Top 7 Take Aways — Hazique Memon On Getting The Coliving Model Right

Rooftalks is created in proud partnership with The Class Foundation, Conscious Coliving, and Coliving Hub.

Don’t have time to listen to the whole episode? Read through the main takeaways below — or sign up at Obeyo.com/rooftalks to receive all future episodes right into your inbox.

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Top 1 —Think globally, work locally

To make your coliving brand international, you need to be local yourself and live in that country / city for a while or know someone who is local that you can bring on board. Be careful in selecting the right markets before you set up shop in any new country. Look at the legal background, as well as the real estate market, rental demand, the political situation, taxation implications, etc. That is why it’s so critical to know the culture before you commit to a new place.

Top 2 — Make your place unique to stand out

As coliving matures, its challenge of tomorrow will become how can you make your place unique. More and more residential living operators will understand the value and requirement of offering a more timely living experience. So your challenge becomes: What can you offer that others can’t? And often, this answer will be in the community that you are creating, and the experiences that you are offering.

Top 3 — Community-based marketing is the future

Community will take a center stage in how residents select their next locations. As traditional marketing becomes increasingly ineffective, we need to focus increasingly on a community-centric approach as the way to promote our colivings in the future. Everything you say needs to be verified by someone who stayed with you in the past so it becomes authentic and credible. Focus on what are the initiatives that the community is creating themselves — and what do your residents themselves have to say about the experience you are creating?

Top 4 — Offboarding is undervalued

There is enormous value in investing in a proper offboarding process. How do we keep a community going even after people are not living with you anymore? The memories and friends that they have made while staying with you might last a lifetime, how do you help them stay connected to that phase of their life even after they moved on? This is not only very valuable for your residents and your community, but also will drive your business as when done right rebooking rates of 70% can be attained.

Top 5 —Team up to affect change

To affect change on the regulatory level, you need to drive visibility for the coliving concept as a whole. Here, PR is an important way to also get the attention of the government, and partnering up with other coliving players and the various industry associations like coliving hub can help to amplify your voice.

Top 6 — Technology is key to getting the model right

Technologies are critical to creating thriving communities and this is true in particular though when you operate at a scale of more than 20 beds. When deciding on your tech setup, look for a way that your community can engage with each other through technology. Who else is living in this space, what are their interests, and how can I use the space and or the experience and knowledge of the other residents to make progress in my own life? Also, tap into the power of technology to help your residents get connected with the right people — and measure and understand what is happening in your community. Only then can you take the right action when and where needed.

Top 7 —The future of living

Coliving will just become living in the next 10–20 years. What we consider coliving today will become the norm of how many people live — with shared amenities and services, tech-enabled living experience, and a stronger social component. All this will make its way into the regular residential real estate market, so that close to a third of the residential spaces will fall into that category.

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• About Rooftalks — the podcast: Spirited conversation intersection of community, technology, and shared living with thought leaders and movers and shakers in the shared living space: sign-up at obeyo.com/rooftalks.
• About Michael: Michael is co-founder and CEO at Obeyo. Passionate about connecting people, he loves to explore ideas at the intersection between community, shared-living, and technology. Feel free to connect with him on LinkedIn.
• About Obeyo: Obeyo is the first all-in-one operating system and community app for residential living built around the learnings from 100+ shared living operators.

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