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A new approach to Resident Retention

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A new approach to Resident Retention

 

According to SatisFacts, when residents were asked what can be done to improve the community, Social Activities was ranked 29 out of 30. Some may take this info and think to themselves….OK, let’s do away with the activity budget but a forward thinker would ask why?

The truth of the matter is it doesn’t take a survey or any written research or documentation to admit that the majority of us in this human race love to be social. I’d also like to suggest that it doesn’t take stepping outside of yourself to know what draws you to certain social activities, gatherings, groups, etc. Well the same thing goes for your residents. They know what they like to do, why they like to do it and for the most part how to go about doing it. What they don’t know is that it’s OK for them to do these things amongst themselves within your apartment community and how to go about getting started. This is where you come in.

Have you considered rather than trying to be an expert on good events becoming an expert on finding out exactly what your residents want when it comes to being social and giving them an outlet to do so?

Think about it. What if you stopped planning events and started planning to truly get to know your residents? This totally takes the guess work out of trying to figure out how to entertain them. It also shows them that you have a sincere interest in their personal desires and it allows them to be active and creative creating the environment that they want to live in.

This is a no brainer. Different, out of the box and possibly time consuming at first but definitely worth the investment. Let’s take a look at the chain reaction that comes along with my proposed strategy.

• You begin to question the residents about what they would like to do.
• You begin to engage the residents more including them in the planning and execution of events and activities while making sure they are aware of basic fair housing laws when necessary.
• You begin to make personal introductions to like minded residents while encouraging ongoing connections and offering them an environment that allows them to interact with each other.
• Residents feel important and valued by you.
• Residents feel connected to each other and begin to form sincere bonds.
• Residents begin planning events, groups, and meetings etc. for themselves while your manpower is not being affected.
• Your property takes on a very unique culture that sticks for many years to come with less and less management and leg work required as time goes on.
• Your satisfaction and retention rates go up as your community is happy and well connected.

For more tips on taking an innovative approach to resident retention and satisfaction log onto www.residentkeepers.com and sign up for our mailing list.

Talisa Lavarry
Founder
Resident Keepers LLC.

 

Quotes from our Founder

Consistency and Persistence in Your Resident Retention Approach

Last week I distributed a blog about insanity and reminded you all of how insane it was to keep doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. Someone posed a question to me about when and how to identify, or let’s say self diagnose oneself as insane.

Basically what they wanted me to specify was the difference between insanity and good old persistence and consistency. There is a difference and it is very important to be aware and careful when making the determination.

A large number of businesses of all kind literally do not make it because they lack persistence and consistency. Perhaps many of them suffered from feelings of insanity or even had to deal with hearing such from colleagues and family members so they eventually gave up.

Today I want to talk about the differences and help you to determine if you are in fact insane or if you are fighting the good fight, planting beneficial seeds and waiting for a harvest.

The first thing to do is assess the situation.

What are you attempting to make work? Has it been done before? Have you done the proper research? Is your audience even the least bit interested? Are you setting a realistic goal?

Once you’ve answered all of these questions you may have your answer, if not move on to step two which is to assess your progress. This can be done by asking yourself one question. Are you getting anything from your efforts? Let’s talk about event attendance. If your property just started making an effort to host monthly events then you may find yourself struggling to get the attendance up but don’t throw in the towel on your strategy if you see the numbers increasing each month. This is where persistence and consistency comes into play.

You’ve assessed the situation and discovered that what you are doing makes sense, then you’ve assessed your progress and you see that it is at the very least working. This tells me that you are not insane. This tells me that all you need is to remain enthusiastic and to continue strong in your efforts.

I’m reminded of Thomas Edison. Talk about tenacity, this guy attempted to make his dream of the light bulb work 10,000 times.  The important part to remember is he didn’t redo his experiment the exact same way every time. He took what worked, threw out what didn’t work and kept plugging away at his dream. Had he continued to do it as always never learning from his mistakes I doubt I’d be mentioning him at all today. Another thing to remember is that had he given up the later would still be the same. 

