> Apartments
Landlord Rewards 'Hometown Heroes'
by Lew Sichelman
Equity Residential Properties has rolled out the red carpet for policemen, firefighters and educators. Under the giant apartment company's new "Hometown Heroes" program, cops, firemen and teachers who rent in one of the Chicago-based real estate investment trust's 990 properties will receive up to a 10 percent per month discount on their rent and won't be required to pay an application fee or put up a security deposit. The program is "our way of giving back to the community and thank these extraordinary people for providing extraordinary service on a daily basis," says Jon Hile, vice president of the Equity Residential's Corporate Housing Division in Phoenix. The company's portfolio consists of more than 200,000 units in 34 states. Open to new residents, the program omits the application fee, which ranges from $25 to $45, depending on the property. It also eliminates the normal one-month security deposit, and provides rental discounts ranging from a one-time reduction of up to $300 to up to 10 percent a month for the duration of the lease. Offering discounts to certain groups or employers is certainly nothing new in the apartment business. According to Linda Page, regional manager of Edwin B. Raskin Co. in Brentwood, Tenn., which has 13 properties in the Volunteer State, "most properties have a preferred employer list that reduces application fees, deposits or up-front fees to entice area workers into their communities." In Memphis, for example, Page says many properties offer price reductions to employees of Federal Express, the major employer in that area. Tami Martin, senior operations manager in Archstone-Smith's Dallas Region, says her company cuts the rent 2-3 percent for senior citizens and companies with 500 or more workers such as American Airlines. And Deb Houtman, resident manager at the Cascade Village Apartments in Grand Rapids, Mich., says tenants who work for any of the local police departments, sheriff's offices and fire departments are not required to make a security deposit at her property. "We have four firemen and one sheriff at this time," Houtman says. "They pass that info along to others and I get referrals from them all the time." But the publicly-traded Equity Residential is the first large landlord in the country to offer special discounts to anyone employed by a police or fire department or a private or public school teacher on a nationwide basis. And when the benefits are combined with the firm's other incentives and promotions, residents can save some significant green. Take the case of a fictional South Florida teacher who has been an Equity Residential resident for 18 months and now plans to move to Seattle to take another teaching post. If she was paying $1,000 a month in Florida and will pay the same in Seattle and takes advantage of every discount available to her, here's how she'd make out: As a Florida teacher, she'd save the $60 application fee (on approved credit) plus the $500 security deposit. She'd also receive 10 percent off each month's rent, for a total of $1,800. And since she's taking part in the company's Rent With Equity program, which gives residents credits worth 20 percent of their rent to use for closing costs, buying down a mortgage rate or a lower purchase price from participating builders, she'd have credits worth $3,600. She's also taking part in Equity Residential's Coast-to-Coast program, so the teacher wouldn't have to pay a fee of $1,500 to break her Florida lease in the middle of her second year. Under the Hometown Heroes program, she won't have to pay a $32 application fee in Seattle, either, or a $250 security deposit. And she'd get $100 off the first month's rent to boot. Plus, if she stays 12 months in her new place, she'll earn $2,400 more in Rent to Own credits. Under this scenario, her total cash savings would be $4,242, and her credits toward buying a place of her own would total $6,000. The Hometown Heroes program was launched as a local effort shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington almost three years ago. "It was a property-to-property campaign at first," says Equity Residential's Hile, who allowed resident managers to decide whether to offer the discounts. The effort met with a particularly strong response from teachers in Florida and Seattle, and from police and firemen in the Mid-Atlantic region, according to the company executive. And now, it has become a national program. While the idea is to reward these people for their public service, it's also an added bonus to have them as residents, especially where cops are permitted to bring their cruisers home, Hile conceded. "They're a large universe and our demographic, for sure," he says. "And it certainly doesn't hurt to have them in your properties. They are beneficial neighbors for many reasons." The company has hired two national account executives to promote the program and bring greater consistency to the rental reductions. | 
