Renter Demands Don’t Always Match Owners’ Investment

Quantitative data and insights shed light on how renters plan to live in a post-pandemic world and how executive teams form their strategies. 

Information provided by Sarah Yaussi Pienik, Vice President, Business Strategy at National Multifamily Housing Council; Dom Beveridge, Principal at 20for20; and Tim Hermeling, Executive Vice President of Marketing at Cortland, helped to interpret the most desired home features and community amenities, what renters want in their leasing terms, connectivity needs and touring.

It was featured at the Apartment Innovation and Marketing Conference (AIM) on Tuesday in Huntington Beach, Calif.

Renters Will Rent Sight Unseen

The Grace Hill/NMHC renter preference survey showed that 43 percent of respondents said they would lease an apartment sight-unseen. Added Beveridge, “Yet, operators aren’t spending as much time on this as they should. And, the C-suite is frustrated that technology isn’t moving fast enough to make this happen.”

The self-guided tour model is evolving: “We’re nowhere near where we’re going to end up on this process,” Beveridge said. 

He said B and C property prospects lean more to in-person tours and self-guided tours are predominantly requested for A communities.

There were surprises. Or maybe not. Sound-proof walls rank No. 3 on residents’ list of “must-haves” – even higher than a dishwasher. The “work-from-home” factor adds to this desire.

One-third of respondents said they are “gaming” daily; that can put stress on a community’s Wi-Fi connections.

The Move to Centralization and AI

Beveridge said that he is seeing more and more tech investment decisions being made by asset managers and not the tech or onsite team.

Centralization is big. “If you can virtualize tasks, it can make sense,” he said.

AI-powered leasing is experiencing a high adoption rate. “It’s the biggest story of 2021,” Beveridge said. “And we’re not talking about just bots. It’s technology that has machine learning that applies from the call through the full prospect journey.”

With centralized leasing, Hermeling and Beveridge pointed out that “if a leasing agent is really good at what they do, and all of the apartment homes are leased, then what is he or she to do?” With centralized leasing, they can lease more at other communities in the portfolio.

Beveridge added that his 20for20 annual research report that documents opinions and actions by apart-suite executives found that CRM use continues to rise with operators choosing best-in-breed solutions.

He said financial decisions aren’t customer-based; technology can only contribute so much – it’s the content and messaging that sells the unit; and that he believes leadership teams should “stop thinking about automating existing tasks – think about what the prospects want.”