Tag: Apartment Tours
Questions to Ask on Your Apartment Tour
Apartment searching can be difficult, overwhelming even, especially if you are in a city filled with communities to choose from.
That’s why it’s always recommended to take an apartment tour of your options to get a first-hand feel for the type of living experience you would have, should you decide to sign a lease.
At Venterra, we love tours as they give prospective residents a chance to walk through the community, view the amenities and see their potential floorplan in person. Whether our prospects are taking an apartment tour with a leasing agent, or utilizing Venterra’s self-guided tour option, we always recommend that they ask questions. After all, they are signing a contract for a lease, and we wouldn’t want any surprises to pop up later on.
What we have found over the 20+ years that we have offered tours is that sometimes renters might not know what questions to ask, especially if they are first-time renters. That’s why we’ve put together the following list of questions that will help any renter get the answers they need to find the perfect home for them.
Application Process:
- What is the application process?
- Is there an application fee?
- How do you decide on approval?
- How many paycheck stubs do you require?
- How do I add an additional applicant or occupant to my apartment?
- What if my roommate has to move out, can they be taken off the lease?
Venterra’s Advice: The application process should be simple and seamless. In fact, with SMARTLEASING by Venterra, all you have to do is 1.) complete the 5 minute form 2.) click submit 3.) get approved in 5 minutes – and you don’t pay any fee’s until you’re approved! Typically, apartments consider 3 things when processing applications: criminal history, credit history and current income and will ask for your two most recent paystubs.
Lease Logistics:
- How long is the lease term?
- How much is rent? Does pricing fluctuate?
- What is included in the rent (utilities, electricity, trash, etc)?
- How much do utilities cost, on average, if they are not included?
- Will I need someone to co-sign my lease? Is a guarantor a co-signer?
- How many people are allowed per apartment?
- Is a security deposit required?
- Is renter’s insurance required? If so, is there a minimum coverage required? Do you have a recommended provider?
- What forms of rent do you accept? How can I pay rent?
- What happens if I have a late rent payment?
- How often does rent go up, and by how much?
- Are there plans to update the building?
Venterra’s Advice: Good property management companies will offer flexible lease terms that allow you to choose options that work best for you. While pricing can fluctuate daily and costs can vary per property, it is important to be upfront, honest and realistic with your leasing consultant about your budget, that way they can ensure they set you up for success.
Community Amenities:
- What community amenities does this property offer?
- Are there any restrictions of use on the amenities?
- Are my guests allowed to use the amenities?
- Are the amenities available 24/7 or are there specific hours of operation?
- Do your community areas offer free wi-fi?
- Are there any planned upgrades to the amenities?
Venterra’s Advice: Be sure on your apartment tour to get a full understanding of when and how you can use the community amenities. For instance, you wouldn’t want to cancel your gym membership for a community gym that doesn’t allow 24-hour access, would you?
Personal Apartment Amenities:
- Does the apartment come with all appliances (oven, fridge, dishwasher, washer, dryer, etc.)?
- What finishes are used throughout the apartment?
- How am I able to access my apartment?
- What internet/cable providers do you offer?
- Am I allowed to paint the walls and/or hang pictures?
- Are there any restrictions on decorations?
Venterra’s Advice: This is your opportunity to ensure you get the perfect apartment for you. Voice your opinions about lighting, finishes and personal décor with your leasing consultant during your apartment tour to make sure they understand your vision for the space. That way they can notify you when the apartment with your dream view of the skyline becomes available!
Access and Maintenance:
- What are the leasing office hours?
- How are maintenance requests made?
- What is the average response time for a maintenance request?
- Is 24-hour emergency maintenance available?
- What is the parking situation? Can I have multiple cars? Are there any restrictions on cars?
- How secure is the property? How is access to the apartment being handled?
- Do residents consider the complex safe at night?
Venterra’s Advice: Access and maintenance are essential questions for your everyday living. Be sure you understand the parking situations and that access to your community and unit are easy whether it be through a key, fob, or code. Unfortunately, maintenance issues don’t always happen during business hours. So it’s important to know if resources are available to you 24 hours a day and that your problems will be fixed for you in a timely manner.
Guests:
- What is the guest policy?
- Is there a limit to how many guests you can have at once?
- Where do guests park?
- How are guests able to access the community?
- Is there a clubhouse? Can the clubhouse be rented?
Venterra’s Advice: Most renters have friends, cleaning services, or maybe even dog walkers that will need to access their unit at some point. Understanding the guest policy will help make their visit enjoyable from parking to accessing the property to entering your unit.
Pets:
- How many pets can I have?
