This is my last post on blogger.com

All,

I am discontinuing this blog on blogger.com and moving to my new site: https://www.landlordmarketingsecrets.com/blog/

It's a good thing though. I'll be blogging alot more often and dabbling in online video more in the months to come. YouTube (and that little camera on my laptop) are about to become my new best friends.

Click on over and let's pick it up there! And be sure to download your copy of my FREE report '30 Ways to Fill Your Vacancy FAST'. Thanks for your interest!

Best,
- Drew

3 Things Successful Landlords Do

Tune in to learn 3 things successful landlords do that all others don't.

I will be interviewed by Julie Johnson, the president of the Rental Housing Association of Puget Sound at 9am (PST) Saturday, 8/20.

The interview airs on Seattle's Freedom 1590am. www.freedom1590.com

Upcoming events!

I'm excited to announce some new developments!

1) I'll be on the Landlord Talk Radio show this Thursday to share some great marketing tips for landlords. Click on this link to join in the conversation:
http://landlordtalkradio.com/

2) Looking forward to speaking at the Real Estate Club of LA on July 23rd. Should be a great meeting. Info here: http://www.realestateclubla.com/

Apt Assoc. of CA - Southern Cities Tradeshow!

Excited to be speaking to the AACSC Tradeshow in September!

http://www.longbeachcc.com/calendar/index.cfm?eventid=4716

4 Steps to Greater Rental Profits

Step 3: Mine For Gold

Get more out of your tenants. Another popular term in banking and in retail is ‘share-of-wallet’, which is defined as ‘the percentage that you receive of a customer’s total spending over time’. One of the best ways to increase your profits is to expand the services you provide your tenants. This will ultimately bring in much more money than just raising the rent alone can do. And while rent increases are often necessary, they do irritate tenants. But finding new ways to meet their needs (and charging for it) helps them and you by increasing the amount of money they spend with you! Truly a win-win.

So, what other tenant needs can you meet to increase your share-of-wallet?
• Additional storage space
• Parking garage or car port
• On-site laundry facility
• Housekeeping
• Lawncare
• Pet sitting
• Lock-out service

And tenants who use one or more of these other types of benefits automatically end up staying with you longer!

But be aware that the most important need you must meet is when there is a maintenance emergency or required repair. None of these other ‘nice-to-haves’ will matter at all, if you’re not first taking care of the critical needs like working appliances, heating/cooling, etc. We have to provide the basic necessities before we can reach these higher aspirations!

Did I meet you in St. Louis?

It was such fun in St Louis speaking to the Mr Landlord national convention. Got a lot of great feedback and came away energized by the excitement so many landlords and real estate investors have to grow their business and increase their profits.

My talk was on 'The 5 Steps to Bigger Profits'.

Appearing on The Rebelbroker tomorrow morning!

Catch my interview on The Rebelbroker Saturday, 4/23 at 9:15am (PST).


http://www.blogtalkradio.com/rebelbroker/2011/04/23/real-estate-realities-with-the-rebelbroker

4 Steps to Greater Rental Profits

Step 2: Become sticky

Banks use a term called “sticky services” to describe account features like direct-deposit, online bill pay and ATM usage. And they’ve found that customers who use these services ‘stick’ with the bank much longer than those who don’t. Hence the term ‘sticky services’.

Wouldn’t it be nice to make your properties more ‘sticky’ for the tenants who live in them? You can in some simple ways -
• Respond quickly to maintenance or repair needs.
• Setup electronic rent collection.
• Capture your tenants’ email address and send a monthly newsletter via email.
• Also get their cell phone number in your application.


Other great ways -
• Measure and practice customer satisfaction by sending out a survey with 5 or 6 questions like ‘how did you hear about us’, ‘why did you choose to rent with us’, ‘how satisfied are you with your rental experience’, ‘would you recommend us’, etc.
• Send birthday and holiday cards. One of my favorite things to give (and get) is lottery tickets. Just $10 or $20 in lottery tickets makes a fun little gift (with tongue firmly planted in cheek as you hope they don’t win big and move out!)
• Do something fun for their kids like host a party at Chuck E Cheese or rent one of those bouncy-houses for a picnic and games in the park. Appeal to the parental instincts of your tenants; it’s a fantastic way to set yourself apart from any other landlord they’ve ever had. Happy kids make for happy and grateful parents! And guess what happy and grateful parents do? They tend to pay on time.

