We are honored to have partnered with the National Multi Housing Council (NMHC) for the fourth consecutive year to conduct the NMHC 50, which annually recognizes the nation’s largest owners and managers. We are also proud of the fact that more NMHC 50 members choose Kingsley than any other resident survey provider, including 75% of apartment REITs that conduct independent surveys. This year’s lists of the top 50 owners and managers is now available at NMHC.org/2013NMHC50.

Tags: multifamily, NMHC

Kingsley Associates recently announced a partnership with RentPath^TM (formerly PRIMEDIA®), owner of ApartmentGuide.com and Rent.com, to create Certified Resident Ratings & Reviews^SM, a new service for multifamily owners and managers. To help our clients and the multifamily industry understand what this program is and what it means, we have answered some of the most frequently asked questions about the program below.

Basics

What are “Certified Resident Ratings & Reviews”?

Who created Certified Resident Ratings & Reviews?

Where do Certified Resident Ratings & Reviews appear?

How much does it cost?

How do I participate?

How it Works

How are residents “certified”?

What metrics are apartment communities rated on?

When are ratings and reviews posted?

Can anonymous users provide ratings and reviews as they can on other sites?

What do prospective residents see when they are looking at my community?

What do I get to see?

Will I be able to respond to resident reviews?

What it Means for Me

What are the benefits of participation?

Do I need to change my current survey program?

What if I am not a Kingsley Associates client?

What if I am not a subscriber to Apartment Guide or Rent.com?

What if I have more questions?

What are “Certified Resident Ratings & Reviews”?

Certified Resident Ratings & Reviews consist of numeric ratings on the 1-5 scale and verbatim comments from residents related to apartment communities in which they live. This information has been collected as part of formal resident survey programs, as opposed to being anonymously posted directly on the Internet.

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Who created Certified Resident Ratings & Reviews?

Certified Resident Ratings & Reviews is a partnership between Kingsley Associates and RentPath (owner of ApartmentGuide.com and Rent.com).

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Where do Certified Resident Ratings & Reviews appear?

Certified Resident Ratings & Reviews appear (for current subscribers) on RentPath-owned websites related to individual apartment communities.

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How much does it cost?

If you are a current subscriber to ApartmentGuide.com or Rent.com, Certified Resident Ratings & Reviews is available at no additional cost.

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How do I participate?

Contact the RentPath concierge at 1-877-999-4472 to sign up for Certified Resident Ratings & Reviews.

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How are residents “certified”?

All ratings and reviews are collected during formal surveys of residents at existing apartment communities. These surveys have been commissioned directly by the owners or managers of the communities. The respondents are “certified” because the owners and managers themselves have supplied  the lists of residents to survey.

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What metrics are apartment communities rated on?

Ratings for overall resident satisfaction and likelihood of recommendation to other prospective renters, as well as a few other aspects of the apartment and community, appear in Certified Resident Ratings & Reviews. General verbatim comments from residents also appear in Certified Resident Ratings & Reviews. While all comments come from certified residents, residents’ full names will NOT be associated with their comments – only first names and last initials will appear.

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When are ratings and reviews posted?

Ratings and reviews are published 10 calendar days after they are received. During this 10-day period, comments are viewable only to community management via the community’s MyAG login (on http://my.apartmentguide.com). If desired, community management can use this time (before comments are publicly viewable to prospective renters) to craft a thoughtful response that will appear on the appropriate site alongside resident comments once the 10-day window has passed.

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Can anonymous users provide ratings and reviews as they can on other sites?

Currently, only data from certified residents will appear on ApartmentGuide.com and Rent.com. All Certified Resident Ratings & Reviews will be collected by trusted third parties such as Kingsley Associates. Individuals will NOT be able to log on to these sites directly to supply ratings or reviews anonymously.

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What do prospective residents see when they are looking at my community?

Prospective residents will see a summary of 1-5 “star” ratings data for a given apartment community. They will also be able to see recent verbatim comments about the community.

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What do I get to see?

Apartment community owners and managers will have access to a dashboard on http://my.apartmentguide.com that summarizes the feedback collected as part of the Certified Resident Ratings & Reviews program. Reviews will be visible on this dashboard for 10 calendar days before publication to ApartmentGuide.com or Rent.com.

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Will I be able to respond to resident reviews?

