LOS ANGELES-Apartment complex managers must meet the demanding standards of so-called “Echo-Boomers,” as the 20-something children of Baby Boomers enter the rental housing market. This was just one of the major takeaways from a panel of property managers Thursday at the RealShare Apartments 2011 conference in Los Angeles. RealShare Apartments was produced by ALM's Real Estate Media Group, which also publishes GlobeSt.com and Real Estate Forum.

Echo-boomers are “going to have a huge impact on the rental market,” Rick Graf, president of Pinnacle Family of Cos. The RealShare Conference Series is produced by ALM's Real Estate Media Group, which also publishes Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com.

Renters in their 20s and early 30s are tech-savvy, conducting much of their business and personal relationships on the Internet and smart phones, according to Graf. These renters require flawless Internet and telephony reception in their units, and are likely to be inpatient with any flaws or service interruptions.

And most important to property managers, the same group of renters will likely prefer to communicate with buildings owners and managers via laptops, tablets and iPhones. This style of dealing with renters, as opposed to old-fashioned walk ins and telephone calls, represents a cultural shift for many managers, he said.

Not surprisingly, the Internet has already transformed property management in the past five years, as property managers accustom themselves to receiving, and acting on, service requests on a 24-hour basis. 

Echo Boomers tend to be demanding tenants, according to Christine Schoellhorn, managing director of Greystar. For younger renters, “everything has to be online,” she said. “It’s all about instant gratification,” she added. “Maybe they’re a little entitled.”

The trend of conducting business with Echo-Boomer tenants on the Internet and on high-tech communication devices is likely to increase sharply in the next five years. That trend means that in many cases, property managers will be obliged to outsource some technical-support functions. 

If managers fail to respond quickly to renters’ service requests, they are likely to experience rapid turnover in their buildings, according to Janine Steiner Jovanovic, president of YieldStar and MPF Research. “Technology support has to work,” she said. “If it doesn’t, (Echo Boomers) are on to the next property. If young renters “don’t get an immediate response, they are on to the next property,” she said. “They’re nimble,” she added.

At the same time, property managers should not think in stereotypes, according to Jovanovic.  About 40% of Echo-Boomers are minorities, predominately Latinos and Asians, who “don’t necessarily have the same buying habits or (consumer) behavior” as the other 60% of twenty-something tenants.

One distinctive difference is that many minority renters tend to marry earlier in life than the majority of Echo-Boomers, according to Jovanovic. That preference, she added, means that minority Echo-Boomers are likely to be renters for a shorter time than those in the majority population.