Whether you own a condominium, duplex, single-family home, or a huge purpose-built apartment complex, all landlords share the same goal: to keep your units full and maximize profits. But finding the right mix of cost minimization while increasing resale value and growing rents isn’t easy. One of the more obvious ways to achieve this goal is to make a few rental property updates.
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Why Pictures Of Your Listings Are So Important
When you think about it, getting a prospective student tenant’s attention comes down to just a few seconds. Today’s world is a quite hectic one, and in the world of smartphones and the internet, students are scrolling and sifting through rental listings in just a matter of moments. Just as quickly as someone can stumble upon your listing, they can stop looking at an even quicker pace. When students have the power to search through hundreds of listings with the swipe of one finger, it’s important to make a good first impression. As the old adage goes, pictures really do say a thousand words, and whether or not you realize it, including quality photos of your rental property can really make or break your odds of leasing it out.
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Off-campus student housing isn’t quite like it used to be, and these top ten companies on our list are prime examples of how this growing industry is taking off-campus student living to a whole new level. Hundreds of luxurious off-campus student oases have been popping up at college campuses nationwide over the years. These extravagant student abodes often draw in their residents with impressive amenities, like high-end furnished apartments with utilities, rooftop resort-style pools, cyber study lounges equipped with Macbooks, indoor and outdoor sports courts, movie theaters, and beyond!
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Students are scrambling to find off-campus housing for next semester, more than what you’d usually expect to see over summer break. That’s not because they’ve put off finding housing until the very last minute, but because colleges across the United States have slowly started to announce their plans to reopen campus for the fall semester following the COVID-19 pandemic.
While there are still a ton of universities holding off on officially announcing whether classes will be held on-campus or online next semester until mid-July, it’s safe to assume that most college campuses’ plans to reopen will include adjustments to how many students can attend in-person classes at once and other plans to limit large groups. While the possibility of getting out of their on-campus living requirement may be a welcome change for some students, it will also mean that landlords should be ready for a possible flood of inquiries from potential student renters.
To get a better feel for what that’s like, we spoke with the Chief Operating Officer of DABCO Property Management near Washington State University to figure out exactly what this pandemic has and will mean for them.
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Unless you’ve been under a rock for the last few months, you know that literally everything about our day to day life has changed. We are socially distancing ourselves from family and friends, wearing face masks when we need to venture outside, working remotely at home offices, and waiting on daily updates about what the new few months of our lives are going to look like. It’s boring, but it’s what we need to do.
Even though some places are slowly opening businesses back up, it won’t be business as usual. Not for a while anyway, and the off-campus housing market is no different. With some schools announcing they intend to have on-campus classes in the fall and others still holding off, it’s a tumultuous time for property managers.
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Landlord Spotlight: Aspen Springfield
Every action an apartment takes with a current resident or prospective renter has meaning to it. They all say something about the apartment and ultimately define the apartment. It’s hard to control how every property manager, leasing agent and community manager communicate, but there is one easy way to make sure that your student-focused apartment is communicating the right message to tenants and potential future tenants alike: social media. Continue reading
The 5 Most Popular Search Filters To Student Renters
Ever wonder what goes into a student’s decision when they’re looking for a place to live? If you answered yes, you’re thinking about the right things when it comes to finding new student tenants. If you answered no … what’s the deal? These are the occupants that keep your units full – you should be taking what they want into consideration.
Being a leader in this industry doesn’t happen by overlooking the small details. Knowing what filters students are clicking on might seem like a small detail, but understanding these patterns is really understanding the things that matter most to the students who are in the comparison stage of looking for a place to live. Knowing how students function here will help you improve your listing and how you navigate converting your leads to leases.
So what was popular? Pools? Tanning beds? Coffee bars? Nah. Students keep it much more simple than you’d think.
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The Rent College Pads booth at the ITGA conference!
Last week, the Rent College Pads team hit the road to learn about issues and opportunities modern campuses are facing in 2018. We met a variety of students, companies and community members at the International Town and Gown Association City & University Relation Conference in Columbus, Ohio, who talked with us about current higher education trends. Read on to hear the big concepts being discussed this year.
Landlords: Become a Housing Industry Leader…By Answering the Phone
As a landlord in a competitive market, your goal is to rule the industry. But like many things in life, being a leader doesn’t happen without paying attention to small details.
For you, one of these small details is how you handle phone calls. In this industry, call lead conversions are crucial for establishing a relationship, setting up a showing and ultimately, getting your units filled with good tenants. We’ve analyzed over 300 tracked phone calls to identify an industry standard, and what you can do to improve your phone calls, get those leases signed and lead the industry with call lead conversions. Continue reading
So, you open your email inbox and you got a student lead from Rent College Pads. Now what?
The obvious next step is to reach out to the prospective tenant, but it’s important to do it in a way that’s going to make the student want to respond. You can do this via text, call or email. Each method has it’s own pros and cons, which we’ll get to, but it’s more about how you deliver your message when you initially reach out. Once in awhile, we hear that leads aren’t getting back to landlords, but why? One would think that if someone were interested in a property that they’d respond immediately to the landlord. A big problem we’ve uncovered are the flaws in the delivery of the initial contact with the student.
This guide will help show you new ways to respond to your leads and help you choose which method for reaching out to students will work best for you so that your leads become a lease.