- Are there weight restrictions?
- What are the costs associated with pets at the community? Is there a monthly pet fee or pet deposit?
- Can I pet sit for a friend?
- How can I register my pet with the office?
- Are there restrictions on where pets are allowed on community grounds?
- Do you have a place where I can walk my pet?
Venterra’s advice: All communities should love furry friends, we know we do! In fact, we love them so much that we allow you to have up to 3 of them! We’re pretty alone in that respect as most communities only allow up to 2. With that said, If you’re a pet parent, be sure you understand any restrictions and costs associated with adding pets to your lease as well as what community amenities your pets can have access to run-off energy!
Referrals:
- Do you have a referral system? Do I get a reward for referring residents?
- Do I get referral rewards for referring to a sister property?
- Can I receive referral rewards after I move out?
Venterra’s advice: Want to get paid to have someone you know move into your community? If so, you better ask if that’s a program the community you’re looking at offers! Through Venterra’s resident referral program, residents will receive a credit on their account for every resident they refer. To top that, Venterra even offers rewards for sister properties, if you refer someone to
another Venterra community, even in another state, you will receive the referral reward.
Packages:
- How do I receive packages?
- Can I pick up packages 24/7 or are there specific hours?
- What happens if I am late to pick up a package?
- Am I able to send packages through the community?
Venterra’s Advice: Don’t wait until the holidays when your 20 packages are on the way to realize your community doesn’t have a place to deliver them or you have limited access to pick them up! Ask these questions upfront so there are no surprises down the road.
Lease Renewal and Cancellation:
- Can I transfer to another apartment?
- How are apartment lease renewal rates selected?
- When will I be notified about my apartment lease renewal options?
- Is there a penalty for breaking my lease contract?
- What happens if I don’t submit 60-days’ notice for my apartment?
Venterra’s advice: Things can change and most property management companies get that, offering varying degrees of flexibility. What if you need to upgrade to a larger apartment at the end of your lease? Or downsize after your roommate moves to a different city for that job offer? At Venterra, transferring apartments at the end of your lease is always free!
Now that you’re equipped with the right questions, it’s time to find the perfect home for you! Schedule an apartment tour today – we’ll be ready to answer any and all of your inquiries! Or if you’ve experienced a Venterra tour with someone from our leasing staff, leave us a google review and let us know if it was helpful!
Sit Back & Relax While We Innovate
Let’s face it, many apartment communities nowadays are updated and have beautiful amenities. When walking around a property, you may see lush greens and sparkling pools. Those features are undoubtedly pleasing to the eye, but what’s really driving the current multifamily industry – and potentially even your apartment tour through the community – are innovative technologies and ideas.
Lately, the multifamily industry has been faced with a challenge: how to enable potential and current renters with ways to complete their apartment search on their own terms. That’s where technology, as you may know, has become the most popular kid in school. Not to mention, where Venterra’s Core Value of the Never-Ending Pursuit of Excellence truly shines. We take pride in what we do and our pursuit of a “better way” is never-ending – especially when it comes to innovation and new ideas that will help create positive experiences for current and potential residents.
Below are a few innovations we launched to meet the needs of renters when they needed us the most.
Self-Guided Tours
Moving is stressful. That’s when we asked ourselves, what can make this experience better? Renters were are now looking for options that allowed them to shop for their next home on their own, while maintaining their own standard of comfort. To help create a positive apartment touring experience, Venterra was one of the first property management companies to launch self-guided apartment tours. Through a partnership with SmartRent, a provider of smart home automation products, Venterra integrates its tour process with SmartRent’s platform, which allows prospective renters to tour a community on their own terms, without contacting the office, using only their smartphone. SmartRent’s Self-Guided Tour options help to offer convenient alternatives for renters with busy lifestyles who want to see a space before they rent.
“Self-Guided apartment tours are a necessity in this environment,” said Stephanie Gonzalez, Vice President of Property and Customer Innovation at Venterra Realty. “The space and opportunity for a future resident to be able to arrive at a community, scan a QR code, select the apartment type they want to tour, and take the tour independent of the office staff sets everyone up for success. We are meeting the needs and wants of our customers and creating the personalized experience Venterra is known for.”
Engrain SightMap
Imagine going on your first self-guided tour and not knowing the property – trying to find the elevators, the pool and even the unit could be frustrating. To enhance the prospect experience for renters, Venterra partnered with Engrain to implement their tool, SightMap. SightMap’s interactive map shows exactly where available apartments are located within the property relative to amenities, parking, and wayfinding. Now, residents can get a better idea of where the specific units they are interested in lie on the property through our Community Stage Touch Screen.
