Painfully Polite Notes on Apartment Marketing

I didn’t even notice the bright yellow post-it-note on my windshield until I had already climbed behind the wheel and settled into the driver’s seat. Maybe one of my friend’s recognized my car in the Target parking lot and left me a note, or better yet, an invitation to join them next door for happy hour. Upon further investigation though, I found myself victim to a Passive Aggressive Note Attack. “Who taught you to park?”, the note said. A quick glance down revealed my tires slightly crossed the solid white line that neatly divides each space. The euphoric high I was feeling from a shopping spree at my favorite store quickly sobered and my good mood deflated.

Get your act together. Exercise some consideration when you leave your large hunk of metal in a public place.

If you didn’t already know, there is a popular website devoted to  passive aggressive notes. Cruise around the site and you’ll find a great collection of funny stories and a small disclaimer that says notes posted here “share a common sense of frustration that’s been channeled into written form rather than a direct confrontation. It’s barbed criticism disguised as something else — helpful advice, a funny joke, simple forgetfulness.” Now, imagine what would happen if our current residents and potential prospects began to leave us notes about our apartment marketing. What would they say?

MARKETING CITATION

• Now Leasing. “Seriously. Did you ever stop leasing?”
• Materials that are copies of copies of copies. “Cough up a couple quarters and pay for a color print.”
• Pictures of the community sign in advertising. “Is this sign really the best thing you’ve got going for your community?”
• Photos of empty swimming pools. “Is there something floating in the water?”
• Thanks for Popping In tag on a bag of microwave popcorn. “We can see that big, bulk-size box of popcorn every time we shop at Costco.”
• Hop on Over. “Did you mean to send this cartoon drawing of a frog to me or my five-year-old kid?”
• We Love Our Residents. “No you don’t.”
• Multiple signs with flags. “C’mon kids, everybody out of the car. It’s a theme park!“
• Balloons. “What time does the clown arrive?”
• Ignoring rants on ApartmentRatings.com. “If you close your eyes, they will go away.”
• Fliers on pizza boxes. “The 90’s called and they want their idea back.”
• If You Lived Here, You’d be Home by Now. “If I lived here, I would be dodging traffic in the median.”
• Microsoft Publisher. “I’ve seen that flier somewhere … the church bulletin board. No, it was a PTA meeting. And, the corner deli. Wait a minute, I have seen that flier everywhere!“
• Otis Spunkmeyer cookies. “Otis is better than 6-degrees from Kevin Bacon. Everybody knows him.”

After a list like that it’s time to give a shout out to The Apartment Expert – Lisa Trosien for opening a similar conversation on her Facebook Fan Page. Have you received a passive aggressive note about your apartment community? If so, share it with us.

Baby It’s Cold… Inside?

I suddenly find myself again facing that awful task of searching for a new apartment.  And this time, I’m looking for something special.  Last year my concern was finding something affordable, close to school, and on central bus lines; however, I now have real job and a car, so my priorities have changed.  I don’t want to end up in some cookie-cutter apartment with no character.  When friends visit, I want their jaws to drop with jealousy because they couldn’t find an apartment nearly as unique as mine.  But at the same time, the rent does need to be reasonable (sadly my starting salary is not $100,000 a year).

So where am I going to find this amazing apartment?  Why, craigslist of course!  I mean, these days, what can’t you find on craigslist?  And luckily for me the apartment selection on craigslist is expanding.  Say I was looking for a cozy studio apartment that made me feel at one with nature:

Say whaaat?

This can’t be for real…

Yeeeeaaah!  Welcome home!

Cost: $200/month (Affordable: check.)

Neighborhood Security: Campus Police (Safe Area: check!)

Water: Must be melted by occupant (Utilities Included: check!!!)

The only downside here is that the landlord won’t be held responsible for loss of walls/roof/entire structure of the building.  But then, it’s not like I’ll be signing a 12 month lease, so bring it on!

Is your apartment community providing unique, if not long lasting, qualities?  Share with us at blog@beyondwineandcheese.com!

