Rental Beast: A Better Way to Search for an Apartment?

Apartment hunting can be a painful process. Just check the Twitter stream and you'll see plenty of tweets like this:


(And as popular as it has become, Craigslist is what it is.)

There are a LOT of websites that are trying different models to improve the online apartment hunting experience. The major Internet Listing Sites continue to innovate, while new competitors like Cazoodle are trying to aggregate all apartment listings in one place to create a one-stop shop of sorts. (Cazoodle's tagline: "One Search, All Apartments, Entire Web!")

But according to one new player in the industry, the "show me everything you got" approach just creates more noise and frustration for serious apartment shoppers.

I had a chance to speak with the Ishay Grinberg, President of Rental Beast, a site that is trying to make apartment hunting easier, particularly for renters in large metro areas where brokers and apartment locators are commonplace.

Here's the pitch that Rental Beast makes to apartment hunters on its site:

• Never pay a broker fee


• Search validated listings


• Get direct contact to owners and management companies

Ishay wants RentalBeast to become the "ultimate rental database," comparing it to an MLS for single-family homes. He didn't provide details about how the property information on the site is sourced, but Ishay is confident that his site's differentiator is the quality of its content. He believes that "content is king" -- he is focused on taking care of his users first, and he thinks those users will gladly pay for better listings. To access the site as an apartment shopper, it'll cost you ... plans start at $29.

To get the word out and build their userbase, Ishay's team has spent a lot of time networking with off-campus housing, corporate HR offices and other similar resources, sharing their story with anyone who will listen.

Rental Beast verifies the listings on their site -- it's free for apartment marketers to list their available units. (Marketers can post their apartments here, even if your property is outside the Boston area.)

Because the site doesn't rely on apartment operators as their primary source of income, I asked if they would be open to posting property reviews on their listings. Ishay said they're certainly open to the idea, but it's not a feature they're actively working on.

The site launched in March 2009 and is already profitable, even though it's only available in the Boston area for now. Ishay believes he has a strong model that will work well in other key "24-hour markets" such as New York City, San Francisco and Los Angeles. (All are strong markets for brokers and third-party locator services.) As an example, Ishay claimed that one REIT told him that 65% of their leases in one market come from brokers. This contact-the-owner-directly could be quite appealing to apartment shoppers and property owners who typically deal with a go-between.

Ishay sees other opportunities for the database of properties that he is accumulating, and he claims to have other interesting strategic partnerships in the works (although we didn't get into details about any of these partnerships). In general, Ishay is very open to new ideas and partnership opportunities. His primary message: "Renters should stop going to Craigslist, and come to Rental Beast instead."

What do you think? Are you listing properties on Rental Beast? If you're in a market where brokers are common, do you think apartment shoppers will use the site? What about smaller markets? Let me know what you think!

#AptChat Discusses Revenue Management

Last Friday, the discussion on the weekly #AptChat focused on the use of revenue management (RM) solutions, which are software programs to efficiently determine rental pricing, while taking the emotion (and potential for overcompensation) out of the process. We're reposting the recap of that conversation here for our readers ... enjoy.

With representation from both Rainmaker (LRO) and RealPage (YieldStar) throughout the discussion and apartment operators on both sides of the fence, this turned out to be a very interesting, enlightening discussion.

First, it's important to understand what a revenue management system is and why apartment operators might want to use one. Here's how you defined revenue management software:

• Gary Katz: "For those unfamiliar with RM systems, they price apartments kind of like hotels price their rooms. Prices can change daily."


• Keith Dunkin: "RM systems provide the optimal blend of internal fundamentals and external data. Protects from over reacting to comps."


• Keith Dunkin: "Improved Revenue Performance, Increased Visibility, Pricing Efficiency, reduced carry costs."


• Steve Matre: "Classic yield mgmt, matches price to demand based on lease exp's and historic traffic, system sets price."


• Gary Katz: "The idea is too not price apts too low and leave $ on the table and not price them too high and leave them vacant."