4 Steps to Greater Rental Profits

Want to know the 4 steps to increase your rental profits? It's not just about raising the rent. It is about thinking like a business owner, protecting yourself and meeting customer needs. But where to start?


Step 1: Buckle Up

Tighten your screening process. Always do a credit check and background check. Most landlords know this but sometimes we let some tenants slip through the cracks. The challenge is more inside than outside. It’s a mindset, a way of thinking. It’s good to want to trust people, but every landlord is a business owner with assets to protect and customers to serve. So, why would we fail to screen tenants? Maybe to get our places rented faster. But experience shows time and again that’s both short-sighted and dangerous. Think of credit and background checks as an “insurance policy” to protect against much greater costs down the road. Besides, landlords should be charging an application fee to cover the costs of screening. If you’re not charging for this, ask yourself ‘why not?’ Is it to get the place rented faster? Again, short-sighted and dangerous. If your applicants don’t want to pay $20 or $30 for screening, then they’ve just weeded themselves out and saved you a lot of money and hassle down the road!

You want to attract the best tenants who are more likely to pay on time and never go to court or have to be evicted. But who are these ‘best’ tenants? Well, you know them instinctively. They’re the ones who pay their application fees for screening. Who take decent care of your property. Who have stable employment and transportation. Who have many options available for places to live. That’s who you want to aim for. So, buckle up. Tighten down your screening process and you’ll start reaping big rewards from your rentals.

More in future posts on what the next 3 steps are . . .

Catch my interview on Logical Soul today, 3/15.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/logicalsoul/2011/03/15/landlord-marketing-secrets

I'm talking with Dr. Michael Craig about how smart marketing tips can increase rental profits for landlords and property managers.

When What Used to Work Doesn't Anymore

Have you have ever had too many qualified applicants for your rental properties? So many you had to turn them away and even stop advertising? I mean what a happy problem, right? A landlord’s dream.

If this has ever happened to you, you probably wish for the good ol’ days to return. More often we have units or homes available and few good applicants in sight. So our properties sit empty. Week after week. Month after month.

STEP 1 – Put a “For Rent” sign on the building
STEP 2 – Run an ad in the newspaper
STEP 3 – Another ad in the local apartment guide
STEP 4 – Offer 1st Month FREE

Is this your marketing plan? Wonder why what used to work doesn’t anymore? Why does it take longer to fill vacancies? One word: change. What do the economy, the weather, your competitors and consumer behavior all have in common? Constant change. It’s a situation hardly unique to landlords and property managers. Think of a different industry. Think of Ford Motor Company.

Ford saw huge sales declines and billion-dollar losses the past few years. At the brink of bankruptcy in 2008, what they had been doing clearly wasn’t working anymore. Why? Consumer demand shifted away from the models that Ford produced. The company had largely stopped meeting the needs of its customers. When a business loses its way and sales falter, it can often be traced back to losing sight of the customer. Ford’s new CEO Alan Mulally responded by cutting unprofitable models from their lineup and redesigning some of their most popular models. And Ford is back in a big way with record sales growth and increasing market share.

But what about a recession like we’re climbing out of now? There too. Change demands that we respond to consumer needs differently. Abandon what doesn’t work. Explore and adapt new strategies to restore what’s been lost.

So what does this mean for us landlords? 3 things.

1. Don’t be surprised. In fact, anticipate it. Relationships evolve, including those with your tenants. Needs change. Remember the Boy Scout motto: be prepared.