Why Get a Broker When You Have Craigslist?

I will be the first to admit that emails can sit in my inbox for months before receiving a reply (if they are lucky enough to ever get one).  I don’t know what it is I find so daunting about writing back, but most of the time I just make excuses to myself about why I can’t get around to replying until I legitimately forget.  Now, you’d think this would make me more understanding of instances when others do not reply to my emails; however, I am bound to get super frustrated, especially when I don’t receive responses to work-related emails.

I know I’m not the only one who feels this way.  In fact, I always laugh a little when I see wall posts on Facebook from people whining about someone not responding to a text.  At least I don’t get that worked up about lack of communication.  But what about when it’s something really important?  Like you found the perfect place to rent on Craigslist and haven’t gotten a response to the message you sent the owner.  What to do now?

Clearly this person did not want to just move on and try to find another place:

To be perfectly honest with you, when I saw this headline I was really hoping for some drama.  Maybe a warning about how dangerous the neighborhood is, or exposing the person who posted the house as a liar.  I’ve never seen a Craigslist war before, so it could have been pretty exciting.  Sadly, that was not the case:

While I have to admit that this person was resourceful in using another Craigslist post to reach out to the owner of the house they want to rent, something tells me they are a lot more likely to be contacted by Craigslist creepers than the person they are actually hoping to speak to.  I mean really, posting your phone number?  And you’re not fooling anyone by leaving out the area code.  The Internet makes it veeeeery easy to find this kind of information…

PS: Is it really that hard to write in complete sentences?  You’re already making the effort to post this, why not just go all the way?

Do you feel like you’re placing a personal ad on Craigslist instead of renting an apartment?  Share with us at blog@beyondwineandcheese.com!

When Your Newsfeed Turns Into a Broken Record

Social media is one of those marketing tools that can work to your advantage if you know how to use it, or give you a bad rep if you don’t.  Well, I guess that’s true for ALL marketing, but since social media is still so new to many people, I see it hurt a lot more than I see it help.

One of my biggest pet peeves, as both a Twitter follower and Facebook fan of businesses, is seeing a misunderstanding of how to use the two websites differently.  I get really bored when I get on Twitter after checking Facebook and see the exact same things posted on both websites.  I understand this practice to an extent, but come on, you can put in a little more effort than having Facebook and Twitter connected so that your FB statuses are Tweeted (and vice versa) by the magical Internet fairies.

Along the same lines, if you are in charge of social media for numerous apartment communities under a larger company, you need to spice things up.  As a FB fan of yours, I want to see posts relevant to the area that your apartment community is located.  I want to feel as though you actually are engaging me in conversation.  However, if I am a fan of all (or even just a few) of your apartment community’s FB pages, any insincerity or repetition will be more than obvious.

So, for the sake of experimentation and proving a point, let’s check my Facebook News Feed for the latest:

Wow!  They sure care about how my week is going!  Let’s tell all of Indiana (and Miamisburg, OH) how I’m doing!

“My week is going pretty well!  I’m busy too – lot’s of Facebooking to do!”

“My week is going pretty well!  I’m busy too – lot’s of Facebooking to do!”

“My week is going pretty well!  I’m busy too – lot’s of Facebooking to do!”

“My week is going pretty well!  I’m busy too – lot’s of Facebooking to do!”

“My week is going pretty well!  I’m busy too – lot’s of Facebooking to do!”

“My week is going pretty well!  I’m busy too – lot’s of Facebooking to do!”

“My week is going pretty well!  I’m busy too – lot’s of Facebooking to do!”

………

Anyone else sick of this?  I thought so.  Point made?  Good.  Next time, change the wording or throw in something about the weather specific to each city… Geez.  In their defense, though, at least it wasn’t repeat posts letting me know they have a two-bedroom apartment available and I should lease now.

Is your Facebook community filling up your newsfeed with repetitive messages?  Share with us at blog@beyondwineandcheese.com!

