We’ll be real honest, selling smaller floor plans can be tricky. No one loves to hear a prospect say, “Oh wow, this apartment is so small.” But, when you hear that, that’s when it’s your chance to sell the lifestyle that comes with living in a smaller space. 

Fair Housing laws can be an intimidating mountain to face, and the anxiety that comes with it is understandable. There have been some real nightmare stories of violations ending careers and costing an enormous amount of money. That’s why we think this month’s webinar is such an important message that you need to hear from the one and only Anne Sadovsky, who’s kind of a legend in our industry.

This month’s marketing calendar is full of events that are sure to blow your residents away. Of course there’s tons of ideas for outreach marketing, resident retention, resident notices, and social media campaigns, but focusing on resident events seemed fitting for the season this month. Get ready to be inspired!

For a lot of us, it’s our nature to work as long and as hard as possible, sometimes (most of the time) to the detriment of our own wellbeing.  We put in overtime, we cut lunch short, we keep pushing back the time we say we’re heading home, and oftentimes that behavior can be justified because we are busy people. But I’m here to tell you, busy doesn’t justify sacrificing your well being both physically and mentally. 

As a property manager, leasing agent, or really any role we have in life there always seems to be an over abundance of to-do lists that need to be finished, items to be bought, and projects that need to be finished. With all that going on at once it can be hard to keep everything straight. Sprout has tons of resources to make your life easier. (One of our favs is the Daily Dose ideas our members rave about.) BUT, did you know that we also have other printable resources you can use to help keep your life organized?!

Let’s face it, there’s sometimes where leases are far and few between. It can feel like ‘frustrating’ isn’t even the right word to describe it. While those moments may come, we don’t have to accept the lag in leases as “normal”. We can combat the ‘leasing block’! In our free webinar, Lease It Like It’s Hot, that we’re hosting next week on August 20th, our CEO Barbara Savona is going to give you 2 secrets to getting more leases immediately.

Working within healthy boundaries that we set for ourselves sounds good but often times we don’t take the time or effort to put them into practice and stick to them. Boundaries are meant to be set up to be constructive, not destructive so there’s no need to be scared of them! To get some help with how to pick a boundary and stick to it, we asked the famous Casey Van Zandt for some coaching, and as always, boy did she deliver!

Another month, another calendar! As a Sprout member there are so many perks but in our opinion it’s hard to beat the monthly marketing calendar. There are just so many good nuggets in it that are easy to follow and more importantly, easy to accomplish. Be sure to download our August Calendar so that you can get all your ideas planned out and read on to find some marketing gems!

You are lucky enough to have a job where you are paid to take vacation so why do you always carry around a little rain cloud with you the whole time, feeling guilty for leaving? The fabulous Casey Van Zandt created a four part series to help us keep that guilt at bay while we’re on vacay! 

Do you ever find yourself staring at a blank document on your computer, hoping that some sort of miracle will happen and it will magically be filled with amazing and creative content for you to put into action? Well friends, you can call Sprout your marketing genie because we work magic for you every single month.

Mental blocks...we’ve all had them (and they always show up at the worst time!).

If you’ve ever felt frustrated, overwhelmed, or let’s be honest...maybe you’ve dreamt of running away to a deserted island in the middle of your workday, we are sharing our favorite hacks to get you back on track. The cool thing is these work in business and in life.

Funks...mind-numbing, soul-sucking career funks! It happens to the best of us. We lose the luster for our career. So what can we do about it? Throw in the towel and surrender. No, friends! We are not quitters. We are ditchers. We can start by ditching three things that every single person has been guilty of doing.

Did you know there’s a huge chunk of the student housing market you may be missing out on? With just a little shift in focus, Sprout can help you fix that!

Responding to member comments is not only a required aspect to your social media handling, but it is also a potentially lucrative aspect to your overall strategy. Showing respect and building professional relationships can pay dividends in the long term.

Online real estate platforms are seemingly a dime-a-dozen in today’s market. Zillow and Trulia are EASILY the market leaders in this space. Any online marketing strategy should incorporate them.  A small amount of time devoted here can make a huge difference. As always, bear in mind that the market has shifted to online viewing. This is the first step of many prospective buyers. Overlooking this can limit your company growth, and leave you sitting on properties for much too long!

We know social media is not the ‘end all, be all’ of advertising.  The benefit to social media advertising is much less about the ad itself, but rather the interaction that results from interest in the ad.  A well-designed property ad will be shared over and over again, resulting in interest from networks you may not have even thought about!

Barbara Savona, CEO for Sprout Marketing, gives 2 simple tips for improving your marketing. You don't have to attend an expensive marketing conference to keep up with trends. Watch this little video to find out how a simple tactic can keep you aware of what's important to people. If you are selling on features and benefits for your apartment community or property listing, you are going to want to do a little shift!