2. Communicate with your tenants. Find out where they are spending their time. Maybe you know where they work. What about where they like to hang out or relax? You need to be there, reaching others with a strong, relevant offer. People are spending more and more time online. Think how you can turn that into an opportunity.
• Try advertising your properties on Craigslist.
•Try a Google Adwords campaign.
•Put together some helpful tips or a checklist for prospective tenants to use in their apartment search.
• Keep an eye out for garage sales. They can sometimes be an early indicator that the residents are thinking of moving. What if you could be first-to-market and schedule a tour with them for one of your properties?
• Put on an “Open House” to showcase your available property and invite the neighbors and your other tenants over. Word-of-mouth can build from there.

Provide value. Get your name out into where your market is. Don’t think of it as “branding”. Think of it as solving problems. Meeting needs. That’s how you start to make a connection and attract new tenants.

3. Discover your Unique Selling Proposition. What sets you apart from the many other apartments, houses and condos in your market? Armed with a host of resources available online, today’s renter is in control like never before. Play to that. Put yourself in their shoes. Think back to when you were younger, before kids, looking after work and on weekends to rent your first, or second, or third place. Have it in your mind? THAT is your customer. Now go get ‘em.

Gone But Not Forgotten

According to a 2009 NAHB Multifamily Preferences survey, the top three reasons why tenants move are for -
1) Better quality place
2) Single-family unit
3) Better location

But what if you could offer your tenant a different property across town that is a single-family home with better amenities and closer to work? Give them a free moving truck for a day and take $500 off the first month’s rent. They just might take it, and you could save a customer!

Did you know your wireless phone provider will bend over backwards to give away free unlimited texting and throw in a new phone just to keep you as a customer? Why would they do that? Because it works. Your wireless company doesn’t make their money by selling phones, but instead on the service plans month after month. That’s where the big money is, and they know the lifetime value of each customer is far greater than the cost of a new phone and a bunch of text messages. Same for your satellite TV, car insurance, heck even the bank that holds your home mortgage.

I've been a Sprint customer since 1998. And paid over $14,000 in wireless charges during that time. So, do you think they balked when I called 2 years ago and asked for a discount on my rate? It took about 2 seconds for them to give me a 10% discount on every bill going forward and 2,000 free text messages.

This same principle applies to landlords and property managers as well. The easiest way to boost your rental profits is by keeping your best tenants longer. If your average rental price is $1,500 per month and your average “lifetime” with each tenant is 30 months, that’s a lifetime value of $45,000. But what if your best tenants stayed a little bit longer, like say 34 months, that’s an additional $6,000 you could generate from each tenant! Not only that, but you defer the risk of picking up a deadbeat tenant when you rent the place again.

When reaching former tenants, use two tactics to your advantage –
1) Timing. Consider how long it’s been since they left; they may be locked in to another lease agreement in their place. So, you should contact them at 10-11 months after their departure, assuming that they are in the 10th or 11th month of a one-year lease agreement and may be up for renewal soon. Your winback message (whether it’s a personal letter, a phone call or an email) should reach them a month or two before their new agreement expires to give them time to consider and evaluate your offer. Just in case they were thinking of moving again at their end of their first year lease.

2) Pain points. You have to address the reason why they moved out in the first place. Often it’s for some external factor out of your control like a new job, bought a home, or such. But for things that you do have control over, address any specific pain points “head-on”.

That is, show how you are different or how you’ve changed to respond to their specific reasons for leaving in the first place. The only chance you have of winning them back to one of your properties is to show specifically how your properties have improved or how a different location is exactly what they need. This is no time for subtlety; so be direct. Let’s face it. It costs your former tenant time, money, and hassle to move out and find a new place. So, to it’s going to take a lot for them to even consider returning.

Maybe it doesn’t seem worth it. Oh, but it is! Of the dozens of marketing campaigns I’ve been involved in, former customers always, always, always respond better and are more profitable to reach than new prospects. A message of “we miss you” or “discover why we’re different” can help get their attention, convey your sincerity and just might put your properties back within their set of options to consider when looking for their next new and better place to live.

The American Dream Redefined

A recent survey found that more than a quarter of Americans currently renting houses and apartments have no intention to ever buy a home.