These Boots Were Made For Walkin’ (In A Different Neighborhood)

I have spent the last four years of my life walking.  Well, walking and riding the bus (public transportation baby!).  That’s what happens when you spend all your money (and your parent’s money) on tuition instead of buying a car.  So it was like a small miracle when I finally graduated, got a job, and was able to buy a car.  Now I drive everywhere: to the gym, to visit friends, to Safeway a block away from my apartment.  Maybe my carbon footprint has grown a size or two, but hey, I’m living the American dream.

But regardless of whether I have a car or not, walkability is still important – especially when you live in a big city.  When looking at apartments, renters want to know how easily they can get their errands done on foot.  Hence, the Walk Score was created.  Not sure what Walk Score is?  The website describes it as “the walkability of an address based on the distance from your house to nearby amenities…not how pretty the area is for walking.”  Well, I’m glad they cleared that one up for me…

So to increase the attractiveness of an apartment community to would-be renters, managers are starting to post the Walk Scores for their communities in Craigslist ads.  But do they really tell you the whole story?  Let’s find out…

First we have this beautiful studio apartment:

Nice!  I don’t even have anything sarcastic to say about this!  And the walk score?

Well, well, look who’s bragging.  I feel like we’re talking about a dog now instead of an apartment.  “Oh yes, my little Fifi here is VERY walkable.  I doubt your mutt Fido has her walking abilities.”  Snobs.  I bet Fifi is a poodle.  But I digress.  There must be a catch here somewhere…

The price?  No.  The size?  No, keep reading to the right.  The Central District?  Yeeeeeah.  That would be the one.  If you live in Seattle, you understand this might not be the area you WANT to be walking around in.  So when you leave your “Very Walkable” apartment to go to the grocery store or park, you might want to pack your brass knuckles, some mace, and a blow horn.  This just reinforces the point that the Walk Score doesn’t take into account how pretty the area is for walking…or how safe.  Before you sign a lease based on an apartment community’s Walk Score, walk the area for yourself!

This message had been brought to you by the voice of my mother that lives in my head.  I never feel safe walking anywhere alone; therefore, neither should you.

Is your apartment’s Walk Score leaving out a few important factors?  Let us know at blog@beyondwineandcheese.com!

You Can Get It Free, But Does It Suck?

Whoever said, “The best things in life are free,” was a big fat liar.  OK, maybe if you’re talking about friends and family and the first day of sun after a long, overcast Seattle winter, it’s true.  But from a business perspective, it’s a load of bull.  The truth?  You get what you pay for.

Take customer service for example.  I am the type of person who likes to be treated well when I go shopping, so I’m willing to pay that extra $70 on a pair of shoes at Nordstrom because their salespeople are so nice, instead of going to TJMaxx for the bargain that comes with no service.  And as someone who works at home, I welcome that 15 minutes of small talk with a stranger during which we find out that we both know people who have studied abroad in Florence.

Now, I know there are also quite a few people who would rather creep through racks of clothes and go unnoticed by salespeople – shopping might be the only time you have to yourself all week.  But what if we’re talking about the business that you run and are trying to promote?  Wouldn’t you want vendors who provide you great service?  Even if it’s just showing up with a box of delicious cupcakes in exchange for a few minutes of your time?  Well, if the cost of their service is FREE, don’t pour yourself a glass of milk anytime soon…

One great example of this in the apartment industry is Craigslist ads.  Anyone can post an ad on Craigslist (which is a whole other topic for another time), so big apartment communities with luxury units need to do something to really stand out from the crowd.  This might include…

Posting a poorly designed ad that doesn’t even mention the name of your community?  And that links not to your website’s homepage, but:

That’s right, the homepage for GoGoPin so you can get a free account!  I gotta give it to GoGoPin – that is one smart way to advertise your own service while “providing a service” for another company.  Is it things like this that give the business world a bad reputation?  Nah…this is just innovation and creative thinking (although not so much on the part of the apartment community who attempted to advertise this way).

