I used to dream of living in a quaint European city or town where people ride bicylces everywhere. I thought I’d have to move there to be a part of that lifestyle… until gas prices went through the roof (just as my bathroom scale was also edging higher).

It turns out that one of the good things about apartment dwelling most anywhere is the close proximity to one’s everyday errand destinations, like the grocery store, the post office, the bank. One way you can beat the gas pump and lessen your fear of the bathroom scale is to ride your bike when running nearby errands.  Think of all of the benefits! You’re not creating any pollution. You’re reducing the local traffic. You’re saving money. You can save some more money by quitting the gym because you’re getting exercise on a real bike, not a stationary bike. You’ll live longer and stronger. You’re shaking it up- giving the locals something to think about. Plus, your derrier is getting nicer. What’s not to love?

Being at the front end of a trend can be a really fun thing- you get to have a new lifestyle! Just think of all the bicycle choices there are these days! Do you want to be an Italian racer type? Or a mountain-bike type? Or look like Miss Gulch in The Wizard of Oz, like me? She was the pre-curser to the Wicked Witch - You know, where she’s riding down the farm road with Toto in her basket strapped to her bicycle? I sing the tune under my breath when I pedal- “duddle la duddle la dah, dum. Duddle la duddle la dah, dum.” Yup. I think my kids would agree.

I used to live in a house with a curb-side, all-you-can-fit-into-the-giant-bin recycling program. I loved it! We generated twice as much recycling material as we did actual waste, and boy, did I feel great about it! I was saving the world, one cereal box and hamburger meat foam tray at a time. Feeling all green and fuzzy.

Until the downsizing occurred, which moved me and my packaging into smaller digs with NO recycling program. As you know, if you’ve been doing something for years, suddenly not doing it leads to heaps of guilt. I struggled to throw our bags of “trash” into the dempsty-dumpster, knowing it wasn’t really trash; I was filling a landfill. The local recycling machines are fine if all you want to do is get your deposit back on beverage containers, but what about the Cheerios box?

Here are some options to help get back that green feeling again:

Find a friend w/ curbside recycling and ask if you can add your materials to their bin. If they are green and gracious, they’ll let you, but be a considerate squatter. Crush your cans, collapse your boxes, roll over your milk jugs- in other words, minimize the volume of material that you put into their bin. One of the families in our school carpool agreed to let us share their bin, so I just made my contribution while I was picking up their kids for school. Eventually I overwhelmed the bin so I’m loading my leaf bags full of recycling material into my carpool partner, Mike’s car trunk and he puts it into his bin. When he gets fed up, I’ll have to make a new friend…

You can also collect your materials and lug it to a local recycling center, which is a bit of a hassle, but you’ll feel better. The challenge will be allocating space to collect enough to make the schlepp.

Maybe we can get our apartment communities to install recycling bins. It makes sense- we’re using less space than homeowners, so we should be using less landfill space than them, as well. Let’s here it for our team!

One other way to be a part of the solution is to reduce the amount of packaging you are buying in the first place. Duh. Remember, it’s not just Recycle. It’s Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, so don’t skip the first two steps!

We can make less waste, as well. Buy green, look for less packaging, use reusable shopping bags (because how ridiculous is it to put your used plastic shopping bags into the bag recycling container at the grocery stores so they can process it into - wait for it - new shopping bags!)… go ahead, blog your ideas on this so we can all try new ways.

Feeling green and fuzzy again,

T

While getting ready to blog late this morning a medium sized earthquake hit the SoCal region. While there was no damage here it always reminds me of the need to be prepared. The earthquake was centered around Chino Hills, CA and it got me thinking about the apartment communities there. What kind of things were happening in those offices after the quake?  What steps if any were being taken? Most companies have a protocol in place in the event of a disaster or event such as this. Although no major damage, it is a warning for all to be prepared no matter where you are in the US. We all contend with events that can create havoc and disrupt our busy day, so preparedness can truly help.

Here is one idea to help:
Put together a community preparedness brochure for each move-in and resident. Put this information on your blog and website. Place this information on bulletin boards and areas of high traffic areas in your community. Make sure to include important phone numbers, a place where to meet in the community for information and instructions on what to do for various events. Make sure to practice drill a couple of times a year to keep staff ready and find troubles spots in your plan.

This may seem like extra work now, but when or if something happens you will be glad the proper steps were taken before to limit the chaos.
 

Many large apartment communities or high end communities put on regular events to keep up retention and to set them apart from their competitors. The budget for these events can range from hundreds to thousands of dollars. Most apartment communities just don’t have it in their budgets to put on events, so what should they do?

You might be tempted to talk to your vendors to sponsor an event, but this only works short-term. The problem with asking vendors is that you can beg for just so long until they start saying no, so whom do you ask?

If you are looking to do yearly, monthly, or even weekly events then seek out those with the marketing dollars trying to reach your residents. The first business is insurance. Insurance sales is the toughest job in the world. Insurance companies spend billions of dollars trying to reach your residents. Often the best marketing for this industry is to network. Why not let a local office put on your pool party this summer. Let them cater and host the event. Allow them to mingle, network with your residents, put out some brochures, and a banner. (Note: Do not allow them to put out a podium or make a speech during the event. Networking only.) Other good networking types of businesses that could benefit are your local real estate offices and auto dealerships.

