The Apartment Finder Blog

Jacksonville, FL Property Awarded 2011 Affordable Community of the Year!

lindabeach — Thu, 24 May 2012 04:52:12 PDT

Congratulations to Mission Pointe Apartments for being recognized as Jacksonville’s Affordable Community of the Year at the First Coast Apartment Association’s, Circle of Excellence Awards held on May 10^th.

Mission Pointe Apartments, managed by Cornerstone Residential Management, Hollywood, FL was developed in 2003 as an affordable multi-family community. The property is located in Duval County, Jacksonville, Florida. Mission Pointe houses approx. 388 units across a serene 43 acres. Located in a rural part of Jacksonville by the International Airport, Mission Pointe has proven it is the best affordable community on the Northside. This community is an off the beaten path gem conveniently located minutes from I-295 Beltway and The River City Town Shopping Center where residents can rest easy and settle into their homes at this community.

The apartment homes are placed perfectly over green acreage with extra large serene lake views available throughout the community. The exterior of the buildings display peaceful, serene earth tones, while the interiors offer all the modern luxuries such as ceiling fans in all rooms, energy efficient appliances, and track lighting in kitchens. As an affordable community, Mission Pointe offers beautiful amenities and spectacular programs for the residents. Community outreach, health programs, tutoring, and literacy training are an example of some of the options available. In the current economic state, Mission Pointe offers a luxury apartment home at the top of not only its class but many others as well for an affordable price.

Mission Pointe has consistently experienced higher than average occupancy and lower than average turnover within the marketplace during 2012.

Apartment Finder congratulatesMission Pointe !!

Air Finder!

apartmentfinder — Mon, 21 May 2012 09:37:56 PDT

As always, the Atlanta Apartment Association Trade Show was a huge hit, this year with their “All About Adventure” theme. The Atlanta Apartment Finder team was the star of the show, winning the first place booth award with their “Let us Lead You to Your Next AD-venture theme.” This award is given to the vendor who overall has best theme, most professional team and booth and most votes. The AF team was right in the theme, handing out tickets to board “AF Air ” – first class service all the way!

Marcia Bollinger, President and Michelle Roberts, National Accounts Director in the “winning photo” with the Atlanta team:

Pauline Houchins-Publisher
Teale Ganster and Gigi Morgan-Senior AEs
Mark Howell-AE
Aimee Adams-AE
Sarah Norman-AE
Renee Hill-AE
Michelle Woerner-Admin Manager

Amazing AIM!

apartmentfinder — Fri, 11 May 2012 08:10:15 PDT

Steve Lefkovits and his team really do know how to put on a fabulous and interactive event, as evidenced at the 2012 AIM Conference. From the first seminar to the last party, the networking and education was five star. This year’s conference centered on putting ideas and initiatives into the customer’s context and how many “touches” lead up to a fixed impression of a property or brand – like Apartment Finder’s “Real Connections,” – pulling it all together!

Finder Orange Team had a great time at AIM 2012 and MarciaB says, “Thanks to the AIM team for an amazing conference! Lots of new things to learn about technology and the social world! – - – and Finder hopes you enjoy the coolio bus you got at AIM”.

A Fun Night Out at AIM

apartmentfinder — Wed, 02 May 2012 05:24:53 PDT

Apartment Finder gathered together with industry friends and colleagues at the Lucky Strike Bowling Lanes in Phoenix, AZ while attending the AIM conference. We had a great time “behind the red velvet curtains” in our private, roped off area. It was a blast watching everyone cut loose–making up crazy names for the scoreboards, creating their own “special techniques” for getting their bowling ball down the lane and choosing a few choice words to make that last pin fall!�

“Alias names” of bowlers: Frosted Flake, Lucky Charm, CocoPuff, Big Mama, Hot Mama, Socks, Rumergirl, Miltonbrat, Chantilly Lace, Brew Babe, Venus Vodka – so you see the bowling alley guy had a lot of fun typing these names into the scoreboard!

Joining Marcia Bollinger:

Trish Moore

and Krista Castillo . . . .

