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Learning The Fundamentals Of Commercial Real Estate Investment With Peter Von Der Ahe

What Is The Number One Way To Drive Revenue On An Apartment Investment?

The following Q&A was completed as part of our conversational Commercial Real Estate FAQ Interview Series, we hope you find it helpful:

Driving revenue up on an apartment building investment is all in the kind of experience you’re offering to your tenants or customers. During these Covid-19 times, it’s become apparent just how important a person’s home really is, and your investment serves as the home of your customers. Investing in certain upgrades to cater to the customers you’re looking to reach, and showing a thoughtful side in the experiences you’re looking to provide can be highly impactful in driving your apartment investment revenue. 

Richard Wilson: What’s the number one way to drive revenue up on an apartment building investment? 

Peter Von Der Ahe: I would say, right now, obviously this varies significantly depending what class of property you are and what renter you’re trying to attract. So, first of all, knowing, really knowing who your customer is. There are certain customers now that if you’re making your units tech enabled and putting in Nests or all types of virtual concierge and stuff like that, the tenants are looking at those types of amenities and they’re appreciating them and they’ll pay up for them. 

Other ones, it’s very simple upgrades to the unit that are less costly, but that will separate yourself from the competition. That could be stuff for flooring, molding, a lot of the typical upgrades. In general, the more care you have in industry, and the more thoughtful you are with how you’re creating an environment for your tenants – you know, this is peoples’ home.

 If you think about what we’ve all experienced this year, it’s their home, it’s their school, it’s their gym, it’s their restaurant, it’s their movie theater, it’s all these other things. That’s probably the biggest thing that’s coming through all property types in all locations is that the reputation that the ownership has with their tenants, in terms of are they really going out of their way to try to make it the best living experience? That’s coming through in collections, renewals, tenant relations, and property performance. 

So, there’s not one answer to that category because it’s a soft skill, but we’re really seeing those who do that aspect of the business, those who do that well, they’re reaping the benefits of it right now. 

Richard: Right, great. Yeah, that makes sense. It makes sense it would be especially emphasized during a pandemic when…

Peter: Right.

Richard: When people, even if you’re only somewhat locked at home, you just can’t go out to eat as much, you can’t go to the movies as much, like you said. So even if you’re one that’s a little bit more bold and not really – you hate masks and you want to go out and live your normal life, your normal life is still less normal, you know, in these times at least. So, that’s great.

About the author

Richard Wilson