Looking for a new apartment and using these technologies first hand? View our properties list, find a complex near you and schedule a self-guided apartment tour through your favorite unit!
SMARTLEASING
Once you have found the perfect apartment through a self-guided tour, next comes the leasing process. Lucky for you, this once dreaded item has been innovated for a seamless quick and easy process. Through Venterra’s SMARTLEASING innovation, it only takes 5 minutes for you to fill out the paperwork, and you’ll pay nothing until you are approved and decide to reserve an apartment. Yet another way to save time and headaches throughout your day spent on the hunt for that perfect place.
Future Innovations:
Venterra is always looking for ways to innovate and improve the rental process and living experience. A few innovations taking place in the near future include:
- A fully integrated resident app, allowing residents to be untethered from their computer and stay in contact with their community
- Visual representations of what garage, storage units and parking spaces are available when leasing
- Interactive 3D site maps to property websites.
Venterra is leading the way in multi-family innovation – and not only at the property level, but throughout the company as a whole. In fact, Venterra employees helped rank Venterra’s innovation in the top 6% of the thousands of companies that participate in the Great Place to Work Institute’s annual anonymous employee survey sponsored by FORTUNE magazine. In the survey, an Innovation Velocity Ratio (IVR) is calculated based on employee responses, with companies receiving an IVR ratio of 11:2 or higher defined as being in an “Accelerated” state. Venterra Realty received an IVR of 15:2, meaning for every 15 Venterra employees willing and able to innovate, there are only two who are not. This unusually high ratio highlights Venterra’s ability to quickly harness, mobilize and respond to new information and ideas.
New ideas don’t have to come from Venterra employees either – we love hearing from our current and future residents on how we can improve! Do you have a suggestion? Tell us! If we implement your idea, we’ll send you $100!
Tour Apartments Right from Your Couch!
Did you know that, on average, more than 40 million people move each year in the United States? And it’s estimated that 80% of those moves occur between April and September. These times of year tend to be peak season because the weather is better, kids aren’t in school, college students are moving for the new school year and it’s a good time to sell a home. With 3D tours, Video Touring, and FaceTime becoming the new norm, Venterra has you covered. By providing virtual online experiences, such as 3D tours, Video Touring and FaceTime, we allow our future residents an easy, carefree way of leasing an apartment from the comfort of their couch!
If you’re looking for a new place to call home, or know someone who is, Venterra offers studio, 1 bedroom, 2 bedroom, and 3 bedroom apartments to fit your needs. With locations in Texas, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, North Carolina and Tennessee, we cater to southern living – providing incredible amenities like in-unit washers and dryers, stainless steel appliances, recreation areas and swimming pools. Acting as your personal apartment guide, our dedicated team of leasing specialists provide information about the neighborhood in which each complex is located so you’ll know what’s nearby. Best of all, we focus on providing world-class customer service for all of our residents and prospects, helping you feel right at home from day one!
3D TOURS
One of the great things about Venterra is that you can tour, get a quote, or apply for our apartments right from your couch! Our 3D tours, powered by Matterport technology, give you a glimpse into each apartment’s floorplan and a look at our communities and amenities. Additionally, our wonderful leasing staff are also offering remote tours in order to share the experience of seeing ‘actual apartments’ that are available. It’s as close to seeing the real thing as you can get!
VIDEO TOURS
Love the Virtual Tour, but want to see the ACTUAL Apartment that you are considering for your new home? LET US TOUR FOR YOU and you view from the comfort of your couch! Our rockstar leasing staff would love to take you through the vacant apartment via Facetime, or record the tour and email for you to view at your convenience. Either way, you can’t help, but feel the love our leasing staff put into your experience. They are so happy and excited to be a part of your experience.
Click on the video below to see a example of what to expect from an emailed video tour!
FACETIME
Available on iPhone devices and Macintosh computers, FaceTime is a proprietary videotelephony product developed by Apple Inc. If you’ve never used FaceTime before, check out this article on how to make or answer a FaceTime call. Ask your leasing agent how to Schedule a Tour using this convenient technology.
$ SPECIALS $
To sweeten the experience, we are offering the current specials*: $500 off first full month’s rent on select apartments plus $0 deposit with credit approval. Pet Special: $0 pet deposit and 50% off pet fee. Get a free price quote and even apply at no cost to you!
Interested in learning more? We’re available 24/7 to answer your questions. Visit www.venterraliving.com to find out more about information about all of our communities and read resident reviews.
We hope to “see” you soon!
*Specials are subject to change. Please ask leasing staff for current specials.