Some of the guests:

Carrie Powell – Aeris Properties

Traci Hall

Kai Weber

Kisha Donahue – Amli

Jennifer Robbins – Blair Apartments

Kelli Falk-Tillett – Drucker and Falk

Teresa Sandman

Laura White

and Lissette Espinoza – Gingko

Tracy Bowers – Matrix Residential

Melanie Stiles

Karen Robertson

Katie Wrenn

Susan Goff

and Jake Brizedine – Milestone

Karen Kossow – The Property Portfolio

Christina Steeg

and Anna Shea – Simpson

Jamin Harkness

and Ignacio Diego - Wesley Apartments

Finder Just Wants To Have Fun!

apartmentfinder — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 04:30:31 PDT

The Central PA, PANJ and Regional “MP” teams attended a fun and exciting Morgan Properties Conference dinner and 80′s party get together held at The Hotel Hershey in Hershey, PA! The chocolate kisses were everywhere and yummy too!

Everyone dressed in the 80′s theme for the party…as you can see from the group shot – where Michael Peterson, Larri Ann Craig, Sue D’Angiolillo, Jessica Nearhoof from Apartment Finder and Peggy Hale, Vice President of Marketing and Sales for Morgan Properties sure had a blast! .

Let The Good Times Roll! ~ Orlando Apartment Finder Awarded Best Booth!

lindabeach — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 10:30:25 PDT

James Haeger, Barbara McNulty, Linda Beach, Betty Mularz & in front Greg Craven

On April 17th, the Orlando Apartment Finder team joined in on the fun at the Apartment Association of Great Orlando’s tradeshow. The s show’s Mardi Gras themed, “Let The Good Times Roll!” made for lots of fun, laughs and great networking. With over 1,500 attendees and 178 booths, the tradeshow floor was electrifying!

The Orange team was visually present and eloquently incorporated their orange brand into the traditional colors of Mardi Gras, purple, green & gold. Adorned with orange AF shirts, purple boas and stunning face painting for the ladies while the men looked dapper in their Mardi Gras derby hats.

The visual presentation of the AF brand, the lighting and the costumes all added up to the perfect win of “Best Booth”! Congratulations Team Orlando!

Do you make a difference?

Mildred Thompson — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 06:05:57 PDT

Most of us spend half, and sometimes more than half, of our lives at work and the people there can really make a difference in the day. I really liked the article on the Inc. website by Jeff Haden where he talks about the 8 qualities of remarkable employees. The reasons he brings up aren’t your typical, run of the mill reasons – like works hard, can always be counted on, yatta, yatta, yatta. Jeff reaches a little and picks “out of the box” things that make working in an office fun, and working with great people extraordinary. - – “Great employees follow processes. Remarkable employees find ways to make those processes even better, not only because they are expected to… but because they just can’t help it.”

I especially liked these points:

Yes, the best employees are often eccentric – they don’t comply exactly to the rules but know how to work within them to get the job done well and make others in the office want to pitch in too – and have fun doing it. I love teamwork and having a leader or just someone in the group that can come up with new ideas or great systems to blow the top off the project. They accomplish the task differently and better than it’s ever been done before – and it just makes great sense.
Do work with someone that just makes you and others feel good? You know you’ve done a good job, but when someone tells you – out loud – in front of others, it just makes it all worthwhile, doesn’t it! And it didn’t cost that person a dime to say nice things about the success you just had. We all should make more of an effort to speak up and tell others they’ve done well.
But, when you’ve messed up in a public situation, don’t you appreciate the person who doesn’t point out your mistakes in front of everyone, but who will wait until after it’s all over and confront you in a private setting. Even then, he doesn’t make you feel bad about what you’ve done, just recognizes it and maybe even gives you suggestions on how you could have handled the situation better. Constructive criticism is a much easier pill to swallow for all of us.

If you have this person in your office, tell them you appreciate all they do. Tell them you’re grateful for the great mood they bring to work with them every morning and share – their quirky personality really makes you smile. Get out of your comfort zone and become that person who can really make a difference in your office. Remember, it won’t cost you anything and you’ll be rewarded in more ways than you realize.

