Occupancy Contests

Hi All,

I am new to the forum but am looking for some strong advise on retention & increasing overall occupancy. I oversee approximiately 6000 units and we are around 94% occupancy. I think we can do better. We are located in the midwest and are approaching our cold season - End of November til March - we don't lease apartments at all. With that being said, I would like to get a snippet of Occupancy starting 9/1 and work through retention/leases to grow that occupancy.

I have ran a biggest leaser game in the past and it was somewhat effective, but I don't want to run the same tired game. Does anyone have any ideas on what we could do?

Thanks in advance!

Welcome to the forum,

First, I have to say that maintaining occupancy at 94% for that many units is a great accomplishment; congrats for that. Considering the number of units you oversee, I am sure they are spread around different locations, perhaps even different states. Unfortunately, there is no one size fits all. Each property has to be accessed individually. The marketing plans might end up similar, but never the same.

If leases come to a full stop from November till March, you have no other option but to push retention. Honestly, in my opinion and experience, turning a unit is much more expensive than finding a new resident. I have created a few marketing plans that solely focus on retention.

Without knowing the details — property class, size, demographics, etc — a rule of thumb is to increase the community's social media presence. That is a very inexpensive yet effective form of marketing. Another good method is to work on SEO for the property's website, which will bring more organic visits and leads.

Hope this helps.