These Technologies Can Fill Apartment Vacancies

“Technology is powering modern leasing—remote, effective leasing is just not possible without it,” Stacy Holden from AppFolio said when discussing how apartment owners can fill vacancies faster. Today more than ever before, technology is becoming the key to both quickly and safely drive leasing in apartment properties.

“Rental property owners and managers should make the most of every single opportunity,” Holden, an industry principal and director at AppFolio, tells GlobeSt.com. “Attracting qualified leads, ensuring they are followed up with in a timely way, and providing high quality touring options are critical to the success of any leasing strategy. There are a few distinct ways technology can help expedite the remote leasing process.”

First, Holden says that landlords need to make it easy for prospective tenants to find available units. “As most property management teams should know, technology can speed up and expand exposure of vacant units by sharing postings with hundreds of third-party listing websites like Apartments.com, Zillow, and Trulia upon a single click of a button,” she says. “However, what is not as well-known is how revenue management tools can capture leasing demand. For example, rent pricing is a major consideration in marketing; if it’s too high, leads will be minimal, and if it’s too low, owners are missing out on profits.”

Revenue management works with property management software. “Revenue management functionalities in property management software take the guesswork and emotion out of pricing decisions,” says Holden. “By taking into account factors such as exposure, market conditions, and competition to create targeted rent recommendations, management can drive the most amount of leasing demand while optimizing their revenue.”

Next, Holden says that connecting with tenants once they have inquired about a unit is equally as important. “Once a prospective resident expresses interest, it’s vital that they receive high quality and timely responses,” she says. “However, manually responding to vacancy queries from prospects can be tedious, overwhelming, and/or occur at any time of day. Losing a great new resident because of a late response leaves money on the table, something no property management team wants. That’s why teams should look to artificial intelligence to answer those queries in real-time and provide additional information about an open unit to a prospect.”

Recently, AppFolio had launched an AI leasing assistant called Lisa that can provide prompt leasing assistance to prospective tenants. “AppFolio’s AI leasing assistant, Lisa, can do this, responding to prospect queries immediately via text message and answering their questions with natural responses and even schedule prospects for unit showings,” says Holden. “Lead response time is critical in property management—Zillow found that if you wait even 30 minutes to respond to an inbound query from a prospect, the odds of actually connecting with that prospect drop to just 10%.”

Speedy responses are important to prospective tenants, but they can also mean a new lease or a lost opportunity for landlords. “The harsh truth is that prospects move on when they do not get immediate or timely answers,” says Holden. “Our customer, Bear Property Management boosted occupancy by two percent in just the first two months of using Lisa—and, since then, now boasts a 98% occupancy rate, doubled their amount of leads, have had 400+ showings scheduled through Lisa, and have achieved a 100% response rate. Automating this administrative process frees up leasing teams for more strategic work like building relationships with prospects further along their leasing journey.”

The last step is the tour process. Virtual showings are not only popular, they are necessary to lease units during the pandemic. However, Holden says that it often isn’t as simple as just recording a walk-through. “Finally, as mentioned, virtual showings are an exceptional tool to leverage during this time, and this was an intentional development by AppFolio that was expedited specifically to address COVID-19 realities,” she says. “High tech capabilities and video enable teams to walk prospects through units virtually, on their phone, with a screen-share. It solves the remote problem, ensures adherence to social distancing guidelines, and allows for leasing activity to continue as normal, but in the virtual world.”

Once that tenant is ready to sign the lease, make sure to have a virtual lease ready to sign. “Giving prospects the ability to sign leases online, via mobile devices, eliminates the need for in-person interaction at the final stage of the leasing process,” says Holden. “In fact, our own survey shows that 64% of property managers think virtual showings are a functionality that is here to stay for the long-run.”