Stop Selling Apartments. Start Selling Lifestyle.

Renters aren’t just looking for four walls and a floor plan—they’re looking for a place that fits their lifestyle.

In this episode of The Multifamily Marketers Podcast, hosts Josh Grillo and Caroline Mills explain why apartment communities need to stop selling features and start selling the experience of living there.

From rethinking generic phrases like “luxury living redefined” to transforming amenities into lifestyle benefits, this episode breaks down how properties can create stronger emotional connections with prospects and stand out in competitive markets.

You’ll learn:

• Why marketing only amenities makes your property blend in with competitors
• How to turn features into benefits that connect with renters emotionally
• Why lifestyle marketing works for Class A, B, and C communities
• How location, walkability, and nearby attractions can become powerful selling points
• The “four walls test” to see if your website messaging stands out
• How to balance lifestyle-focused copy with SEO strategy
• Why leasing teams should sell the experience—not just list amenities

To suggest a topic, get in touch!

For more multifamily marketing help, connect with us at Resident360.

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TRANSCRIPT

Episode 47: Stop Selling Apartments. Start Selling Lifestyle.

Podcast Co-Hosts: Josh Grillo and Caroline Mills, Resident360

Josh: Welcome back to the Multifamily Marketers Podcast. I’m your host, Josh Grillo, co-founder here at Resident360, and I’m joined by my co-host, our director of digital marketing, Miss Caroline Mills. Caroline, how are we this afternoon?

Caroline: Hello, Josh. It’s kind of overcast here in Florida. How is our beautiful San Diego?

Josh: It’s beautiful. It’s always beautiful. But I wanted to ask you, because we were just talking about this, and I thought it was kind of funny: How much do you love the dentist?

Caroline: Oh my gosh. I’ll pass out just thinking about it. I was filling Josh in on how much I truly hate the dentist, and I said, “No, I’m getting nervous. I’m going to pass out just thinking about it.”

Josh: I’ve had so much dental work done lately that I’ve kind of gotten used to going. But I didn’t realize how much you dislike the dentist. Now I know.

Caroline: So much. I’d rather watch paint dry. I’d rather go out in the yard and cut every single blade of grass with scissors. I’d do anything over going to the dentist.

Josh: Oh, gosh. Why dentists get such a bad rap, I don’t know.

Caroline: Ugh, it’s awful. Those poor dentists.

Josh: All right, all right, enough of this. Let’s jump in. On today’s show, we’re saying: Stop selling apartments and start selling lifestyle. All right, Caroline, are you ready for this one?

Caroline: I am.

Josh: So why should people stop selling apartments? That’s what they have. They have apartments for rent. Why are we focusing on this lifestyle thing?

Caroline: The reality is that every community has four walls, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a place to sleep. If that’s what you’re marketing, you’re competing against every other apartment community in America. So how do you stand out? What are people looking for? In a recent episode, we talked about where people are starting their search and why. So I’m excited to dive into why you need to sell not just the living space, but the lifestyle of the community.

Josh: So what you’re saying is, if your biggest differentiator is granite countertops, we may have a problem?

Caroline: Yes, absolutely. Or “elevated luxury living.” That’s the one I hear all the time. “Experience elevated living.”

Josh: Hold on. Before I jump in, let’s clarify: Are we really focusing on Class A and Class B properties here? Class C properties are probably all somewhat the same, correct?

Caroline: I can understand why someone would think that and say, “Well, I can’t compete with the Class A down the street that has $3,000 in its resident event budget,” or whatever it may be. But there’s still a way to position your community. You may not have fancy resident events every month, but look at what you can use. What’s walkable from your apartments? What’s around town? What makes it easy to get here? We always ask, “What’s the elevator pitch for your community?” Use your surroundings, your neighborhood, and your area, the things outside the apartments themselves.

Josh: Got it. So even if you’re a Class C property, focus on some of those outside elements.

Caroline: Absolutely. There’s going to be something that draws people in besides what they get inside the apartment, even if it’s not granite countertops and stainless steel appliances.