This brings me back around to the point I made a few weeks ago. Don’t throw out the idea of resident events all together. Think about it, they do yield benefits…. the question is, how do you make your efforts worthwhile? Or better yet, how can you connect residents socially in a more effective way.

Innovation is good when it comes to things like this but not only do you have to be innovative to be successful you definitely want to be consistent and persistent.

For more info on resident retention and satisfaction log onto www.residentkeepers.com

You're not an INSANE Property Mananger are you?

The definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. If you’re a property manager that just goes with the flow operating in auto-pilot mode doing what you have to do just to get by and collect a salary then you’re not the property manager I’m looking to share information with; however if you are passionate about your career and passionate about your residents then I have news for you. You cannot keep doing what you’ve always done exactly the way you’ve always done it and expect to be the cream that rises to the top.

I facilitate a self-help coaching practice where I am constantly encouraging Women to push their existence to the limits. To do the things they’ve always dreamed of doing and to live extraordinary lives. I love how those concepts flow right into the message that I have to share with the multi-family industry.

It is my intention to light a fire under any and every one that will allow me to in order to get them to reach their full potential.

When it’s all said and done being the best and rising to the top often times takes taking risks. Those who dare to venture off into the unknown based on intuition, a gut feeling, research or whatever it is that drives them to it will reap the benefits of untapped success.

Why is it that so many feel like getting by and maintaining with absolutely no excitement, no thrill and no potential for greatness is enough? Why has contentment become the norm? Why do so many lack the confidence to be the first or to raise the standards or set the bar?

We could ponder over the question forever and while it bothers me I realize that the best thing I can do towards dissolving this mundane way of life is to have the courage to step up, speak out and offer solutions to other leaders who dare to be their best in all that they do.

My point is if you are doing anything less than reaching for the stars, taking risks and doing things differently while expecting your business to grow you are INSANE. It might not sound pretty and it may be a harsh truth but if you’ve been following me for a while you know that I have no issue with shaking you a bit in an attempt to remind you of your purpose.

STOP procrastinating, STOP doing what’s safe, STOP operating in fear and make some changes that yourself, your direct reports and your residents will all thank you for in the future.

Talisa Lavarry

Founder-Resident Keepers

Birds of a Feather and Residents of Like Mind

Birds of a feather flock together. You’ve heard it before and face it, you know it’s true. Those of like minds always find a way to get together. Those that are surrounded by those that don’t have like minds eventually wonder off and surround themselves with those that do. We’ve made it half way through 2012 and let me tell you this statement is truer today than ever before.

We live in an era where we have more access to likeminded individuals than ever and guess what? We’re becoming more and more comfortable with flying off to where ever we must to meet up with our tribe.

This new generation is not hesitating to do what they have to do to get acclimated with those who assist them with feeling like they belong and even more so like they are living their best lives.

Have you considered this in your thoughts and plans regarding retaining your residents? What if you are losing residents simply because they lack of feeling of connection and belonging? You do realize that if this is the case nine times out of ten you will never know.

What if you put practices in place that allowed you to more closely gauge your residents’ level of satisfaction? What if you were able to take more control in the area of actually engaging them? Well I’m here to tell you that you can.

It frustrates me to no end to see so many property managers continue to do the same thing over and over again expecting different results. In 2010 residents ranked “social activities” as #29 out of 30. I know personally that it wasn’t so much that residents don’t care about connecting socially it’s that they don’t care about managers hosting events that they may or may not hear about and expecting them to come out and have a blast with strangers.

We can’t throw away the idea of doing events all together we have to do it differently, better. We have to do it in a way that it is more effective.

Why are you hosting the particular events you’re hosting? Are you finding some grand idea in an on-line forum and just throwing out there hoping it will stick? Are you creating events based around your personal interests, likes and desires? Are you just doing what you did at your last property only to meet your quota?

Have you considered actually learning what it is that your residents want to do? You do realize that their schedules are all over the place and sometimes trying to get a large percentage of them to come together all at one time is practically impossible now a day? The new way to approach this is to help your residents create their own individual “events” on their own time and to support them and lead them in making this happens.