Community managers will have the ability to view comments from Certified Resident Ratings & Reviews 10 calendar days before they go “live” on ApartmentGuide.com or Rent.com. If desired, managers will have the opportunity to respond both publicly and privately. Managers can craft a thoughtful response that will appear on the appropriate site alongside the resident’s comment. Managers will also be able to respond by sending an email directly to the resident (though the resident’s full name will not be visible). There is no cost for these features.

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What are the benefits of participation?

There are many places online where prospective renters can view ratings and reviews of apartments. In most of these places, no validation of residence occurs. Thus, there is no assurance that what appears online is accurate. In fact, Kingsley Associates’ research suggests that these non-validated ratings are consistently lower than ratings from scientifically conducted surveys and that there is no link between these online reviews and actual resident perceptions. To address this, participants in the Certified Resident Ratings & Reviews program will have data from actual, current, “certified” apartment community residents that accurately reflects the reality of resident perceptions at that community.

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Do I need to change my current survey program?

If you currently have an active survey program with Kingsley Associates, you do NOT need to change it in any way in order to participate in Certified Resident Ratings & Reviews. Data from your current program can be mapped to the appropriate RentPath site(s).

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What if I am not a Kingsley Associates client?

If you are a subscriber to ApartmentGuide.com or Rent.com but do NOT have an active survey program with Kingsley Associates, a limited, no-cost resident survey program is available that meets the minimum requirements of Certified Resident Ratings & Reviews. Contact RentPath concierge at 1-877-999-4472 for more information.

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What if I am not a subscriber to Apartment Guide or Rent.com?

You can contact RentPath to learn more about how to subscribe to ApartmentGuide.com or Rent.com. The concierge may be reached at 1-877-999-4472.

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What if I have more questions?

If you have any additional questions, please feel free to contact Peggy Robinson, Kingsley Associates’ VP of Marketing, at (770) 908-1220 or probinson@kingsleyassociates.com.

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Tags: ApartmentGuide, apartmentratings.com, multifamily, online reputation management, PRIMEDIA, Rent.com, RentPath, resident surveys

Every apartment community has a reputation, and that reputation is a huge part of the community’s value. These days, a substantial portion of that reputation is formed in the digital universe. The potential drawbacks of online reviews and commentary are obvious: they may be incomplete, not representative, even downright fraudulent. But there are also ways an apartment community can use online feedback to put its best foot forward.

To help clients do this, we have developed several tools that take feedback from real, current residents collected from valid surveys and direct it to a variety of online forums, including Facebook, Yelp!, Rent Advisor and ApartmentRatings.com. Our approach is two-fold:

1. With our User-generated Feedback Tool, residents meeting the appropriate criteria are asked to supply specific commentary that can then be posted to the online platform(s) of the client’s choosing.
2. Our Controllable Content Module takes this concept a step further by allowing clients to actively search and select specific comments for publication on a community Website or Facebook page. Our new Facebook app integrates seamlessly to show this feedback, as well as a dashboard of key satisfaction metrics (if so desired). Finally, The Kingsley Associates brand accompanies the results, giving viewers peace of mind that what they’re seeing comes from real, live residents.

Protecting an online reputation isn’t easy, but, thanks to these tools, it is possible. We can help. Contact us for more information.

Tags: apartmentratings.com, Facebook, multifamily, online reputation management, resident survey, yelp

Kingsley Associates is planning a big presence at this year’s BOMA Every Building Conference and Expo at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle from June 24-26. Here are a few places to catch us:

• Come see Jim Woidat, Lisa Green and Phil Mobley on the trade show floor at booth #1736. Visitors will get an up-close look at Kingsley’s survey tools, including our real-time results dashboard and integrated action planning module. There will also be discount opportunities for our Assessing the Customer Experience (ACE) program, as well as a chance to win a new iPad. (For those who’d like a more in-depth discussion, private appointments are also available from 2:00-4:00 pm on Monday, June 25th.)
• We’re celebrating our fourth year of partnership on the BOMA Experience Exchange Report (EER) benchmarking tool with a special Learning Lab on Monday, June 25th at 11:00 am PDT on the trade show floor.
• Get the latest insights into what tenants are thinking at a unique “lightning-round” session on Monday, June 25th at 3:30 pm PDT.
• Join Phil Mobley and panelists from Cassidy Turley, Liberty Property Trust and Hines as they discuss strategies for “Keeping Tenants in the Fold” on Tuesday, June 26th at 9:00 am PDT.
• Finally, we’ll be on-hand Tuesday night for the annual TOBY Awards Banquet to cheer on the more than 20 clients with buildings in the running.

