Maybe the feeling held by leasing professionals that they're going to "get screwed" by compensation changes comes from experience instead of bad math skills or some kind of need for instant gratification? In my experience, many apartment communities treat their leasing staff as fairly expendable and unimportant.
...which raises another issue. Why are so many leasing professionals treated as expendable? The high turnover rate in the industry suggests that the skill set required to lease an apartment is fairly low, meaning almost anyone can do it. If almost anyone can do it, maybe that means even the customer can do it? With today's internet, I bet people could lease their own apartments; fill out the online credit check form, click a virtual tour to select their apartment, read about the amenities, etc. I bet one "advanced" leasing professional (who does much more than just leasing) could do the work of 3-4 "normal" leasing professionals if customers did the bulk of their own leasing online. For those customers with no internet access, just provide a computer with instructions in the leasing office. (maybe you don't even need a leasing office if enough people go online, just have the leasing agent work from home in an apartment)
scott
