Not only can YouTube be used to invite students to resident events, but YouTube can also serve as a virtual scrapbook for students.

With the advancements in technology today and the philosophy "less is more", we see a trend in less students printing off photos from Target or Walgreens, and instead uploading all of their photos to online social networks such as Facebook and Flickr.  Here we see a student housing property in College Station, Texas (The Cambridge) using YouTube as an online scrapbook to share with residents.

The Cambridge at College Station is known for hosting an annual Thanksgiving Flag Football Tournament where each Resident Advisor is responsible for a team of 15-20 residents.  The teams compete in a full day of competitive flag football and every year the event is voted by residents as their "Favorite Resident Event."

The resident advisors got creative this year and instead of simply printing the photos off and hanging them in their halls, they decided to combine all of the photos AND videos that were recorded this year and create one video on YouTube with music in the background, visual effects and much more.  Now this video can be shown to residents, their parents and even other prospective residents who would like an idea of how the staff and the residents interact with one another!

Check out the video below:

Asset Plus fosters growth not only within our internal training program, but also by supporting our individual team members in the quest for industry knowledge and certifications through local and national apartment associations.

Last Thursday, over 200 members of the  Houston Apartment Association gathered together to recognize their peers’ accomplishments in achieving industry designations. 

Asset Plus is proud to have had 4 different employees from on-site and the corporate office  receive National Apartment Association Designations. 

Along with the presentation of designation recipients, the Houston Apartment Association also announced the 2012 Board of Directors and Advisory Board.  Chief Operating Officer of Asset Plus, Ryan McGrath, was elected for his third consecutive year onto the board while his colleague, Stephanie Graves ,was elected to the 2012 Advisory Board.

Student Housing is a very competitive industry; therefore our teams have to constantly stay in touch with their market and research the best ways to communicate with students. Thanks to social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, we are able to communicate instantly and memorably with our residents. 

Last week we showed the video of Knight's Circle and the CAs using YouTube to promote their resident events, this week we are going to show you how one of our properties used YouTube as an online marketing brochure. 

Legends at Stephen F. Austin is a new student housing development located in Nacogdoches, Texas, scheduled to open for residents in fall of 2012. Legends at SFA recently hosted a Grand Opening event at their club house and had an overwhelmingly successful opening day by signing over 100 leases! Since the property did not have any completed units to physically show, the staff created a YouTube video that functioned as an engaging online marketing brochure. The video has renderings of floor plans, amenities, and exterior photos as well as captions on each so that you know what is what. In the background of the video, our team picked a catchy song that would capture the student's attention and keep them engaged to learn all about the property.

Even though every prospective resident was given a brochure with images and floor plans, every single one of them still stopped to watch the video displayed on the flat screen TV! YouTube is a great way to capture the student housing residents, and it is also FREE - if you are not on it now, you are missing a great opportunity to capture your audience's attention! 

Over 1 billion people on the planet lack a necessity that we so often take for granted: water.

In October 2011, Asset Plus began fundraising for Charity Water, a non-profit that delivers 100% of proceeds to bodings rigs and wells for people in developing nations so that they may receive clean drinking water. 

We recently hosted an online 20 minute webinar that allowed for property managers and supervisors to collectively brainstorm effective ways to get residents and staff involved in fundraising activities. The response was overwhelming and we look forward to sharing all of our communities events through our Asset Plus Blog.

Check out this video that shows how our Houston corporate office has already begun collecting donations:

At Asset Plus Companies and Asset Campus Housing, we encourage our property managers and leasing teams to get creative with how they promote their resident events.

Knights Circle, a student housing property near the University of Central Florida is keeping their student residents engaged by promoting their resident events on YouTube, the SECOND largest search engine online.  

Check out their quick video right here:

Great job guys - wish we could make it out there for the carnival!

Our Asset Plus multifamily division was recently assigned managementof Creekside Apartments located in Baytown, Texas.  The 250 unit property offers one-, two- and three bedroom apartment homes. 

 

Asset Campus Housing has recently been assigned management of The Outpost, a student housing community located in Waco, Texas.

543 Beds

The Outpost in Waco, Texas is located within walking distance of Baylor University. Students living at The Outpost have access to amenities including: a resort style swimming pool, sand volleyball court, basketball court, movie theatre, and a resourceful business lounge.

We believe that our people are our greatest asset and we have continued to recruit the industry's top talent by adding a new multifamily regional supervisor, Bonnie Donaldson, to our team!

Bonnie Donaldson joins the Asset Plus multifamily division as a Houston based Regional Supervisor with over 27 years in the multifamily industry. Bonnie is an experienced leader and brings expertise in implementing innovative sales and marketing strategies as well as maximizing revenue for clients.

Prior to joining Asset Plus, Bonnie served as Vice President of Property Management for Martin Fein Interests and most recently served as Regional Manager of over 2,100 units for Alliance Residential.