Apartment Owners, Don’t Make These Mistakes

Apartment owners could be missing out on leasing opportunities because of simple communication mistakes. In this strong apartment market—especially in Los Angeles where there is a housing shortage—landlords may not notice the missed opportunities, but in a down market, an efficient leasing process can make a huge difference. Some of these mistakes include taking too long to respond to potential tenants or choosing unreliable or inefficient modes of communication. Many of these issues can be corrected with technology and they can make a huge difference in the leasing velocity. We sat down with Nat Kunes, VP of product management at Appfolio, to talk about the mistakes that landlords are making and how to correct them.

GlobeSt.com: What are some mistakes that property managers or landlords make when responding to potential renters?

Nat Kunes: The biggest challenge for property managers is sifting through the noise. Rental professionals must have very specific guidelines for what they are looking for in their renters. There are certain things about prospective tenants’ lifestyles that property managers and landlords should know, right off the bat, that they’re not able to or willing to accommodate – it might be people looking for laundry in-unit or people hoping for outdoor space for their children to play. Whatever is it, if property management knows it’s not a possibility, they’ll want to extract those prospects from the process, early. Unfortunately, without guidelines like that or a serious strategy going into the leasing process, many property managers end up wasting time and resources answering unqualified leads. That’s a major struggle in the industry.

Additionally, there is a lot of manual work that goes into marketing, and it doesn’t always yield great results. Manually posting individual unit listings to various websites, for example, is a resource-suck and incredibly time-intensive. Answering queries from prospects is also a challenge to do manually as prospects expect to get answers back within 24 hours sometimes, and that’s simply not possible for property management teams to keep up with when doing everything manually.

GlobeSt.com: How should landlords/property managers craft apartment advertisements to attract the most potential tenants?

Kunes: Today, property managers and landlords should be more focused on selling a “lifestyle” rather than just a unit in their marketing materials or open unit listings. Pushing lifestyle and amenities – like a pool, gym, entertainment center, communal kitchen – will resonate better with renters than simply a unit description. Prospective tenants want to know what to expect from their living experience before they make a decision to sign a lease.

Targeting prospects on social platforms is also an increasingly successful strategy, as that’s where so many people spend so much of their “free” time. Again, what works well on platforms like Instagram and Facebook is lifestyle-branded apartments ads. Instead of a selling a particular unit, social advertisements need to encompass more and tell a story. Draw in the prospect with an ad or imagery that showcases the apartment building, its community and all of its perks. Once the prospect expresses interest by clicking on the add, then the next page can lead them to unit availability within the building. Give prospects the bigger picture, first – then move onto the granularity of open units available for rent.

GlobeSt.com: How can technology help with the marketing process and help manage prospective tenants?

Kunes: Advancements in technology have created a number of ways for rental professionals to automate parts of the marketing process. For example, the time and resources put toward the actual “posting” process can be cut down dramatically with tools that enable for multiple posting syndications across a variety of websites with just a single click of the mouse. That automated process allows for maximum exposure of a vacancy listing. In terms of qualifying the leads, qualification is easy with technology features that can manage an influx of leads through an automated verification process – like pre-qualification questionnaires automatically sent to the prospects to determine their level of interest and ability to qualify for the rental. Technology also saves the day when it comes to prospect inquiry responses, with guest card tracking systems that automatically assign leads out to leasing agents. Tech advancements have also made it possible, in interest of busy prospective renters who want to see units on their own time, for self-service showings. Prospects receive a one-time code sent to their mobile devices that unlocks a vacant unit and lets them skip the step of scheduling time with leasing agents.

GlobeSt.com: Why do you recommend texting as a primary point of communication?

Kunes: Texting is second-nature to everyone and, apart from email, is one of the most popular forms of communication today. Rental professionals need to stay modern in everything they do, but their methods of communication are a dead-giveaway to whether they are behind the times or not. One of the real value-adds of texting with prospects is that it helps keep them in the loop and interested. Automated texting can help property management teams make sure each prospect is informed of next steps throughout the cycle.

GlobeSt.com: Even in the tight rental market that we have today, why is it still important to create a thoughtful leasing strategy for prospective tenants?

Kunes: Ultimately, property managers and rental professionals need to incorporate strategies that drive more efficiency in the leasing process. Without a defined strategy, unqualified prospects can slip into the process or make it really far in the process, which takes property managers further away from their goals of getting the best and most qualified tenants. Having a thoughtful leasing strategy in place can really pave the way for securing the very best tenants—the least risk to any business.