I love apartment shopping, even if I’m not in the market for a new apartment. I will spend hours on end searching the web for beautiful complexes that are popping up in places like San Francisco, New York City, Miami—basically any city you can think of that requires you to spend at least $5K or more for a one bedroom apartment.

But here’s the kick: at the end of the day, most people are not looking to strap on a couple extra grand a month for an ornate living room. They are looking for the little conveniences that make life easier. They are looking for a community that makes them feel as though they are living a life of luxury. As an apartment community, you can provide these conveniences through your services. You don’t have to be the newest kid on the block, you just need to be the smartest. Here’s how you can do just that:

1. Paperless Payments- Paying your rent can be the easiest or biggest hassle of your residents’ week. If you want to make things easy for both your residents and your staff, offer a payment portal for people to pay their rent online. If you want to take it to the next level, go completely paperless. Your leasing office literally can’t lose anything because it is all online - just make sure you are using a software provider that offers industry grade encryption to protect your data. And the cherry on top - your leasing office will look pretty sleek with those mobile devices (rather than filing cabinets).
2. Maintenance- Studies have shown that resident satisfaction is closely tied to the speed or efficiency of work order turnaround. Want people raving about your community? Provide the best maintenance management in the total 50 mile radius. You can accomplish this by providing your staff with inspection and maintenance software that alerts your team when a work order is submitted, or logs move-in pictures from residents. This way you and your resident are held accountable for the maintenance and upkeep of the apartment.
3. Communication- People like to feel as though they are part of a community, or that they aren’t just another resident in Unit XYZ. Building relationships with your residents is key to creating that luxury essence on your property. Find a messaging software that syncs with your data to automatically send out birthday wishes, or community welcome emails. When you are managing 300+ units, it can be quite overwhelming to feel responsible for the happiness of hundreds of people. Let a smart messaging system take over and build the relationships for you.

Look for ways to build up your apartment communities. These are just a few examples in an industry where several solutions are available. Want to track packages? Want to create a community page for residents? Want to display community events? You’ve got it. Be the community people choose over the new guy, and new guys...keep being fabulous!

By: Lauren Moran