The survey, by real estate search site Trulia.com, found 27 percent of renters do not plan to ever buy a home. Although 72 percent still expect to buy eventually, that proportion is down from 77 percent just six months ago.

So, is the American Dream of owning a home fading away?
No. But it is being redefined.

People are taking an extra hard look at the pros and cons of home ownership. And for many, renting a place that really fits their needs is the dream.

This is an opportunity for landlords! It means three things:

1) Attract the right tenants. The most successful landlords and property managers know that most tenant problems can be avoided with proper screening upfront, particularly with background and credit checks.

2) Customer satisfaction is more important than ever. Meeting the needs of your tenants pays off as they stay with you month-after-month, year-after-year. Think like a tenant instead of a landlord, and you will start to see opportunities to generate more money from your renters. Not just by raising the rent, but by being opportunistic about how you can better meet tenant needs.

3) Make a new goal - your rental units can be the last and only place your tenants need. Strive to make your properties a place where your tenants can truly settle in and call home.

The survey also found that of those who do hope to become homeowners, two thirds say they will wait two years or more. So, start engaging with your tenants today to build a more successful landlord-tenant relationship. It’s a win-win for both of you!

But what does it mean to “engage your tenants?”
Well, start by communicating. Call your tenants or drop by to see if they have any new needs. You just might learn that they are expecting a new baby, have bought a new car, or recently started a new job.

Be opportunistic and think of how you can make money by responding to new and evolving needs of your tenants
Some examples -
• New baby? Recommend a local babysitter or daycare provider. And give them the opportunity to upgrade to a new unit or home with more space, nicer amenities, a yard for kids to play in, etc.

• Just bought a new car? Give them a coupon for a free car wash. And a great monthly rate to lease a carport or garage that will protect their new treasure.

• Started a new job? Give them a popular audio book on CD or tape. And do you own another property closer to their new work? If so, give them the option to move with a discount on the first month’s rent and a free moving truck to cut their commute down.

These are ways that the best landlords keep good tenants. And keep them happy. It’s so rare in the rental industry to find a landlord who thinks from this perspective. But you can be the first and gain a huge advantage over every other landlord in your market as many of your tenants live out their own American Dream in one of your properties!

Is Turnover Killing Your Profits?

Is Renter Turnover Killing Your Profits?
By Drew DeMasters

Author of Landlord Marketing Secrets

You probably agree that almost nothing is worse than having an empty rental property. Two kinds of costs can hit hard: real costs (like utilities, taxes, maintenance, and cleaning) and opportunity costs (like lost rental income and higher risk of crime).

In this business, we call it the “occupancy rate”. But that’s kind of a cold, impersonal statistic. We can’t really tackle the problem until we stop thinking at the property-unit level and start thinking at the customer level – each of your individual renters who occupy your properties. Here’s a three-point plan to reduce renter turnover.

1. Customer satisfaction.
   Do you really know your renters? You should. How they found you, why they chose to rent from you, if they are satisfied with their experience, if they will recommend others to your properties.

   Answers to these questions are valuable insight you can act on to learn more about who your renters are. But most importantly, it gives you the chance to understand why customers might be leaving you and if there’s anything you can do to prevent it. (there always is, by the way) It’s often because of loud or annoying neighbors, petty crime, or a slow response to maintenance needs. These are things that push your renters to the breaking point, and rightly so.

   So, how do you know if your renters are satisfied? Ask them. Send out a short 5 or 10 question survey to request feedback. And when they give you feedback, share what you learn with your renters. They will appreciate your effort to know them better. Chances are, they’ve never been asked before by their landlord. And you will definitely learn something.

2. Show the value (meet customer needs).
   What makes you different from every other landlord or apartment manager in the market? There has to be something, why else are you in business? Consider what your “competitive advantage” or “unique selling proposition” is. If I am looking for a place to rent, what would tell me about your rental units? Why should I consider renting with you?

   To convince me to rent from you, you need to show me what sets you apart from the dozen other places I looked at this week.

