Why I Love Millennials as a Rental Market Class

Millennials between the age of 18 and 33 get a bum wrap in today’s society as being self-entitled brats who think the world owes them something.

Well, hold the phone, I have to step up to the plate on their behalf and let you know why I think our society may be in pretty good hands with our future generation driving the bus down the road.

To set the record straight here.

Let’s face it. I am not a Millennial, in fact I’m far from it, so I am not blowing my own horn. In fact, I am an older dude. Fifty-four (54 years old) which in Millennial terms makes me an ancient fossil. At my age I could be the father of any one of them. I remember what it was like when I was growing up too. Rock’n roll was evil, my generation had no morals, music was too loud, on and on, etc. Old folks did not understand our generation. “Hope I die before I get old”, ring any bells from My Generation?

Millennials are more globally connected as a generation than any other in the history of the world. Literally. They are connected in real-time in ways that we never could have imagined ten or fifteen years ago. Millennials embrace innovative technologies and are globally connected. Yet, here they are, tweeting, blogging, posting away to create trends, set new standards, and some day: save the world.

So What Are Millennials Doing So Right?

Let’s get started with trendy things like music, technology, and fashion. Millennials are less likely to be influenced by top-down advertising campaigns and television ads or any of the other huge ticket ad agency campaigns trying to be hip and capture a market share. Keep trying. The Millennials are not there. They are influencing one another through a bottom-up referral method and setting their own trends, no help from the deep pockets of corporate sponsorship.

Seems like so long ago MySpace was in vogue. They have done a lot to revamp the site to stay on top but now pages like Facebook are more mainstream in today’s culture. Today even Grandma has a Facebook account. MySpace was the birthplace of so many bands without labels backing them who were catapulted to mainstream music moguls in chat rooms, via text messages, and other viral posts. Small specialty boutiques in Japan set trends that soon became global brands for shoes, T-shirts, and fashion styles. Bam! Today’s trend goes global tomorrow. Only the Millennials yield this much power and so many of the corporate advertising establishment is scrambling to break into the mix and influence the trend. Again, good luck and keep trying.

“Stop Texting and Pay Attention”.

Yup, that’s what “we” (my generation) all say today. Well, at least from my generation’s perspective that is. “We” see Millennials zoned out in public all the time on their mobile devices. “We” think they are just texting away their lives. In actuality they are moving the markets, setting trends, and changing the world all from the palm of their hand. So how come we don’t get it? Well, because we just don’t get it. We are not that connected to our own generation or even our own communities to even take notice. But I hope we soon see the writing on the (Facebook) wall, text or Twitter tweet. My generation draws too many lines in the sand. We are in danger of becoming those old foggies that “didn’t get us” when we were that age and trying to find our own way.

But boy oh boy are the Millennials on top of it all. We don’t even see it happening. I’m not even sure they see the impact they are having on the world. But the borders, barriers and beliefs that separate us are starting to be blurred at the lines. Millennials are there, and now, and going beyond what we can understand. They cannot be corralled into old marketing mantras. They just break the mold of what used to work years ago, and virtually go where things are happening for real, and in real time.

Social Influencer Marketing.

Sites like Instagram, YouTube and other social hot spots that host consumer user reviews and photos giving their unsolicited recommendations on social media are more likely to influence Millennials then older established marketing methods. Advertisers are in a mad rush to catch up to the trending waves where Millennials are setting the bar to a new standard of living. But it takes a fresh approach to even reach this dimension. You cannot just flood the media channels with posts and videos to promote your product. That is still the top-down marketing approach and they will smell you coming a mile away.

So Why Do I Even Care?

I am a property manager. I rent apartments for a living and provide housing for prequalified residents who pass our rental application screening process. So what’s this all got to do with Millennials? Over the past five years or so I have been renting to more and more Millennials and I have been beginning to see my own marketing efforts picking up traction to this market class. And I didn’t even know I was doing it.

Millennials are savers.

