First before I even begin I wanted to thank Mike for allowing me to blight his blog with some of my own prose. I hope to do him and his blog justice.

“Every noble acquisition is attended with its risks; he who fears to encounter the one must not expect to obtain the other” ~ Pietro Metastasio

A curious thing happened on the way home from work yesterday. I was parked at a light and as usual decided to glance down at my phone to see what had changed in social media since 5 minutes ago. Luckily I had TweetDeck up, I refreshed it and that cool looking blue background with white text announced that RealPage had acquired MyNewPlace. If you’re hearing this announcement for the first time right now your first reaction is probably WOW. I know mine was. My second reaction was “Are they planning on buying EVERYTHING?” but I digress.

Who are the players here?
MyNewPlace has been a player in the Internet Listing Services market for years. We used them several years ago with little conversion success (and it left us with a pretty drained pocketbook). The majority of us know RealPage and what they offer. MyNewPlace, on the surface, seems to be a perfect match for RealPage. They currently have no paid listing offerings and this acquisition will certainly give them presence there. In addition MyNewPlace has RentEngine which will give RealPage access to social media tools, a Craigslist posting tool, reputation management, pay per click campaigns, some great search engine optimization tools and a partridge in a pear tree. MyNewPlace will also be an integral part of their recently announced LeaseStar Marketplace. One thing that I find interesting about this new product is it will enable customers to talk or chat with a live leasing associate through their LevelOne service, and utilize their already robust leasing side package including 2D and 3D floor plans, some interactive site maps, beautiful pictures and a booking engine that can help check availabilities. MyNewPlace will be the lead generation channel that will power the LeaseStar Marketplace.

Press releases are lame.
The truth is this latest press release and acquisition from RealPage will attract plenty of attention but will it all be positive? Is RealPage becoming a little too big with too many product offerings that have the ability to shut out the competition? As with a lot of RealPage purchases, they will probably leave the MyNewPlace name alone but make the normal branding and integration changes so it plugs into their other offerings. That’s the way they’ve done it for most of their previous acquisitions, namely LevelOne, OpsTechnology and Lead2Lease. Is RealPage willing to change the ILS game? Will they use their power and money muscle to give Property Management companies more flexibility in branding and choice? Will they utilize social media to CHANGE how people find apartments? How successful will their SEO efforts be? Can they jump the organic board and launch MyNewPlace into the top 5 for results in lots of major markets?

What does this all mean?
I wish I had a crystal ball to get these answers, as well as the winning lottery numbers for tomorrow. I’m more interested in hearing what you think about it. Will RealPage change the game or will they just conform to it? Will this just be something else for them to monetize and charge a little extra than everyone else for or will they convert this service into something more powerful and revolutionary? Stay tuned…

Want to read the RealPage/MyNewPlace marriage vows? You can right here.

Happy renting everyone.

At one point in the conversation, Mike asked me the the proverbial, “So what’s going on with you?” I took it in the context of business and replied, “I think that this is an absolutely exciting time to be alive! And, I think things just feel like they are getting better.” I really believe that. Not to suggest the the whole world is peaches and cream but the bulk of what I touch on a day to day basis is good. Mills Apartments has absorbed North of 2000+/- units additional units into the family in the trailing eighteen months and the pipeline for more is there. We are on the cusp of unveiling a new website, our social media platform is on a firm setting, our community team [marketing director, coordinators, mascot, bloggers, etc.] are planting the seeds for conversation and operations are seeing concession reduction and in some cases rent gains. To borrow a quote from our company President, Kirk Mills, “things are good.”

Skip back to Mike Whaling, it seems his appointment book and book of business are filling up. We feel the same way about our business at Mills.

So there is my apartment business observation.

And, I wonder – what is your sense of the business today? Is the phone starting to ring more? Are you booking more appointments? Are companies starting to reach out in a more meaningful way?

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I am not sure if this will catch on but it certainly does have the cool factor…check it out here.

Earlier today I posed the question on Twitter, Do you think apartment residents care more about function or style? And, before I go on, I must admit that I don’t know the answer. That being said, my gut tells me that style trumps function. I did get a lot of feedback on the question but still am uncertain of the answer.

I did come across an article today in Kitchen and Bath Business that spoke to my gut. Here is the article if you want to read it in full but the line that struck me is as follows:

The Ruppies want more than utility and function which tells me they want style and cool. They want to be in the middle of it all.

What do you think?

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Still feeling a little under the weather today but feel the energy level rising. Have a terrific Thursday. M