Eco-Friendly Rental Housing: An Industry Shift or Temporary Fad?

Property management company Korman Residential has recently been working to roll out their KindSpace initiative, which has the company converting apartment buildings into sustainable and eco-friendly projects. These apartments use locally sourced materials, energy efficient appliances and much of the décor and construction materials come from recycled products.

While they aren’t the first company to make inroads in the green construction and rental business, it gives us here at Rocket Lease an opportunity to weigh in on the matter.  Korman has converted hundreds of units across the country, in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Florida into KindSpace apartments.

If you’re a landlord, we’re sure you love the earth and everything, but what about the bottom line here: does having an “eco-friendly” apartment available allow you to charge a premium?  While we’re not privy to the exact rental rates at the Korman properties, judging by the inflated prices on everything from organic tomatoes to vegan hand soap and gluten free cupcakes, we can bet that the answer is a resounding yet.  This has to be particularly true considering the fact that we’re already entrenched in a landlord’s market.  It’s just a fact that people are willing to pay more for something that makes them feel like they are doing something good for the environment and for themselves.  Furthermore, since that demographic who is more willing to pay for organic or eco-friendly or whatever the buzzword of the day is tends to be more affluent, they will most likely be the most desireable tenants.  This is an interesting and innovative way for Korman and other property management companies to attract the best tenants.

The market is another interesting thing to consider, however.  Since everyone knows that it’s impossible for it to stay a landlord’s market forever, now is actually a great time to be making improvement to properties, such as adding Energy Star rated appliances or painting with non-toxic paint.  That way when the market does take a turn for the renter, that property will be ready with an advantage to present to picky renters while other landlords scramble to make improvements.

We also know that one easy (and free!) way to “green” up your rental process is to switch to an online rental application which saves you time and saves the earth a few trees.

As a landlord, what do you think of converting units to something a little more earth-friendly?  Are you willing to spend a little more on your overhead to potentially recover a lot more in rent?  Furthermore, do we think this fad will last?

Property Managers: How to Convince Your Property Owner to Switch to Online Applications

There are so many difficult situations that a property manager has to deal with in the course of a single day that it would be overwhelming to try to list all of them here.  But perhaps one of the biggest challenges faced by a property manager is dealing with the property owner or landlord that owns your building.  Ideally, you have a good relationship with the property owner who is your boss and that lets you make suggestions to him or her about how the property is handled.  Still, we know that it can sometimes be difficult to convince a property owner to change their ways, which includes getting them to switch to an online rental application process.  Luckily, we here at Rocket Lease have some suggestions for how to deal with the questions and concerns that the property owner might have when you bring up the idea.

What He Says: Won’t it be hard for me to learn a new system? 

Particularly if a landlord has been in the business for a long time, he will probably be concerned about the effort it will take to learn any kind of new system.  If he is in the habit of reviewing paper applications when a vacancy comes up, he may be very hesitant to switch to an online system, lest he not be able to judge prospective tenants so easily.

What You Say: The Rocket Lease system is extremely easy to use.  The streamlined dashboard actually means it’s easier to review applications – with the added benefit that you can do it from anywhere without having drop by the property or have them faxed over.  You can even review applications from your smart phone.  (At this point, you can feel free to show them the simple and oh-so-easy walkthrough on our site, which you’ll find here.)

What He Says: Why would we change?  Our system works fine.

It’s true that people have been renting apartments using paper applications for decades and it hasn’t started any nuclear wars (that we know of).  But just because a system works “ok” doesn’t mean it’s the best system.  If that were true, I’d be typing this on an Apple IIe and faxing it to you, right?

Yes, switching to an online system will doubtless make your job easier and that’s why you want to do it.  But when you’re talking to your boss, don’t focus on that part, focus on how it will actually help them.

What You Say: Switching to an online rental application will save you money because it will save me time.  When I’m not wading through paper applications or fussing with the fax machine, I can be doing the other, more important tasks that come with my job, like checking facebook.  NO!  Don’t say that, like fixing things.

You Can Also Say:  It will find you better tenants because you can accept applications from people around the world and also set up a pre-screening application saving everyone time and energy.  Our current system works “ok” but this system works BETTER.

What He Says: Won’t a fancy online application cost me money?

This is an easy one, because it won’t.

What You Say: Rocket Lease is free for landlords.  They even do tenant screening with the screening fees going to the prospective tenants.

If by this point in the conversation you haven’t convinced your property owner to switch to online rental application, you could always try begging.