Despite COVID-19, Apartment Demand is still there! 

Download Google search demand graphics for the past 30 and 7 days by state. Are People Leasing Apartments Today

Note: This PDF was purposely left in black and white for small download size. Nothing fancy here 🙂

I am, of course, writing this from home.

Despite the fact the apartment industry is heavily invested in the traditional model of having people work in a conventional leasing center your residents and prospects employers have restructured to support mass work from home. 

In most cases, apartment demand hasn’t evaporated, it’s just now a question of how to fulfill the demand – safely. While we need to mitigate risk, we also need to support the leasing process.

One unexpected outcome of the coronavirus crisis could be heightened demand for bigger apartments, said Adam Ducker, Senior Managing Director, RCLCO. That three-bedroom unit might look pretty good to a family that’s been holed up in a two-bedroom for the duration.

RENTCafé surveyed more than 6,000 renters March 18-20 Found Here and found that most (56%) plan to move as soon as they find an apartment; only 17% said they would stay put.

How can our leasing, marketing, and training teams adopt?

It’s interesting to watch how grocery stores are adapting to how they are handling health and safety in-store and making life easier for customers to take advantage of online shopping and parking lot pickup.

We already have food order apps and online delivery services like UberEats and Delivery Dudes. They make home delivery possible for restaurants that don’t have their delivery services.

These food apps have demonstrated the trick is to find a sustainable and viable model that works for everyone.

Motivation to think outside the box

I wouldn’t use the word “opportunity” to describe what apartment leasing and marketing teams are facing, but we certainly do have the motivation to think outside the box and adapt to change.

From an evolutionary perspective, it isn’t the largest or most influential that necessarily survive, but those most able to adapt.

• Leasing Teams are working from home answering calls & following up with prospects.
• Leasing Teams are social distancing in the office to tour prospects in our apartments. Apartment tours are being provided using apps, not in person. They are using virtual leasing techniques. There are techniques!
• Marketers are advertising “View our Apartments on on a app” on their websites, Google, and social media. Note the words Skype and Facetime are trademarked and should not be used in Google ads.
  
• Leasing Teams are making videos of their vacant focus apartments and adding them to their websites.
• The follow-up effort is being completed using a virtual tour or video. While they’ve already seen the apartment in person, they can continue exploring online with a complete walk-through and even share with family and friends. We all know it’s reasonable to tour an apartment two times.
• Stacking map are being created that lets prospects explore your community by each floor, selecting between floor plates to view available apartments. Example: https://centraltower.ca/floorplans/
• 3D artists can take professional photos of your vacant apartments and stage them with graphic furniture, decor, and other elements to bring the rooms to life. The process is also relatively short – about one week. https://com/renderator-case-studies/ 
• Have professional photos of your community? Great! But don’t let them gather dust on Google or your website. Leverage their marketing power across hyper-visual platforms like Instagram and Pinterest.
• Trainers are using this time to provide additional online leasing training to those not working in community offices.

Stay in touch and learn demand by apartment type.