Upgrades

I'm looking for a little advice here... one of the ideas my group is tossing around is the concept of personalizing someone's unit by giving them upgrade options. To entice the prospect and create urgency, we're thanking about offering then various (low cost and each to alter) upgrades: accent walls, change of light fixtures, change of cabinet hardware within the same finish...

I'm looking for advice on what (if) you guys do this and what has worked the best.

Thank you ahead of time for your feedback.

Tara,
I have not had personal experience with this, but I've been kicking around the idea of an upgrade catalog for a while that applies to both prospects and residents, with the upgrades increasing in value to "reward" those that stay longer. If you want the details of my plan, let me know and we'll talk through it!

Brent
(On a related note, I think that this concept could be used as a replacement for cash concessions to existing residents like Lisa was discussing.)

Bring out the catalog!

We did this concept and based it on the number years resident lived with us. The longer the nicer the gift. Really is an advantage for renewal and lease management concept.

beth - how did you gear your lease renewal in conjunction with the upgrades... what was the upcharge (if any) for a resident who opted out of the renewal and continued month to month? what percentage of your residents chose this?

Beth,
Thanks for sharing - Do you have data on how well the program did? I'd love to talk to you sometime about it and see what worked and what didn't... If you are up for a chat, send me a private message.

Thanks,
Brent