   But to keep me renting with you month after month, year after year, it takes more. You have to show me the value. In other words, you have to keep earning my business.

   So, what are you doing to make your renters stay with you? Send a monthly community newsletter with helpful living tips, recipes, entertainment options, etc. Remind your renters of the benefits you offer: gym, swimming pool, covered parking, convenient location, mail pick-up, etc. Create reasons to interact and engage with your renters. Plan a seasonal party or BBQ. Organize a ping-pong or volleyball tournament. Dream up safe neighborhood activities and events for your renters’ kids. Think outside of the box, and you will begin to see your renters returning the favor through their continued loyalty.

3. Reward your best customers.
   And speaking of loyalty, say “thank you” to your best, most long-term renters. Do something really special to make them feel important. Why? Because they are your biggest advocates. Your future growth as a landlord rests squarely on the shoulders of your best renters.

   And remember how much they are worth to you. Calculate the profits you’ve made over the lifetime of each your best renters. It’s thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars.

   Now imagine one of those best renters moving out. That’s a huge loss you don’t want to see! So, minimize your risk by earning the continued loyalty of your best renters.

Drew DeMasters is a landlord and marketing strategist. His new book Landlord Marketing Secrets is available at www.landlordmarketingsecrets.com
He can be reached at ddemasters@landlordmarketingsecrets.com

Pre-published version of "Landlord Marketing Secrets" now available!

The pre-published version of my new book "Landlord Marketing Secrets" is now available through MrLandlord.com at this link -- http://www.mrlandlord.com/mllshop/clearance.html

The published version should be released in September.

Share of voice

So, a term I learned a few years back is "share of voice." The closest thing I can think of to compare it to is market share. If there are 10 apartment buildings in your town, and you own 1 of them, your market share is 10%. Most of us get that concept.

But what is your share of voice? That's different entirely. Share of voice is a measure of all your marketing efforts, relative to everything else going on in the market at the same time.

Think of a big Thanksgiving dinner with all of your family sitting, eating, and clanging dishes around the table. Conversations are taking place in front of you, on both sides of you, and all the way at the other of the end of the table. Everybody is talking at once, including Uncle Larry.

But then he gets into one of his war stories, his voice getting louder and louder as it goes. Soon, other conversations are dying down as people can't ignore him any more. But Uncle Larry is on a tear, seemingly oblivious that he now has most of the dinner table as spectators.

When many conversations are happening, everyone has a small share of voice - including Uncle Larry. But as others resume eating, and he gets louder, his share of voice becomes too much to ignore. He then dominates the entire dinner conversation.

As landlords and business owners, we need to be like Uncle Larry. With only a small share of your market, many of your marketing efforts may be like leaves in the wind. And it's hard to get noticed, let alone influence anybody to buy. Just open up an Apartment Guide magazine - hundreds of competitors all clamoring for attention: same features, same look, same everything. This is no way to market yourself.

And the irony is that the smaller your market share, the greater your share of voice must be to breakthrough and grab the attention of your target audience. Conversely if you're the big player in your industry, you may be able to spend less putting your message and offer out there because everybody already knows about you.

Think of new ways you can increase your own share of voice in your market and see the results start to pay off like never before!

Just ask

Here's something I'm learning lately. If you want something, ask for it. If your logic is sound, chances are good you will get it.

These days, I'm submitting the manuscript of my new book to CEOs, company founders, and national experts on landlording and project management. And I have yet to be rejected. Every single person I've asked so far is happy (some even eager) to give a testimonial or review of the book.

Now, I fully expect this streak to end. Maybe even with the next person I ask, but here's one thing I'm sure of - chances are good as long as I put in simple terms why I've written the book and how it will help landlords turn their businesses around. As many of my testimonials are landlords themselves, it's really encouraging to me to see an early appetite for the material. Particularly by some of the giants in the industry.

Also, it's proof of something I learned in a writing class once: the only one who can sell my book is me. No one else can do it for me. This is even true of asking for testimonials and reviews.

