This is a great app for your smart phone that can really be of assistance for not only leasing agents, but also for prospects.

The app is called RoomScan and was created by Locometric.  RoomScan allows you to measure the dimensions of a room by simply holding your phone up to each of the walls in the room.  The app is also incredibly accurate with only a small margin of error of plus or minus 2%.

Seeing the app in action is quite impressive, as it is a very user friendly system and fun to use.

As a prospective apartment shopper, RoomScan would allow you to have an exact idea of what can and cannot fit in a potential apartment.  You will never have to wonder if your bed was going to be too large for the room, or if that sofa was going to extend past the end of the wall with the exact dimensions RoomScan can provide.

From a leasing agent perspective, utilizing RoomScan would enable you to to provide extremely accurate dimensions to your prospects for every single room of their new home.  In doing this, you would not only be educating the prospects on the apartment, but you would also be getting them involved with the tour.   This will also allow a leasing agent to prepare ways to overcome objections if a room is small.  Most importantly, using RoomScan will make your tour even more memorable, which in turn would make you standout from your competitors.

I cannot tell you how many communities I have shopped where the leasing agent does not know the dimensions for each room.  It is unhelpful and it makes it appear as if the agent doesn’t know the community.  By using RoomScan, you will look knowledgable and impress your prospects with the exact specifics of the apartment.

Take the time to download the app and give it a try.  If you are a leasing agent, I think you will find this app to be very helpful to your presentation of the apartment and could absolutely lead to more leases.  Plus, the app is free!

Prior to picking up the phone, a prospect has most likely researched your community online and has determined it is a viable option for their next apartment home.  So why do some leasing agents struggle to convert over 50% of their phone calls into walk-ins?   A decade ago, people drove past your property and called the number on the sign in order to learn some important details about the community.  But when the phone rings today, 90% of your prospects are simply confirming a rental rate, availability and making sure that you are open.  If you are not convincing these prospects to walk-in the door, you are doing something wrong.   Here are 5 keys to converting a phone call into a walk-in.

1. Bring the enthusiasm:  In sales, there is NOTHING more important than being excited about your product.  Smile, be enthusiastic and let the tone of your voice convey the pride you have in your community.  Act as if your property is the PERFECT place for your prospect to live and that they will NOT find a better value anywhere else in town.
2. Listen:  Most salespeople are known for having the gift of gab.  But you should only be speaking 25% of the time.  The rest of the time, you should be asking questions about your prospect’s lifestyle and listening to their answers.  People buy from someone they like, and people like someone who listens.
3. Get their information:  This is more than just a phone number and move-in date.  Get their pet’s name, what they do at their job, their favorite football team and where their spouse works.  There is a direct correlation with the amount of information written on a guest card and the number of leases you can secure.  The more you know about your prospect, the better chance you have of leasing to them
4. Sell the property:  Have you ever described your favorite restaurant to someone?  Have you ever told them about an awesome vacation you took?  The detail and enthusiasm in which you described these places should match the way you describe your property to a prospect.  Don’t just list the amenities, but tell them how they are going to feel lounging around the pool and meeting their neighbors on a sunny Saturday afternoon.
5. Build Rapport:  The number one reason why someone moved in 2012 was not price, job transfer or the economy.  It was because they were not satisfied with management or maintenance at their former community.  Find a way to establish rapport with your prospect and they will associate their connection with you to the way they will be treated if they become a resident of your community.  Find a connection, a similar hobby, a favorite band or just a way to make them laugh.  If you connect with your prospect on the phone, they WILL come see your community before choosing to lease somewhere else.

CLASS has spent the past month leasing a by-the-bed student property at Texas A&M University.  In a saturated market it is extremely important to quickly identify emerging trends in order to capitalize on market share. By gauging these trends and tweaking our sales process, the property is almost ten percent ahead of last year’s pre-leasing numbers.

Here are three trends we’re seeing this year:

• Enhanced focus on cost-effectiveness

Having leased-up the same property last year we have noticed an unmistakable uptick in the number of students paying rent on their own, whether through part-time jobs or student loans and grants. This results in a consumer far more involved in the buying process than we’re used to seeing. Whereas last year’s student, with parents footing the bill, didn’t care about price tags, this year’s student wants to ensure they’re getting the most bang for their buck. It is imperative that value is conveyed to this year’s student. Whether that means calculating how much money your community will save them on utilities each month or charting out the bus route to show how much closer they’ll be to campus, you must be communicating value at all stages of the sales process. In order for the price-conscious student to lease at your community, they need to perceive some sort of value in your product. Resident events and parties are no longer cutting it for a lot of students.