I’m sure the community realized the problems with this ad though, both the content and the link to GoGoPin’s website, because it looks like they decided to try posting another ad using photobucket this time:

It’s still graphically challenged, but at least they got the proper information in this one.  Let’s try clicking on the ad and see where we end up this time…

SURPRISE!  It’s photobucket’s homepage!  Didn’t see that one coming, did ya?  Man, they tricked us real good that time.  But ultimately, I think the joke is on this apartment manager in Fremont, eh?

So apartment communities, I know the economy is tough, but shopping at TJMaxx instead of Nordstrom isn’t going to get your units leased at the end of the day.  Life is a marathon, not a sprint, and those of us who can return just about anything and get our shoes repaired at Nordstrom are going to win.

Is your apartment community providing free advertising for a free advertising company?  Share with us at blog@beyondwineandcheese.com!

IIIII CAAAAAN SPEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAK WHHHAAAAAAAAAALE!

Sometimes I find it hard to communicate with words on paper – or in today’s world, via text, email, Tweet, Facebook message, etc.  I tend to be very animated when I speak to people, so I feel constrained when I can’t control how my readers interpret the message I am trying to get across.  Usually my tone and facial expressions convey about 50% of what I’m trying to say (particularly when being sarcastic).  Luckily, there are certain things we can do to text, including CAPITALIZE, italicize, bold, and underline – all in addition to awesome punctuation!!!

But I have to say, my favorite word alterations come when I am whining.  For example, “I don’t wanna gooooooooooooooooooooooooo!”  Or, “Eeeeeeeeew!  That’s grooooossssssssssss!”  There’s also “Grrrrrrrrrrrrr this is stupid.”  The common factor?  Adding multiples of certain letters.  So simple, yet so effective.  (Also great for communicating with whales, as we all learned in Finding Nemo.)  The only downside?  Spell Check HATES it.

However, this particular rental company does not agree with Spell Check:

Appar they think abbrevs are pretty fab too.  What are the chances it was some whiny hipster who posted this?  Let’s explore.

Well, this doesn’t exactly scream hipster, but it does scream.  Don’t all caps and 5 exclamation marks make it feel like they’re yelling at you?  And of course that makes me believe the place actually is SUPER CUTE!!!!

Er… This is not exactly my description of cute.  But to each his own?  And the fresh paint, really?  That color?  Fingers crossed it looks better in person.  You know, to make up for the house’s “cuteness.”  Although I can pretty much guarantee a hipster would have no problem living here.  It definitely looks like the kind of place you would find cases of PBR and bags of clothes from Value Village.

How does your apartment community get its message across on Craigslist?  Let us know at blog@beyondwineandcheese.com!

My Nomadic A** Ain’t Stoppin’ Up In Here

Young people have a history of being misunderstood.  Why that is, though, is anyone’s guess:

I call it, “Disgruntled Youth”.

We go from living with our parents who insist on us keeping our rooms clean, to dorms where the opposite sex is not even allowed in our rooms, to apartment buildings that won’t let us hold raging parties past 10pm.

But fear not, there is someone out there who understands us, and is making an effort to communicate in a way that does not include yelling our full names when we’ve done something wrong.  Better yet, he wants to be your roommate…

“$500 HOLY CRAP! IS THAT A ROOM FOR RENT ON MY CRAIGSLIST??!?!?!?

You bet your nomadic ass it is.”

Wow.  I already feel like this could be a very special place to live.  I definitely want to read more!

“ZOMG THE LOCATION IS THE S**T. You can WALK to Washington Avenue from here. So you can get your drink on and do some mackin playa. 10 mins from UH and Rice cause we all about higher education up in here.”

Um, well, I’m not completely sure what the “Z” stands for in “ZOMG”.  All I can think of is “Zoinks!” – but that’s Scooby Doo era, so maybe I am not as hip with the scene as I thought.

However, my grammar fails me not, and saying “we all about higher education up in here” somehow suggests to me that you are not in fact “all about higher education”.  But us cool kids don’t care about talkin’ right, does we??

