beneficial to your bottom line. Do not wait to come up with a marketing plan until after you close on an apartment deal. This is something that should be created before closing so that you can account for the expenses in your underwriting.