I have recently read Blog posts where they are a generation of savers. Most Millennials are saving at least 5% of their incoming pay checks for the future. OK, so it’s not too much but they ARE thinking about the future in deed. I am not sure if it is because they have already figured out that they will be getting screwed on the Social Security tsunami that is headed their way. They know they are going to be paying for it, but probably not benefiting from it at all. Millennials are not just about saving money either. They are an eco-concious generation and see that past generations have been depleting the earth’s natural resources. They like being green and are more proactive to save the world for all of us and future generations if they can.

I actually started to take notice of the Millennial rental marketplace during our background check screening process. One of the many steps we do to verify the applicant is a viable candidate is to check a valid photo ID. After many months of checking driver licenses  I started seeing over and over again the little red heart in the lower corner of the drivers license which indicates they are an organ donor. More and more Millennials I screen are health conscious, non-smoking, organ donors willing to pass along the precious gift of life to those they do not even know to give them a second chance. I am seeing this as a generational trend in this age group and am no longer surprised to see that they have “got heart”.

Millennials are more about value.

So it may cost a little more to rent from us, but I have found that Millennials are value shoppers. There are a lot of garbage rentals out there on the market and frankly, Millennials are not interested in the crap that is being passed as “living spaces”. They want nice places to make their homes. They want functional living spaces where they can entertain family and friends. They care about culture, entertaining, sports and social events. I am surprised to see how many Millennials are hooked on HGTV shows like Flip or Flop, Love It or List It, Fixer Upper, Property Brothers, etc. They like these nice things in their apartments too, and this is where I think we have struck a Millennial nerve.

We like nice things too. As managers these units are easier to maintain and easier to rent out. I could go on and on why I think it is so important as a business model to have the best rental inventory on the market, but let’s save that one for another blog posts. So we do things a little differently at Belaire Property Management. We gut the buildings if the infrastructure is obsolescent. We start with all new plumbing and energy efficent heating systems. We install all new energy efficient stainless steel appliances, glass top stoves, built-in microwave ovens, french door refrigerators, dishwashers, custom glass backsplashes, ceiling fans, and will even include washer and dryers as amenities in the apartment if the layout permits.

We use custom trending paint colors with about 3 or 4 colors in each apartment to make them warm and inviting. Then we top it all off with a maintenance and repair program that makes it easy to connect to the management via cell phones and our web site to notify them of no heat calls, or other types of repairs and maintenance issues. We make it nice, and easy to live here.

So What Did We Do Right (and We Didn’t Even Know it)?

Well, for starters, we took some really nice pictures of or finished rental units. We use these to post on apartment rental sites like Craigslist, Trulia, Zillow, HotPads, Rent, and other online apartment web sites. We took it another step further. We took our photos and created videos and virtual walk-through tours and opened a YouTube channel to post our videos. We took one step further. You are reading our Belaire Property Management Blog where we also post stories, interviews, and other rental related information to help our rental community. Then we wrapped it all onto our web site and used our ConstantContact newsletters to get the word out when we had an available rental.

Then we waited. But no too long at all. When we post to Zillow it goes viral all over the web. We had no idea the Millennials were watching, but watching they were. They liked what they saw and spread the word. They beat down a path to our door and wanted to get into our units and are more than willing to pay higher rents for the value we provide. When considering price versus value, Millennials will pay the extra price for higher value.

Our last post on Zillow  had over 900+ eyeballs on the ad. Zillow does a nice job making the ads work on mobile media too. Then our rental story goes out, all over the local online rental market. We never planned or intended that our marketing model would attract such a buzz to a whole generation of responsible renters, but it worked, and we didn’t even know how we did it.

Six months ago in January 2016 we started focusing on our online campaign as we described above. Now it is June and we have a waiting list of renters all the way into November for units we have not even completed renovations for or put into our rental inventory. The public has deemed us worthy in the rental market and the word is spreading, and there is nothing we can do to stop it. We have renters wanting to call our unfinished rental inventory home, and they are waiting and willing to pay for it. This is why, I love my Millennials, and you should too.

Do you have any ideas on this topic you could share to help our online community?
Please chime in to share a comment or review.

 

Warmest regards,

Brian Lucier
Belaire Property Management
Regional Property Manager
(978) 448-0669
info@belaire.co
www.belaire.co

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