Will Apartment Revenue Management Systems Drive Residents To Homeownership?

Handing the keys back? Will apartment Revenue Management Systems drive tenants to homeownership?
Who’s handing who the keys?

Property Management Insider had a piece out last week How Revenue Management Systems Make Leasing and Renewals Easier that talked about how RMS took all the emotion out of raising rents on renewing residents.

…a community manager may occasionally resist a rate increase for a long-time resident or one who has become valued over the years.  Business is business, however.

“When they start to say, ‘Oh, Mrs. Johnson has been here six years,’ we try to get them away from the emotional aspect of pricing,” he said. “We say if we really wanted to lift our rents and maximize our revenue, we have to make some tough decisions, and some people who can’t afford it may have to move out.” [Emphasis Mine]

As owners, operators and property managers who doesn’t love getting top dollar rents?

The math behind RMS (if done correctly) can definitely drive rents higher if it’s backed up by enough data to draw statistically valid references. At its Continue reading Will Apartment Revenue Management Systems Drive Residents To Homeownership?

College towns are top destination for Gen Y job hunters…. and renters.

Where are Gen Y students most likely to find jobs? If you guessed New York or San Francisco, you’d be wrong. This year, small towns led the way as larger cities were more susceptible to economic downturns and only ranked outside of the college towns division on the index. As the report suggests, many small towns are essentially recession-proof since they house a consistent population of spenders.

Apartment building investments are good in small college towns
Cornell University in top rated Ithaca NY. Photo credit: campustravel.com

See the whole MFE piece with the list and a link to cool map here.

Those small college towns, or tertiary markets as they’re called, often fly below the radar of institutional investors and therefore dodge the cap rate compression that bigger markets suffer when institutions start buying up properties. Send me a message to find out how we analyze these markets for apartment building investment and some of the towns we like today. Continue reading College towns are top destination for Gen Y job hunters…. and renters.

What Gen Y Wants in Apartment homes and How They Find It. New Research via Multi Family Executive

No real new news but good reinforcement on Gen Y prospects and renters:

  • They search using their phones, tablets and laptops so your marketing sites have to be readable by all three.
  • They use social media to check the vibe of your property.
  • They want a good location.
  • More than tanning beds, pools or other amenities they demand reliable wireless connection, cat5 wiring in the walls and cell reception in the unit. If you’ve ever lived somewhere that had bad cell reception you can relate.

If you are acquiring property these last two items should be high on your list. Making sure that your existing property has a consistent web presence is becoming more and more important to attract this growing demographic. Finally, making the wireless connection throughout your property is worth the effort.

See the whole MFE article for the results from two different research studies published this year.

Apartment building owners benefit from prime renter group ‘unbundling’, driving rents and occupancy.

The recovery from the ‘Great Recession’ has been anything but slow for apartment building investment. During the recession many of the prime renters (age 20 t0 34) were hit hard by unemployment and m0ved back in with their parents. Others ‘bundled up’ by moving in with their friends.

“Sometime between 2010 and 2011 the number of doubled-up households started to decrease. This reversal released a great deal of pent-up demand for apartments. A greater number of people sharing multi-bedroom apartment units, as well as a greater number of young adults living at home, were able to move out and rent their own units. Moreover, these young adults largely did not purchase homes.”

After being hit hard by the recession, younger workers have benefited more than others from the recovery in hiring. Since the bottom  in late 2009/10,  the prime age cohort for rental apartments (ages of 20 and 34) has a net gain of more than 1.5 million jobs. This has enabled many of these young workers to move into their own apartments.

But will it continue?

“The 2010 decennial census estimates that roughly Continue reading Apartment building owners benefit from prime renter group ‘unbundling’, driving rents and occupancy.

Is Gen Y your target demographic for Multifamily? Here’s why

Gen Y—those between the ages of 16 to 33—represents about 25 percent of the population in the country and is now larger than the baby boomer generation, which is shrinking

The Gen Y group keeps getting larger for a number of reasons, including the fact that immigrants to the United States typically come as young adults—and rent. This group is expected to continue to expand over the next 15 years.

Through 2017, she adds, there are going to be more than 4.3 million people turning 22 each year (though analysts used to use 18 as the age people left home, young people have delayed forming new households). This number is expected to remain above 4 million until 2025. And, of course, fewer people looking to purchase a home also bodes well for the multi-housing industry.

Gen Y in line for multifamily

See the whole article at: Gen Y for Multifamily on MHN Online