Category: Property Management

They’re Coming from Everywhere – Deliveries That Is 
 
We all know it; we all feel it; we all see it. There is a massive influx of packages coming to our communities on a daily basis. No longer just Monday through Friday but on Saturdays and Sundays, too. 
All the major carriers – UPS, FedEX and USPS – are now on a seven-day delivery schedule or are getting ready to launch a 24/7/365 delivery program, just to keep up with the likes of Amazon. But where else are these packages coming from? 
Let’s examine what could be driving the ever-growing number of deliveries coming to your properties day-in and day-out: 
Major Retailers are Taking on Amazon 
Walmart, Target, Kroger and other retailers already offer direct-to-home delivery services, but due to increased demand and huge success, they are expanding their services. 
In September, Walmart announced the launch of its Unlimited Delivery Membership. For a low monthly or yearly subscription fee, consumers have access to unlimited grocery deliveries. Think Amazon Prime Pantry but for more affordable fruits and vegetables. 
After a successful pilot in four markets earlier this year – Houston, Miami, Salt Lake City and Tampa, the retailer is expanding the program to all 200 metro areas where it already has established Grocery Delivery service. The company shares that the service will be available in more than 1,600 stores and more than 50 percent of the country by the end of the year. 
Further easing shopping for consumers, Target’s Restock program aims to fulfill ……

Ready or Not – Here Come the Holidays (and a Flood of Package Deliveries)
Ask an onsite associate about package management, and you’re likely to see them break into a cold sweat. They might start rocking back and forth and mumbling to themselves.
 
I’m joking, of course, but there’s no denying how burdensome handling residents’ package deliveries can be for apartment communities. These days, parcels are arriving seven days a week, and they come in all shapes and sizes. And online retailers often aren’t exactly models of efficiency: surely you’ve placed an online order only to watch each of the purchased items – no matter how small – arrive in their own individual box.
 
Stats provide powerful testimony to the scope of the problem that today’s multifamily properties face.
 
For instance, total e-commerce sales in the U.S. totaled $513.6 billion in 2018, according to the Commerce Department. That represents an increase of 14.2 percent from 2017.
 
Also consider the fact that, in 2019, global sales for Amazon Prime Day – an event so hyped and anticipated it seems as though it’s become another national holiday – reached $7.2 billion, according to an Internet Retailer estimate. That’s a 71 percent increase from the preceding year.
 
Well, here’s some sobering news for apartment communities: the holidays are coming – and that means package management is certain to be more chaotic than ever.
 
The Holiday Forecast
Online retail sales in the U.S. are expected to reach $143.7 billion during November and December, a……

Let’s face it: it’s a mobile app world, and we’re just living in it. According to eMarketer, smartphone users spend 90 percent of their time online in apps. One study showed that the total sessions in travel/navigation apps increased 50 percent worldwide between 2016 and 2018, while another one indicated that more than half of consumers (57 percent) have used a retailer’s mobile app while in-store. Yet another one demonstrated that consumers are expected to download 258.2 billion mobile apps in 2022, up from 178.1 billion in 2017.These numbers provide powerful evidence that mobile apps play a fundamental, indispensable role in people’s lives. And they should remain top of mind when apartment communities consider whether to offer residents a mobile app or a mobile-optimized portal.What’s the Design Difference?We all know that the main difference is that apps must be downloaded by the user for use on a mobile device through an app store like Apple or Google Play. Unlike mobile-optimized sites, apps allow businesses to send out push and in-app notifications to the user. Generally speaking, apps can provide users with a more nimble and responsive experience than mobile websites can. Mobile-optimized websites are designed to easily accommodate different screen sizes. Users can access them through their phone browsers without downloading anything to their mobile devices. When contemplating whether to implement a mobile-optimized resident portal to allow residents to do things like make rent payments or file service requests, multifamily operators should bear in mind that users have different communication and……

E-commerce is growing at a rapid-fire pace. Your residents now have access to millions of products online, and they can purchase them at all hours of the day or night. And those purchases need to make it to your residents somehow, someway. 
Ten years ago, package management was a task for the onsite leasing teams. It was something they could easily manage. However, as e-commerce grew and more and more packages were arriving onsite, it became obvious that managing packages was too taxing and too time consuming for your teams. 
Enter package lockers. For the last five years, these systems effectively tackled the storage conundrum and gave your teams their time back. But now, as e-commerce continues its jaw-dropping growth, the industry is starting to realize that onsite lockers by themselves are no longer enough. 
The number of carriers is no longer limited to the top three. Packages are arriving at all hours of the day, and your residents want to be able to retrieve and even ship their packages any time they want. 
So, what is the next phase in package management? The way I see it, there are two choices. 
Option 1: Potentially frustrate your residents by not accepting packages onsite
There has been a shift in the industry towards not accepting resident package deliveries onsite. Communities either require packages be shipped off-site or they make residents find other places to have them delivered, like work. The problem with this option is that while it makes your associates’ jobs e……

 
Working today often means joining a team with a range of ages. A millennial may manage you, but you may still work with Generation Xers and baby boomers.
 
 
As more boomers work past retirement age and as tech-savvy millennials continue to graduate and enter the workforce, the stark differences in the values, communication styles and work habits of each generation are becoming increasingly pronounced.
 
