A recent article appeared in units Magazine, the National Apartment Association’s trade publication highlighting the Laramar Group’s Pricing Manager Patty Garver. Garver is the corporate executive overseeing rental pricing on the 30,000-unit, 20-market portfolio.
According to units, each week, Garver calls and incorporates community managers on pricing decisions by confirming the accuracy of the program data and adjusts any part of the program that property managers think are not competitive with others’ rates, or not appropriate for the current market place.
Dave Woodward, CEO of the Laramar Group, attributes their high occupancy rates (high 90s across the board!) to the use of both the LRO system and a pricing manager. “You can’t buy the software, flip a switch and assume it will work,” he says. “We’ve heard of companies that take this black-and-white approach, but it doesn’t allow on-site community staff to have ownership of the system. We’ve taken an approach to empower the field and let them have a say in the pricing.”
Garver echoes Woodward saying a successful implementation requires buy-in from property staff. “We didn’t want property managers left out of the process – they are experts who live in this every day,” she says.”
Read on about Garver and Laramar’s integration of the site staff in their expanding corporate initiative to stay on top in their markets at the following link: Priceless Input
“Seven of eight properties using automated rate setting had better results than our control group setting rates manually,” said Scott Wilder, senior VP, property management for the Lincoln Property Company residential division (shown at left). “Our perception entering the test was that we would activate the ‘black box’ and it would do the thinking. We were encouraged how engaged our team became; by using LRO and contributing to our weekly pricing calls, they became more focused on rate setting and the factors that drive revenue.”
