Meghan Hill, Director of Marketing at Guardian, was in a tight spot. With two brand new urban ekoHaus communities coming on line and no leasing office, she had to get creative with lease-up. “The challenge with small buildings is: one vacancy is a big deal. So we’re on a really tight schedule to get these leased up once construction is complete,” Hill explained. “When the first property was handed to us, we were trying to figure out a way to pre-lease before construction was even done so we could get ahead of the game. Our timeline was two months.”
Guardian’s ekoHaus portfolio is a collection of boutique communities built to accommodate a green lifestyle. Each community is situated in a vibrant and walkable urban neighborhood, and space is designed to require minimal energy use for heating and cooling. Guardian recognized that showing up to meet prospective renters of a new eco-friendly, LEED-certified property with a pile of paperwork would not be the most effective way to demonstrate the communities’ green initiative.
Another problem: each of these new, urban-infill projects was too small to justify building out a leasing office. Even so, the new ekoHaus Community Manager, Brandy Guthery, needed the ability to perform all the leasing office functions when meeting with prospective residents, from showing community information, to filling out applications or guest cards, to accepting payment for deposits.
The solution: SiteTablet leasing app for the iPad. Guthery used SiteTablet to create a virtual leasing office she could carry along with her. She was free to schedule meetings with prospective renters at the site, and offer a hard-hat tour of the property. “Since the properties were still under construction, I would take a prospect over to a coffee shop and they would fill out their application right there,” she explained. Guthery was also able to use the SiteTablet to display photos and floor plans for multiple properties within the ekoHaus portfolio as well as taking guest cards for follow-up or even online deposits via credit card or eCheck. The entire process was simple, streamlined, and paper-free.
Although the first community Sherm, came online in late September when leasing typically slows in advance of the holiday, Hill and Guthery’s innovative take on leasing elicited a strong response among young urban renters seeking a low-impact lifestyle. “Where we’re seeing the value is in the lifestyle: a small carbon footprint, paperless. SiteTablet helped reinforce the green branding of these units because we’re not shoving paper in their face and asking them to sign a million things,” said Hill. “It’s very slick and integrated and seamless. It’s part of the lifestyle of living in one of these properties.”
“It has been very convenient to have a ‘portable office’ during a lease up,” said Guthery. Guardian is planning to expand its ekoHaus portfolio over the coming year, with several more properties scheduled to come online in the Portland area. And Hill expects that the SiteTablet will continue to be a part of a new, urban housing experience. “SiteTablet has helped to reinforce our sustainable branding message that we’ve been trying to promote throughout this portfolio,” she said. “It has helped to streamline leasing efforts at the site level by going paperless.”
