As you may have heard, starting January 1st, 2024, properties in the state of Minnesota are required to disclose non-optional fees when advertising pricing. We understand your concern about the risks involved for property management companies. Rest assured, here at Digible we strive to be the best partners and industry resource for the rental housing industry. To help mitigate this risk, you betcha we have some options on how to navigate this new law.
Here is an example that directly correlates to this law in practice:
If an apartment advertises “2 Bedroom Apartments Starting At $2,000” there must also be language stating “Utilities not included” or “Utilities included in rent” within the ad.
We Recommend:
Currently, we obtain pricing and availability data directly from your Property Management System (PMS) to integrate into your digital advertising. It is strongly advised that you incorporate the disclosure of non-optional fees in the pricing information transmitted through your PMS to our advertisements. This straightforward measure would effectively mitigate any potential legal risks associated with the recent regulatory changes.
Questions? Reach out to your Account Manager.
Steps to Mitigate Risk
We understand that this may not be feasible for all multifamily professionals in Minnesota and we have two alternative strategies when disclosing non-optional fees in advertising pricing.
Option 1: Remove Pricing and Availability
Our team can remove the ‘Pricing & Availability’ verbiage from our paid search campaigns for your properties located in Minnesota. A Digible case study shows that by including dynamic pricing and availability, we can dramatically improve conversion rate and lower overall cost per lead. By removing these features, your campaigns with Digible will likely see a decline in performance. However, this is an efficient strategy to comply with the legislation changes.
Option 2: Include Non-Optional Fees in Description
If you’d like to keep dynamic pricing and availability in ads, but do not have the non-optional fees listed in your total rent in your PMS, Digible can include all non-optional fees in the description line of our search ads in addition to disclosing whether or not the cost of utilities is included in rent.
We understand the importance of this new regulation and our team is ready to help you navigate this new non-optional fees law. Should you have any questions or require further clarification regarding these upcoming changes, reach out to your Account Manager or contact us today.
