As with so much of the new Build to Rent language the term ‘lease-up’ is one borrowed from our US multifamily counterparts.

As one of the most critical phases of any scheme it is surprising there is so little content on the subject. So what is it, why is it so important and what are the key things that need to be considered when working out your lease-up costs?

Back to Basics, What is Lease-Up?

The lease-up phase of a scheme is the period that starts before the building is delivered (pre-leasing) through to stabilization (usually 95% occupancy).
Dependent on the size of the scheme and the expected date of delivery, pre-leasing can start up to 6 months before practical completion and occupancy targets set accordingly.

Before and throughout that time a number of critical elements need to be implemented including brand creation, staffing and marketing – all with the ultimate objective of moving as many residents in as quickly as possible.

What Makes a Successful Lease Up?

The importance of a successful lease up is fairly obvious. The more vacant units the less income there is, putting cash-flow and financing at risk, and at the same time owners try to rent each at the highest possible ERVs, in order to maximize the re-capitalization potential in the future. However it’s not just about getting as many people into the property as quickly as possible, it’s about getting the right people as well. The first residents are key as these will be the ones who help establish the reputation of the property in the market. Getting the wrong residents in, getting bad reviews online, having residents break leases or not renew will not just have a negative impact on the effectiveness of lease-up, but can ultimately affect the long-term success of the entire scheme.

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Property managers are responsible for the feeling of community in their apartment community. People may live side by side, but that doesn’t mean they get the chance to know each other outside of regular work or school hours. It’s difficult for people to break their routine when they’re busy, which is where the property manager can step in.

Read on to learn some easy ways you can build a sense of community in your apartment building. Tenants will appreciate getting to know their neighbors while also being cared for by the management team. You can go all out or start with baby steps, depending on your budget, but there’s always something you can do to encourage a sense of community.

1. Designate an Outdoor Space

If your complex doesn’t have one already, find a way to designate an outdoor space for your tenants to use as a community center. This could look like a pool, a garden or even a plot of grass with some picnic tables. Many apartment communities are also building dog parks, if they have the infrastructure.

Consider the average life experiences of your tenants to determine what outdoor space they would enjoy best. You don’t want to spend your money on an amenity that tenants will likely ignore. It’s more important to build the right outdoor space than to jump to provide anything at all.

2. Set Up Regular Events

A great way to get tenants to interact with each other is to set up regular events that will make them want to step out of their possible comfort zones and meet new people. Events can be centered around fun holidays, like the Fourth of July or Halloween, so everyone can participate. Encourage tenants to come out and have fun at a cookout or networking event, for example.

When your tenants get to know each other, your business benefits. Not only will familiarity make them more considerate of each other’s space and quality of life, but you’re likely to reduce tenant turnover in the long run. Creating community events doesn’t have to be resource-intensive, and it results in connections that will help you and your tenants enjoy the rental experience more.

3. Host Contests

If you have the budget, you may want to try engaging with tenants through fun contests. Contests can range from food-drive competitions to costume contests to even who can get the most likes on a pet picture on social media.

Think about what your tenants might like and pitch ideas with the management team to come up with ideas. Your community will love the interactive side of contests without necessarily having to carve out time from their schedule to participate.

4. Create a Social-Network Page

Most businesses automatically get social-network profiles to represent themselves online. After all, people want the online experience of seeing 3D models, floor plans and pictures. In addition to your main profiles, create a unique community page where only residents are allowed into the group.

This is a great way to encourage residents to establish neighborly ties. If you manage a city rental, post local activities every week or so to see if your tenants want to form a get-together. For more suburban regions, where commutes are often 30 minutes or more, set up carpooling threads to help tenants save on driving costs. Social media is a powerful tool for helping residents feel like they have a community they can rely on.

5. Remember to Say Thanks

People need a place to live, so tenants may feel like they’re taken for granted by property managers. One way to get around this feeling and continue building a sense of community is to always remember to say thanks. Put notes on doors or in mailboxes that remind residents you care. Celebrate their six-month or one-year move-in anniversaries to show that you pay attention and value their choice to stay with you. Tenants will be pleasantly surprised to have an interactive and caring management team, leading to feelings of community and worth.

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Here are some tips for keeping your cool and keeping them cool during a bad customer care experience.

