The folks over at Lifehacker Blog conducted a recent survey titled The Five Best Apartment Search Tools. Of the five recommendations, only one is a Major ILS (Internet Listing Service)
Here are the voting results;
Best Apartment Search Tool?
* HotPads 11% (122 votes)
* PadMapper/Craigslist 19% (217 votes)
* Apartments.com 7% (77 votes)
* MyApartmentMap 34% (387 votes)
* Pounding the Pavement 20% (220 votes)
* Other 9% (102 votes)
Total Votes: 1125
So, What Does This Tell Us?
I think there are some Golden Nuggets here, which we plan to start experimenting with here at the Urbane Lab. For starters it tells us, from an outsiders perspective, at least what 1,125 different folks think about how to conduct an apartment search. We are always fooling around with different things here at the Urbane Lab, and so after we read this article, we plugged a search into Tweetdeck, “Apartments” What we saw is most folks ARE NOT having a favorable experience. So, one way to Break From the Pack of Apartment Commodity is to Provide a Favorable Leasing Experience, don’t you agree?
Maps, Maps, Maps
One thing that three of the five have in common, MAPS! The following email went out post hast to our Urbane Lab Technicians this morning;
In light of the conversation yesterday on twitter surrounding the Lifehacker Blog Post about The Five Best Apartment Search Tools (Heather, Jon and Stephen, here is a link to the referenced site, Heather, this is a required read this morning, http://lifehacker.com/5338420/five-best-apartment-search-tools ) and the fact that three of the five, and maybe even Apts.com all tied in maps is it a prudent idea to try out our new map on our front page.
I have attached a copy of our current map, if we need it in a different file type, Ideations can furnish that. I see this Map being on the Home Page and Replacing No Fair, No Fees. The Locations Button would also be deleted for now. My question to all is this, How can we easily make the map interactive, meaning when you drag your cursor over the property dot on the map, an actual picture (a current cool one) pops up and also on the side bar, Walk Score pops up and already has that address listed of that property and all the bars, restaurants , etc pop up on the right hand column just below our our facebook, myspace, etc buttons.
Are these functions that Mike and Heather can do, or does Stephen have to do them, and what is the cost and timeline.
What else should we do with this, if anything. Jon, please feel free to weigh in with your creativity here too if you would,
So, Our Home Page of the UrbaneApts.com site will be changing post hast, with an Interactive Map Stay tuned for the changes and results, we post what works and what doesn’t at The Urbane Way Laboratory!
Some More Changes
We are also changing up some of our key words and key phrases to include, (Your City) Stuff to Do, (Your City) Things To Do on our Urbane Life Blog It is clear that our Prospects are very interested in whats going on locally, what great restaurants or local hangouts are around the neighborhood. If you haven’t yet a local blog for your apartment community, you are behind the curve, better get started now!
Eric Brown
Eric’s background is rooted in the rental and real estate industries. He founded metro Detroit’s Urbane Apartments in 2003, after serving as senior vice president for a major Midwest apartment developer. He established a proven track record of effectively repositioning existing rental properties in a way that added value for investors while enhancing the resident experience. He also established Urbane Media, a social media marketing and PR laboratory, where innovative marketing ideas are tested. Eric has been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine and Business Week Magazine. You can connect with Urbane_Media on Twitter. Eric also writes regular articles for the following publications; Multi Housing News Social Media Examiner Search Engine Guide
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