In a nut shell I’m saying that your residents need you to open the door and give them the OK to create the connections they seek when they seek them and with whom they would rather connect with. This takes a bit of time and focus but once you build this sense of community you will be relieved in knowing that social interaction is going on within your community constantly and not just at some random party that you decide to host.

Your like-minded residents want to meet each other. Be a property manager that cares to connect them. It will be a gift to them in more ways than you can imagine.

For more tips like this or to hire me to come out and assist you with creating communities within your community log onto www.residentkeepers.com

Your residents are lonely-Engage them already!

Not sure if you realize it but this new generation has started a new trend that I like to call Networlding 9000. They realize the power of the internet and they use it to their benefit. It allows them to connect with people they otherwise never would have met and guess what? They are discovering that these “would be” strangers are increasing the quality of their lives drastically.

Internet friends turned real life friends is quickly becoming the norm. While the new generation is a whole lot more comfortable with this way of doing things the more popular it becomes the more this is becoming mainstream.

The more we interact online the more we are finding ourselves longing for more of a personal connection. According to Geoff Meggs the residents in A properties specifically High rises are reporting feelings of loneliness in high numbers. Yes, they seem to have it all and they have to act as though they have it all because no one has given them to OK to reach out and connect with the very people right across the breezeway from them. Human nature eventually forces most of us to connect and sadly if it’s not happening at home, many of your residents go out and find another place to call home then another and another while all along subconsciously they are searching for some form of fulfillment, what I’d like to think of as “a feeling of being home.”

 While I understand that people can get their social needs fulfilled elsewhere why not capitalize on the opportunity to give them the bonds they seek at home? Why not have a bunch of social, happy, engaged residents?

According to Mike Flacy of Digital trends facebook is making a great deal of people sad. You know why? Because it is becoming more and more evident who’s out making a life for themselves and who’s not. I understand that all people don’t share their life story on line and all people don’t necessarily want to meet “strangers” but I can guarantee you that most do or are on their way to figuring out what all the hype is about.

Meetup.com has a whopping 10.8 million visitors monthly and operates in over 45,000 cities. This is hard evidence that people are getting out and purposely meeting like minded people.

Here’s what you must consider. Most people don’t want to start the meet-up or make the first move when it comes to making these connections, however almost all of them will appreciate cool check-ins on their facebook wall or photos that will allow them to jump into all of the instagram camaraderie.

What are you doing as a property manager to help your residents engage with each other both online and in person? If you’re throwing typical resident events and expecting them to make the way for themselves you are missing out on a huge opportunity. You know as well as I do that people need leadership and direction. Often times they just need the suggestion presented to them or a little nudge or a simple it’s OK.

I find it hard to believe that if all of these people are going out of their way to meet like minded people that they won’t be elated at the opportunity to find their tribe within their own neighborhood and property.

I also find it hard to believe that a property with this type morale, full of connections ranging from social groups to activity partners to business connections etc. would ever suffer from those dreadful revolving doors that we all hate to think about.

This is the future and its here. It’s not about a huge monetary commitment or even a lot of time. This is about being intuitive, innovative and pro-active. Are you doing this at all when it comes to your property or are you sitting around waiting to see what others do or doing the same thing you’ve always done? We’re shifting; your resident’s thought processes are shifting. Are you willing to meet them where they are or will you find yourself chasing them once they’ve left?

“Give the people what they want.”-Talisa Lavarry Founder Resident Keepers LLC

What if your apartment community had a dance troupe or cheer team?

I know it sounds weird at first but everything was questionable when it first got its start right? I’ve been doing some research with apartment dwellers trying to figure out what activities they enjoy doing personally and how their management company could possible incorporate their desires into their retention plans.

I had an interesting conversation with a young lady named Carly who told me how much she missed dancing. She’s now in her early thirties, very health conscious and always looking for new and exciting ways to burn a few extra calories.

After talking for a while we concluded that her property attracted young, active professionals who were always open to experiencing new things and meeting new people. I asked her if her property hosted events and like many she said yes but she never goes and most of the time most people don’t go.

I proposed to her the idea of starting a dance troupe on the property that would perform at each event. She along with the property manager could decide the parameters and if it would be co-ed. Perhaps she could do different groups, one for teens and one for young adults. We threw around a few ideas and I could tell she was excited.