So here's what I'm happy to announce:

Scheduled release for 1st run of 2,000 copies is August 31st, 2010.
The selling price will be $19.95 (plus $3 shipping and handling for delivery).
It will only be available on my landing page being built at http://www.landlordmarketingsecrets.com/
With every purchase, I will be offering my FREE report "10 Tips Every Landlord Must Know."

That's the state of the union. It feels like I'm at the 24th mile marker of a marathon run; it's exciting to see this journey transition to a whole new phase.

A phase where I prove again that I can create the best multi-channel marketing strategy that ever existed. I've done it dozens of time for clients, but this time it's personal. My own money's on the line. And there's hardly anything more motivating than that!

Update on book

I'm making good progress with the book lately. List of recent successes -
* Have gotten usage permissions from most of my quoted sources
* Have purchased the domain name. Now researching what the look and functionality of the site will be.
* Beginning to envision and enlist some help in creating concepts for cover art (thanks Dave!) and other illustrations
* Am doing a final line-by-line re-write of the entire book currently. This is actually kinda fun!
* Most of all . . . having fun dreaming up the best multi-channel marketing plan I've ever created to promote the book.
* Finally, learned something very timely today about the dual-impact of two things: 1) good SEO for the site and 2) the overlap effect that blogging and SEO have on driving awareness and traffic to the site

Integrated vs. Multichannel Marketing

This title doesn't make any sense. But the point is that integrated and multi-channel marketing are not the same thing. However, today they are used almost interchangably. And the biggest culprits are advertising agencies and marketing companies. I know because I've worked on the agency side for over 10 years . . . for many they are little more than buzzwords. Everybody wants to be integrated, whatever they perceive that to mean.

Well, here's the difference. To be integrated means to project the same, consistent, unified message throughout your communications. Whether your message is "value", "quality", "speed", "convenience", etc., integration speaks to the common thread that runs throughout your marketing efforts.

With this definition, you can probably see how the word "multi-channel" is clearly different. Multi-channel means simply to utilize various sources, methods, tactics, or technologies to reach your target audience. In marketing speak, it is using the various channels available like direct mail, email, websites, paid and organic (SEO) search, banner ads, social media, TV, radio, call centers, mobile messaging, out-of-home advertising like billboards, point-of-sale (POS) displays, street teams, and the list goes on.

This is why the the phrase "integrated, multi-channel marketing" is perfect but either term without the other is incomplete. Integrated, multi-channel marketing is the second most powerful strategy in all of direct marketing. But don't take my word for it. Test and prove it for yourself in your own business.

More in future posts on what the #1 most powerful strategy is.

Transaction or Interaction?

Have you heard somebody say “if I had a quarter for every time X happened, I’d be rich”? Well, if you had a quarter for every separate interaction that you have with your clients, you’d be even richer!

The point is that in business, our customers interact with us a whole lot more than they transact with us. That is, they spend much more time visiting our store, browsing our website, talking to our sales people, and researching our products/services than they do actually buying. The point-of-sale itself, is just a brief moment by comparison. Yet, when it comes to marketing, that’s really what we spend at least 90% of our energy on – trying to drive and stimulate that all-important transaction. Some research suggests that consumers spend an average of 3 days comparison-shopping and researching prior to making an actual purchase. And the amount of time spent prior to purchase increases for higher-ticket items. We’ll do our homework carefully before buying a car, a house, even a nice jacket. But for a candy bar or pair of jeans, we’ll spend much less time in the pre-purchase phase.

So, here’s the dilemma. Why are marketers spending all of their time and focus on the customer transaction, if that represents only 5-10% of the time that the customer is spending with their brands? Because that’s when the money changes hands, that’s our livelihood, our bread-and-butter. But shouldn’t we care as well in all of that up-front planning, pre-purchase research, and comparison-shopping as the buying customer is? We should. It’s really the incubation period of a new customer relationship. It’s when you are top-of-mind, squarely within the customer’s consideration set, and are best positioned to “close the deal.”