Josh: Okay, I like that. All right, let’s play a little game. How many apartment websites have you seen that say, “Luxury living redefined”?

Caroline: Oh, gosh. Are we talking ever, or within the last 30 days?

Josh: Or “Experience luxury living.”

Caroline: Oh, yeah: “Experience elevated living,” “Experience luxury living,” or “Where comfort meets convenience.” I think those just come with website templates. I don’t even know that they’re taglines people actually want. That’s the problem. I’d say every single website has something along those lines. There’s a difference between using a phrase for SEO purposes and using something from a template that’s on every property website.

Josh: Got it. So tell me why that pool makes my life better. Is that what you’re saying?

Caroline: Exactly. Tell me why living here is different from living somewhere else. Why is living in your apartments, with the same finishes, different from living down the street, with the same finishes? Back to lifestyle, short-form video, and what it’s like to live in the community: That’s where people are starting their search. We want to see what it’s like to live there. If I can already picture the same granite countertops and white cabinets everywhere, now I want to know why I’d choose your community over someone else’s.

Josh: That’s right. We’re selling the benefits. It’s one of the oldest marketing lessons in the world: People don’t buy features; they buy benefits. So we have to focus on selling benefits, which is really hard. It’s probably easier now with Claude and ChatGPT, where you can say, “Give me the benefits of this pool.” But that’s what we need to be doing. How about a few examples?

Caroline: Absolutely. Let’s use your pool example. Instead of a property saying “resort-style swimming pool” (okay, that’s cool, but everyone has one), what does that actually mean to the prospect or renter? Maybe it means, “Spend your weekends relaxing poolside instead of fighting crowds at the public pool,” or “Sunbathe all afternoon under the palm trees.” You want to describe an experience they’ll have, not just say, “We have a swimming pool.”

Josh: Or instead of “24-hour fitness center,” which we know is on every property website, maybe try, “Skip the gym membership and get your workout in before your morning coffee.”

Caroline: Ooh, I like that one. Okay, co-working spaces are a huge one right now, with so many people working from home. Instead of just “co-working space,” say, “Work from home without working from your kitchen table.” Now we’re envisioning the lifestyle.

Josh: Think about it like this. The feature is what you have: the pool. The benefit is what the resident gets: What will they get out of using that pool? What will be different for them? And the lifestyle is how it makes them feel. So it’s very important to think about all of your marketing copy as selling those benefits.

Caroline: I like the way you put that. And you might be thinking, “Well, my marketing team, corporate, or owner makes us phrase things a certain way on our website.” Don’t just think about the website. Think beyond it. How do you use this in your marketing, your paid spend, and your social media posts? There are a lot of ways to sell your lifestyle beyond the amenities listed on a website.

Josh: So let’s talk about what residents are really buying.

Caroline: I think this is where multifamily marketers really need to shift their mindset. People aren’t searching for just an apartment. They’re searching for outcomes. They’re searching for a home, the place they’ll call home for the next 12 to 15 months.

Josh: They’re searching for convenience, for safety, for time savings on their commute to work or wherever they’re driving.

Caroline: Absolutely. Flexibility, walkability, entertainment, whatever it may be. One of my favorites is “a place their dog will love.” I’m the key demographic for that one. I look at whether my dog will love living there. Will he have places to walk? Is there a dog park and things to do? And will my friends want to visit? Do I have space to entertain? It goes way beyond the finishes in my apartment. It’s about how I’m going to enjoy living my life there.

Josh: When you start thinking that way, your marketing changes completely. It’s super important, and I’m hoping all these examples help people start thinking about it differently. For example, if you have a dog park at your community, the benefits are huge. You could have a whole page on the benefits of having a dog park on site, and it could be SEO-driven, too, to capture traffic from people looking for pet-friendly apartments.

