Real Estate Marketing & Beyond
Is apartment living meant to be enjoyable? Do you really want to get to know your neighbors or are you simply interested in having someplace to park your stuff?
If you’re not all that into “getting social” with the guy down the hall who has people dropping by all hours of the night, or the noisy couple two floors above you who spend all afternoon screaming at each other and all night making up for it, then you’re not going to like living in a community which offers this feature.
If, on the other hand, you believe that people living in the same space should get to know a little bit about each other - at least enough to be able to share a cup of sugar - then you’ll probably be interested in asking your manager to adopt ActiveBuilding’s offering for your own apartment complex.
Seattle-based ActiveBuilding designs unique, online community gateways for the multifamily housing industry. Traditional community websites are geared towards prospective renters - ActiveBuilding has created something much different. Residents can interact with staff and their neighbors through a private, online communication channel created exclusively for the community.
"ActiveBuilding is focused on enhancing the resident experience," ActiveBuilding CEO Kobi Bensimon said. "Elevating the level of communication and sense of community is vital for resident retention and increasing NOI for apartment communities, so we created the perfect tool to achieve those goals."
Residents can create a social profile, similar to other social networks, and interact with their neighbors according to shared interests. For example, mothers of young children can set up play dates for their kids, active individuals can set up a time to meet for a walk or run - residents can even recommend the best restaurants they’ve recently enjoyed.
Residents can also set up how they want to connect and communicate - they have the option to choose to receive individual email or daily digests, text messages, activity feeds and even live chat.
A number of Camden communities use ActiveBuilding. Philip Mayer, Manager of Innovation at Camden Property Trust is pleased with how the social features of ActiveBuilding increases the sense of community among his tenants, “We want our residents to become neighbors in a community, not just people who live in a building; and ActiveBuilding helps us make that happen”.
What do you think? If you’re a property manager, would something like this help improve your community?
Main Image © rikilo - Fotolia.com
