As the industry's most accomplished leasing and marketing company, apartment owners trust CLASS to achieve higher occupancy.

Resident Retention Strategies

February 27, 2012

A constant battle that property managers and on-site teams face at apartment communities is to keep the occupancy pendulum swinging in the positive direction each month.  The goal is to always have more move-ins then move-outs via increased leasing coming in and reduced vacancies coming up at the end of the month.  A leasing agent can be stockpiling new move-ins, but if nothing is being done on the backend to retain current residents, then a property can just be constantly spinning it’s wheels with nothing to show from the hard work being done on the front end.

Ashley Halligan from Software Advice put together a great list of collective strategies and tips to help properties decrease the chances of those current residents moving out each month.  The entire blog can be seen here, but here are Ashley’s tips for successful retention of residents:

1. Start With Customer Service

2. Focus On Value

3. Perks: It’s All About Innovation

4. Keep It Simple

This is a great topic that Ashley covered, because resident retention applies to every single apartment community nationwide and is something that must be concentrated on monthly.  With the apartment market currently being in a major prime, there are not as many concessions being offered by communities, so that is one thing definitely working in manager and on-site teams favors.  In the end though, the on-site staff must be able to establish a relationship with residents to enable them to feel a sense of community and be able to know that they are looked at as more than just a rent payer.  Ashely puts it best in her article in that, “when all is said and done, the smallest gestures may make or break a tenant’s decision to renew.”

 

GET YOUR FREE CONSULTATION