• Short-term leases

Reading that may have you cringing, but it’s true. The reality is that many students don’t want to lease an apartment over the summer if they aren’t planning on staying in town. However, students want short term leases so badly that they’re willing to pay almost anything for them– and Mom and Dad are too.

At my current property, the only alternative to a 12 month lease is one beginning in August and ending in May. With our current rent concessions taken into consideration, the 12 month lease actually ends up being the cheaper option when compared to the 10 month lease. Naturally, you would think that students would agree with the math and choose the longer lease. However, that is not the trend. Students are choosing the 10 month lease at almost every opportunity and sighting their “summer freedom” as reasoning. Our competitors have also taken notice of this tendency and one property in particular is charging a premium fee of $100 a month for 9 month leases.

• Applying and leasing online

There is nothing this generation loves more than the ease of technology. While some of you would never personally apply for an apartment online, this year’s students are doing that and more. Recently my property expanded upon the typical process for applying online. Instead of filling out the standard contact form and having a leasing agent get in touch with the prospective resident, our new website allows for the entire lease to be signed via our property website  without ever stepping foot on the property. While this approach certainly won’t appeal to every student, it definitely has caught the attention of some. In almost a month’s time we have received an average of about 20-25 online leases. While this number may pale in comparison to the number of leases signed in the leasing office, it is significant nonetheless. It’s very likely that the property may have lost out on these leases had we not had the online process in place.

Working for an apartment leasing company requires constant market research.  While I was browsing an industry website this morning I stumbled upon an article detailing how prospects shop around for new apartments. The article was great until I read the header titled “Get Off Craigslist.” My jaw dropped, but I kept reading. The author stated that posting ads to Craigslist is a waste of time and that no one reads the posts anyway.

As someone who has done my fair share of apartment lease-ups, I completely disagree.

Why wouldn’t you post Craigslist ads?

• It’s easy

Speaking from experience, nothing is easier than posting a Craigslist ad. It takes 3 minutes tops. Write a quick blurb, include a few photos, and click post. Of course you can add bells & whistles like links and videos to increase the “stickiness” of your page, but it’s not required. All you really need is the apartment description, pictures and your phone number.

• People do search Craigslist for apartments

Below is a breakdown of the leases obtained from a class A property in a tier one market where we are currently working.

As you can see, Craigslist accounts for almost half of the leases and is more than twice the amount secured by the second leading source. Imagine all the leases this community would’ve missed out on if the leasing specialist hadn’t been posting on Craigslist!

• All it costs is your time

Craigslist does not charge you to make an account on their site nor do they charge to post. Therefore, it should only cost you a few minutes a day to upload your ads.  Once you’ve created a few unique ads most of your work is done! From that point on, you can just click ‘renew’ and the time to post decreases even more!

Drive-by. Online. Property Website.

If any of these three items above are currently listed as options for your traffic sources, guess what? You are not accurately tracking your traffic and could be throwing your marketing dollars out the window!

I’d be willing to bet that all three of these are currently listed as traffic source options on 99% of communities around the country. I’m not saying that these three items cannot be traffic sources, but listing them as how the prospect originally heard about your community is inaccurate. To further explain, let’s take a look at each one:

• Drive-by. Think of all of the things that could be out in front of your community that good marketing dollars are being spent on: monument sign; banners; bootlegs; amenity signs; balloons; etc. Unless you ask a prospect “was there something specific you saw when you drove-by,” you have no way of knowing what marketing item made them stop. Maybe it was the beautiful landscaping that you finally got done after begging the owner for more money to make the entrance look more visually appealing. Better yet, maybe it was the balloons that you spent all morning putting together in a huge arrangement that caught the prospects eye. Regardless, always ask the prospect what they saw when they drove-by.
• Online. Entering a prospect as an online lead is about the same as saying the prospect dropped out of the sky and happened to land on your community. It is probably the most vague traffic source you can enter, because it literally tells nothing about how the prospect heard about your community. It is your job as a leasing agent to dig a little deeper so if the prospect mentions they heard about you online, ask them if there was a particular website. What search engine did they use? What did they type into the search box? Even just asking these two things can tell you a lot, because if you search your property daily, as you should be doing, you can usually determine what link they clicked. Was it Apartmentguide.com? Was it Forrent.com? Did they see the property website? Many times we go to communities and the client is spending money on both Apartmentguide.com and Forrent.com, but they are looking to discontinue using one. A leasing agent providing the traffic source of “Online” would do nothing to assist the client in knowing which one of the two ILS’s is working.
• Property Website. If a prospect tells you they heard about you through your property website, this does not make sense as a possible traffic source. Unless a prospect just so happens to think of your exact property name, or exact property URL, there is no way they just happened to search for your property website. They had to have searched for a general term first that allowed them to be able to locate your community. It is important that you understand because you need to be aware of what prospects are searching that is allowing them to find your website. In doing so you can help track what SEO tools are working or what key words are being effective in helping your community be recognized by Google.

