Jeff Elmer was in Bangkok when he was introduced to his future home on Chicago’s Gold Coast. Earlier this year, Elmer, then a Memphis-based manager in a private investment company, learned that his company was considering transferring him to the Windy City. So during a few free moments on a business trip to Thailand, he used his computer to access an Internet search engine and entered the words “Chicago apartments.”
Almost instantly, Elmer had his choice of a number of Chicago-area apartment community Web sites. He was particularly drawn to the site of The Chicagoan, at 750 N. Rush St.
“The better (Web sites), like The Chicagoan’s, will show you pictures from the outside and the inside, floor plans and photos of the apartments themselves,” said Elmer.
“I was looking for something a bit more upscale, and that whole site has a more professional feel to it, and a more elegant look. Others had a cheaper look, or didn’t fit together as well. The (site of) The Chicagoan . . . matched what I was looking for.”
Elmer wound up moving in in early fall, and has found that The Chicagoan’s site was “absolutely” an accurate representation of the community itself.
Happy endings like Elmer’s point up the benefits of apartment community Web sites to both renters and the communities themselves. The sites give Internet users a chance to read about and see photos of the communities they’re considering, and also allow them to contact staff via e-mail to set up an appointment to visit. At the same time, they let apartment communities convey in-depth information that could never be shoehorned into a print ad or even a brochure.
The growing importance of Web sites in marketing apartments is reflected in this year’s first-ever inclusion of a Web site competition in the annual Chicagoland Apartment Marketing and Management Excellence (CAMME) Awards, presented by the Schiller Park-based Chicagoland Apartment Association. Web sites are judged on the basis of aesthetics, user-friendliness, effectiveness, access speed and suitability to their intended market areas and clientele.
The 1998 CAMME award for best Web site went to HighPoint Community Apartments in Romeoville, whose management unveiled its site when the community was in the pre-leasing stage prior to its opening a little over a year ago. General manager Tom Lowry, who created the site, said Web sites are a highly cost-effective way for a community to spread the word about its features and amenities to prospective renters.
“There’s only so much space, and space is expensive, in guide books and print ads–even in brochures,” he noted. “If (prospective renters) want more in-depth information, they can access the site and find out about the programming and everything we’re doing here.”
According to HighPoint Community marketing director Katie Tolbert, the Web site is particularly appropriate given the 552-unit community’s focus on high-tech advancements. “One of the major selling points of HighPoint Community is its technology,” she said. “We have a `cybercafe’ with free Internet access for all of the residents, and we provide them with free e-mail. We offer these amenities to promote community among residents.”
From the HighPoint Web site’s main page, www.highpointcommunity.com, Internet users can link to other areas of interest, including “lifestyle” and “what’s new.” All of the community’s press releases are posted on the site, as are photos of the buildings, slide shows of new construction, floor plans and an artist’s rendering of the sprawling community center.
Proof of the Web site’s promotional power is revealed in the experience of Angie Kann, who was hired as a management assistant at the property after renting an apartment there.
Kann was living in Palatine when she first saw the Web site late last year. After reading about amenities at HighPoint Community, she went back to the site again and again. Finally, she e-mailed the staff and arranged a visit in April, before she and her husband moved in in May.
“It saved a lot of time, and it also allowed me to learn a lot about the community at my leisure,” Kann said of the Web site. “If I had just read about the community in (an) apartment guide, it would have blended in with all the others. But since I was able to learn so much, it kind of drew me in and made me want to live here.”
Bristol Club Apartments in Downers Grove is another community with its own Web site. Created by Web site designer Tony Troup, it came on-line in August. Would-be residents “can go in and see floor plans, and get directions to Bristol Club,” said resident manager Kimberly Wilson.
The site also includes photos of the fitness center, swimming pool and other amenities of the 10-year-old, 420-unit property. A calendar of events provides a glimpse of upcoming social occasions at the community, and another feature allows users to link to Chicago-area sites, like the Metra and Downers Grove Web sites. Other pages allow prospective renters to arrange a visit, and current residents to submit requests for services or maintenance. The site (www.bristolclub.com) can also be accessed from major Internet apartment locating services.
According to Wilson, the community is determined to continually improve its Web site. “We want to add photos of our models, and more photos of the entire property, so people can get a full picture of Bristol Club,” she said.
CAMCO Neighborhood Apartments, with 54 properties in 16 cities, including Eugenie Terrace and five others in Chicago, has a Web site established about two years ago.
From a user-friendly main page (www.camcoinc.com), prospective renters can call up photographs, lists of amenities and floor plans for any of the company’s communities nationwide.
Another page is entirely devoted to CAMCO’s furnished corporate suites. Visitors to the Web site can also fill out an information page that can be e-mailed to CAMCO headquarters.
The most dramatic indication of the site’s value to CAMCO and prospective residents involves a Singapore woman who found the site when preparing to move to Chicago to take a new job. She eventually settled at CAMCO’s 1111 North Dearborn Avenue building in Chicago.
“The CAMCO Web site reflects the personality of CAMCO properties,” said marketing director Maureen Vaughn. “It’s very casual, it’s very user-friendly and it’s eye-catching. It reflects our attention to detail . . . It’s a good use of time.”
Another site that encompasses many properties is that of Chicago-based AMLI Residential Properties Trust, whose communities include Buffalo Grove’s AMLI at Chevy Chase and seven others in the Chicago area, as well as properties in Indianapolis, Kansas City, Atlanta, Dallas, Austin and Houston.
According to Sue Bersh, AMLI vice president of corporate communications, the nearly 2-year-old site (www.amlires.com) has two audiences. One is made up of current and potential stockholders who want to read annual and quarterly reports and press releases and obtain up-to-the-minute stock quotes. The other is composed of potential residents.
To learn about AMLI properties in Chicago and other cities, Web visitors click on “communities” and then click on a button labeled “current portfolio.” That links them to Rent.Net, one of the largest on-line apartment locating services, and its listings of AMLI properties.
The AMLI at Chevy Chase page, for instance, lets Internet users check out an exterior photo of the community, examine a list of apartment and community-wide amenities, compare the prices and square footage of one- and two-bedroom apartments, see floor plans and complete a message form that can be instantly e-mailed to the community’s leasing office.
The Chicagoan’s Web site (www.chicagoan.com), which was established last year, provides more than 50 pages of graphics and text about the 8-year-old, 221-unit apartment community, said leasing consultant Linda Christon.
Created by Digital Bistro of Chicago, the site includes detailed floor plans, day and night photographic views from each side of the building, photos of artwork in common areas, information on nearby attractions–even directions to the nearest hardware store.
At least six renters have relocated to The Chicagoan this year as a direct result of the community’s Web site, said Christon.
“Renters can put in their criteria,” she added. “They can say, `I’d like information on two-bedroom apartments, preferably with a south view and a washer and dryer, and under $2,000 a month. I’ll be in Chicago on Friday and would like to set up an appointment.’ It goes right to my e-mail and I call them back.”‘
