Every prospective resident has their own individual needs to address while searching for an apartment. Of all the different items that could ultimately influence their decision—location, square footage, amenities, bedroom count—none are more confirming than pricing and availability.
An apartment community may have everything that a person desires, but the chances of them taking action and signing lease hinge on those two things.
That's why they need to see pricing and availability of floorplans featured on an apartment community's website. Nonetheless, there's a delicate balance for apartment marketers to meet this expectation, as how that information is presented online could either improve or hurt conversion rates.
To attain a higher conversion rate, follow these important key steps when displaying pricing and availability on your apartment website:
Show Accurate Pricing And Availability
Having accurate pricing and availability displayed on your apartment community's website is a must. Considering the current state of the multifamily industry at the time this blog is being written, where prices are consistently rising and apartments across the country are at or near full occupancy, frequently updating this data is even more crucial to everyone involved.
There are three ways to ensure the pricing and availability data is accurate:
- Integrate your property management software with your website so that all changes to your availability are updated instantaneously.
- Utilize a revenue management software that automatically adjusts rent prices to the correct amount for each individual floorplan, and shows those changes online.
- Have a dedicated person on staff, or marketing partner, who is able to make updates to the website when necessary.
Not having accurate pricing and availability will result in negative blowback for your apartments, as prospects will feel betrayed by misleading information on your website.
Don't Show A Broad Price Range That Confuses Prospective Residents
There seems to be a disconnect between property managers and prospective residents when it comes to pricing.
Property managers understand that the rent for individual units varies depending on the lease terms. They know, for example, that the price for one unit in a specific floorplan could be anywhere between $1,000/month (standard 12-month lease) to $1,600/month (month-to-month lease).
Most prospective residents, however, don't understand this as intuitively as those in our industry do. When they're searching for an apartment and evaluating pricing, they're usually looking for one number so they're able to calculate if it fits into their budget.
This disconnect becomes obvious in how prices are featured on many apartment websites. We see it all the time—communities display the full price range ($1,000-$1,600) for each floorplan, creating unnecessary confusion.
Instead, it's best to only display the rent price for the standard 12-month lease. It may still be shown as a smaller price range (to account for the varying amenities of individual units in that floorplan), but no one will balk when the difference displayed in that range is less than $50 rather than hundreds.
Defaulting to only showing the rent for 12-month leases provides clarity for prospective residents, and increases the chances they'll convert to a lease when everything else you offer aligns with their individual needs.
Be Smart With Showing How Many Units Are Available
Signing a lease and moving to a new apartment community is a life-changing decision for prospective residents, which is why each of them are on their own timeline in making that happen. The only thing that can change that timeline is the availability of the unit they're interested in leasing.
Showing too much availability may hurt your conversion rate. When a prospective resident visits an apartment community's website and sees that the floorplan they're most interested in has 20 units available, they may put off reaching out and contacting a leasing agent about scheduling a tour or signing a lease.
Inversely, if the availability displayed is limited, they'll feel an urgency to start the leasing process immediately because they won’t want to miss out on the chance to live in the apartment community they desire.
By being smart with how availability is shown, you can develop a sense of urgency with prospective residents that prompts them to take more action, more often.
If you do have a plenty of units available, use language such as 'Available Now' instead of showing the exact number. Doing so may discourage less prospective residents from pausing or redirecting their apartment search.
If you don't have any units available in a particular floorplan, state the date of when the next one will be. This may cause prospective residents to change their leasing timeline to align with the timing of when the unit they want opens.
Conclusion
Displaying pricing and availability online is essential, and it should be done in a way that helps your apartment community's conversion rate. That means making sure that data is accurate, clear, and persuades more prospective residents to initiate the leasing process sooner.