It is crucial that you are obtaining the most accurate information when it comes to sourcing your traffic. In doing so, you’ll be able to track exactly what is driving prospects to the door. Marketing is oftentimes a numbers game, but it can be a whole lot easier if you are able to allocate your time and money toward sources that are driving qualified leads to your community.

What is the first thing that your prospects ask on the phone when they call your property? Chances are it is “how much are your apartments?”

I would venture to guess that over 80% of apartment inquiries start with that question. However, a majority of these same prospects have most likely searched for your property online, viewed your website or ILS ad and determined the price prior to calling. So why would they even bother to ask for pricing if they already know the answer? I have come up with 2 conclusions to this paradox.

1. They are looking for a move-in special

2. They have been conditioned by our industry to only ask for pricing since that is normally the only information given to the prospect during the call. In other words, when they call your competitors they are not getting sold on the value, amenities or sense of community at a property… only the price.

Leasing 101 tip: “People decide to lease based on value, and the rapport they develop with the Leasing Specialists.”

Price has almost nothing to do with your ability to lease.  When we deflect the price question and focus on value selling and rapport building, we increase our chances of closing. Prospects ask for the price because they don’t know what else to ask for on the call. The truth is that most prospects already know the price, which makes sidestepping or deflecting the price question easier than you think.

Here are 3 steps to deflecting the price question on your phone calls.

1. Ask them “how soon do you need an apartment?” You should take control of the conversation and you should be the one asking the questions. You will often find that as you begin discussing the details of their lifestyle and move, they will become distracted and never ask for the price again until they come in to tour.

2. Ask them “what sort of price range are you looking for?” If they say a price that is within 20% of your range, then they are a qualified prospect. You should respond by saying “that is perfect, you are right about in our price range, how soon do you need an apartment?”

3. Value Sell, Value Sell, Value Sell. If they nail you down and make you divulge the price, start by quoting the market rent and be prepared to explain why it costs what it costs. If your property is $200 higher than the one across the street, explain why. Try saying something like: “our apartment homes are brand new with energy star appliances. They also include water, trash and sewer as well as a bundled cable and internet plan. When you add all of these features up, and throw in our state-of the art amenities, you will find that this is right about in your price range!”

Your prospects will pretend to care about price. But this is because our industry has conditioned them to do so. They most likely know the price before they even pick up the phone, so stop focusing on your rents and start focusing the conversation on value and rapport building. Save any specials or concessions for your closing table and get some leases!

When leasing apartments it is important to give some thought into the buying behavior of our potential residents. In most cases, a decision to lease an apartment is not made entirely by the prospect who tours the apartment. When there are other occupants living in the unit, their feedback becomes essential. Even when the apartment is for only one person, most prospects will consult a friend or relative for advice on where to live.

Buying behavior tells us that the person who first finds the apartment will become a proponent of leasing the unit. The other party who was absent at first contact becomes the opponent of the purchase and immediately assumes the role of devil’s advocate. For example, if you show an apartment to a guy and he returns later with his girlfriend, the guy will assume to role the proponent while the girlfriend will be the party that still needs to be sold.

That is why it is so important to get the contact information of everyone who will be living at the property. In most relationships, whether it be a companion or roommate situation, the two parties will choose different stances on the purchasing decision. Therefore we need to focus on not just the party who inquires about the apartment but also the party who is absent during the initial inquiry.

The next time someone views an apartment without their roommate, get the address of the roommate and send them a quick note letting them know you can’t wait to meet them. You should also shoot them an email saying how much they will love the community and attach a gift card or coupon for a local restaurant that you have teamed with for cross marketing. The roommate who is absent will be blown away that they received the note and email prior to even viewing the property. They will come in with a “softer opposition” to buying and you will certainly set yourself apart from the competition.