Think about it. Your property has a dance or cheer troupe that gets together once a week in the clubhouse or out on the tennis court to practice. This builds instant bonds that in turn gains you more loyal residents. Not only that, this guarantees their appearance at your events which more than likely guarantees everyone in their household showing up to watch them perform.

It is also a built in feature for all of your events. Can you imagine how interesting it will be to come out and see the “Oaktown Estate Steppers”? Your residents will look forward to their creativity, skits, uniforms and maybe even themed routines. They will look forward to hearing them chanting and cheering about how much they appreciate the residents.

Your team will also enjoy the idea of getting their neighbors to come out. They will discuss it with neighbors in passing and or promote it within your online portal. Who wants to practice and perfect a performance and have no one to show it to? This idea is perfect for those of you looking to increase morale and build participation for your events.

We believe that the reason events came up as such a low priority in recent surveys as a reason for residents to stay is because most of the time people do not attend. There’s a huge benefit in offering incentives and legitimate reasons to come out to events outside of the typical come out and meet your neighbors pitch.

Let’s face it…for many it feels too forced and down right awkward but when you begin to engage your residents and form genuine alliances you don’t have to work so hard to get their attention and their participation.

Dare to be a trailblazer and begin to focus on building communities within your communities or feel free to give me a call and I’ll be happy to show you how.

Talisa Lavarry

Founder

Resident Keepers

Unhappy residents? Make the complaints work for you!

Unhappy residents? Make the complaints work for you.

Let’s take a moment and do a bit of guided meditation. You live in a perfect world and your business model is flowing perfectly. You have the freedom to go and do anything you want when you want to because you have the perfect employees whom all work tirelessly and endlessly never complaining while growing your businesses by leaps and bounds.

Your residents are not only satisfied, they’re loyal. They refer their friends and you keep a waiting list for new residents to move in. You have little to no concessions in motion. Your on-line ratings are through the roof and your walls and desks are cluttered with thank you cards, awards and accolades.

Sit in the feeling for a moment. Really allow yourself to go there. Imagine that huge problem you are facing right now being resolved and all is well in your property management world……ahh…..feels good doesn’t it?

ALRIGHT SNAP OUT OF IT!!!!!! Fun to dream isn’t it? Sorry to shake you but I’ve gotta bring you back to reality in order to make my point. How did it feel to go there? Now that you’re back do you despise your reality vs. the dream?

If so you should definitely keep reading. Life is not perfect and never will be perfect in any capacity but one thing I know for sure is that time and experience makes us all better. The reason why this is the case is the longer we are in business the more mistakes we’ve made and the more obstacles we’ve overcome.

There’s no reason we should be dealing with the same resident complaints and issues that we were dealing with over a year ago. If we are wise we learn from our mistakes. This is the point I want to make today.

While I understand that your customer complaints are not favored and how much you dread dealing with the ones that they post publically I want you to understand the value that is attached to each one of them. Yes, in the moment the complaint is bad and you’d rather it not exist but it is huge for your future.

The fact that the resident is pointing out the issue is almost like you having the answers to a test. You are now clear about what needs to change and most importantly the lines of communication have been opened for you to find out exactly how to go about changing it.

It would be extremely wise for you to not only show that you are concerned but to genuinely ask for direction and suggestions to make things better. While it’s an issue today this very issue could make you a hero tomorrow.

Don’t fret or run away from the constructive criticisms that your residents give. I’d say embrace them. Let them know that you want to give them opportunities to be heard. I guarantee you this will decrease your chances of getting public, negative reviews.

If and when your residents know that you actually care and will do all that you can to make them happy they won’t feel the need to go behind your back and tell the world how bad and uncaring you are.

In a nutshell, open yourself up for more honest dialogue, show that you are supportive and caring and actually make moves towards your discoveries in communication. This will work wonders for your business model and help you to get a lot more value out what poses itself to be a headache.

Talisa Lavarry

Resident Keepers

For more info regarding resident satisfaction and retention sign up for our mailing list at www.residentkeepers.com

Your Residents are out shopping other properties!

