What results have you seen? MAKSSOUR: Very positive. I think people especially like to see that they’re going to get bigger upgrades as they stay longer. We also try to address the renewal process from the time of move-in. We’ve seen research that says people formulate their opinion whether or not they want to stay when they move in. The last thing they want is to be treated differently than when you were trying to lease them the apartment! So we set aside a parking space for them, make an appointment to walk and inspect the apartment with them, and give them a little care package and move-in gift. … We have a CARES program at some of our properties, where a couple who’s trained through Apartment Life lives on-site and acts as your activities directors. They do welcome visits and birthday visits—the things that our on-site staff just can’t manage anymore. [For more information on Apartment Life, see MULTIFAMILY EXECUTIVE, March 2005, p. 20.] … It doesn’t make sense at every property, but at a place where we’ve had a real crisis of community or struggled with more turnover, we’ve seen a lot of turnaround. … Lastly, every quarter we do a company-wide contest. We offer some pretty significant cash prizes to the winning properties. [Earlier this year], we focused on resident retention … and we saw an increase of 9 percentage points between the first quarter of 2004 and the first quarter of 2005.
The NAHB survey reveals a number of reasons for moving. How would you respond if you heard any of them from one of your residents?
BONARDI: We’d try to accommodate some of them, such as a change in marital status. “OK, you’re in a roommate situation right now” or “You’re a couple in a one-bedroom apartment, and now you’re having a baby”—“but we’ve got another apartment for you.” At times, we’ve done marketing to our own residents. Let’s say we have three-bedroom units available. We might send a letter around to our residents seeing if they want to upgrade and stay with us.