While searching for apartments, potential buyers tour several properties and look online at dozens more. To showcase your unique appeal to buyers using tours, here are several strategies we use here at Trimark Properties to demonstrate the care and effort we have for our properties and our residents.
Presentation – Finding the right amount of personalization for your model apartment is crucial since you want each person on your tour to appreciate the apartment enough to imagine themselves living there. However, you also shouldn’t make the apartment too personalized with mementos such as picture frames and collages filled with unknown faces. It’s hard to imagine yourself living in an apartment that already feels foreign and is a different style than you prefer. Since many people overlook the beauty of the house and focus on the décor instead, you want the property to be highly appealing to buyers but generic. Many of our properties like University Park Studios in Gainesville, FL, have beige walls that don’t detract from the architectural beauty of the space. High archways, oversized windows, and other interior design factors at University Park Studios are clean and elegant, but left alone so they aren’t overshadowed by bright colors. This simple presentation allows potential buyers to truly appreciate their surroundings during a tour.
Decorations – Don’t spend too much money on decorations, but take some time to use creative ideas when presenting your property to potential residents. Pillows, duvet covers, and rugs can add a splash of color to a room, upping the appeal factor. Placing decorations like these in an apartment can help potential buyers envision their life in one of our apartments near UF! There are many do-it-yourself, or DIY, websites that offer creative tutorials on decorations made with simple materials like colored paper. These projects add a nice decorative flair but more importantly, a sense of home. Trends come and go very quickly, so pick a classic style when decorating the model apartment so that it never looks outdated.
Upkeep – Weigh your options for model apartments. Will the apartment be empty year-round, or is a resident offering their apartment up for tours? There are different perks for both scenarios. In an empty apartment, there will be absolutely no hassles regarding cleaning. Dusting and a little upkeep are required every few weeks to keep the space sparkling, but you and your agents can eliminate some stress in the knowledge that your model apartment is always ready for a tour since no one lives there. On the other hand, using a lived-in apartment for a showing is a great advantage in its own way since there is a sense of home created that an empty apartment doesn’t have, even if it’s a nicely decorated apartment.
A sense of home makes a huge impact on potential buyers’ decisions since they are looking for their new home and want to imagine themselves in the space. One disadvantage to showing occupied apartments is the cleanliness factor. Many of our student residents at Trimark Properties are incredibly busy and a clean apartment can be the first item on the list to be dropped once stress comes around. Always give residents ample preparation time before a showing to clean up a little since a clutter-free apartment will make the biggest impact.
Technology – Now that the number of people looking for real estate using online sources grows higher and higher each year, consider using your website to provide a virtual experience. If potential residents haven’t moved to the place they are looking for housing, they often don’t get many chances to tour in person. Therefore, the ability to go on a virtual tour through your website could help those people make a decision. Visual, immersive experiences are necessary to have while looking for an apartment, but you can offer one on someone’s computer. Trimark offers virtual tours on many of our properties since we cater to a niche market of students at UF looking for apartments in Gainesville FL. Some students, especially incoming freshmen looking for apartments, are in their hometowns and can’t come to Gainesville for a tour. Although an in-person tour will most likely come later in the process, a virtual one can still make a visual impact that makes students want to lease with us. However, at the end of the day, nothing matches real interaction with one of our awesome leasing agents during a tour!
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