The Apartment Department

How Apartment Search is Changing with Martin Canchola

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2360683/fan_mail/new] This week, Anne and Chris sit down with Martin Canchola, co-founder and chief strategy officer of Apartment SEO and founder of Multifamily Builders Club, for a conversation about how apartment search is evolving and what multifamily marketers should actually be paying attention to right now. Martin explains why many of the SEO fundamentals marketers have heard about for years, like local listings, reputation management, FAQs, schema markup, and helpful content, are becoming critical again as platforms like Google, ChatGPT, YouTube, Reddit, and Bing reshape how renters discover apartments online. The conversation explores: * Why Google Business Profile and Yelp still matter * How reviews and sentiment influence visibility * Why video may become one of the biggest opportunities in multifamily marketing * How marketers can experiment with emerging tools without getting overwhelmed * What operators should prioritize first as search behavior continues to change Martin also shares the vision behind the Multifamily Builders Club and why curiosity, experimentation, and AI fluency are becoming increasingly valuable skills for multifamily marketers. This episode is packed with practical takeaways for anyone trying to understand where apartment search is headed and how to stay visible as the landscape evolves. Flamingo - Resident Retention App [https://getflamingo.com] 400K+ units use Flamingo’s Resident Retention Platform to stop Retention Leak & hit 63%+ retention.

The New Rules of Multifamily Marketing with Brian Miller

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2360683/fan_mail/new] This week on The Apartment Department, Anne Baum and Chris Johnson sit down with Brian Miller, Director of Partner Experience and Engagement at Zillow Rentals, for a conversation about what marketing teams are really navigating right now. Drawing from conversations with operators and marketers across the country, Brian shares the patterns he’s seeing across the industry, including affordability pressure, rising concessions, operational complexity, and changing renter behavior. In this episode, they discuss: * Why nearly 40% of rental listings nationally now include concessions * Markets where concessions are appearing on more than 60% of listings * Zillow data showing that nearly 1 in 13 for-sale shoppers also engage with rentals * How renters are using technology and AI to evaluate communities differently * Why communities need their online presence to match the actual resident experience * The operational reality behind managing apartment marketing today * How marketers are pulling data from multiple systems just to understand market position and property performance * The growing conversation around enterprise-wide AI strategy inside multifamily organizations The conversation also explores how marketing teams can better communicate what makes a community valuable, why generic messaging is becoming less effective, and how operators are thinking about flexibility, speed, and transparency for today’s renter. If you work in multifamily marketing, operations, or proptech, this episode offers a grounded conversation about the challenges teams are trying to solve right now and how the industry is adapting. Flamingo - Resident Retention App [https://getflamingo.com] 400K+ units use Flamingo’s Resident Retention Platform to stop Retention Leak & hit 63%+ retention.

Performance Management in Multifamily: How to Build a Results-Driven Team

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2360683/fan_mail/new] This week, Anne and Chris welcome back Jude Chiy, founder and CEO of Flamingo, for one of their most candid and wide-ranging conversations yet. Jude opens up about the early struggles that shaped his leadership style, including hiring mistakes that pushed him to completely rethink how he builds and manages a team, and how those hard lessons led him to build a company where every role, every feature, and every decision ties back to one metric: resident retention. Jude breaks down the performance management framework that runs Flamingo, including how he writes job descriptions around outcomes instead of tasks, why he doesn't care how long something takes as long as the result is achieved, and how giving employees a clear north star actually empowers them to push back and prioritize better. The conversation also gets into the evolution of Flamingo itself, from a wellness and fitness platform called Hello Healthy to a full resident retention suite, and what Jude learned from walking the streets of Chicago for four months talking to property managers and residents. Plus, why he believes consistent resident communication is one of the fastest ways to improve retention, what authentic resident-driven engagement looks like, and why brand may be the most important long-term advantage any multifamily operator can build. If you've ever struggled to get your team aligned and moving in the same direction, this episode is worth your time. Flamingo - Resident Retention App [https://getflamingo.com] 400K+ units use Flamingo’s Resident Retention Platform to stop Retention Leak & hit 63%+ retention.

The Shift from Reactive Marketing to Performance Partner with Justin Godwin

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2360683/fan_mail/new] Marketing and operations are aligned around the same goal: stronger performance across the portfolio. In practice, that alignment often takes shape through reactive and responsive workflows. In this episode, Justin Godwin, Director of Marketing Strategy and Innovation at Cushman & Wakefield, breaks down what it actually takes to evolve that dynamic at scale. From restructuring a lean marketing team supporting hundreds of properties to redefining marketing as an extension of the leasing function, this conversation gets into the operational reality behind making marketing more proactive, not just responsive. We talk about how marketing teams operate in response to requests, what it takes to shift that dynamic, and how trust evolves when marketing starts showing up with data, recommendations, and a point of view instead of waiting for direction. The core shift is moving marketing from reactive execution to proactive performance support. This is a conversation about systems, communication, and what changes when marketing is structured to drive outcomes, not just respond to them. Flamingo - Resident Retention App [https://getflamingo.com] 400K+ units use Flamingo’s Resident Retention Platform to stop Retention Leak & hit 63%+ retention.

From Photos to Performance: Building a Visual Content System That Drives Leasing

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2360683/fan_mail/new] What role does visual content actually play in apartment performance—and why are most operators still treating it like a one-off asset instead of a system? In this episode, Anne Baum and Chris Johnson sit down with Izzy Carunungan of LCP (Lights, Camera, Pixels) to unpack how photos, 3D tours, and unit-level media are evolving from marketing “nice-to-haves” into operational infrastructure. They explore how the rise of sight-unseen renting, inconsistent unit upgrades, and fragmented property data are forcing a new approach—one where visual content becomes standardized, scalable, and deeply integrated into the leasing journey. This conversation goes beyond content creation to examine: * Why your website should function as a true source of truth for prospects * The operational challenges behind maintaining accurate, unit-level visuals * How inconsistency in media impacts trust, conversion, and leasing velocity * What it looks like to treat content as a system—not a campaign If you’re thinking about centralization, standardization, or how to better connect marketing to operations, this episode offers a practical lens into where the industry is heading. Flamingo - Resident Retention App [https://getflamingo.com] 400K+ units use Flamingo’s Resident Retention Platform to stop Retention Leak & hit 63%+ retention.