Student Housing Insight

SHI 0410 - Student Housing & Short Term Rental Market

Summer Turn is over and you're figuring out who is not showing up and how many completely vacant units you have.  Having completely vacant apartments will help you control costs compared to partially occupied apartments, but they also allow you an opportunity to generate additional income if you look at using them as a short-term rental.  Be it housing for visiting professors or listing the apartments on sites like AirBnB, their are some great alternative to help overcome the negative economic impact your vacancy is making on your income statement.  In this episode we talk about these alternatives and sit down with Mickey Kropf, CEO of Vector Travel, and talk about why it is important to consider partnering with a company like his to handle your short term rental program.

This episode is sponsored by Unilodgers!  To get your property in front of more international students, list your property today by visiting www.Unilodgers.com/contact-us

To reach Mickey at Vector Travel, email him at mickey@vectorstays.com and let him know you heard him on the SHI Podcast.  For more information about his company, visit www.VectoryStays.com.  You can also read Mickey's recent article about how short term rental programs can help student housing operators with their vacancies.  Check out the article here:https://shorttermrentalz.com/features/multifamily-student-mickey-kropf/?

Have questions or comments for Student Housing Insight?  Email us at contact@StudentHousingInsight.com

Interested in attending an upcoming Regional Summit:https://www.studenthousinginsight.com/upcoming-events

 

Behind the Biz with uForis

Gen Z doesn’t know a world without the Playstation in it.  The oldest Gen Z’ers have been taking pictures with iPhone since they were 10.  Pencil renderings certainly doesn’t spark their imagination and photos and videos from a “similar property” that was built somewhere else evokes questions about what their community will and won’t have. 

So it seems only natural that as operators, we now are looking to virtual reality to create that connection with prospects.  Regardless if you are developing a property or currently operating a student property, VR is increasingly becoming a necessary sales tool for your website.

One of the companies that is creating VR tours for student housing is uForis based in Vancouver, Canada.  Why is Vancouver important?  Because that’s where EA Sports’ largest developer studio is located.  We’re talking about game developers that created games like FIFA Soccer and Madden Football.  uForis was founded by these same developers from EA Sports.  So as you can imagine… their commitment to quality is deep.

Recently I sat down with 2 of the Founders from uForis, Dora Cheng and David Li to talk to them about why they chose to move from the gaming industry to create VR renderings of Real Estate and their journey into student housing.

For more information, go to ww.uForis.com or contact David Li at david@uforis.com.

For questions about Student Housing Insight, email us at contact@StudentHousingInsight.com