Caroline: Absolutely. There are so many ways to use it. Once you start thinking this way, you’ll look at your own amenities and website and get so many ideas. You’ll say, “Oh yeah, I could phrase this differently,” or “I could take a photo of someone using this and tell a lot more of the story than just ‘24-hour fitness center’ or ‘dog park.’”

Josh: We mentioned this earlier in the show. You talked about thinking outside the property, especially for a lower-class property, maybe a Class C. The thinking may be that the best amenity isn’t actually on the property.

Caroline: Exactly. Here’s a hot take: It’s not always the property. It’s not included, and it’s not on site.

Josh: So sometimes the best amenity is the location itself, right?

Caroline: Yes, absolutely. It could be the coffee shop downstairs or the walking trail across the street. Or, like you said earlier, the commute. Maybe you’re only 10 minutes from work. That’s a huge selling point compared with someone a little farther down the road.

Josh: Yep. You could have a lake or an entertainment district nearby. You could have a hot Michelin-star restaurant a couple of blocks away. Those are all massive selling points for the right person.

Caroline: Absolutely. I work from home, so when I’m looking for a place, I’m looking at those kinds of things. Maybe I’m not looking at a commute, and not everyone is. But I’m looking at how convenient it is to get around town and go out to eat with friends and family. There’s a lot outside the community itself.

Josh: So your lifestyle story extends far beyond the property line. Let’s do a little test. We’ll call it the four walls test, a challenge every marketer should try.

Caroline: Yes, the four walls test. Pull up your website’s homepage (take a minute to do it) and cover up the property name. Now ask yourself: Could this headline appear on literally any apartment website in America? Just take a second and think about it.

Josh: And I’d assume that if the answer is yes, you’ve got work to do.

Caroline: Absolutely. I pulled some examples before the show. Take “Luxury apartments in Orlando.” Okay, at least we know where it is. But now try “More weekends at the theme parks, less time commuting.”

Josh: Instead of “Modern living in Lake Orion,” try “Wake up to lake views. Spend evenings on the water.”

Caroline: I love those. Those headlines tell a story, and stories are what lease apartments. Now you’re already creating a vision in someone’s head.

Josh: Okay, I’m going to go off script a little, Caroline. How do we handle SEO in all this? Headlines usually sit on hero images, and without getting too technical, think about your H1 tags. They’re super important for telling Google what the website is about. How do we weave in the keywords we need from an SEO perspective while still selling the lifestyle?

Caroline: Good question. There are a few ways to do it. One is working with your website partner, like us, for example. We can work with you to decide what your H1 will be. In the website’s code, you decide what your H1 is and what your H2 is, and you use them strategically. If a headline sells the property better but doesn’t have good SEO value, move your H1 elsewhere in the code. Now your H1 says “Luxury one- to three-bedroom apartments in Orlando, Florida,” but the eye-catching story sits right over the hero video of people walking downtown and laughing together, whatever it may be.

Or design your website widgets in the way that makes the most sense. Maybe your H1 is stuck where it is and has to say what it says. Okay, then how can you use a good overlay on a photo to convey the lifestyle? Or how can you use it right underneath, as you start your romance paragraph? Could you still cover up the property name and make sense of what you see above the fold, as we call it, at the top of the homepage? If so, incorporate the lifestyle message wherever you can.

Josh: I think you said it right there. You could also play with font size. If the headline has to include the word “apartments” and your city or neighborhood, you could put smaller subtext underneath with the lifestyle message you want. There are all kinds of ways to maneuver it. What I’m trying to say is: Don’t get stuck thinking, “I have to have this SEO-driven headline, and that’s it.” There are always ways to work it in, and a lot you can do on the back end to make it happen.

All right, moving along. Caroline, let’s talk about how leasing teams can sell the lifestyle. We know this isn’t just a marketing conversation. Leasing teams play a massive role here, too.

Caroline: Absolutely, and as someone who’s been on site and done this myself, I can say that firsthand. Your tour shouldn’t be a list of amenities that you name off as you walk past them. It should paint a picture of what life looks like there.

