Apartment Leasing

I've had clients asking me  this very question for years. Are shops really valuable to a company? Is there a better way? Let me give you some reasons why  mystery shops just might not be the answer you're looking for at your company. For the sake of this discussion, we're limiting this to phone and in-person shops.

1. Shoppers have bad days. Just like Leasing Professionals, shoppers have 'off' days, too. And this is reflected in the shopping report  that describes the Leasing Professionals' behavior. I once worked for a company who so strongly believed in this that they made sure their employees were shopped TWICE on the same day. That way, if one shop was horrible and one was good, they could throw the bad shop out (chalking it up to a bad day for the shopper). 

2. Shoppers have to remember how you behaved on the tour. Having been shopped numerous times in my career, I can tell you that sometimes shoppers get their facts confused. I have had shopping reports that accused me of failing to show all of the amenities on the property to the shopper - and they listed the ones I left out. The  problem? The property didn't HAVE the amenities I supposedly overlooked. 

We recognize that this time of year can be a naturally quieter time for traffic.  However, when we know that it is a “slow season” it becomes even more important for your leasing team to inject energy into their working week and be proactive in their activities so that their performance does not lag. Of course we set goals to achieve our business objectives. However, setting goals is sometimes the easy part.

We also need to ensure the right training is in place. This gives our employees the tools to do their jobs effectively and thus realize our business goals. A company that invests in an employee’s professional growth is really investing in its own business. Therefore it is essential to provide the leasing team with appropriate training and also to encourage the members to work on their professional development.

No matter what our role is within the multi-family industry, there is always one word which is used more than any other; “community.” Some of us own communities, some of us develop communities, some of us design communities and others of us lease or operate them. And chances are that many of us live in an apartment, condominium or townhome community as well. So then why is it that there is so little ‘community’ in our communities?

When it comes down to this failure’s root cause, it can really only be one of two choices;

a.       Either the management team does not expend their energies in a manner that creates a welcoming and vibrant atmosphere that encourages interaction, or

How many times a month does your Leasing Office receive requests for updated Market Surveys? Do you cringe when you see these come through the fax machine or when you recognize other properties’ telephone numbers on your Caller ID? I think it is only human to react this way, especially, when you feel like they ask the same information month after month.

 The BEST Leasing Manager I ever knew (and it sure wasn’t me!) and I worked out a different way of obtaining the most accurate and reliable property information so that our Market Surveys were always easily updated. I use this technique as well when gathering market information for possible acquisitions as well.

 I dislike wasting time and I dislike “busy work.” Busy work, to me, is when a company hires a new or inexperienced Leasing Consultant and assigns him or her the task of doing the monthly Markey Survey. (And you know the person who USED to get this chore each month is secretly happy to be relieved of this!) So, the new person asks which properties to call and proceeds to do so. He or she sometimes never even introduces him/herself to the person who answers the phone and usually says something like this: “Hi. I was wondering if you could answer a couple of questions for my Market Survey?” When the person says yes, then the Consultant starts in with fifteen different questions as to the size of the units at your property, how much do they all rent for, what is the square footage for each unit style, are you running any specials, what amenities does your property offer, do you take pets, how much do you charge for Pet Fees and Pet Rent (often times interspersed with his or her own opinion as to these charges), followed by, “What is your current occupancy?”

It seems like over the past five years or so, an infinite number of marketing channels have emerged. We bought pages on listing sites, then we created our own property websites.  Now web pages are generated for our property just by having a resident “check in” on Facbook or Foursquare.  Seriously!

 This makes it extremely challenging for an apartment community to have one coherent brand on the web. So what’s a marketer to do?

Are you an effective communicator? If the purpose of communication is to get your message across to others -- envision how often you communicate effectively with people during one day. You may answer the uncounted times over the telephone, writing emails, in meetings, participating in conference calls, creating reports, debating with colleagues…the list goes on and on. We all communicate in countless ways every day to residents, future customer, colleagues, suppliers and even the corporate office.  The better our communication skills are the better we can serve and be more productive. Use the 5 Cs of Communication to communicate in the clearest, most effective way possible:

1. Clear

So, you've read through countless fun blogs from within and outside the industry and yes, you've smiled to yourself as you've had to thumb through silly posts about the author's dogs or sunglasses and/or other gimmicky things to keep you reading. And yes, you've gone a step above and read through more authoritative beats like Mashable or TechCrunch or HBR to yes, still find yourself having to smile and get through gimmicky articles on social media. 

And in that time frame of lost minutes  (and yes, hours), you were trained over and over to think that social media was about #fans #followers #tweets #comments #posts and other "measurements". Well, guess what they were wrong and you were wrong to believe it. These vanity metrics simply don't add up to leases or renewals. At the very stretch, they are ONLY good for brand lift, which you likely will ONLY consider once you can DEMONSTRATE you have a handle on building true marketing and leasing ROI. Otherwise, I give it to your boss to tell you to eat it and find something else better to do with your time.

And the reason is simple, we as an industry need to spend the very little time we do have to market (how many of you truly have a full-time dedicated marketing manager on site???) on getting a return from it. 

You know I have read old posts about rent collections and here is one which it may not work for every community, but may work for some.

One property placed it in the contract with the personnel that if they paid their rent on time on a "by date" for 12 consecative months they would only pay a 1/2 months rent for that following month past that.

The manager ensured that each tenant on a monthly basis received a thank you for their timely rent payment and would have on each notification their status as it assisted them all to ensure that if there was a mistake it was caught right away.

This was an idea which worked for that property an to my understanding it has been working for the past two years. The on time rent collections were higher than they had ever been. There was a higher retention rate of their tenants, but I might add it was not on the discount on rent alone as they had a very aggresive maintenance repair program as well as creating a more family oriented community with social gatherings and townhall meetings that focused on community improvements.

They did not want their name shared, but I thought this was worth throwing out there. I know they have a waiting list of personnel wanting to get into their community, so they must be doing something right.