A thank you to our tenants

This past fall, Seminary Properties and Management sent out a resident satisfaction survey to all our existing tenants.  We hoped to better understand how our tenants felt about our services, staff, and the company overall. When the surveys were closed, 200 residents had taken time out of their schedule to submit a response. We want to thank those tenants and share some of the insights they provided us.

The popularity and influence of online review sites like Yelp and Google has only increased in the time since the Internet first became widely used, and this sometimes makes it difficult for a company to gauge whether or not they are serving their clients well.  It is not uncommon for most of the public reviews of a real estate business on these websites to be submitted by a small percentage of unhappy customers or members of the general public who have had not working relationship with the business. This belief was reaffirmed by over 90% of the 200 respondents to our in-house survey stating that they found that Seminary Properties and Management, Ltd. provided satisfactory or very satisfactory service, with 48.9% of all respondents reporting that they were very satisfied.    Conversely, only 3% of our current responding residents were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with our service. 

The survey also showed that over 17% of our respondents have been residents with us for more than three years, and that 35% of our respondents have been with us for two or more years.  Seminary Properties offers apartments that range from studios to four bedrooms, and it pleases us to know that many of our residents – whether living individually or with partners or roommates – have chosen to stay on for more than one year.  The result of 35% of our residents being multi-year tenants is a wonderful accomplishment on which we wish to build.

When searching for a new home, one thing that is often very important to apartment-seekers is knowing that they will be working with a management company that can promptly and professionally resolve any maintenance-related concerns. For this reason, we are very proud to report that our maintenance team received an average rating of over 8 stars out of 9 from the 200 survey respondents. Our maintenance team works hard to address our residents’ concerns quickly and completely.  We are thrilled with this result and hope to earn the full 9 out of 9 stars in the future. Our residents want their maintenance concerns addressed and we want the properties we serve to be in the best possible condition.

Similarly, the Seminary Properties Office Team and Property Management Team also received an average of 8 out of 9 stars in the survey. Our Office Team works hard every day to communicate with residents regarding lease questions, maintenance repair status updates, and general inquires. We believe their knowledge of company policy and the nuances of apartment leases has led to this favorable response, and we hope to build on this and perform even better for out tenants in the future. 

Seminary Properties and Management, Ltd. strives to resolve all tenant questions and concerns. The survey has showed us that our tenants feel we are doing a good job at this time. We hope to work harder to improve our communication and service to our tenants to earn even higher survey results from our residents in the future.

The survey also had another purpose: to learn what renters are looking for in apartments and how they are conducting their search.  The industry has changed so much the past few years and the pandemic has greatly altered the business.  Our residents have informed us of apartment listing sites that Seminary Properties and Management, Ltd. had not previously utilized, such as Facebook; going forward, we will use this knowledge to advertise our apartments more effectively.   

Additionally, the survey showed us the importance of price and photos of all apartments on listings. In response, Seminary Properties and Management, Ltd. will work to increase the number of quality photos for all of our listings, improve videos, provide floor plans with measurements, and continue to search for other ways to show the public the size, layout, and qualify of the available apartments.

Thank you to our tenants for taking party in the survey.  Seminary Properties and Management, Ltd. is thrilled we have done so well in your opinion and hope to continue improving our quality of service going forward.