When renters can go anywhere to rent, they will vote with their rental dollars
Some people rent out of necessity. Others? They rent because they want to.
Whether people are renting from you because you're the only game in town, because you're the 'best' game in town, is entirely up to you! Designing your apartments with the 'nd-game' in mine is designing your apartments to have the best renters choose your apartments to live and do business with.
We can't forget that we're running a business and that renters are our customers, or clients, if you rather. They are the reason we are in business and are able to pay our investors. Without them we will fail to meet our financial obligations.
Your amenities should at the very least be equal to that of the marketplace, or better. So, for starters survey your market, look at 1. all of the other apartment businesses within 5, 10, 15 mile radius to see how you add up in comparison to what they're offering.
Then look at the city you're in, what types of businesses operate there, what type of people live there, why do they live there, what do they like to do there? All of these questions may help answer the question 'what would they be willing to pay more for?' and of course you as the provider will benefit along with your investors.
Amenities walk a fine line between desire and affordability. What someone wants they can't always afford. This is why the top percentile of desire chasers run around grabbing "free trials" which you want to stay away from giving into. There's no future there. Retail stores are forever circling the drain using discount pricing as a way to drive sales, which screams desperation and low value. They've trained the public to be bargain shoppers and have a poor persons mentality.
But there are value shoppers as well, and this is where you want to position your facility and company, has value add value givers, you provide this segment of the market with what they're willing o pay more for.
1. Work-From-Home Facilities
Having office space in your complex may offer the new way of doing business for apartment complexes into the future. Renters want amenities that enable flexible remote work, both in their units and on the grounds. Whether you offer a den in the apartment or if not, a separate office space, either communal or private, (depending on on your market demands) could position you as a professionals housing complex.
Sometimes the apartment has others who don't understand the quiet needed to concentrate, and a quiet space is very welcomed to escape the noise to get some focused thinking done. Here's where having office space will come in demand.
2. Pet-Friendly Features
Pets aren't always welcomed, but when they are, offering the amenities that making having pets easier adds to the benefits you're providing for your tenants. Having a dog park is just one of the features pet owners will pay for. But wait, there's more. From having an on call local Vet partner with your facility you're creating a win/win situation (benefit) that you're renters get by living there.
This works well with groomers, walkers, etc. that can all make the enjoyability factor of life at your apartments happier and healthier for all involved. Remember pet-rent isn't optional, however, people love their pets and if you help them to help their pets they will be gald to pay more and glad to stay longer.
3. I.T. (smart apartments)
This correlates with the office concept of Amenities that adds to the value. What good would having office space do if there wasn't modernized IT access and equipment? The office space you provide should have all of the necessary internet and tech accessories needed to work from home to at least hook up personal gadgets for doing so.
Smart apartments are another way to attract the new era of techy to your complex. Controlling your apartments features from a cell phone from anywhere, makes the overall attractiveness of renting there that much sweeter.
A tech savvy apartment complex also uses online rent payment system that is fully automated so rents get paid or eviction notices automatically are deployed. This gives less wiggle-room for the renter to try and B.S. you.
Today it's about the experience you are offering, you want responsible renters who pay there rent, but you want to be the responsible landlord who creates an experience worth paying for; which is why you would attract them. Like attracts like.
4. A Total Gym Experience
Fitness areas are another Amenity that will help you to attract and retain quality clientele, a gym membership is on $35-$75 a month on the outside, but at your facility it's free. Included with the rent, which can be $150 more than your closest competitor without a gym. Due to convenience, your renters are willing to pay a premium for the accessibility factor of the gym over having to drive to another gym somewhere else.
But it cannot be just a small room with a couple weights and a treadmill. This 'hotel-style' gym is not appealing and will not solicit top tier renter to your facility. Tip: go to your local gym, (preferably the most popular in town) this is who you're going to be taking customers away from. Design your gym to at least mimic their layout, look, appeal and workout routine.
If they are 3 of each machine and you get just one, that's okay, if you need to fit more into less space. But the caveat is you'd better keep them up so they're never 'out of order' or people will start going elsewhere.
Having a gym consultant come in to design a gym is a good idea if you don't have a working knowledge on the science behind the gym design already. People go to gyms for various reason, and designing a gym at your apartments that doesn't fulfill at least 85% of that experience will fail to fulfill the want and desire of the patron, thus, negating the expense of creating it in the first place.
With all of these things, we are trying to create amenities that cater to A. the higher earning segment of the marketplace we're located in, B. fulfilling the satisfaction of wants and needs equal to or greater than that which is offered elsewhere, C. watching trends of all segments of a geographical area to see trends (like work at home) to offer all correlative needs possible to increase the market-share capture you'll acquire by doing so.
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