Just how easy is it for a renter to find my properties on the Internet?  This is a question we have been asked many times from our clients as they look to understand how well their paid and non-paid property advertising efforts are working for them.  As anyone who has done any internet advertising knows, these costs are both expensive and time consuming - and money doesn’t grow on trees.  So just how can a property manager find out if their advertising is working for them?

Fortunately, our diverse customer base allows us to speak with many property managers to understand and develop best practices for advertising online.   To help answer this question for our clients, we have been working to develop a method to help our property managers best allocate their advertising dollars.  We’ve coined this term “Propability”, and define it as: the ability of a property to be easily found on the internet and to attract well-qualified renters.   Propability should be an important consideration to take into account for any property advertising and marketing that you plan to do.

What Determines Propability?

• Ad Content - Does your ad’s content sound professional and does it entice the renter to continue reading to learn more about your rental?  The better the content, the more engaged your ad reader will be.   This also includes correcting spelling and grammar errors that can make your business look unprofessional.

• Photos, Video, and Floor plans - These are probably the most important, since as the saying goes, a picture is worth 1,000 words.  Do you take professional looking pictures of your properties?  Do you have 360 degree views, great lighting, high quality video walkthroughs, and include floorplans?

• Keyword Tagging - Property listing websites and search engines rely on specific search terms that help renters to find properties that interest them.  Are you using the right terms to find a great match for your property?

• Web Search - Rentals typically aren’t listed long enough to be indexed by Google and Bing, but the website that you list your properties on is very important.   Listings on high-quality websites are going to have a higher number of renters and will drive more traffic to view your rental.  Also, don’t forget about using niche websites if you have unique properties such as luxury apartments or vacation rentals.

• Social Media - The use of social media websites and tools such as Facebook, twitter, and Google+ are great ways for your rental to quickly and easily spread among groups.  For example, a Facebook “like” of your rental can quickly lead to hundreds or even thousands of people seeing your property.  This also helps to build brand recognition for your business.  We believe social media will continue to become more important over time as an advertising mechanism.

• Linkability - An important tie-in to social media is how linkable your property is so that a renter can save it for later or send to another person.  Do you offer social media buttons, emailing of property listings, and the ability for a renter to print or save properties for later without having to do a new search?

In the coming months, we will be publishing more information on propability and how it can help your business, and also discuss how we plan to integrate propability into the E-Rental Tools property management software package.

Any others we’re missing that are important to your property advertising?

While doing some industry and competitive research over the past few days, we came across some great statistics that we thought our property managers should know about.  More specifically, we believe that similar to other industries that have been revitalized through technology, the property management industry is marching toward a time of rapid change that will call for an increased use of technology to save time and cut costs, find the best renters, and ultimately remain competitive.

Reason #1: There are over 53 million renters under 30 years of age in the U.S.

Surprisingly, 71% of renters in the U.S. are under age 30 according to recent National Multi Housing Council statistics.  This Generation Y demographic has grown up with technology and having instant access to information at their fingertips.  They are technology savvy and prefer the ease of use of the internet to interact with friends, make purchases, do banking, and find places to live.  That said, we believe that it is very important for property managers to have a great web presence, especially since this large group of renters has come to expect businesses to be online.  The age of finding apartments through “For Rent” signs and in classified ads is quickly passing.

Reason #2:  Cloud computing has significantly lowered property management software costs

Just what is cloud computing and what does it mean to property management?  Over the past several years, the cloud computing buzzword has become mainstream and has been featured in commercials by Microsoft, Apple, and others.  Simply, “in the cloud” means that software is hosted through the internet.  It slightly differs from a traditional website by allowing applications to be used and paid for dynamically, much like a utility such as electricity where you pay for as only as much or as little as you use.   This has significantly lowered costs for companies such as E-Rental Tools who provide software online because it has removed the need to purchase, manage, and maintain web servers since they can now be bought as a service on demand.  This trickles down to the customer to ultimately benefit everyone and make technology more accessible than before.

Of course, there are also many other great benefits that technology can bring to your business which we will be writing about in future posts.  Where do you think technology is headed within the property management industry?