You do realize that your residents are out shopping other properties right?

Haunting thought isn’t it? Well the truth of the matter is nine times out of ten your residents are not going to come and forewarn you that they are considering going elsewhere however they do tell their friends and colleagues in their casual day to day conversation.

Perhaps they are asking around about other properties or voicing their concerns about what’s not quite right at your property. Even worse some are going online into forums and sharing information or discussing it in their social media outlets such as facebook, twitter, yelp and apartmentratings.com.

Let’s face it; if you have no way of keeping an eye on these things your notices to vacate can catch you by surprise. Not only that, it sometimes leaves you with little to no wiggle room for trying to convince them to stay.

Have you ever considered putting practices in place that would allow you to be more aware of what your residents were thinking, what they desire and what they dislike about your property? Do you realize how this would allow you to be more proactive in your resident retention initiatives?

Let’s think about this. What if there was a resource that allowed them to vent in house rather than out to the world about how their leaky faucet has been such an issue? We also have to admit to the fact that lots of times people see the manager as “authority”. It is common human behavior to often times avoid authority all together. It could be that they fear that by speaking up they could be making things worse or they are just shy and or don’t know how to communicate their desires and needs.

What if you were innovative and strategic and put persons in place that did not come across so authoritative? What if these people were neighbors as well that strategized becoming acquainted with your other residents with the full intention of engaging them in very relaxed settings while getting the information out of them that could be the key to your getting their lease resigned?

Are your wheels turning yet? I certainly hope so. Yes you have a management team and yes you know your business but you’ve gotta admit that I’m onto something here. It is absolutely worth the small investment to implement these practices on your property. Resident Keepers has figured this all out and we have the innovation, creativity, energy and education to make sure that it is consistently carried out for you and your residents.

Below I’ve listed step by step how we make this all come together and create amazing results.

1. Recruit resident(s) to lead and carry out the plan.
2. Train said resident(s) in all aspects of the assignment as well as in fair housing. 
3. Establish our presence on the property (residents need to know that they now have fun friends on the property that want to make their stay more pleasant).
4. Get residents signed up for and involved in www.myvirtualneighbor.com(This is critical to development of our plan. People tell exactly what they want and need all day everyday while hanging out in online social media mediums).
5. Get the neighborhood businesses invested in your property. (People love freebies, door prizes, coupons etc. and businesses love to get through the doors of their neighboring potential clients). 
6. Host traditional events and offer frequent surprises to residents all while keeping their individual likes and desires in mind as well as their scheduled lease end dates.
7. Connect like minded residents and help them create individual social connections based on their personal desires. 
8. Communicate with and survey residents often to consistently be aware of their needs, desires and any possible opportunities for improvement.

These practices take consistency and focus which are two things that many properties if not most lack when it comes to resident retention. Resident Keepers is an easy, wise, fun and economical solution to this problem.

For more tips about resident retention log onto www.residentkeepers.comand sign up for the mailing list.

Q&A from a very unique property about resident satisfaction

Dear Resident Keepers,

I manage patient housing. One residence is for bone marrow transplant cases. We have 70 units, but the patients are required to remain in isolation as much as they can, because their immune systems are compromised. Any ideas on how to build community behind closed doors?

Sincerely,

Want a community

Hi Want a community,

This is a situation that I have never thought about. I’m so grateful that you decided to write in. I’m always up for a challenge. First of all my heart goes out to anyone that is forced to be in isolation most of their day and I definitely desire to help you come up with some solutions that would be beneficial to them. If you were to call me in and say Talisa you have two weeks to turn this around I would do the following.

1.    Assess who’s who and what’s what? (from a higher level): I would get a general idea from you of who lives in what unit, what their age, sex, medical restrictions and level of mobility is etc.

2.    Go straight to the source: I would do surveys and interviews with every single resident on the property to find out who they are, who were they before the illness, what do they miss most now that they have restrictions? I’d find out if they have any ideas for making life more enjoyable. I’d offer suggestions. I’d dig in and plot the entire time figuring out whom I could match with whom and how I could create individual and very specific bonds. Not only would I consider resident matches I would figure out if any outside sources within the neighborhood could be of benefit.