1. Listen

Practice active listening rather than passive listening. Active listening means concentrating on everything the customer is saying so you have a clear understanding of why they’re upset. Passive listening means only absorbing part of the message, and not paying full attention to the emotions behind their communication.

“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.”
Steve Covey, author of ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’.

Be present and give the customer your full attention. Read the customer’s inquiry twice before you respond. Focus on the words they’re communicating and not the anger behind their words. To show the customer you’re actively listening, paraphrase what their complaint is, ask clarifying questions, and don’t interrupt them. This is often the most effective way to handle angry customers at the outset of the situation.

2. Apologize

Apologize for the problem they’re having. Acknowledging the mistake and letting the customer know you’re really sorry will go a long way. Be thorough in your apology.

Instead of: “I’m sorry for the inconvenience”. say: “I’m sorry your order was late, this isn’t the customer experience we’re aiming for and I can see how this would be really frustrating. I’ve looked into the issue and here’s what happened…”

A thorough apology shows the customer you care, and you understand their frustration. Offer a brief explanation but don’t drag this out too much. Keep the explanation short and move forward.

3. Show empathy

Empathy helps guide your response and reaction to an angry customer. Empathy doesn’t necessarily mean agreeing with the customer. It means you truly understand how they feel.

By truly understanding how the customer feels, you’ll be able to relate with them on a more personal level. As you have difficult conversations with customers, showing empathy will help de-escalate the issue and show the customer you respect them and are really listening to them.

4. Maintain a calm tone of voice

Don’t let frustration get the better of you. When dealing with an angry customer, you may be tempted to match their tone of voice. Avoid this at all costs, as it will only make the situation worse.

It’s easy to copy a frustrated person’s tone of voice, and to respond immediately after they finish a statement. But you’ll have a more productive conversation if you can remain calm, and if you can take a brief moment to think about your answer.

Tip for maintaining a calm tone of voice:

• Proofread your response to ensure you avoid any aggressive language. If time allows, step away for a few minutes and come back to your drafted response before sending it to the customer. A quick break and a fresh perspective can help filter out any harsh words.

5. Use the customer’s name

There’s power in a name. Using the customer’s name puts a face to the person you’re talking to. It helps instill a strong level of personalization in the interaction. This is much more effective when dealing with an angry customers than addressing a nameless entity who could be anyone.

“Remember that a person’s name is to that person the most sweetest and most important sound in any language.”
Dale Carnegie, author of ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’.

Using the customer’s name shows you care, and it also reminds the customer that you are also a real person working for a real company. Addressing the customer by name also shows them that you respect them.

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As a resourceful property manager, (which you are, or else you wouldn’t be reading this!) you know the importance of resident retention. You know that keeping a resident is just as, if not more, important as getting one. Resident retention not only builds long-term relationships within your community but also adds value to the property itself. Sure, it’s great to bring in some new faces, but your recurring residents are an invaluable asset to your community.

They’re the ones who see the day to day of what living in your community is like so their testimonies speak volumes. When you have a high resident retention rate, you know you’re doing something right.

With the evolving needs of residents, the road to resident retention is not an easy one, but it is very attainable. Imagine the potential for resident retention if you spent just as much time and energy trying to keep your current residents as you do trying to reel in prospective ones.

Host community events

Hosting community events is the ultimate way to foster engagement and nurture onsite relationships. Not only are you creating an enjoyable time for residents and their neighbors, but you’re also assimilating them to a fun culture that will be hard to let go of come lease renewal time.

From holiday parties, to karaoke nights, to complimentary fitness classes, the possibilities for resident events are endless. Remember the execution of these events is only as strong as the teams that coordinate them. Make sure your management team is buying into resident retention and is clear on the efforts it takes to pull off. When events are done right, they’re a major way to boost resident retention and ROI.

Hold events just for kids

From video game tournaments in the common room to scavenger hunts in the courtyard, events held specifically for children can create exciting potential for on-site relationships.

Not only does it give kids the chance to make new friends, but it forces parents to get together and chat as well. Having pals they can bounce around with from school to home is a huge bonus and something that will bring parents comfort. By getting together the kids in the community, you’re planting the seeds for some potentially lasting friendships between families, which equates to added resident retention.

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What’s affordable housing?

