Resident Give-Aways

I was wondering what everyone thought of the little treats that can be given away to prospects or residents? Example would be little cards attached to candy or pet treats for pets. I'm at a new property and have done this for years at previous communities and the resident's loved it. My new staff that have been here for 8 years all think that the resident's will find this a waste of money.

Our maintenance team is now leaving popcorn behind after completing service requests with a note stating "We just "popped" in to complete your service request. Thank you for your request."
Peachtree sells them fairly inexpensive, but you have to put them together and the cards don't stay attached. We're going to start purchasing the popcorn from BJ's or Costco and using labels with a different clip art with a bit more color.

Those are a great idea and we had great feedback from the resident's. We made our own like you plan on doing. Use glue dots and they will stay on. Someone gave me an idea today. It was putting Dum Dum suckers in a bag and putting something on the take like " Don't be a Dum Dum! Renew today!

I've used Andies Mints with great success on site, as well as making my own "popped" in packages like Kiley said. They work really well for maint. requests AND they make your maint. team feel like they can connect even more with the resident. It's important to empower them to do this, because they're on the front lines with our residents even more than our leasing consultants are!

Dog treats are really not that expensive and I always kept a jar of them on my desk. People would bring their dogs in every day to get a treat and each one of those was a great chance for resident retention.

It might look like it costs a little up front, but if you figure $5.50 for treats and a jar on your desk and then $18,000 for a lease... well the cost ratio doesn't seem so dang high, then, does it?

I'm curious as to how you used the Andes Mints.

If they havent been giving away anything for a long time, this would be a great time to start! We are giving away Valentines candy bags in the office for residents or guests. In the leasing office, we have little heart shaped boxes of chocolates ($.99 at Target) with a sticker that has a self closing phrase on it, which we use to attach a business card. Each leasing person can hand them out and they get a lot of smiles and comments. When Valentines Day is over, we move into a green theme for either St. Patricks, Earth Day or Spring time planting (seed packages with stickers that say, "Room to bloom! Come grow with us", or "Plant yourself in our community, you are going to love it here!" that lasts until May when we get Red/White and Blue. Who doesn't like a freebie?

We happened to receive a catalog/calendar from one of the many vendors out there who do resident gifts/move in gifts and things. One of the really cute ideas for a "renewal" gift was a little tiny (and I do mean TINY) of Teddy Grahams with the top of the bag saying "We can't BEAR for you to move. Please stop in to sign your new lease, TODAY!" Again, we're going to be making our own. We're also offering our current residents resigning a lease some of the new features we're installing in our new/vacant apartment homes: California Closets, 42" flat screen HDTV's, Accent Walls, etc. We are letting them know that they're receiving these at discounted rates as a thank you for signing their renewal.