3.    Recruit Leaders: It wouldn’t take me long to scout out the natural leaders and community organizers at your facility. I’d figure out who would be good at organizing, speaking, writing, creating, drawing, knitting….I don’t know, the sky is the limit. Remember I believe in allowing people to tell me what it is that they desire. This could be extremely limited or not. That’s the joy in doing the research and being resourceful and don’t forget thinking outside of the box. If there is a will there is a way!

4.    Create Plans: This again is where I hold on to all of the information I’ve gathered. We would have to be careful being mindful of medical conditions and time restraints but with careful thought, consideration and planning we could create some bonds; one on ones, groups of four, same sex, unisex…the sky is the limit.

For example; perhaps Jane in room 3B has the same condition as Mary down in 32 C and they both expressed the fact that they were once World travelers. How hard would it be to set up time for tea for the two of them once per week on the same day at the same time. This not only gives them an emotional bond it gives them something to look forward to from week to week; not to mention the serotonin boost that will take place as they share their old travel stories. 

Now this is just one of countless possibilities that could be created within this community. Don’t forget how valuable technology is. You could set up online games for them all to play together or even utilize Skype, gotomeeting and other social sites so that they could chat and still have the face to face interaction.

These few ideas make me excited for your residents because it gets right to the core of why I created Resident Keepers. Every little thing wants to be loved and we were created to be amongst each other and to feed off of each other. This should be your train of thought throughout this process.

5.    Execute: Just do it! One day at a time create activities, think outside the box, build bonds and improve the quality of your resident’s lives.

I hope that I’ve sparked a fire within you…or better yet added fuel to the fire that you already have because the fact that you took the initiative to write us tells me it’s there. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or concerns or even decided that you need our help. Either way, keep in touch. I’d love to hear about your success after implementing this plan.

All the best,

Talisa Lavarry

Founder-Resident Keepers

The Lemonade Project-An Annual Entrepreneurial Event for Your Little Residents

Family friendly properties could truly benefit from adopting a practice of hosting what I like to call “Parties with Purpose” especially when it comes to hosting events for children.

One of my all time fave summer events is one I like to call The Annual Lemonade Project. This event can take up to about a three to six week commitment but believe it or not it takes very little effort to pull off and gives your residents something special to look forward to year after year.

With careful planning, delegation and creativity this will raise the morale within your property for a long time coming.

The Lemonade Project is a fun and exciting lesson in entrepreneurship for the children on your property. It is designed to not only get them involved with their neighbors but to teach them lessons about teamwork, creativity, service and more. The objective is to bring the children together to create their own lemonade stand that will be open for business for one day every year for your residents.

The first thing you want to do is create a schedule. You will need to work backwards and figure out important dates and times as you have to know exactly where you are going with this and when before you present it.

Let’s say you decided on May 3^rd that you wanted to start hosting this event on your property. You would need to give yourself at least a week or maybe two depending on your current resident participation to invite the parents and children out to your “Original planning and kick-off meeting”.

For the sake of keeping things simple I’ve created a mock schedule with explanations for you to review as we move along.

May 3rd	Decide to do the project
May 5th	Announce Kick off meeting on www.myvirtualneighbor.com and via flyers
May 15th	Host Kick-off meeting

During the Kick-off meeting you would explain the project, assign roles, set dates and begin the initial planning of the project. You will want to assign the following roles to participants.

Marketing Director

Marketing Assistants

Operations Manager

Builders

Designers

Customer Service Managers

Finance Director (No worries, it’s all play money)

Sales staff

Hosts

Clean up Crew

Keep in mind that none of this has to be written in stone as we can’t predict the number of participants you will have and you can put your own spin on it even including adult help in some areas, perhaps making the children director. The point is to talk to the children about these different roles and what they mean. You may even assign multiple roles to multiple children depending on your individual situation.

At this meeting you will decide the theme, colors, set-up. Let your minds go wild. Perhaps you could have already purchased samples of decorations and could allow them to vote which décor they choose to use or you could just throw some ideas out there. Perhaps you will hold another meeting where they will create all of the décor themselves…kinda like an arts and crafts party. This is totally up to you.