Housing policy is one of the main issues that local governments deal with. It encompasses several overlapping concerns. Making sure that everyone has a decent place to live is an important general priority. People are also interested in ensuring that economic diversity exists in specific cities, metropolitan areas, or neighborhoods. Last but not least, there is interest in maintaining specific communities and community ties without unduly displacing people.

Many regions have a shortage of affordable housing. The National Low Income Housing Coalition publishes a report annually showing the “housing wage” that a person would need to earn full time (40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year) in order for a two-bedroom rental unit to be affordable by the official government standard.

This housing wage is more than low-income workers typically make. And in some states, like California, the housing wage is very high. This problem is especially severe because on average the least-affordable cities are also the wealthiest ones, which means that a lack of affordable housing can lock people out of good job opportunities.

Policymakers have a variety of tools to address affordability-related concerns — rent control, inclusionary zoning ordinances, targeted subsidies — but economists generally agree that the only comprehensive way to lower prices is to increase the supply of houses, usually by changing zoning rules to become more friendly to new construction.

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GET SMART WORKSHOPS

Just like the buildings you manage, it takes more than bricks and sticks to lay a solid foundation. We are committed to providing thoughtful solutions to all of your service teams’ occupancy challenges, whether they be technical, managerial, or leadership-related. Our curriculum provides hands-on, interactive training to address the following soft skills:

• Time management
• Leadership
• Workspace organization
• Task efficiencies
• Industry best practices
• Staff motivation and supervision
• Priority setting
• Communication

MART COACHING & MENTORING

Have you recruited a new team member or promoted a team member recently and want to give them the tools to hit the ground running? Our Smart Coaching and Mentoring is a perfect solution to keep your momentum going!

Our Smart Coaches work along side your team member giving them the one-on-one trouble shooting, barrier removing coaching that your onsite team needs!

• Software Training
• Future leader Training
• Maintenance Training
• Leasing Training
• Transition/Successorship Training

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We will send out would of our smart staffer training team to assess your member so staffs competency level and then build a custom training plan to help build on their strengths and improve on their weaknesses. This will not be to supersede any existing staff members on site already offering training but to add to the support available and speed up the training process.

Reasons to keep learning on the job

• It allows you to be more proactive in your role. Rather than sitting and waiting for good things to happen, you will have more energy to get yourself out there making them happen. Being proactive helps you to make decisions better and can help you take ownership of your performance and to take better control of your career progression.

• It helps you to set and achieve your key objectives. It will help you get to know who you really are and what is important to you at work. It helps define your values, beliefs and what you want to achieve. Having an improved focus on your objectives will enable you to use your strengths to achieve your goals.

• It keeps you motivated and gives you more confidence at work. Investing in workplace learning can keep you happy at work and help you to have a better sense of achievement. Being more motivated means you feel more inspired and will be more productive and enthusiastic at work. It helps you to be more focused, in control and to be more positive.

• It helps you to develop key skills and highlight any weaknesses. Its about taking the time and, making the commitment, to invest in your greatest resource – you. Learning at work will give you the opportunity to brush up on your weaker skills or develop yourself to work better. It will help you to grow and improve to be a better person and to be able to work more independently.

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What is commercial property management?

A commercial property manager handles non-residential properties like offices, retail spaces, storage facilities, shopping centers and industrial buildings. Like residential property management, commercial management encompasses the tasks and responsibilities of operating an income-producing property.

Commercial property management involves being able to prioritize and execute a wide array of tasks. For example, advertising, marketing, and leasing processes are all part of the commercial manager’s job; because commercial leases are generally longer than other properties, with built-in renewals (ie. a five year lease with options to renew) and rent escalations, both the marketing and lease negotiation processes are longer and more involved than in other types of property management. However, commercial property managers have less hands-on tasks once the space is leased than other managers, as many commercial tenants of spaces — like offices, retail units and industrial suites– often take care of their own general maintenance, and in some cases, design and customize the interior of the space to suit their businesses.

Property managers of commercial spaces keep meticulous administrative and financial records, and keep all applicable maintenance, taxes, mortgages and insurance updated. They ensure rent is collected, and respond to tenant needs and issues. Managers also provide regular reports (ie. occupancy, rent roll, and budget) to the property owner, providing regular updates on how the investment is faring.

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