We gave both Rainmaker and RealPage the opportunity to describe how they derive their pricing. Here's Rainmaker's response: "LRO optimizes rents based on supply & demand (traffic, leasing, availability, etc). Market response is measured & prices adjust." Bruce Barfield also added that "LRO uses electronic web scraping technology to get dynamic prices."
Janine Jovanovic answered for RealPage: "YS gets factual leasing data daily from 15k+ properties across the US + 5m MPF units + any data entered on site."

On to the recap!

Are you using revenue management software for your business? If yes, why? If no, why not?

• Jennifer Kennedy: "No....not sure that there is enough ROI."


• Donald Davidoff: "Been using it for 9 years with multiple tests that prove the ROI."


• Heather Blume: "I've worked with the software before, and talked to many clients who use it. Some love it, some don't."


• Keith Dunkin: "To echo Donald at Archstone, Rev Mgmt has been in place for years with proven revenue premiums to market in 2-5%, compelling ROI."


• Heather Blume: "What mgrs have said to me is that they lose the push/pull ability and it's difficult to stay competitive sometimes."


• Mark Juleen: "Nearly 2 years now with Yieldstar."


• Janine Jovanovic: "Managers and leasing staff have told us that they love it because it empowers them to sell more."


• Keith Dunkin: "On the ROI comment RM systems have been measured consistently in up and down market and both solutions have proven out."


• Trachelle Spencer: "We have been actively using LRO for over 6 years and would not go back to a manual process."

How long does an RM system take to 'pay for itself'?

• Rainmaker Group: "LRO typically pays for itself in a matter of months."

How many units before companies feel they need a "pricing guru" to over see the system? (Asked by Steve Matre)

• James Flick: "I would suggest 50+ properties for a dedicated individual in YS. Otherwise, use the consulting services w/ RealPage."


• Janine Jovanovic: "You can outsource pricing oversight to us. Makes sense to have your own internal resource at 10,000+ units."


• Trachelle Spencer: "We have 44 communities currently on LRO; there are two of us managing them. Doesn't include Lease Ups."


• James Flick: "It is probably more cost effective to outsource to an experienced consultant at Realpage vs. a full time person in house."


• Chris Long: "We have 150 properties and 3 dedicated resources."


• Trachelle Spencer: "It is important to have pricing professionals and not have the system run independently."

How tough is it to renew someone when their rent can, in effect, go down one day after they sign their renewal?

• Donald Davidoff: "Rents can go down in one day on manual systems."


• Janine Jovanovic: "This is a function of market conditions not RM - happens with or without RM in place."


• Leigh Curry: "What about the person who finsw out their airplane fare has decreased by $100 or hotel room by $50...fact of life."


• Mark Juleen: "We have struggled the most with making renewals as fair as possible."


• Trachelle Spencer: "We have processes in place to review renewals if necessary."

Along the way, there were a lot of great comments about implementation and the use of revenue management systems in general. Here are a few of the highlights:

• Mark Juleen: "We played with it for the first year trying to override too much. We just let it run now."


• Mark Juleen: "No more 'concessions' or 'specials' rents, just adjust both renewal and new."


• Mark Juleen: "In 2009 our Rev. was up 2% in Indy while most competition has reported they are down 2%."


• Lisa Trosien: "You have to know/learn how to 'sell' it to the prospect. It really does simplify the process."


• Janine Jovanovic: "Prospects can do math. They like the "check writing" price. You can say "concession" is built into the price."


• Trachelle Spencer: "Our communities do weekly competitive surveys. We are finding more accurate pricing online."


• Trachelle Spencer: "We have classes offered by our Training Dept. Site Visits, 1 on 1's, conference calls, webinars, etc."


• James Flick: "Have we aligned incentives and compensation for managers and leasing associates to get them to embrace rev mgmt?"


• Lisa Trosien: "RM is great: it's fair; it increases the bottom line; it creates urgency. It removes the 'fudge factor'. I'm a big fan."

One advocate for revenue management, Mark Juleen, laid out in detail why he likes using the program over manual pricing. Here's what he said:

• "MPF does market surveys for us & plugs that data into the system (at least with Yieldstar). No need for bs market surveys."


