Latest Events

Resident Retention is just as important, if not more, to a property’s success as marketing and leasing! This week’s Resident Event is a fun spin on lease renewals! Create a fun little flyer to include with your renewal offers which has the title, “Don’t Dessert Us” which is a fun play on words between dessert and desert. Include images such as an ice cream sundae, cookies, or pies. The event itself will be a renewal party with dessert served! You can keep your office open for a few extra hours during the week and invite your residents to come sign their new lease and have dessert with you! You could serve cake, ice cream, cookies, brownies, and more. Your residents will appreciate your effort to stay open...

As we get closer to Christmas, most people start to panic as we realize how many items we have not crossed off of our “to-do” lists! This resident event is a combination of services which relieve at least some of those stresses. First, host a “Parent’s Night Out” for your community and invite your residents to drop their children off at the clubhouse for a night of kid-free shopping! Make sure you have plenty of staff members available that evening so there are more than enough adults to chaperone this event. You could show a holiday-themed movie, gather some materials to make Christmas crafts or print off a variety of coloring pages, provide light snacks, and keep those kiddos busy and entertained so their parents can get those last-minute errands done! Make sure you have a sign-up sheet at the office so that you...

There are many popular holiday movies that are played this time of the year, but there is one in particular that inspired this week’s Resident Event! Let’s plan a Polar Express Movie Night! Schedule an evening in the clubhouse (or theatre room if your property has one) and invite the kids and their parents to board the Polar Express! On your flyer, the heading should read, “All Aboard!” or use this great image which has elements from the movie: Photo credit: http://www.theparamountcenter.com/files/8914/1486/1108/polar-express.jpg In the movie, the kids need a golden ticket to board the Polar Express which goes to the North Pole. When you send out the flyer/invitation attach a “Golden Ticket” that your guests must bring with them so they feel really excited about coming! You can print them at your...

As we approach December 1st, the holidays are officially in full swing so it’s time to start planning some events which not only get your residents in the spirit of the season, but perhaps should also be seen as helpful during the hustle and bustle of the season. This week’s Resident Event is called a “Sip & Shop”. These days, it seems like almost everyone is an independent salesperson for a company whether it is cosmetics, candles, jewelry, kitchen gadgets, or the like. Why not create an event for your residents which will bring all of those sales people to your clubhouse for one night and let your residents enjoy an evening out of the house while sipping on some wine and doing some holiday shopping? It shouldn’t be hard to find seven or eight (more or less depending on the size of...

During this time of the year, it can be easy to get caught up in planning Resident Events which revolve around the holiday themes of November and December. This week’s Resident Event is not specific to any month or holiday, and can be planned any time of the year. In fact, if it ends up being a big hit amongst your residents you could make it a weekly, monthly, or quarterly event! This event is only applicable to pet-friendly communities but is sure to be a big hit! Let’s plan a resident Yappy Hour! How many events do you plan that include your residents’ pets? This one is just for them! Get creative with your flyers using cute slogans such as “dogs + humans + treats for all = Yappy Hour”; put up a sign during the event which says, “Let’s...

This is the time of the year where most families have professional pictures done. These photos can be placed on holiday cards to send to family members or even turned into gifts for loved ones! Parents enjoy getting pictures done of their children every year as cherished memories, or newly engaged couples may enjoy some holiday photos to celebrate their engagement. This week’s Resident Event idea is to host a mini photo shoot day for your residents! Find a local photographer who can come out to your property for a day, best if done on a weekend, and do mini shoots for your residents. Do some research first and make sure you are booking a photographer who will give your residents a fair price: remember you are providing a great location for free and a handful of clients for the...

Last month, as a team building exercise, our staff played "Multi-Family Feud!" We started off by creating a survey of questions related to property management and with the help of our Multi-Family Insider friends, we were able to get lots of truthful, interesting and hilarious answers! Once we had all of our answers, we downloaded a customizable Family Feud Powerpoint that we found here (http://www.youthdownloads.com/games/family-fued-powerpoint). To prepare for the game, we set up two tables on each side of our projection screen. One table was for team 1 and the other side for team 2. We also placed a small table in the middle with a call bell that we purchased from Office Depot. We connected our laptop to the projector and were ready to play! To make the teams random and...

Now that Halloween is over, we approach the season of being thankful and getting in the spirit of giving! This Resident Event idea encourages the spirit of the season by bringing your residents together and giving back to your community. It should be fairly inexpensive and easy on your budget! As a community, host a collections drive for a local homeless shelter. You can easily find lists of items that are most needed at the shelter itself but some ideas are: socks, coats, toiletries, diapers, blankets, non-perishable food items, and more. Many homeless shelters have programs which provide a Thanksgiving meal to families in need so see if you can find out if there are specialized food items to collect. Some shelters even accept book donations if they have programs in place to assist those in need with education and job...

This week’s Resident Event idea is geared more for your little residents. Did you know that November 2nd is Cookie Monster Day? That is because Cookie Monster’s birthday is November 2nd! You can turn this fun little “holiday” into a great Resident Event by hosting a Cookie Monster-themed event! You don’t have to go too crazy with this one for the little ones to have a blast! This year November 2nd falls on a Monday so you could just open your clubhouse for an hour to an hour and a half after your office closes and invite the kids and their parents to a cookie party! Set out a big table with a tablecloth (preferably blue like Cookie Monster himself) and lay out trays of all different kinds of cookies! Make sure you have cold milk nearby to go with...

Immediately after Halloween, stores are stuck with hundreds of unsold pumpkins that they are dying to get rid of. Fortunately, we have a great resident event for some post-Halloween pumpkin fun! So drop by the local farmer's market or pumpkin patch and purchase a load of pumpkins of various sizes for dirt cheap. Pumpkin Bowling Bowling with nice round bowling balls is much too easy, right? Pumpkin Bowling is a fun spin-off that your residents will love. All you have to do is find some kids’ toy bowling game with plastic pins, and set up several “lanes” of bowling either in the clubhouse or outside if the weather permits or there is enough room. Make it fun by having various sizes of pumpkins (sometimes the “ugly” ones too) that the residents can choose from to bowl with and...