What would you say is the primary demographic of your property? If you are a residential property management of an apartment in particular, you’re likely noticing that more and more younger people are moving in lately. Millennials, who are considered people born between (roughly) the early 1980s and the late 1990s, are moving en masse into apartment buildings as they work to establish themselves as independent adults. If you haven’t seen a rise in this population among your renters, consider that you may not be employing strategies that draw them in. Luckily, it isn’t too difficult for you to appeal to today’s renters.
Market to Millennials to Appeal to Today’s Renters
According to recent studies, millennials “tend to rely upon their research more heavily than previous generations.” To best appeal to today’s renters, you as a property manager need to make sure that you are best utilizing the kinds of resources that they are looking for. For example, if the online presentation of your property isn’t up to snuff, they’ll notice… or, more accurately, they won’t notice. If your building doesn’t have a website, if the listing hasn’t been populated with images and description, if you can’t easily be reached via e-mail, these renters will move on to look at another location. Find out what the biggest apartment listing sites are and utilize them as resources to promote your units and to highlight the features of your property. If you don’t have a website of your own, you should definitely consider making one or having one made for you so that you seem more legitimate to this skeptical demographic.
Offer yourself as a resource for any and all questions that your potential renters may have. To really appeal to today’s renters, you have to seem as if you’re there for them. Particularly if these young adults are moving into their first “real” property, they may not know all of the ins and outs and will likely have a lot of concerns or questions. Make yourself available via whatever level of communication you prefer or are comfortable with (e-mail? text? call?) so that they know they can come to you with whatever comes to mind. That way, those possible renters will see you as someone who is reliable and going out of your way to help, which will likely add to the appeal of the unit itself and will draw them in more effectively.
Are you using technology as an integrated part of your day to day? If the answer is no, then you aren’t doing as much as you could be to appeal to today’s renters. They’re used to having technology on hand, often literally, as it’s one of the biggest parts of many lives nowadays. This is because it can simplify daily tasks, can communicate more easily with others, and can offer solutions that didn’t previously exist. If you feel comfortable with texting, you can use it to quickly and almost immediately send out a message. This option is the speediest, but make sure it is only used for professional matters and that you don’t overload your renters with information via text (or vice versa!). In a similar way, social media can and should be manipulated to promote events, to get the word out, and to connect. Social media and texting are both large parts of millennial activity and proving at least literate with them will make you seem more personable.
Despite labels of often taking rash action and being lazy, this generation is cautious when it comes to purchases and is typically highly invested in experiences, like renting an apartment, that so largely affect their lives. They’re also faced with the potential of debt from school loans and other financial issues that were not as prevalent for their parents. Do what you can to ease these worries, such as laying out the positive aspects of each available unit, no matter what the price is. Even if it isn’t the nicest space that you offer, you should make each seem as enticing as possible, both for your own sales and to appeal to today’s renters. If you’re on their side, then they’ll likely repay the favor.
Consider the size of this age group: a bigger generation in number than any of the others, currently. If you’re able to interact successfully with them, or if you at least begin to move along the right path, then you’ll find yourself more successful than ever. To help with this endeavor, you should utilize technology, but not only to communicate with your renters. SKYLINE Property Management & Accounting Software helps you to use tech to more quickly and efficiently manage the information about your property and the people who live on it. This power system allows you to keep all the technical details in one, easy-to-use database, so you’ll be spending less time organizing spreadsheets and more time sending out Facebook posts about a slight change to laundry room access.