• "I can review pricing and approve changes in about 20 min. for our 12 properties."


• "You set a sustainable occupancy and if your team performs average you will usually sustain that."


• "If your occupancy dips below the sustainable, then you probably have a people problem."


• "If you outperform your sustainable then prices go up and you know your team rocks."

Even though Mark is a fan of the system, he still thinks there's room for improvement (and others seemed to agree). For more comments on this, and for the rest of the discussion, check out the full transcript.

What do you think? Are you using a revenue management system to set pricing? If so, what has been your experience so far? What can RM systems do to improve their models? Are you evaluating your options? Let us know what you think in the comments!

(#AptChat is free and open to anyone ... I encourage you to check it out!)

Tech Talks: Negotiating Better Telecom Agreements

As technology seems to be evolving faster than ever, it's been exciting to watch the Multifamily Technology community start to pick up steam. Requests to join our LinkedIn group have been steady; we are welcoming new members almost every day.

As our group expands, we also want to expand the ways we are providing value to you. We recently announced to the LinkedIn group that we'll be starting a series of Multifamily Tech Talks; the series kicks off tomorrow (Wednesday, February 17th) at 2 PM Eastern with Richard Holtz from InfiniSys Electronic Architects. The topic? Negotiating Better Telecom Agreements. Whether you're negotiating (or renegotiating) deals with the local cable company, evaluating FiOS or U-verse, or trying to determine how to make multiple providers work at your property, this is a call you won't want to miss.

There's still time to register, and you can submit questions any time prior to the event. All the information about Wednesday's call can be found here. Blog readers can use the code mt360 to get 25% off the regular rate, and paid attendees will also get access to a recording of the call following the event.

I hope you can join us on the call, and I hope you find value in the Tech Talk series as we move forward. Future topics include Onsite Technology Audits, Technology Trends for Multifamily, Technology for Senior Living, Tech Students Expect and more. If you have any questions or suggestions, please don't hesitate to contact me anytime.

(And if telecom isn't your thing, please let us know. As you can see from the subgroups we've established on LinkedIn, we're striving to provide a professional forum for everything from property management & operations software, to green technologies, to online & mobile marketing, to IT and network infrastructure. We're putting together topics for future sessions, and we'd love to cover the issues that matter most to you.)

Walkability Comes to MyNewPlace

MyNewPlace and Walk Score Team Up to Promote Walkable Apartments

"Location, location, location" has long been the cornerstone of the real estate industry. (The top apartment search sites – as selected by the tech-savvy readers of Lifehacker – all incorporate map-based search into their interfaces.) Now, MyNewPlace (MNP) is taking the notion of prime location to the next level by working with Walk Score to deliver more information to apartment hunters using their site. (MNP is no stranger to working with third-party sites to add interactive features to their listings.)

According to MNP, they are now the first major apartment search site to incorporate the Walk Score walkability ratings on every listing. Users will be able to sort apartment listings by their Walk Score, which should provide the prospect with a better snapshot of the surrounding neighborhood. One can presume that better informed prospects typically make for more qualified leads for apartment marketers. (More on this in a bit...)

In case you're not familiar with Walk Score, it's a website that rates a property’s walkability by analyzing the address to determine what sort of amenities are within walking distance. The higher the walk score, the more "walkable" a location should be. Walkability can be attractive to prospects looking for a neighborhood with easy access to all the conveniences of daily life – grocery stores, restaurants, schools, public transportation, etc. Here's one look at how the Walk Score ratings are integrated into MNP listings:

Why Add WalkScore?
MyNewPlace believes that the addition of Walk Score to their listings reflects renters’ emphasis on neighborhood information when choosing an apartment. One of MNP's recent surveys found that 79% of renters said that local information was an important factor in selecting what apartment to pick. With Walk Score built into MyNewPlace listings, renters are now able to get a true feel for the neighborhood and determine if it will be a good fit for their lifestyle. (What else are you doing to promote your property's neighborhood?)

