It’s no surprise that attention spans today aren’t what they used to be. Studies say that in 1920 the average attention span was 20-minutes. Today? Eight seconds...the same as a goldfish. As a property manager trying to market your apartment community, this fact should stop you in your tracks. Breaking through the noise of day to day life is a real challenge. Twenty years ago, we were just trying to stand out from the competition with nice curb appeal and a good photo in our For Rent ad. But today’s online world has created a new set of complicated problems for apartment marketers. Your community is no longer just competing with other communities. You are competing with EVERYTHING for your customer’s attention.

Most managers would agree that a proactive marketing approach is ideal, still the large majority default to a reactive approach. Why? Often, managers start with the best of intentions to have a well-crafted marketing plan but then things happen onsite that take away our focus. Mid-month they can find themselves with dipping occupancy, unaccounted for skips, or a lower renewal rate than anticipated. In the shock and misunderstanding a hail mary is thrown in hopes it will correct all the missed goals. But let’s be honest, does the hail mary ever work?

Being a property manager is a rewarding career, but it can have it's rough days. Especially when that day consists of dealing with resident complaints. How you handle complaints can either build that resident loyalty that you want, or it can break their trust. Read our sneak peak of our webinar with Rommel Anacan where he'll teach you a step-by-step method for positively dealing with complaints.

Ever have a really big idea and then realize… oops…. You don’t actually have time to make it happen? Maybe you had the best marketing initiative planned but then that to-do list got the best of the day and you just weren’t able to make it happen. We feel you. Time-starved property managers are spread thin and often times it feels like there’s no help in sight which can have such add to the already overwhelming feeling you have on the daily, am I right? We’ve heard this same scenario from property managers all over the US and decided that Sprout can do more to help. So we did! We now have done-for-you bundles in our Sprout Shop that you can purchase and then have the pre-made bundles shipped directly to your door.

Truth time: A lot of on-site apartment marketing is done for the sake of doing something (anything) or to simply appease a corporate requirement. When we approach marketing like this, it tends to lack clarity when it comes to defining the marketing objectives. The result? A big belly flop. 👎

A lot of time, energy and money are spent on apartment marketing. Most of it (sigh) doesn’t work. 

After working with thousands of multifamily professionals, we’ve seen some patterns emerge. So today we are breaking it down and identifying the top FOUR flaws in apartment marketing…and the way to fix them.

Let’s face it, property managers are some of the busiest people on the planet. And while you’d love to think you can do it all (and sometimes you try), you simply don’t have time for overly complicated marketing and retention plans. Most marketing never even makes it out the door because it’s too time consuming to execute. 

Creating an environment in your office that makes you and your employees feel emotionally and mentally supported is more important than you might think. Our webinar with Amy Kosnikowski Dilisio is going to show you just how important it is, but also give you tips and tools on how to create the ideal environment for your office.

We always get so excited when a new month rolls around (even if they seem to be rolling around faster and faster). A new month means a new Sprout Marketing Calendar full of brand new ideas for you to get new residents and keep those awesome ones you already have! The October calendar and the Daily Dose ideas for this month have allllll the Fall vibes and we are loving it because, let’s be honest, we’re melting here in Texas and we can’t wait for cooler weather.

When resident events are a hit, boy they are a HIT and it makes your property manager heart beam with pride, right? It’s when resident events are…less than stellar, that we get discouraged and start to wonder what we can do differently to ramp up the attendance. We’re here to tell you some tips on how to do just that!

If you haven’t heard already, this month is better breakfast month! This is a fun monthly theme that you can use to create unique resident events and outreach initiatives, but it’s also the perfect month to push your community’s health and wellness facilities. If you’re a community that is in an area of town where fitness is the new fad, or if you have an on-site workout space that would make Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson drool, now is the perfect time to show it off! 

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!