How To Make Your Apartment Community More Appealing To Families With Kids

Are you finding that families with children are reluctant to rent in your apartment community? Or perhaps they're only staying for one year, and then choosing not to renew their leases. While you cannot change some factors, like the school district your apartment community is in, there are several steps you can take to ensure families with children are more satisfied with life in your apartment community.

Add a playground -- or better maintain the playground.

Parents are often looking for safe places for their children to play outdoors. A community playground can be just the thing to satisfy this need. Parents won't have to load the kids in the car and drive across town to a local park for playtime. Adding a playground to your community can be a little expensive, but keep in mind that you can do it a little at a time. Add swings one year, some monkey bars the next, and so forth.

If there is a playground in your community already, check to ensure that it's being maintained well. If there's broken equipment, hard footing, rust, or other hazards, parents may not enjoy having their children play on it. Spend some time rehabbing the playground, and you'll find your residents with families are much happier.

Offer a babysitting service.

Providing a basic babysitting service will make life so much easier for parents in your community. This does not have to be anything super-involved. If there is an extra room in your community center, you can outfit it with some toys and games. Hire a couple of staff members to work as babysitters. Then, let parents drop their children off for an hour or two while they run errands. If you want to take this to the next level, you can organize a full-blown daycare service for parents to use when they go to work. They'll appreciate not having to drive their children to daycare or travel across town to pick them up.

Organize family events once a month.

It could be that families within the community are having trouble meeting one another. You can foster more of a sense of community and help both children and families form more lasting friendships by holding family events once a month. This could be something as simple as a bonfire night where you provide marshmallows to roast and organize a few campfire games. A board game night works well in the winter. Your residents—young and old—will be more likely to renew their leases if they have friends nearby.

For more ideas on how to improve tenant satisfaction, contact a property management company like Management  Associates.