Apartment marketers may think they have the best location – good neighborhood, great local attractions – but this feature will allow prospects to see that for themselves. By including walkability scores in their apartment searches, MNP believes they'll be able to deliver owners a distinctive competitive advantage.

The integration appears to be part of a two-way partnership. While Walk Score offers their own embeddable "real estate tiles," MyNewPlace is also powering an embeddable Walk Score Walkable Apartments widget – you can grab it here. MyNewPlace is also sharing data with Walk Score, showing how many apartments are available in the metro area searched by the user:


For more information, check out the announcement on the MyNewPlace blog.

My take: It's not an earth-shattering announcement, but it's encouraging to see that MyNewPlace continues to add new features to their listings. 'Renters by choice' are looking for convenience, and the Walk Score data could be an interesting way to deliver that information without the prospect leaving the site. I'm curious to know if apartment marketers with suburban properties can turn the feature off if they're concerned about their score, and I look forward to hearing from MNP down the road about how features like these influence the effectiveness of their advertisers' listings.

What do you think? Will apartment hunters use this new feature? And if they do, how big of a factor is walkability in the apartment selection process? Is there any downside to this partnership?

Does ApartmentGrade Make the Grade?

Last month, a new website called ApartmentGrade.com lauched with a big announcement on Multifamily Insiders. According to the site:

ApartmentGrade is a new site dedicated to providing renters with high quality unbiased reviews of apartments. We conduct independent research to find out who does the best job; from the leasing agent to maintenance requests we help you find the right apartment.

Leigh Curry and Lucas Haldeman are behind the site, and I had a chance to talk with them about it shortly after the announcement was made -- here are my notes from that conversation:

First, it's important to understand what ApartmentGrade is trying to do, as well as what it's not trying to do. AptGrade isn't competing as an alternative to Apartment Ratings or Yelp -- visitors can't go to the site to post a review of any given community. Instead, AptGrade is trying to become something of a "Good Housekeeping" seal of approval for apartment communities.

Rather than relying on comments from current or past residents, the ApartmentGrade team conducts a simple seven-question survey to judge how the property is doing. (They are currently working with at least two large multifamily operators.) They can conduct the survey for you, or you can add their questions into your existing survey program. Once the surveys are collected and validated, AptGrade lets the property owner choose which grades they would like to have featured on the site. There's no way to tell when the last survey was conducted at a property, but Leigh promises me that they'll soon have the survey dates posted.

Once the owner has selected the properties they want to feature, AptGrade sets up a profile page for the property. Any requests for more information are directed to the owner's ILS of choice. AptGrade makes money by referring these leads to the ILSs. It's unclear whether an owner could elect to send the traffic to their own website rather than an ILS, but I would have to imagine this shouldn't be too difficult to do.

ApartmentGrade will provide property marketers with special "badges" to indicate their high grades on their websites and ILS listings. To encourage marketers to post as many of the properties in their portfolio as possible, AptGrade will also provide badges for those companies that post a very high percentage of their properties' grades to the site. (I'm not sure this is enough incentive, but at least they realize the potential issue and are trying to address it.)

There is no way for readers to leave comments on individual properties at this point, although Leigh acknowledges that this is something that they made add later. As an alternative to comments directly posted to the site, they may also choose to include existing comment feeds from social media sites related to the property.

They plan to drive traffic to the site by focusing on search engine optimization and through several partnerships with apartment listing sites (ILSs).

So what do you think? Would you use ApartmentGrade? Do you think prospective renters will use it? I'd love to get your comments on this one. And if you can, check out the FIVE pages of comments on the entire subject of apartment ratings and reviews on the MFI discussion board.

Here's the full text of the announcement posted to Multifamily Insiders:

Finally there is a solution for owners and managers that are fed up with sites like ApartmentRatings.com and ApartmentReviews.net!

Announcing ApartmentGrade.com -- http://www.apartmentgrade.com -- the first web site dedicated solely to providing prospective renters with professional, credible, objective, and accurate reviews of apartment communities based on the current resident’s feedback. When prospective residents view a multifamily community at ApartmentGrade.com, they will see a review based on expert, professional, unbiased ratings of the existing residents of the community.