When you all leave the first meeting you should have delegated all the roles, come up with a theme, name etc. and have a schedule and plan in hand for the upcoming weeks including the marketing plan, building and décor schedule and official date for the final Lemonade Stand day.

Below I’ve drawn the schedule out a bit more in order to give you a visual.

May 3rd	Decide to do the project
May 5th	Announce Kick off meeting on www.myvirtualneighbor.com and via flyers
May 15th	Host Kick-off meeting
May 20th	Lemonade Stand Flyers and play money due for approval
May 22nd	Marketing team starts distributing flyers and marketing online etc.
May 28th	Décor is purchased or created and approved
May 30th	Build and decorate stand
June 1st	The Lemonade Project is open for business

Now the schedule I’ve written is just enough to get your wheels spinning. Take out what you will and add what you will. Physically meet or don’t meet as often as you feel you need to. Do with this what you believe you need to do with it in order to make it successful.

The only thing left to do now is host a great event. Happy Planning!

Talisa Lavarry

Founder

Resident Keepers LLC

What NOT to do with Social Media in Multi-family Marketing

Ever heard the saying, “What goes on in this house stays in this house?” Well there’s a reason it has been and will always be a favorite quote. Personal issues are just that…. PERSONAL. Involving outsiders in things that could and should be resolved within is a recipe for disaster and as successful property managers a disaster of any kind is the last thing you desire.

The other day I found myself scrolling through facebook and I stumbled upon a status posted by a property employee announcing that flyers would be put out soon regarding an upcoming pool party.

While I get the point that they were targeting their marketing initiative from both perspectives…paper and internet, I saw an opportunity for more clear and most importantly private communication. I instantly thought to myself, they need to get their residents signed up for My Virtual Neighbor www.myvirtualneighbor.com.

As I continued to scroll I noticed that they also used the page to post announcements about rent being late and the water system being down. I freaked! Yes, if you know me by now you know that I get quite dramatic about things like this.

I immediately sent them a message letting them know what I’d observed…no I didn’t approach them like I was freaked out, I calmed down first and kept in mind that the reason most opportunities are missed is the fact that we often times don’t see things for what they are when we are in the thick of it. That’s why I love the idea of coming in with fresh eyes offering a new perspective.

What I love most about My Virtual Neighbor http://www.myvirtualneighbor.com/is that it gives your residents a private space to discuss all the things that the public does not need to know. I honestly would suggest not telling anyone outside of the late payers themselves that anyone’s rent is ever late…. private discussion board or not. I could go into a whole other spill about this but I’ll address it later.

If the water is out or the pool is being remodeled My Virtual Neighbor is the perfect space to share the news in privacy while things are in transition.

Your public facebook page should be more so geared towards attracting perspective clients and should be used for displaying finished results. For example you would come on and post before and after pics of a remodeled pool or pictures of smiling residents and a beautiful spread of food from a successful resident party. There is no need for potential residents to see you in action while attempting to produce results. You should be focusing on wowing them with final results.

My Virtual Neighbor http://www.myvirtualneighbor.com/is a free service and proposes to be a huge asset for property managers seeking more effective communication with and amongst their residents. Log on today to learn more about this amazing new feature or feel free to contact me directly and I’ll walk you through the process.

By Talisa Lavarry
Founder
Resident Keepers LLC

The #1 Secret to Rockstar Retention

Lucky you!

You’ve just stumbled upon some good stuff. I’m gonna tell you the absolute number 1 secret to creating, maintaining and maximizing a rock star retention plan. Are you ready??? Come closer, this is worth gold….can’t just let anybody hear it. It’s one word….FOCUS. That’s it, you can turn your retention rate completely around by focusing on it. Sounds too simple? I figured you’d say that so let me explain. I’m gonna borrow some principles from the great Tony Robbins that I like to apply when I’m monitoring property retention; and if you know Tony Robbins you know that he takes you through processes step by step so here goes.

Step 1: GET CLEAR-This should be the start of any project or exercise, business or personal. Assess the situation. Add up what you have and figure out what you need. Determine where you are and make up your mind about where you are going.

