Americans aren’t just shopping online for clothes, gadgets, and games. They’re also shopping for apartments, with 67 percent preferring to conduct research online when searching for a new home, according to a TransUnion survey.
However, while consumers shop at large retailers like Amazon or Overstock, they also shop at individual sellers like Apple and Urban Outfitters. Similarly, apartment hunters go to Zillow, but they’ll also visit a company’s website.
Owners looking to put listings on their website are often limited to using a rigid template from a property-management software provider. So, apartment-marketing firm 30 Lines recently released Top Line Sites, a WordPress plug-in that brings the ease of online shopping on major websites to an owner's individual site.
“The way floor plans and unit pricing are presented on most apartment websites is broken,” says Mike Whaling, founder of 30 Lines. “There's a much better way for apartment marketers to present their availability and pricing in a great, easy-to-use shopping experience for the visitor.”
The plug-in integrates with property management systems including Property Solutions, RealPage, RentCafe, and VaultWare to directly take available unit information such as floorplans, and pricing and place it on the managers' or owners' website. There, website visitors can shop for properties, units, and price point directly from a company’s website. The plug-in adapts for both single and multiple property websites.
It also integrates with lead delivery systems such as Lead2Lease, Lead Tracking Solutions, and RentCafe to track how the plug-in is performing compared to other lead-generating marketing strategies.
The plug-in is free and can be downloaded through WordPress. However, 30 Lines is charging $200 per year per website for the pricing/availability feed from the property management systems and $100 per year per website to push leads to your lead delivery system. For larger companies with multiple websites, bulk pricing is available.