Tracking? or Advertising??

apartmentfinder — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 04:51:54 PDT

by Jamie Jump, Sr. Publisher, Southern California Apartment Finder

When was the last time you looked for a new car? – - – Recently, I wanted to purchase a new vehicle that got more than 12MPG and was definitely looking for a “green machine.” I went to a few dealerships, test drove a few cars, and found that I really liked a certain model but needed to do some online research and price shopping. I found half a dozen internet sites, or more, that showcased cars and did my comparisons. I narrowed my search down to a few models and sent inquiries to the dealerships. A couple of things happened right away, and when I say “right away” I mean within seconds.

First, in less than three minutes, the sales reps were on the phone with me. Of the three inquiries I made, there were three calls to my contact number. No waiting. Everyone called me right away.

Second, when I was asked what internet site I saw the listing on, I really had no idea. I had shopped for awhile and surfed various sites and really couldn’t remember.

This made me think of our industry and my position at Apartment Finder. I meet with clients every day who give me feedback on how they perceive our product is working. Their perception of success or failure is very reliant on two factors, that are quite frankly, in their hands – tracking and response.

In terms of the response, my experience with the really fast turnaround on response from the car dealerships was a real eye opener. They knew that they needed to engage me right away. I was actively shopping and actively buying. A delay meant that a competitor would have a much better chance of winning my business. I have worked with a lot of companies that dismiss e-mail generated leads. Some disregard them entirely or get around to them when they “have time.” I wonder if there would be a significant increase in conversion if they would have less than a minute turnaround time on a computer generated lead? If you engage the consumer when they are “in the moment,” would your conversion rate increase?

In terms of tracking, it’s not always an easy task. There is a belief that the first source the consumer uses gets credit for the lease. But, is this really the source? My personal car shopping experience had me on several sites looking for information. I sent an e-mail from one site and called from another. Did that make the first site I saw more or less credible than the site I used to populate my inquiry? Compare this to apartment shopping where the leasing agent has to track the source of the lead. Computer generated lead tracking systems indicate how the consumer contacted them, but does this really indicate how they found them? Do you think that the overall advertising campaigns the dealerships used increased the odds of the consumer seeking them out to buy a car? If I had driven to the dealership after looking at their newspaper ad, their website, and their inventory on an aggregate site, I probably would have been sourced as “Drive By,” when in reality, I had been heavily influenced to do so by their advertising.

‘Olympic’ sized fun!

apartmentfinder — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 07:29:53 PDT

by Krisha Smith, AF OKC Publisher

Oklahoma City was the host city this year for the OMHA/Oklahoma Multi-Family Housing Association event including the Tulsa and Stillwater Apartment Associations, Thursday, March 29th. And what fun was had by all at the show!

AF Orange power was at its best in this Olympic-themed show with high attendance. At the AF booth, our clients were able to take a NERF crossbow shot at a chance to win an iPad! One could see that property management frustrations were released while firing at the target, too! We had a blast watching our clients hit (and miss) the target. As always, valuable networking, laughter, and great fun is always present with AF Orange!

Shannon, with Council Place, Case and Associates, was the lucky winner of the iPad!

The Orange Team celebrated after the tradeshow with some clients at Mickey Mantel’s. From left to right front, Courtney Chamblin, Krisha Smith, Marcia B and Rosann Vaughn (Capital Assets). Back, Mica Lee, Crystal Tolen, Miranda Hanes and Gary Goss (Lynco Inc)

AF Orange Team!! Courtney Chamblin (OKC AE), Mica Lee (Tulsa and OKC AE), Miranda Hanes (Tulsa and NWAR AE). Back, Crystal Tolen (Tulsa and NWAR Pub) Marcia B and Krisha Smith (OKC Pub).

SoCal Celebrates Success of New Services Offered to Clients!

apartmentfinder — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 05:15:52 PDT

by Robert Gasteiger, AF Orange County Publisher

The Southern California Orange Team had a great and successful time together at their yearly meeting discussing goals and strategies with the executive team from NCI. It was extra exciting this year welcoming Gerry Parker and Fulton Collins to the meeting too!

Gerry Parker & Marcia Bollinger, Trish Moore and the So CA team: Jamie Jump (Sr. Publisher), Robert Gasteiger & Scott Mether (Publishers), Shannon Kelly, Jaydee Gutierrez, David Pastorello, Burt Sirota, Greg Cicero, Cindy Totays, Guadalupe Cuellar & Eric Stewart (Account Executives)