Every person comes into the office with different life experiences, perspectives and views, which is valuable to the company. Having varying perspectives of seeing the world helps you to see more of the landscape and your company’s spot in it, and that’s a great thing.
 
How do you create and manage a cohesive team? Here are the four biggest challenges in the modern work environment and how to deal with them head-on. 
 
Company culture
 
People sometimes think company culture for younger generations means rooms with ping-pong tables and no set office rules. While these can be perks, they’re not necessarily what defines company culture.
 
The way in which your employees receive company culture is one of the toughest and most important aspects of running a business. When the workforce is happy and teams enjoy their environment, the atmosphere as a whole is more productive.
 
I have found that hosting company events and happy hours, and celebrating joyful occasions is a great way for everyone to grow together.
 
Whether it’s a summer pool party, celebrating birthdays in the……

I’m sure you’re doing a lot when it comes to apartment marketing. After all, no one wants to have empty units in their communities—that’s potential income just sitting there. Plus, you gotta admit, it’s a little spooky. 

But when it comes to marketing, there are certain missteps that people make that can lead to missed opportunities. Are you making them? I’m not here to judge (well, maybe a little). Here are some common mistakes that you should avoid when you’re trying to lease up your apartments.

Over the past several years, equity in the apartment industry has spent a lot of time and effort pursuing value-add acquisitions.
At first glance, it’s easy to see why. Generally speaking, value-add communities are older properties in need of renovations to remain competitive. As a result, their acquisition costs historically have been lower than those of core communities – properties that were built fairly recently, have strong operating fundamentals and are in great locations.
When you couple the lower acquisition costs of value-add communities with the ability to significantly increase rents through renovations, there is the potential for higher returns than you might find from core investments. 
But now, some owners and investors who have dabbled in the value-add arena – including JVM – have become more cautious when pursuing these opportunities. That’s largely because the prices of value-add properties have increased with all of those investment dollars chasing them, reducing the opportunity to get those desired returns.
Instead, many of these investors are embracing the attributes of core properties.
The Issues with Value-Add
The rising costs of value-add properties have definitely given some multifamily investors pause. When you combine these prices with the cost of renovations like granite countertops, stainless-steel appliances and vinyl-plank flooring, you can sometimes end up paying close to core price and getting a core-like return at the end of the day.
Value-add properties also can saddle owners with other unexpected expenses that don’t really impact a community’s ability to drive rents. Since these properties typically are older……

Relax your mind and take a deep breath and hold it in; hold, hold, hold….
Maybe we shouldn’t hold our breath for too long because in most areas 5G may not become available for some time, if at all. Further, 5G may have some very serious physical limitations, especially indoors.  
If and when 5G fully matures could it replace WiFi 6 or will it complement it? Looking back may shed some light on what to expect; this article from Qorvo.com sums it up nicely;
“Every time a new cellular phone standard comes out, we see new claims about the “end of Wi-Fi.” When 3G was announced, the promise was that it would make Wi‑Fi (802.11b) redundant, which clearly turned out to be incorrect. With 4G (LTE), this story repeated itself and claimed it would put Wi‑Fi (802.11ac) in the shredder. And now the 5G message is that it will cover both the inside and outside of homes and buildings. It’s almost as though Wi‑Fi will soon no longer be needed [sarcastically].”
In any event, the best bet for lighting fast, affordable Internet for apartments or any group-setting, whether it be with 5G, Fiber or the latest WiFi technology (or a combination), might be with a Private Network Operator (PNO). PNO’s build privately-owned networks for small group settings like apartments, HOA’s, neighborhoods and community clusters. And yes, you can have a Private Network that uses all three technologies; 5G, Fiber and WiFi 6. These privately-owned networks have the flexibility to stay ahead of the technology curve, generate revenue……

I’m intrigued by Beyond Meats and I haven’t taken a single bite of one of its products. But let’s all agree: Beyond is a clever and effective marketing term.
 
If you are not aware of the Beyond product, it’s a plant based “fake” meat product. You could even call it “artificial” meat. But calling a product fake or artificial is a doomsday approach to marketing.
 
“Beyond” sounds so much better. Google defines it as “go beyond … to do more than (something); to do more than is expected or required.”
 
And consider these common phrases: “The Great Beyond,” “Above and beyond,” “Beyond belief” each implies greatness. Now that’s a powerful message to use when describing any product or service.
 
Beyond’s products are grabbing more eyeballs (and revenue) today in food marketing. My ‘fake meat’ sightings just during the past two weeks: Placed in several local grocery store meat aisles; Dunkin’ Donuts’ window signs for its Beyond sausage breakfast sandwiches; Burger King hyping it on TV – even pitting it against its traditional Whopper.
Popular family food restaurant chain RedRobin highlights it on its menu. I asked a waiter there if he’d tried it (yes, he has). Was it good (yes) and what did his customers think about it (they liked it). Even McDonald’s is launching the P.L.T. (plant, lettuce, tomato) burger, which will go on sale in 28 McDonald’s locations in Canada.
 
So, it’s a word that is gaining momentum. Does your product or service go “beyond” that of your competition? For apartment co……