My sister is a leasing consultant for a gorgeous apartment neighborhood in Charleston, South Carolina. I have always been envious, because I feel as though she works in paradise. It seems that every time I visit her at work, the sun is beaming brighter than ever. The complex has beautiful landscaping, spectacular floral arrangements and countless palm trees. There are two swimming pools – one being an innovative salt water pool – and a state of the arts fitness center. Plus, the team she works with is friendly and helpful as can be!
If I were looking to rent, I’d move there in a heartbeat. I’d feel like I was on vacation every day!
But contrary to my assumptions, my sister and her staff were having a difficult time keeping the complex even half full. And they simply couldn’t figure out why! They were paying for daily commercials on the radio, were listed on all the rental websites, and posted daily on Craigslist.
Plus, it seemed everyone that actually toured the facilities signed a lease, so the problem wasn’t in the complex itself. It simply was a matter of getting their name out there and bringing more people onto the premise. So my sister and I sat down one night to devise a plan.
Hopefully a grand plan!
Though the apartment complex is situated in a very popular and convenient neighborhood, it’s not very visible from the street. In fact, that is part of the appeal, as the bunch of trees that surround the facility mute outside noise and keep things quaint and quiet. But these trees also hide this gem from the public eye.
Our new plan for spreading the word was to design a custom sign and put it out along the main road that you turn off of to enter the complex. The custom sign design simply featured the complex name and a beautiful photo of the paradise-like apartment village.
And to her delight, in a matter of no time, the phones were ringing off the hook, and people were signing leases like crazy!
So why did a custom sign work so well, compared to radio ads and internet listings?
With a custom sign, your potential leasers are right outside your front door! We later discovered that with radio ads, even people who were moving in the near future were tuning out real estate advertisements if they weren’t interested in living in that part of town. That is wasted advertising coverage!
And while rental websites and Craigslist allow you to specify your neighborhood of choice, pictures and descriptions can’t sell the way seeing the place in person can. Plus, nothing is more convenient than stopping by for a facility when you’re already just outside the door.
And this is what shocked us the most: While people searching on rental websites typically are searching because they have an instant rental need, my sister suddenly had a whole new market of people touring her facility. This market was made up of people who weren’t actively searching for a new place to live yet, but since they knew their lease was running out in several months, and they knew they wanted to remain in that same neighborhood, they were motivated to check the apartments out as they were passing by the custom sign on their way out to work or to run a few errands!
Now people were actually requesting rental reservations even 5 months in advance!
So now my sisters is not only is my sister fortunate enough to have a work environment comparable to paradise, she’s also lucky to have a job where a custom sign can do all of the work!