Maybe it’s just me, but I am still really curious to hear about what amenities this place has!

“We got carpet up in this hoe too. They wanted to come put in hard wood floors. But I was like F**K THAT. I don’t want my feet to be cold when I get out of bed at night. Carpet. So soft. Transcends the walking barefoot experience.”

Dude, I love carpet!  The day my parents made me move to a new house where my bedroom didn’t have carpet was one of the worst days of my life! 

I can’t help but notice, though, that he should have used the correct spelling of “ho” as opposed to “hoe,” which belongs in my garden.  No worries though, I am sure there is something to make up for this small mistake…

“AWWW S**T! YOUR OWN PRIVATE BATHROOM!!!! WTF!?!?!? YUH! You can shower and take a s**t w/o anyone being up in your business!!! I’m not bullsh**tin either… I’m talking HOT WATER IN THE SHOWER.”

WHAT??  HOT WATER??  I would NEVER expect that at an apartment I am paying $500 a month for…

Does this guy really think that just cause I’m young this “amenity” is going to win me over?  Really?  Really??

Well, you know what, at least I have been fully entertained by reading this post.  And the author even posted a picture!!!  I’m sure he isn’t a creeper at all…

Yeah… Not a creeper AT ALL.

Is your attempt to attract Gen Y residents creeping people out instead of getting leases signed?  Share with us at blog@beyondwineandcheese.com!

Apartment Hunting in Your Birthday Suit?

Quick follow-up from Wednesday’s post: it isn’t just apartment communities in the industry trying to spice up things up with a “catchy” name. 

This new apartment search company is bound to leave a few of you red in the face.  My advice: don’t do a Google search for it, who knows what else will pop up. 

And make sure you have the URL correctly typed in before you hit enter!

http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/26/naked-apartments-attempts-to-ease-the-apartment-hunt-for-new-yorkers/

*Article link from The Apartment Expert – Lisa Trosien

What’s In a Name? Subliminal Messages?

When I was in 7^th grade, I met a girl named Eileen.  She told me her last name was Dover.  Although I never considered myself gullible, I totally believed her.  I even talked to friends about how ridiculous it was that her parents would name her Eileen Dover.  (Get it?  I-leaned-over?  Ha ha ha.)  Well, you can imagine I felt pretty ridiculous when the yearbook came out and it turned out her last name was actually Kim.  In my defense, she sounded completely serious about her last name being Dover!

I also went to elementary school with a boy who had rather questionable initials.  His name was Anthony Steven Swanson* – I’ll let you figure that one out on your own.  And I swear, this time it was completely true.  Even his mother had those same initials.

OK one more: my best friend in 5^th and 6^th grade had the last name Butts.  She and her siblings were teased so much about it they ended up legally changing their last name to Brokaw.

So what do all these random stories have to do with anything apartment related?  My point is that names stick and can have a huge effect on what other people think of and say about you.  I mean, all of my anecdotes are over 10 years old, but I still remember them like it was yesterday.  The same applies to names of companies.  In a world where young people try to turn anything into something dirty, is this really a good name for your company, Rick Steves?

Yes, that does say “Rick Steves’ Europe: Through the Back Door”.

No, I wouldn’t be surprised if he came up with that one when he was in Amsterdam, if you catch my drift.

And you all may or may not remember this gem of an apartment building found on FAIL Blog:

HAH!  “Crapi”…crappy.  Maybe it’s my own immaturity, but it just doesn’t get old.

You know, maybe this is the best new apartment marketing strategy for getting the attention of Gen Y.  Everyone seems so concerned about how to attract this demographic, when I can pretty much guarantee you an apartment building called “Through the Back Door” would fill up with college students in no time.  Especially if you put a washer/dryer in each unit.

What subliminal messages is your apartment community name sending?  Let us know at blog@beyondwineandcheese.com!

*I have changed the name to protect this person’s identity, but I promise, the initials have not been altered.