The second business is the nearby supermarket. Talk to the store manager about putting on a monthly Sunday Brunch. So many supermarkets are competing for your residents business and this is a great way to reach them. They can bring store brand products, bring flyers, and coupons are always a great idea. Other businesses in this catgorey are restaurants, bakeries, and caters.

The third business type is the starving artists. They don’t necessarily need to be starving, but those looking to get name recognition are in this group. This group is made up of musicians, singers, and other performancing artists. Many are just looking for a place to play their music. Invite a local quartet who could play for free for your community with thr hopes of landing more gigs such as weddings or other events.

The last business type are the local potter, stain glass maker, painter, yoga instructor and so on. These businesses may be looking to grow or to establish more clients. The best part is that they can help enrich the lives of those living in your community and provide some fun.

The thing to remember is to ask the businesses to do this for free. Let them know you are giving them something as well such as space and an audience of potential new customers. The best part is that your not expanding your budget and providing residents with another reason to stay. Now get going on some fun!

The price of gas is in the news everyday and on our minds every time we see the gas gauge move its way down to “e.” This has also caught the eyes of many marketing departments. It has also caught the eyes of many apartment managers too. So now everyone is offering gas cards if you move-in by a certain date or sign a twelve month lease. It is so easy to offer this kind of incentive since it is in the news a lot. The problem also comes that everyone is offering it too. It takes away the incentive part. I can get a card for signing up for a new cell phone, getting five oil changes, or drinking thirty lattes. It is no longer the big deal if a dozen other businesses are using this incentive.

So if not a gas card then what? Well another area hitting our wallets is the grocery bill. Have you seen your grocery bill lately? A gift card to the nearby supermarket has a lot more value now. This is just as an important of an issue as gas prices. We all have to eat and not having to pay for groceries for a little while can be a bigger incentive with the gas cards you get from the billion of others you do business with. I am not saying do away with the gas card, but why not offer a choice. Another great idea in larger metro areas is public transportation passes. Often if you pre-pay for a month or longer the deals get better and better. Mass transit is getting pretty popular even in California where the car is king.

We all know being “Green” is the latest trend and it seems like everyone is trying to woe customers with their being “Green” message. And it’s not likely to stop anytime soon. Now it is your chance to let everyone know what your community is doing in the environmental category by blogging about it.  Many apartment communities are starting to switch to using solar energy to heat their pools. Not only is this a big savings for the community it is also saving our planet. Let people know the improvements you are making by blogging about it. Here are some ways you can green your community in big and small ways:

1. Buy 100% recycled copier and printing paper
2. Heat your pool with solar
3. Use green products for cleaning
4. Buy recycled paper towels, tissues, and bathroom tissue
5. Make sure you have recycle bins in your office and around the community
6. Install energy efficient light bulbs
7. Reduce print advertising and increase online advertising
8. Give incentives to encourage employees to live at the community, take public transportation, or ride a bike
9. Install a grey water system to water plantings and landscaping
10. Blog….yes blogging can help by encouraging others to go green as you have done.

We recently had a good friend, who is a Real Estate Agent, ask us to help her find a short-term rental for one of her clients who just sold their home. I was surprised she did not already have connections with a local apartment home community. She told us she did have a connection, but when she called them they were out of what her clients needed. She didn’t know anyone else to call. This is a case of untapped resources for apartment communties and where blogging can help.

Even though the Real Estate market is a bit down right now there are people who are still buying and selling. The Real Estate Agent loved the idea of looking for an apartment on a blog since she can subscribe to the apartment blogs in the area she services. She can easily find out who has apartments available and contact them directly. She can also unsubscribe anytime too. This makes it very easy for her to connect with the apartment communities in her area without the apartment community having to constantly email her updates or her calling them to only find out they are full. She has already started to subscribe to blogs and telling other agents.  

Just In Time For The Summer Moving Season

San Diego, CA – With the price of gas soaring to new heights each week along with the cost of everything else we buy, the internet will play a bigger role in our purchasing and renting decisions. The times of driving from apartment to apartment will soon be gone as consumers try to pinch every penny. The launching of Bloggingapartments.com, the nation’s first multiple blog website for apartment communities and property managers, will aid in the efforts of finding that perfect apartment. Just launched, this site offers a free website blog for an apartment community or property manager, so they can blog about available apartments, events going on in the area or at their community, news, an urgent notice to current tenants, post jobs, and array of other information.

This important free site will allow renters to get to know the places where they might want to live before plunking down a large sum of money for a deposit. Currently, there are no places on the internet where a person can go and look for an apartment and find out what’s going on at a particular rental. In addition, current tenants can read or subscribe to one of these apartment blog sites and get notices about water being turned off to fix a broken pipe, a monthly Sunday Brunch event to meet their neighbors, or find out about a new restaurant opening up around the block.

Want to find an apartment near a great hiking trail or bike path? How about an apartment near your favorite supermarket or restaurant? People who are looking for more than just a place to rest their head will be able to find out more specific information at Bloggingapartments.com than any other place.

Bloggingapartments.com works alongside popular apartment search sites such as Craigslist.org, Apartments.com, Apartmentguide.com and ForRent.com. Links to these and many other apartment search sites can be found on Bloggingapartments.com as well as links to property management websites. This will give renters an opportunity to see more choices and listings from their computer.

So the next time you go looking for that perfect apartment it most likely will be found with some help from a blog.

Blogging Apartments is launching a blog site just for Apartment Communities. Get your free blog now and start blogging. If you are an Apartment Community, you can also use a service like WebListers.net to create blog postings that look professional and are easy to use.