Who better to rate your community than your current residents?

ApartmentGrade.com:
-- Provides high quality, unbiased data from current residents to prospective residents
-- Promotes the positive aspects of apartment living
-- Highlights outstanding apartment owners and managers
-- Works with the multifamily industry, not against like other rating sites

How Does ApartmentGrade.com Work?
Using a proprietary scoring model, ApartmentGrade.com works with owners and managers that provide "internal" resident surveys or work with resident survey companies including CEL Associates, Satisfacts, J Turner Research, Kingsley, etc. We take that survey data to provide an unbiased and definitive "grade" of each apartment community based on the ratings of that community's residents.

This rating service is also free. That's right -- absolutely free. ApartmentGrade.com will also post your grade to its web site for no charge. On top of it, if the owner or manager of the community is uncomfortable with the grade assigned to your property, then we will re-rate that property for free if desired. Also ApartmentGrade.com will only post those communities that the owner or manager has authorized to be posted. You don't like your rating, we don't post it!

What do prospective residents see?
When prospective residents do a city, zip or state search on ApartmentGrade.com, they see all pertinent communities in that search parameter that are currently rated by ApartmentGrade.com. Each community listing also has a Google map, physical address, phone #, rent ranges, and bed and bathroom options. However to get more information on the property, if a user clicks on "Check Rates", "View Photos", "Get Driving Directions" or the photo of the community, the prospective resident is directed to the owner/manger's ILS of choice

To see some live examples of properties that have currently been rated and are posted live on the web site, please type in the following city searches:

-- Rochester Hills, MI
-- Bloomingdale, IL
-- West Chester, OH
http://www.apartmentgrade.com/search

Why should your multifamily company be involved?
Positive ratings drive engagement and demand. A prospective resident looking at two buildings side by side, similar in many aspects, rent, size, neighborhood, now have a reason to pick your property. A positive rating will not only give you a means to increase closing ratios, it can also help at renewal time.

Why leave an apartment with award winning customer service for some place unknown? ApartmentGrade.com is a partner to the multifamily housing; unlike current rating sites we are not trying to drive traffic through salacious anonymous gripes.

At ApartmentGrade.com our core goals are to provide high quality data while promoting the positive aspects of apartment living; rather than call out under performing properties and managers, we seek to highlight and promote the best operators and the best run properties.

By being a part of ApartmentGrade.com you are gaining a powerful tool -- independent confirmation that you provide a great place to live. We guarantee no other web site offers objective reviews and ratings of apartment communities like ApartmentGrade.com

To learn more:
Please feel free to contact me directly at lcurry@curryconduit.com or 609-882-3868 for more information on how your company's communities can participate immediately for absolutely no cost.

Best regards,

Leigh Curry
lcurry@curryconduit.com

Today in Multifamily Technology: December 30th

Wireless Offerings Coming from Cable Companies
We can expect cable operators -- not just traditional telcos -- to set the agenda for the wireless industry in 2010. It will be the first year Cox Communications operates its own cellular network and the first time Comcast and Time Warner Cable will provide access to wireless data networks with national reach. The question for multifamily: How does a wireless offer from the cable companies affect existing agreements, and how will this impact the deals that are available to owners from the telcos? From Forbes.com

Top Ten Solar Trends in 2009
This year has largely been a painful one for manufacturers and project developers around the world, though as always, they hope for a better one next year. Among the encouraging developments for the solar-energy industry in 2009 were signs that more localities favor the idea of letting property owners pay for solar-array installations when they pay their property taxes. The article also contends that a market for building-integrated photovoltaics is emerging, as seen in deals announced by Dow Chemical and the roofing maker Johns Manville. From GreenTechMedia

Windows 7, New Smartphones Top 2009's Tech News List
From the transition to digital TV to the Amazon Kindle, here are the top stories of the year in personal technology. From USA Today

Five Tech Trends to Watch
Looking at the custom home electronics market, areas of focus in the near future include 3-D TV, affordable custom (important to note for high-end apartments and middle-market condos), streaming digital media, the retrofit market and tying electronics systems into the smart grid. Look to these trends to get a better picture of your savvier residents' expectations. From CE Pro

A Look at ActiveBuilding's New iPhone App

There was a lot of conversation surrounding mobile at the NMHC Technology Conference, mostly related to marketing via SMS, websites optimized for smartphones or iPhone apps from companies like Apartment Guide and UDR.

