By Aliya Sternstein
Special to The Washington Post
Friday, December 16, 2005
About five years ago, when Magi Shepley needed to move from Harrisburg, Pa., to Falls Church for a job, she drove the distance twice to scout out apartments advertised on a popular Internet listing service. But both trips were a waste.
"The prices were wrong. Places that they said had openings didn't have openings," said Shepley, 32, a teacher. She gave up, opting to share a friend's condo instead.
But this year, when Shepley wanted to move from Baltimore to Herndon for another position, she visited the Fairfax County school system's Web site, which recommended buildings that teachers could afford. Shepley narrowed the choices to apartments with elevators and handicapped-accessible entrances, because she has nerve damage in her foot. That left her with the Metropolitan of Fairfax.
Shepley phoned the Herndon building's property manager about pricing, square footage and the cost of utilities, and then clicked on the property's Web site.
Unlike five years ago, the Internet made it easy for her to proceed from there. Metropolitan's management e-mailed the rental application. Shepley filled it out and e-mailed it back the same day. She scanned a check into her computer for the application fees, and then e-mailed the image to put a hold on the unit. The Metropolitan accepted the scanned copy as proof that Shepley would mail the check.
She moved into a studio apartment in August.
"I didn't have to look for a hotel down here or spend days going from apartment to apartment," Shepley said.
Today, it is a cinch for out-of-state home hunters to secure apartments in the Washington area, thanks to the Internet. Online tools that display up-to-date unit availability and pricing have made the process less frightening. Some Web sites also offer interactive spherical panoramas of units, called virtual tours.
There has been a surge in the popularity of renting sight unseen in the past three to four years because of the Internet, said Lisa Trosien, president of Chicago-based multi-family consulting firm ApartmentExpert.com.
Trosien, who has been in the industry 25 years, said that although the quality of individual property Web sites has improved, apartment hunters must ask the right questions before they pick a home.
"Management companies aren't psychic. They don't know what's important to you without you telling them," she said.
Ask about the view and the orientation. If the apartment is in an older, partially renovated building, renters should ask whether they are getting an upgraded unit. Find out about the appliances, if any, including the brand names. With today's ubiquitous digital cameras, it should not be asking too much for a leasing professional to snap the bathroom, the kitchen and the view from the balcony, and then e-mail you the pictures.
Renting an apartment online is still riskier than booking a hotel room for a couple of nights, she added.
"That great two-bedroom on the fourth floor of the high-rise that looked wonderful in the virtual tour of the model might face another building and get absolutely no sun. The actual apartment home itself may be significantly different than what is portrayed by the virtual tour. It may be close to the trash dumpsters or garbage chute. It may have a particular odor," Trosien said.
"It's sort of like a blind date; you never know what you are going to get until you actually see what the product is," she said.
According to the major online leasing software provider VaultWare, which serves 80 local properties, 40 percent of electronic reservations are submitted sight unseen.
"This is an impressive number when compared with the national average of 19 percent," said Kevan Humphrey, VaultWare's marketing manager.
Todd Katler, sales director of Internet listing service Rent.com and a 10-year industry insider, said that nationally, the vast majority of people come to an apartment community before beginning the application process online because they are reluctant to choose something as personal and emotional as a home from afar. But, he added, renting sight unseen will grow every year.
"As people continue to use the Internet more for commerce as opposed to just research, more and more people will rent sight unseen because they will be much more used to their expectations being met through other online providers," Katler said.
Another Internet listing service operator, Apartments.com sales vice president Kevin Doyle, said that Internet renting tools will help the industry but, right now, most properties do not have the technical resources to deliver current data to sites such as his. About 10 management companies show up-to-date availability via Apartments.com, accounting for only 7 percent of the communities on the Web site.
One company ahead of the pack in uploading unit availability and pricing is United Dominion Residential Communities, owner of Waterside Towers in the District and Presidential Greens Apartments in Alexandria. For the past four years, United Dominion has maintained listings of current offerings, prices and floor plans for each of its properties on its Web site.
On UDRT.com, apartment seekers can survey photographs of any community, inspect floor plans, apply electronically and be approved for a specific unit within a building.
United Dominion managers say the tools have made sight-unseen shopping simpler, as well as more convenient and cost-efficient.
"Do we want to spend our weekend shopping for apartments?" said Teresa Barker, United Dominion district manager.
Courtney Savaria, 27, an education counselor who works for the government, had never rented sight unseen, but she could not fly across the country to Virginia from her home near San Diego for a look.
After Apartments.com and Rent.com narrowed the choices to communities within 20 minutes of her new job, she zoomed in on United Dominion's Dominion Middle Ridge in Woodbridge and called the management office.
She and her husband were able to lock in a two-bedroom unit, with the help of the property's Web site and the people skills of one of the leasing agents. "She walked me through how to do it," Savaria said.
The leasing agent also answered her barrage of questions about the community.
"We were concerned about the crime rate," Savaria said. "She gave us different references that we could talk to."
By talking to the employee, Savaria verified square footage, asked about central air conditioning, eliminated worries about high-speed Internet access and probed the community's ongoing renovation.
"I really picked her brain about the renovations: How new are the cabinets? Is the carpeting new? The bathroom?" she asked. She and her husband moved in April.
Other landlords are in on the online shopping trend, too. Archstone-Smith, which owns many apartments throughout the Washington region, began providing real-time availability and pricing on the Internet this year. All money owed as part of the application process can be charged online with a credit card.
"It's the same sort of process as purchasing an airline ticket. It's intuitive and intelligent and it works well," Archstone-Smith executive vice president Capey Lester said.
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