Say you’re touring a property in Wilmington, and you’re outside by the beautiful pool. The prospect says, “Oh, this is a gorgeous pool.” You say, “I know, I love it. The sun rises over here and sets on that side, so you get full sun all day. But if you don’t want to sit by the pool and you’d rather go to the beach, just turn left onto College Road, and you’re at the beach in a matter of minutes.” We’re not actually walking to the beach, but now I’m giving them a sense of the lifestyle. They see the beautiful amenity, and I’m naming another one that’s off the property. There are a lot of ways to do this.

Josh: So I’m taking somebody on a tour. I’ve never given a leasing tour before, but let’s say I’m walking the tour path and come to the fitness center. I guess I shouldn’t just say, “Here’s the fitness center.” Maybe something more like, “Here’s the fitness center. Many of our residents stop here before work, because it’s open 24 hours.”

Caroline: That’s a great way to say it.

Josh: Or instead of “Here’s the resident lounge,” maybe, “We see residents working remotely here throughout the day and hosting friends on the weekends.”

Caroline: I love those examples. You’re telling a story about what happens in the community, so prospects feel a sense of community there. It goes beyond “Here’s the fitness center, here are the resident events,” whatever it may be. I really like telling stories with it. First, you’re giving them a description, and second, it’s more engaging. Nobody wants to walk around with someone who just says, “This is this, and this is this.” You want to engage with the prospect.

Josh: I’d imagine it really helps prospects picture themselves living there, which helps sell it. I have a question for you, since you used to work on site. Do a lot of properties script out the tour and the tour path? Or is it left up to the leasing agent?

Caroline: Good question. Ours were always scripted to the point that you had a set walking path, so you knew exactly what you’d walk past every day and when to mention it. You’d have key points the owner or property wanted you to hit, like, “Make sure you say the fitness center is open 24 hours.” But we practiced and role-played a lot, so you’d develop your own script within that framework, things that made it more personal for you.

One thing I always focused on was what we’d call dead zones: parts of the tour where there’s nothing to talk about because you’re walking from one amenity to another or to the model. That’s when I’d make connections: “Oh, you said you’re coming from North Carolina? I grew up there. That’s so crazy. What part of North Carolina are you from?” Then, “If you love Miami, you’re going to love going to the beach here, and we just got a Nobu downtown.” You want to relate things to them as you go. You follow your script and your route, but you find time to sell them on the community and use your sales expertise to really drive it home, beyond just saying, “Here’s our pool. It’s open year-round, and it’s saltwater.” Really sell them on it at that point.

Josh: Great. I picked up on one thing you said: role-playing with others. I don’t know if you know the answer, but do a lot of on-site teams actually role-play their tours and bounce ideas off each other?

Caroline: Good question. If you don’t, you should. When I started in the industry, there was something called Leasing School. All of us brand-new “baby” leasing consultants went to a two-day seminar together, and we actually did that. We’d go into a model and practice. It feels so weird at first, and you don’t want to do it in front of other people, but it helps a ton. You start hearing ideas other people use in their tours, and it gives you more ideas. So I highly recommend it, even if it feels weird, or even doing it with your property manager. You’ll get a lot more ideas, and it definitely makes you more comfortable giving tours.

Josh: That’s good. Okay, let’s start wrapping up this episode; we’re close to the 20-minute mark. Caroline, for everyone listening, what’s one takeaway from today?

Caroline: Stop marketing your apartment community like it’s just a collection of amenities, and start marketing it like it’s a lifestyle.

Josh: That’s very good advice. With that, we’ll wrap up the show, and we’ll be back next week with another episode. I hope everybody has a fantastic day. As always, like, subscribe, and all that good stuff. And let us know if there’s a topic you’d like us to talk about. Just go to our website, resident360.com, and submit a contact form with a topic you’re interested in, and Caroline and I will put it on the agenda to hopefully cover in a future episode. All right, Caroline, once again, take care. We’ll see you guys. Bye-bye.

Caroline: Thank you, guys. Bye!