Property Management: Retaining Residents by Building a Sense of Community

Another fantastic article today from multihousingnews.com concerning resident retention. Along with going green, building a sense of community has almost become a cliche' or more to the fact, a populist movement. There is nothing wrong with this as on its face it is good to go green and it is good to build community. However, what do these mean? Going green is a little easier to define; cut back on water consumption, recycle, don't over-consumer, look for alternative energy sources, encourage green practices, etc. But what does building community look like? Could it be a film night at a community? Is it events or a friendly staff that drive community? Daniel Babka is president of California-based Rental Marketing Success and he says it is a lot of things.

"Resident retention involves promoting a sense of connectedness to one another, to the places and neighborhoods where we live. That means creating opportunities for shared experiences, helping residents grow roots by promoting social gatherings and other business networking opportunities, promoting events held on site that draw on common interests you have identified, offering renewal incentives like “Help with your Home or Home Office” (maintenance staff or independent contractor time doing things that wouldn’t normally be covered by a service request), assisting with shelving and closet organizer enhancements, monthly drawings and promotions, occasional weekend and after 5pm office hours."

We like the fact that it starts with simply promoting community. When was the last time you were at an event that had been hevaily promoted? Probably pretty good turn out right? Parties are a great way to promote community, film nights, friendly staff, etc.

A secondary reason for creating community is resident retention. The easiest money to maintain is the money you already have. There is a hard cost to finding more customers so why not work harder to retain the ones you already have? Not only can you build an opportunity for people to come together and be a part of something bigger than themselves, but you can also lessen your cash fluctuations and create more stability for your business. Sounds like a win-win to us.

Retaining Residents by Building a Sense of Community (multihousingnews.com)