By Sunny Kancherla, CEO/Founder www.GardenStateApartments.com
The Power of the Internet
If you have not added online advertising to your real estate marketing mix, its not too late. In fact, online marketing is becoming a cheaper, more efficient, and more powerful tool to help you accomplish your real estate objectives. In this piece, we will discuss some of the reasons why the Internet is such a powerful tool for advertising your vacancies.
The Internet is no ordinary advertising and marketing vehicle. By nature, the Internet is interactive. It acts as a communications channel, a distribution channel, and a transaction channel. It is equipped with the capacity for dynamic multimedia content that no other advertising channel allows. And the most amazing aspect is that it allows the user to access, edit, and delete information instantly at his/her own convenience.
Landlords just can’t ignore the efficiencies it offers, in terms of attracting prospective tenants and assisting in the application and leasing process. Furthermore, managing and advertising multiple properties is simplified through management databases offered by most websites. Often times, all you have to do is simply click and the world will receive your message. In the end, online marketing saves valuable time and is very cost effective.
Why Tenants Use The Web
In 2005, according to the National Association of Realtors, 77% of Americans searching for their new home used the Internet (which has surpassed yard signs at 71%). When you stop to think about why so many people use the net, it makes sense. The Internet offers at-will navigation and viewing. Prospective tenants are most attentive when reviewing apartment listings online because they are actively researching at their convenience. They are not restricted to newspaper classifieds, driving to open houses, or being at the mercy of their agent who only has an hour or two to work with them.
In addition, convenience and anonymity helps to make prospective renters more comfortable when asking questions and processing requests. A tenant can email or contact a landlord without ever having to pick up a phone or make an appointment. Similarly, for tenants whom have neither the time nor accessibility to physically see your units, virtual tours and digital images give a more realistic, and some argue, more attractive, view of their potential new homes.
Future tenants can easily imagine what their apartment will look like after they move-in and the Internet allows them to get comfortable with your unit, neighborhood, and management, even before they ever step foot inside. In addition, posting your leasing requirements upfront can save the hassle of phone calls from tenants seeking additional information and from tenants who do not qualify for your units.
Using the Internet to Rent Units
Don’t get us wrong, traditional classified ads, grocery store flyers, and the good-old-fashioned sign on the lawn still play an important part in renting out your units, (trust us, we still use them) but if you are not augmenting your current vacancy advertising strategy with an effective online campaign, you are missing out on a whole lot.
In all honesty, you cannot afford not to use Internet advertising.
Now many of you may be thinking, “I’m already spending so much, do I really have to spend more?” The answer is no. Most of us have a static annual budget for advertising our vacancies (if we can help it). We estimate that on a traditional static budget, optimal marketing results can be achieved when online advertising ranges between 15-20 percent of the vacancy marketing mix.
By adding online advertising to you advertising strategy, it expands your reach and coverage. (Remember, we’re not telling you that you have to spend more, but to simply adjust what you are spending on.) Reallocating dollars from your newspaper advertising efforts to an effective online advertising medium will produce a better return on investment, with no extra dollars spent.
Even the National Board of Realtors said last year that the Internet has surpassed print as the best advertising medium to buy and sell homes. The same applies to tenants. As logging on to the Internet becomes easier, faster, and more affordable, more of your prospective tenants are clicking before they ever consider calling you (just think about how many tenants have asked if you have high-speed Internet access in your units).
We have observed that owners who have realized the benefits of Internet marketing usually fall in to one of two groups, 1) Those who are already using it effectively but don’t want to clue in the competition or 2) Those who are using it now and won’t shut up about how great its working out for them.
Choosing the Right Online Advertising Provider
Choosing the right company to represent you and your property should be done carefully. Since the company you choose to work with displays your property 24/7 and manages sensitive property information, choosing an online real estate marketing company is a lot like choosing a real estate agent. You want to work with someone trustworthy, knowledgeable, responsive, and who can show you results.
As you are surfing the web you’ll run into a plethora of companies that are “rental sites.” But before you go wasting your time filling out forms and giving away credit card information, take a moment to review the site from the tenant’s perspective. If you find valuable information on the site, the site has significant properties in your region, and the site is user friendly, then that is a site you want to have a business relationship with.
As a partner in an Internet marketing company, I am advising you from our experiences. Our staff has marketing professionals, writers, web developers, real estate agents, and investment advisors who have spent their lives as tenants, landlords, agents, and property managers. Having seen the rental transaction from every viewpoint and then applying today’s technology, we have created a useful online advertising resource for tenants, landlords, managers and agents. Because we focus on all of the major stakeholders of a rental transaction, we provide value to each user’s experience. Of course since we developed this product, we have a natural bias, but if you can find another site with the same guiding principles, we advise you to stick with them.
Online Advertising: Taking the Plunge
Even if you are not computer savvy or if “the web” still sounds like something a spider spins, using the Internet to advertise is easy and sometimes you don’t even have to be tech savvy at all. Many times, a niece or nephew can help you set everything up in just a few minutes. And some Internet sites will even allow you to fax them your vacancies and then you just call to notify them it was rented. It can be that easy.
In most cases though, you will be required to create a user ID and password to gain access to the website. This access will allow you to input and update your listings, including photos, prices, and amenities. Best of all, is Internet is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. By simply updating your units online, the changes are instantaneous, and results can be immediate.
We invite you to consider what we have told you above and get started today. Remember, choose your online advertising “partner” carefully and simply reallocate some funds from one form of advertising to another. Believe it or not, just changing how you spend a few dollars on advertising your vacancies can really make an impact on your rental income and your quality of life. This year, start out with 10% of your budget and increase it if you like your results. Take it from us, online apartment rental advertising makes dollars and sense!
Mr. Kancherla, (MBA- Rutgers) is the CEO/Founder of New Jersey’s Online Apartment Rental Network , GardenStateApartments.com. Sunny, a former credit manager at Wachovia Bank, is a real estate broker in NJ, NY, and MA. www.GardenStateApartments.com launched in 2006 and is the Fastest Growing Apt Rental Network in NJ.
This article was published with the New Jersey Apartment Association.
