Choosing to rent an apartment is a major life and financial decision, and anyone in the process of searching for one wants to be 100% confident in their selection.
You can give them that confidence with a helpful and informative apartment website. If prospective residents are able to visit your website and see the inside of your various units and amenities as well as see pricing, availability, and other vital details, they'll build more trust in your apartments as the right one for them. And confidence is a byproduct of trust.
That's why having a similarly trustworthy web presence for your multifamily property management company is key, too. You can be certain that when prospective residents are researching apartment communities that they'll want to find out some information about the company that manages those communities.
If they can't find any information about you, or your company has a really poor web presence in general, that could hurt their confidence because they're unable to confirm if the apartments they're interested in are well managed.
As they narrow down their options, having a great property management website can give your apartment communities a competitive edge, resulting in more leases. Here's why:
1. Having a property management website that features all of your apartment communities establishes authority.
If a prospective resident that's interested in one of your apartment communities comes across your property management company's website, you have a great opportunity to establish your authority. You will immediately lose all authority or credibility if you have a sloppy, outdated, or neglected property management website. You need a platform to highlight all of your communities, show-off your best property photos, and help prospective residents learn more about your company.
This is a great example of a multifamily property management website. It looks well-maintained, has beautiful photography of various properties, links off to every apartment community in their portfolio's website, and more—all important elements that go a long way towards establishing authority.
2. A property management website creates recognition of your company's brand.
The more exposure you can give to your company's brand, logo, colors, and messaging, the better chances you have to become more recognized (and trusted) by prospective residents. If they find an apartment community that fits their predetermined individual needs, and then happen to recognize it as one of your company's properties, the chances of them ultimately signing a lease increases significantly because they'll know it's a well-run community.
3. You can use your property management website as a tool to cross-sell other apartment communities in your portfolio.
Not only could having a property management website go a long way in building trust with prospective residents, it could actually be helpful for lease generation, too. For instance, if you own or manage multiple apartment communities within a specific metro, prospective residents can just search and compare properties all in one place on your website. Or if someone is interested in one of your apartments but there's no immediate availability, you can train your leasing staff to go to your property management website during a showing and cross-sell other nearby properties in your portfolio with similar features.
Conclusion
Your property management company needs a website for these three reasons:
- It builds authority for your apartments.
- It can create recognition in your brand.
- It can be a tool to cross-sell other apartment communities in your portfolio.
Each of these three things go towards building trust with prospective residents who are researching your apartment communities, and makes them feel more confident about making the decision to sign a lease.