3 Wi-Fi Lessons for Multifamily Landlords

I feel strongly about providing Wi-Fi at my multifamily complex. It's like indoor plumbing - you just have to offer it.

Tech Savvy Tenants

As my neighborhood continues to improve, I'm able to attract very educated and honorable tenants. I started off chasing away drug dealers, now I rent to doctors who prescribe drugs.

I'm at the point where I'm focusing on providing high quality Wi-Fi to my residents - they are extremely internet dependent.

3 Lessons Learned

In the process, I've learned the following things:

1 - The signal may be strong but the Wi-Fi can be weak. The bar count is an indication of your connection which is not a true indicator of your bandwidth.

The connection is the pipeline, the bandwidth is the water flow.

2 - Walls, ceilings, and floors are the enemy. Your Wi-Fi performance will dramatically decrease every time it goes through an object. If you broadcast from a second story roof top you will likely have a weak signal on the first floor.

3 - Paying a tenant/resident to share their Wi-Fi signal might be the best way to get high performance. I have eight units and I starting the process of paying three of my tenants $30 each/month to share their signal with neighboring tenants.

Comcast charges me $97 per month for the internet I was use to cover all 8 units. It no longer meets our demand. We can have 20 to 30 Wi-Fi enable devices connected at any time.

There's simply is not enough bandwidth for everyone to Skype and watch internet TV at the same time.

I get much better coverage and performance by paying a my tenants a total of $90 per month to share their signal with up to two other tenants.

Collaborative Tenants

Betamax Landlords would never consider paying their tenants for a service like Wi-Fi, but it makes the world of sense. I write a separate agreement that's not a tied to the lease. It's a business deal. You get more for less - done deal right?

Skype Generation

Face to face video communications are Wi-Fi intensive AND they here to stay.

If you want highly educated and technologically savvy tenants, then you've got to compete for them. They have a lot of options.

I'm promoting "Hot Wi-Fi for Cool People" to grow my medical student and traveling doctor housing cluster.

How are you positioning your multifamily to meet your resident's Wi-Fi needs?