For updates during the conference, make sure to follow us on Twitter (@Kingsley_Assoc). We look forward to seeing everyone in Seattle.

Tags: BOMA, BOMA12, CRE, EER, Jim Woidat, Lisa Green, Phil Mobley

Our conference schedule for the spring of 2012 is rounding into shape:

• PREA Spring Conference (March 14-15, Boston, MA) – John Falco attending
• NMHC Human Resources Forum (March 28-29, Chicago, IL) – John Falco attending
• BOMA Southern Region Conference (April 12-14, Jacksonville, FL) – Phil Mobley presenting
• BOMA Medical Office Building & Healthcare Real Estate Conference (May 2-4, Atlanta, GA) John Falco and Phil Mobley attending

Tags: BOMA, John Falco, Medical Office Building, multifamily, NMHC, Phil Mobley, PREA, real estate investing

The first few weeks of 2012 present several opportunities to hear from Kingsley Associates, as several of our executives will be presenting at various industry events.

• National Multi Housing Council Annual Meeting (January 17, Boca Raton, FL) – Principal Jim Woidat outlines high-level results of the annual Plan Sponsor Survey, conducted in partnership with Institutional Real Estate, Inc.
• IREI Visions, Insights & Perspectives Conference (January 31, Scottsdale, AZ) – Jim Woidat reviews the Plan Sponsor Survey results with senior executives from leading investment and advisory firms.
• BOMA Winter Business Meeting (January 31, Washington, DC) – Vice President Phil Mobley partners with BOMA, International Research Manager Tracy Glink to discuss the 2012 Experience Exchange Report (EER) and preview some of its new features.

Tags: BOMA, Brandon Campen, IREI, Jim Woidat, NMHC, Phil Mobley

In a recent article, the Wall Street Journal sought out Kingsley Associates’ Jim Woidat on the relative attractiveness of private equity versus REITs for institutional investors like pension funds.

Tags: Jim Woidat, pension fund investing, private equity investing, real estate investing, REITs, Wall Street Journal

On May 5, Kingsley Associates’ Phil Mobley was a panelist at the BOMA Medical Office Building Seminar in Dallas, Texas. Click on the image below to hear a brief snippet from the session about property management excellence.

Tags: BOMA, Medical Office Building, Phil Mobley, tenant retention

Kingsley Associates’ John Falco will lead an interactive panel discussion titled Managing the Resident Experience at the National Apartment Association (NAA)’s Education Conference in Las Vegas on Friday, June 24th at 8:30 am. This session will focus on the ever-increasing sophistication of resident feedback programs. Kingsley will be joined by industry heavyweights AvalonBay, UDR and Milestone to share real-life examples of strategic choices driven directly by the collective voice of the customer. Panelists will share their insights and experiences on such topics as:

•           The importance of obtaining resident feedback

•           Building company-wide buy in for your feedback program

•           The right survey methodology (it’s not the same for everybody!)

•           How to integrate resident feedback into operations

•           Using the right internal and external benchmarks

•           Setting internal goals and developing reward systems

•           Understanding shifting resident needs / perceptions

•           Supply / demand in the world of customer service delivery

Please join us in Las Vegas as we share the latest cutting-edge resident research and industry best practices.

Tags: John Falco, multifamily, National Apartment Association, resident surveys

The May issue of the National Apartment Association (NAA)’s UNITS magazine is now available, and Kingsley Associates is proud to be well represented in its pages:

• In the feature article “Selling the Lifestyle,” Kingsley’s Phil Mobley zeros in on how industry players like AMLI Residential, AvalonBay Communities, Gables Residential and UDR are using their brands to build resident loyalty among the mobile, online generation.
• Then, within “Go Ahead, Check Our Ratings,” a sidebar references Kingsley’s research on the validity of online apartment rating services.
• Finally, the issue contains a formal announcement of the 2011 NMHC 50, conducted by Kingsley Associates in partnership with the National Multi Housing Council.

In the coming weeks, be on the lookout for more multifamily industry trends from Kingsley Associates, including some nuggets of wisdom from our own research and a report from John Falco’s session at the 2011 NAA Education Conference & Exposition.

Tags: apartmentratings.com, John Falco, multifamily, National Apartment Association, NMHC, Phil Mobley, real estate industry trends, resident satisfaction, resident surveys, UNITS Magazine