Multifamily Value Add: ReBrand

When we’re looking at a rebrand of a property as part of an overall multi-family value add strategy, there are a couple of things to consider. Is it worth rebranding the property? A lot of times, what I’ve seen is the newer assets, maybe it’s a late 80’s asset or even a mid 80’s asset that’s been well taken care of, and has a decent online reputation, might not need a rebrand at all. You’ve got decent name recognition, you’ve got a decent monument sign, maybe some internal collateral and printed materials. Things like that, that you don’t have to go and redo. So many times that’s the case, that’s great if so. Other times, either with older assets or sometimes mismanaged assets, which is good, that creates opportunity if assets are mismanaged. We wanna go ahead and go and do a rebrand. And a lot of times this corresponds with kind of a makeover on the exterior. We like to start from the outside in, so we go in, rebrand the property, repaint it, accent colors, new monument sign, new paint, maybe re stripe the parking lot or reseal it to give it some updated look. Maybe we update the pool area. Some of these things just to show existing residents and new perspective tenants immediately, hey there’s a new sheriff in town. We’re bringing some fresh capital to this property, we’re gonna create a better experience for the residents there. And the best way to do that is with showing people on the exterior that, hey we mean business, we’re spending money. It’s not uncommon to spend well over a million dollars on say a 130 or 40 unit apartment complex with a renovation that includes a rebrand. So rebrand can be good to just kind of hit the reset button on the property. You also get the benefit of kind of a fresh online start. Online ratings and those kinds of things are becoming more important through … I mean, obviously everyone’s mobile and often times, people are renting apartments, site unseen, just based on reviews and the photos online. So if you can give the property a fresh look, a fresh name and get a fresh start on your online ratings, that might be some reasons to consider a rebrand. And that can add value even if you’re not going in and touching a resident’s unit on the interior. When they come home to a place that looks fresh and new and like it’s cared for and like the ownership group cares and is demonstrating that with their checkbook. Then that can create a more solid community, which is the goal here. We want to create a win-win scenario for the residents and for investors by improving this community that we take over. So often time, a rebrand is part of the strategy going in. And it’s also fun to takeover property, to do the rebrand, to come up with a new logo and color scheme and just kind of breathe some fresh life into it, and take a 70’s or 80’s asset and bring it up to something where a resident in 2018, 19, 2020 feels like, hey this is a nice, clean, safe place to live. And it’s not been run down or completely mismanaged. So the rebrand can be a very bold way to say that there’s a new ownership group and that, that ownership group is actively investing in this property to make it a better experience for the residents. So we’ve had good experiences with rebrands. Just again, hit that reset button and it helps add value to residents and add value for investors.