Is Your Apartment Community Ready for the Leasing Season?

Written by: Ronald Harrington | 

It is hard to believe that it is already April. I am sure a lot of us are already seeing an increase in the traffic as we gear up for a busy leasing season. If you have been listening to the Rooms With Ronald Podcast, you are aware that this season is going to look different than the last few years. Concessions are making a comeback, the supply has increased which has caught up with the demand, and prices have fallen. 

Now is the time to do a quick self audit on the marketing side and the leasing side. Here are my tips to help set you up for a successful leasing season. 

Marketing Audit:

1. Have you tried your lead tracking numbers? In the past, I have learned that sometimes these numbers break and don’t always call into the correct office.
2. Have you completed a digital audit looking at photos (ensuring they are a true representation of your property in its current condition? Did you check to make sure that all the information is accurate on all sites?
3. Don’t forget to check your chatbots. If you have heard the show, you know I have had a lot of issues with chatbots. Issues like my guest card being sent to the property, my appointment not making it into the PMS system, and the chatbot not giving out correct information. The chatbot is only as smart as we make it to be. 

Leasing Audit:

1. Have you had your property shopped lately? If you have, then did you take the time to review the area of opportunities with the staff member? If not, you might do some sort of shop. You could do an internet shop to make sure they are responding to leads and they are how you want them to respond. Another option would be to call the property and see how they are on the telephone. The last thing you could do is to send in friends and have them report back to you. Mystery shopping doesn’t also have to include spending money. 
2. Does your team know the occupancy goals? I don’t just mean the number, but how many apartment homes it takes to rent to meet that number. This is so important that our site teams understand this. Are you talking about these numbers everyday?
3. How does the tour path look? Are you activating the 5 senses? Is anything in need of a refresh? I look to do little refreshes before the start of the leasing season. This way if someone who has toured previously comes back, it is new to them. 
4. Have you given your teams the tools needed to be successful? Have they completed Fair Housing Training? Did you offer leasing training? We have hired a lot of new people in this industry but haven’t given them the training to be successful. 
5. Are you offering concessions? Does your team know how to use this as a tool? Or are they just leading with this concession? If you are using the concession to create urgency, please make sure that you are changing that concession often. When you don’t, then you are working against your onsite team. Prospects are doing around 22 days of research before contacting us. If you keep the same concession week after week, it becomes an expectation for them and make it hard to say it’s a limited amount of time.

If you need more ideas on what to be checking for, please feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn at Ronald Harrington or send me an email at roomswithronald@gmail.com. As always tune into The Rooms with Ronald podcast to gain more insights and nuggets of knowledge. Until next time… Happy Leasing.