Kansas City Apartment Advertising - Information & expectations for Kansas City property owners.

Apartment locating/advertising and the way properties advertise has come a long way since I began in 1997. I can recall how uncertain our industry was about the internet was at the time, but I always felt that it could propel the industry forward and be "the new way to find an apartment." I spent the next 7 years perfecting, what I believe to be the best way to compliment and advertise a property through apartment locating. I started by consulting with clients seeking assistance through the internet and learning the how, why and what clients were seeking when looking for assistance online. While learning what the clients primary objectives were, I found that often the advertising industry fell short of the most important mark, the satisfaction of our properties. Just like any other advertising medium, you, the property owner want a top notch product and a top notch company to pull it off, this is where Kansas City Premier Apartments comes in.

Founding Kansas City Premier Apartments, Inc. has enabled me to change the way we (Kansas City Premier Apartments, Inc.) interact with our community partners, which I feel has been a long time coming. With the introduction of the internet, our industry has taken on a totally different perspective and given us a vastly different client who is resourceful, educated and demanding on both the property side and the resident side. Kansas City Premier Apartments, Inc. strives to daily improve and exceed all expectations while setting the trend for new things, new attitudes and a fresh way at looking at apartment advertising. There can never be higher expectations if we continue to accept less as adequate. We intend to change the definition, if only in the Kansas City market of what constitutes a great apartment advertising/locator partner.

Our Current Industry Standards:

• The Resourceful Resident: Prospective residents are more and more resourceful. They look through various mediums to find thier new apartment or rental. The internet, print and apartment advertising/locators. Kansas City Premier Apartments offers a full service locating & advertising service while reaching out to all various mediums to attract the clients seeking the perfect rental. By offering a full online performace based model, Kansas City Premier Apartments will prove to be your most valuable partner in the advetisement of your property.
• Send all the prospective residents you can and hope for a lease, qualified or not: The first consideration of any apartment locator should be "how to drive the best qualified residents to your property." Not how they can drive the most. By driving unqualified residents to your property, not only is your time wasted....so is the prospective residents time. Your apartment locator partners should know your property just about as well as you do...do they? Your apartment locator partners should also know the value of your time...do they? More is not always better.
• Providing and marketing out dated information and pictures to the prospective resident: Ask all your current services for copies of the current pictures and data that they are marketing your property with, after all, those materials are the first impression they make when showing the property to a prospective resident. We encourage each and every property to ask for their property profiles and we will make any requested changes within 12 hours. Don't like the pictures we took? We will re-take them until we get them right. (Seasonal concerns and properties under construction should take these factors into consideration).
• Uneducated agents calling and asking questions that they should clearly know: If your property has washer and dryer connections and has since it was built in 1987, is it acceptable for anyone representing your property to call and ask if it has hookups? You are paying them to represent your property.
• Calling and asking "Did Mary Jo lease there?"
• 10 new agents calling weekly.......Not all apartment locators are annoying.
• Apartment locators putting signs at your property steals your traffic: Unless you just don't have the time to answer calls on your property, using your front lawn for marketing is the BEST appeal you can have to potential residents. Several small apartment communities have called us and asked us specifically if we require our signs in their front lawn. We were very surprised to hear that this is a common occurrence. Having a sign in your yard promotes traffic to call the apartment locator for information, not to promote your property. Your selected apartment locators should be finding you "unique traffic", not stealing your valuable traffic and diverting it elsewhere and charging you a fee to do it! Your best asset is your front lawn and we encourage you to use the best asset you have, after all it is free!

The Expectations We Hope to Set as Standards

• We send the clients detailed information on 3-5 selections, unless the client specifically requests to look at more properties or elects to start their search on their own. We select the properties that best fit them, keeping in mind your approval process.
• Our property bonus program is only offered to "the properties who elect to participate" and everything is handled through the manager of the property to ensure that we are an "added service" to the client, not a competitor trying to steal your valuable traffic.
• We pre-qualify each client that elect to use our Rental Advisors through a verbal pre-screening process to assess and meet the needs of both the property and the prospective resident.
• We offer up to date information and pictures. Each property has the option to request new pictures at anytime.
• Our Rental Advisors have years of industry and/or sales experience. In the event that we welcome a personal apartment shopper that is new to the industry, they are mentored by a Senior Rental Advisor for at least the period of 1 year. Our Rental Advisors exhaust every resource prior to calling the property, this includes using all internet resources, calling fellow rental advisors, utilizing floorplans, online information, property websites and any other resource that might offer the information in question.
• We have all, at some point, called the property in question and asked "Did Joe Bob lease there?". With every lease, we verify the information with the property AFTER the client has delivered word of their selection. Our rental advisors should know where the prospective resident leased prior to calling the property for verification every single time.
• We pride ourselves on selecting the best Rental Advisors, based on years of experience, personality, willingness to learn and integrity. We carefully select each Rental Advisor and offer them a level of commitment seldom offered in our industry. After all, our Rental Advisors are assisting in making your properties first impression and we make it our mission to uphold your properties values and commitment to quality.

by Tiffany Lewis, Kansas City Premier Apartments, Inc.