Step 2: GET EXCITED- You know as well as I know that when you get excited the energy flows in ways unimaginable and if you are leading the initiatives the excitement rubs off on everyone else involved including your residents. There should be excitement in your retention planning from start to finish!

Step 3: GET THE BEST- That’s right the best support staff, the best outside help (clears throat and points at my domain www.residentkeepers.com). Recruit the best and most loyal residents to be on your resident retention team, then find the best restaurants and best recreational activities in your neighborhood to build strategic alliances with. No need to reinvent wheels where they are already good and rolling….align yourself with the best for the best results.

STEP 4: TAKE ACTION-So you’ve assessed things and made the plans, you’ve even gathered the help that you need, I call it putting a team behind your dream. Now there’s nothing left to do but to do it. Now the it can be tricky because I believe there are NO cookie cutter answers for resident retention. You have to give your residents the opportunity and the privilege to tell you what they want and need. This is the very thing that you base your actions on over and over again. If you do all of these things listed then you have every right to the next and final step.

STEP 5: CELEBRATE-Oh yea baby! We all love to win especially when we’ve worked hard, so grab all of those that helped you reach your goal and party hard!

For more info like this and free tips on creating effective resident retention plans sign up for our mailing list at www.residentkeepers.com

Outsourcing = Focus- Making Resident Retention a Priority Again

In my research and after speaking to several Multi-family execs and community managers I’ve discovered that most of them have no issue readily admitting that they loathe the idea of actually working on resident retention; let alone rent increases. Sure they have to send retention reports to upper management so they do the typical calls to see if the maintenance order was filled and many may stick some donuts out on the counter on a Saturday morning but when it comes to actually engaging the residents at lease renewal time or even getting to know them all individually they often times place this tool on the bottom of their priority list. They have vacants to fill and employees to manage. Reports and meetings…you know the spill. For the most part hiring someone to focus on retention wouldn’t be cost effective because it’s such a sporadic thing in nature and kind of hard to benchmark for a nine to fiver.

I put some serious thought into all of this and I’d like to pose a question. Have you considered that the best people to tell you how to keep the people happy are the people? Yes, they are!!! Also, have you noticed that we live in an era where now more than ever people are stepping outside of their boxes to make new connections with like minded people to create lives that align them with their purpose and dreams; Not only that, people are hungry for knowledge, they’re always seeking opportunities to learn new things and they want to be on the cutting edge. And only if you live under a rock you haven’t realized that people are basically telling you what makes them happy all day every day on social media websites. This makes getting to know people and figuring out their needs a no brainer. The catch is who has the time and desire to do it?

These are fairly new trends. Multi-family hasn’t always had these factors to think about but it’s definitely time to start moving in this direction, don’t you think? That’s where Resident Keepers comes in. We know the value in engaging your residents at a high level that aids in creating connections and experiences that cater directly to them. They are allowed to make the property whatever they want it to be while having someone there that you trust and ultimately steer to make sure they follow all of the Fair Housing guidelines, company policies, procedures etc. The best part about all of this is your management can continue to focus on their core responsibilities while Resident Keepers keeps the retention ball rolling long after all of the staff has clocked out and gone home.

The cost is much lower than it would be to actually pay an employee and the return is much higher. It just makes sense. Let’s look at the value a bit closer in very simple terms.

·         You will learn what the people want and need from the people

·         You will allow the people to help create their wants and needs

·         You will steer a person you trust as they orchestrate all of this with all fair housing guidelines, company policies and procedures in mind

·         You can continue to focus on the core of the business while being assured that there is a focus on retention

·         Your property will gain a positive morale that matches the unique energy of your residents

·         You will save money on outsourcing rather than hiring an employee

·         Your residents will be connected in an on-line social media setting courtesy of www.myvirtualneighbor.com

·         Relationships will be being consistently built so that at renewal time you won’t have to play Sherlock Holmes

·         Your residents will appreciate you for it

·         Your residents will want to stay

Now I may be a little bias….but this sounds mighty good to me. For more info about why outsourcing makes sense when it comes to resident retention, log onto www.residentkeepers.com and sign up for the mailing list.