I recently had the opportunity to interview one company that's taking a different approach to mobile -- here's the transcript of my interview with Kobi Bensimon, CEO of ActiveBuilding, about their recently released iPhone app, which is targeted to residents living at properties that use the ActiveBuilding resident portal software. Here's what Kobi had to say about their app:

MT: What is ActiveBuilding?

KB: ActiveBuilding is a platform that provides best-of-breed resident portals to residential properties. The offering includes a service component in which the resident portal is customized and tailored to perfectly fit the unique needs of every property. On-site teams are trained by the ActiveBuilding team and are being guided on how to best utilize their resident portal to achieve maximum effect on the property and residents

.
MT: 'Resident portal' is a loosely-used term these days ... can you be more specific?

KB: I was hoping you'd ask this question. In a nutshell, we automate and streamline all the processes and services at the property level; we also help residents fully realize the social potential in the property they live at. With over 70 different modules and a prominent social media component within our Resident Portal, Rent Payment and Maintenance Requests are just a couple of components, and not the entire resident portal.

MT: So you guys released your iPhone app. Why is that important for a resident portal?

KB: 1. Reach 2. Convenience 3. Cool factor

You see, at residential properties not everyone is connected to the web, and even if they are, it's easier to do stuff on the iPhone; and it is way cooler. We’ve seen registered residents download the ActiveBuilding iPhone app, and more so, residents that register to their property's resident portal because of the iPhone app. We have seen a surge in new registrations since the launch of the iPhone app.

MT: What does your iPhone app do?

KB: We focus on a combination of social and utility value. On the utility side, you will find the usual suspects, such as maintenance requests, package tracking etc. On the social front we enable residents to communicate with their on-site team and neighbors, without the need to have their neighbors’ contact info (such as email, or phone number).

MT: How is that achieved?

KB: We let residents send messages to their neighbors using only a unit number; if you know your neighbor's unit number, go ahead and communicate. It's that easy.

MT: And it works?

KB: Oh yes. You could have always done that through our Resident Portal, but this functionality is now enabled through the iPhone too; and thus makes it easier for people to communicate with their neighbors with greater convenience and freedom.

MT: Are there any privacy risks with this mechanism?

KB: Not really; at the end of the day, residents living in the same property can still stick notes on their neighbors' doors; except in that case they're anonymous. In our case, when you send a note to a unit number, they can see which unit messaged them; they can block messages from certain units, or become friends, and so it goes and the in-property social network is born.

MT: Can you tell us how many downloads you’ve had thus far?

KB: We just launched our app a little over a month ago, and we are already in the hundreds of downloads.

MT: What are the features residents use the most on ActiveBuilding’s iPhone app?

KB: Messaging and package tracking.

MT: Is your iPhone app free?

KB: It certainly is; but, you have to be a resident at a property that is using ActiveBuilding's Resident Portal for the iPhone app to work for you. Otherwise, it'll just be a waste of space on your iPhone.

MT: Any plans to expand the application to other platforms beyond the iPhone?

KB: Yes, both Android and Palm are things we need to do.

MT: Are they works in progress, or future goals?

KB: We’ve done some initial research and experimentation, but they are still in the future.

MT: What's next for your iPhone app?

KB: Version 2.0, of course: guest authorization, community marketplace and more. Somewhere between ground-breaking to revolutionary; we'll let our clients decide.

For more on the ActiveBuilding iPhone app (and a link to download it in the App Store), check out the ActiveBuilding blog.

Have you tried ActiveBuilding? If so, what has been your experience?

Are you using a resident portal at your properties? What are the features your residents use most? What are the most features that aren't yet available?