Help getting occupancy up?

We just did a big turn on a complex we just bought, clearing out troubled tenants and down units. We now have 30 out of 120 apartments ready but not rented. We have the lowest rent in town and we still cannot seem to get occupancy up. Does anyone have any suggestions we should try?

Increase the rent.

Never thought of that. Is there a strategy you would recommend, like be $10.00 higher than the second lowest etc??

Shop your comps out the wazoo. Put weights and measures on what you offer versus them. Know your value but push the market. If your property can play ball with the next level or higher, play ball

It was a Class C property with Class D, tenants. The renos and insides are Class B. The big problem is the complex next door was condenmed and is in the process of a 2 year turn around into a senior citizen home.

We increased our rents at a property I previously worked at and we actually got more move in's than when we had lower rents. Agree with Danielle Bishop. Perceived value!

I raised the rents at a property over $200 for each floor plan and that eliminated a lot of our competition. I agree with raising the rents completely!

Try using the local merchants or community post flyers use Facebook. Word of mouth is the best referral ever! Use specials if need be.

If your pricing is too low people will be nervous and low pricing may have caused the troubled tenants. Put it in a different bracket search and see what happens. You may get more qualified applicants

what do you mean different bracket search. The troubled tenants came from S8 (which we inherited) and we no longer accept S8 and we did not renew the tenant base, hence the number of move outs. Suprise, suprise all the problems went away too.

mix up your marketing!

How so mix up the marketing we do FB, google, website, apartments.com, is there something you are missing.

You should definitely be on more than one ILS. Reach out to your #RentPath Rep to get showcased on ApartmentGuide.com and Rent.com.

Reach out to preferred employers. Advertise on Facebook market place. Refresh your ILS ads.
Do you have sister properties that can refer to you?
Pick your neighbors referral bonuses
Partner up with a local eatery for a community event.
Invite service members ie; police, fire department EMT’s or pick a nursing shift at the local hospital or medcheck and host an event just for them and their family.
Word of mouth spreads quickly.

Community messenger is awesome to reach out to all your prospects over the last year at one time.

The property likely has a bad reputation if the previous tenant base was undesirable. Do you have Under New Management/Ownership signs? Sometimes knowing someone else is running the place is great marketing in itself. Also, I agree with raising the rents; however, you could offer a small concession upfront which would burn off quickly and stabilize the property at a higher return with less likelihood of creating a low income environment. Just make sure your leasing girls are qualifying them properly.

we have all the signs out, and we redid all the outside and inside of the units. It does not look like the same place last year. Maybe we should post that on the internet listing though..

Did you change the name??? It helps to re-brand it...

Have you had your leasing team shopped to make sure they’re selling the product vs just a price????

Did not think about that and never tried that. This location is about 3 hr drive from our normal place. Is there a way we go about testing in that market. Do I put up an ad on craiglist?

I would start by reaching out to a company that specializes in shops such as Ellis Mystery Shops. Start with a phone shop and see what it tells you about your leasing team and their ability to sell!

My recommendation is Clear Evaluations if you have authorization for video, a video shop is awesome because you can see the full experience from the prospect point of view. I would also send a few email shops. You can do that by just creating fake gmail accounts. This will tell you if we follow up timely and the quality of the communication.

Chamber of commerce
Have a grand reopening and ribbon cutting it gets you good press
Then definitely the community
Get people talking about you
Start with first responders police fire and Em's
They may not be your clientele but if they are out in about in your neighborhood you want them talking about your community and all the nice things you've done

Preferred employer program. Instead of doing specials for rent offer a look and lease to waive application fees or admin fees. Host an event at your property or breakfast or bagged lunch to go at your preferred employers. Make sure leasing team is asking for the deposit and creating urgency!

Maybe have a Public Safety Housing Program (we have this but for different reasons). Any law enforcement officer or firefighter who works in your local precinct gets a percentage off. (And raise rents like others have indicated).

Also maybe change the name of the community if you haven’t start fresh!

Food truck event, you can advertise that and the food truck will as well and that will really bring more people

Rebrand it. Sounds like it wasn't the most desirable place to live. You have to get the word out that things have changed. Host an open house...food trucks, music, etc. See if some of your vendors will help with expenses. Market the heck out of it! Get with some of the residents that stayed and see if they will help you market it at their place of employment and to friends.

How many units were down units, how long and why? This could be something to consider when questioning leasing tactics and closing ratio.

2 units down due to small kitchen fire. The bigger issue for us taking too long to turn was the time it took to flip the S8 tenant make readies. We did not get the full complement of make ready staff from our contractor until 45 days after we started.

Thank you, I was over thinking it a bit. I think this helps scale the problem into manageable sectors.

Turn your website into a hub of information about your city, community, your property. You could have a map with local hotspots, events and news.

Hire a professional leasing company like Henkel & Associates! We do this all the time. PM me for details.

Change the name of the property and do some major rebranding

Offer a Locator commission or raise the % given and have a locator OPEN HOUSE event with free food

Have you joined your local Chamber of Commerce? The meetings are a great way to let the community know you’ve changed, and you can host events with members at your site.

Find out what your social media reputation is and work to improve this. This will turn people off in a heartbeat.

Go on local TV

It may seem silly but have you changed the name of the complex?

Increase rents!

Also, Facebook Marketplace is still new/under utilized

Do you guys have breed restrictions? My property is the only one on our town with no breed restrictions. I make goodie bags with dog treats and swag and go to local vets, rescues and what not to market. I also give a ton of pens to local restaurants and make sure we are active in the community.

we dont and that is a good incentive.

Yes...bassically outreach marketing!! The pens to retail and restaurants is perfect, join your local Chamber, offer resident referrals, hold a blood drive on site and invite the public-you can get tons of free exposure- get out into your community if no one is coming in. Yes even raise rents. If you are too low people may wonder why! But advertise ONE loss-leader.

Also hold resident events on Facebook! I sent an email to bark box telling them about my event and they sent me three free boxes. Theres a kitnip box for cats too and they sent me one free box. I then had all our residents check in on a public post with their pets to be entered for a chance to win a box. This shows how pet friendly we are and shows we have no breed restrictions.

Another idea I did in march, in our town the rock painting Facebook groups are a hit. So for ST Patricks day I hid a lucky rock around our local community for people to bring in for prizes.

get a banner made "under new management come check us out" If you give referral fees make up a coupon refer a resident who moves in on a 12 month lease get $__.00 referral fee. hand them out to waiters bartenders hairdressers etc.. in your area

Do you offer short term leases? If so corporate hosing could use you with the right client. Where is your property PM me.

I get over-run with facebook marketplace inquiries. Like the day I post I probably spend close to 20min/hour just answering the inquiries. If your property may have reputation issues I wouldn't even put the name of the property in the initial post - just some really good pics and a really good description. I've posted and put a TON of info & I've made posts and put very little but just with some really attractive pics & I think the response is equal. People seem to not actually read the whole description.....

Raise your rents...and be worth it.