In an industry-first for apartment operations, Luxford Living, a Ramsey-based DASMEN Residential affiliate, has introduced livestreamed apartment tours and leasing across its 25-property national portfolio.
Its technology, in collaboration with the shoppable live video platform Terrific, is one notch above the more familiar live online tours that some apartment leasing professionals conduct via smartphone apps.
Terrific brings live video directly to Luxford Living’s property websites, creating a more innovative rental experience with direct leasing CTAs designed to convert engagement into tours, applications, and first-party customer data, rather than leaving that activity on a third-party social platform.
The rollout marks the first time live shopping technology, long established in fashion and retail, has been systematically applied to the residential real estate leasing process.
Terrific is a live e-commerce streaming platform that combines live shopping events, shoppable video technology, and intelligent, fully customizable, branded carousels for each operator’s domain.
Built on the principle that the way people buy has fundamentally changed, Terrific serves as a social commerce layer for any website, enabling brands to convert viewers into buyers (in this case, renters) in real time.
Solving a real problem for renters
For prospective renters, especially those relocating from out of state or searching from across the country, the apartment-hunting process has historically been frustrating, according to Kaitlyn Doyle, head of marketing at Luxford Living.
Browsing static listings, navigating websites for answers to basic questions, and scheduling in-person tours that require significant time and travel are the norm. For many, committing to a lease without seeing a unit in person feels like a leap of faith, she said.
Through weekly live streaming events hosted directly on Luxford Living’s community websites, prospective renters can join a live video tour of available units, ask questions in real time, and receive immediate answers, all without leaving home.
When they are ready to move forward, interactive in-stream buttons allow them to submit a rental application directly while watching the stream.
“No back-and-forth. No waiting. No uncertainty,” Doyle said.
The majority of viewers are joining from mobile devices (84%) and desktops (16%). A few viewers join from iPads.
Pilot attracts 20,000 prospects
Prior to the portfolio-wide launch, Luxford Living piloted the Terrific platform across eight apartment communities over a three-month period. The results were immediate and compelling.
Over the course of weekly livestream events, the pilot engaged approximately 20,000 prospective renters with live, shoppable content. Of those, viewers demonstrated intent — achieving a click-to-apply rate of up to 26% directly from within the live stream.
“We expect these numbers to grow dramatically as the program scales across the full portfolio,” Doyle said.
The livestream is an invitation
When a prospective renter joins a Luxford Living livestream, they are not browsing a listing. They are invited in. They can see the unit as it actually is. They can ask the question they would feel embarrassed to put in an email — “Is the street noisy at night?” “What are the neighbors like?” — and get a real, human answer in real time.
“They can feel the vibe of the community before they ever visit,” Doyle said. “That is why engagement is so high. It is not a feature. It is trust, built live.”
“In today’s competitive multifamily leasing environment, we were looking for an edge — and we found it in Terrific,” Michael Katz, chairman of DASMEN Residential and its affiliate management firm Luxford Living, said.
“Together we launched Live Renting, and the team has been next level in quality, reliability, and care. We’ve seen significant results since launch, and we’re excited about this new way of leasing.”