This same technique can be used for first time renters who will be consulting with their parents prior to leasing. See if you can get the email address of the parents and drop them a line explaining why their son or daughter will be comfortable and happy living at your community. You will immediately get the seal of approval from mom and dad.

When speaking with a prospect, try to determine EVERY person in their life that will be an influencer in the decision. Then target those influencers with thank you notes, emails and phone calls. Your prospect will trust the opinion of their family and peers so go the extra mile to make sure they will be an advocate for your community!

Generation Y can be smart and educated.  Generation Y can also be emotional and flaky.  As hundreds of thousands of Generation Y’ers graduate from college and move into the workforce it is important to identify the traits that can make or break a hire.  So here is the big secret… when hiring a Generation Y graduate, choose EQ over IQ.

College kids today comprise what may be the smartest generation in American history.  Their technical skill is unparalleled and their proficiency at multitasking and adopting new techniques is off the charts.  These are all signs of a high IQ, but does it make for a successful salesperson?  Not according to Malcom Gladwell’s book Outliers.  According to Gladwell, when tracking the professional success of a sampling of the highest middle school IQ’s in California, decades later they show no correlation with IQ and success in business.

So what makes someone successful in the workplace?  If you are looking for answers, a good one is EQ.  EQ is a measure of a person’s adequacy in such areas as self-awareness, empathy, and dealing sensitively with other people.  When stepping into an interview with a recent college graduate, it is easy to be blown away by their GPA, technical skills set or bi-lingual capabilities.  Rather than focusing on the IQ, ask them questions about how well they handle adversity, stress and their relationship with their friends and co-workers.

The Emotional Intelligence Training Company has some great advice on the topic.  They also provide some very intriguing interview questions like: Tell me about a time when your awareness of your own emotions caused you to change your plan of action?

If you hire a new graduate, you will be getting a smart and technically proficient addition to your team.  But will you get someone who can manage stress, handle their emotions and bounce back from adversity?

Why does an apartment owner call CLASS?  While there are many answers to this question, one common theme surrounds a majority of our assignments.  They are difficult.  If it was easy our company would not be in business.

As many of you have noticed, the degree of difficulty of our assignments may vary.  Sometimes we find ourselves on properties that produced tons of leases, while other times we find ourselves in a soft market, toxic office environment or challenging property.   Because of this, we go to great lengths to ensure our scheduling offers an equal leasing opportunity for all of our Leasing Specialists.  High traffic assignments are routinely followed by heavy marketing properties.

For our top earning Leasing Specialist, a trend has emerged.  From a commission standpoint, our top earners do not separate themselves from the rest of the company on the high traffic assignments, but rather on the heavy marketing properties.  In other words, when faced with a challenging property, they dig in and find a way to make it work.  They find a way to get some commissions on the tough properties and they never give up when faced with a slow start.

Heather Adams is one such Leasing Specialists.  I love working with Heather because I trust her.  I know that even when she is on a challenging assignment, her attitude and work ethic will never waiver.  She trusts herself and the process and she routinely turns around properties that start slowly because they lack traffic.  This is happening on her current assignment where she did not get a single lease until her 2^nd week on the property.  She now has 5 leases in the past 7 days and the traffic is continuing to improve.  I don’t have to lose sleep over worrying about Heather’s attitude because she knows that after the marketing is in place, the leases will come.  Heather you are awesome!

JoAnne Mendenhall is also on a very challenging senior tax credit property in a secondary market.  (Secondary markets are smaller cities and towns that typically have less traffic).  CLASS has been off and on this property for a number of months and we have averaged about 3-4 leases/week.  Joanne has blown that number out of the water.  She has gotten 5 leases/week almost every week of the assignment.  She has handled the challenges of the property like a seasoned pro and raised the bar for anyone who follows.  She has shown us what is possible on her property and she deserves some recognition for her effort and results.  Great job JoAnne!

Both of these ladies are directly responsible for securing more contracts for CLASS and demonstrating to their clients why our company is so respected in the industry.  We ALL benefit from having them on our team.  If you have some time today, give them the thanks they deserve on our Facebook Page.

Here are a few Leasing Specialists who deserve some recognition for their EXCELLENT work this past week.

Victoria Enchill.  Victoria came into an urban community in Southern Chicago that was having a very hard time getting qualified traffic through the doors.  Through her marketing efforts and continuous outreach, Victoria was able to drive more qualified traffic to the property and has almost cut the rejection rate in half the past two weeks!  She had the biggest number of approvals since we have been onsite with 11 approved applicants in five days last week! Victoria’s credits the consistency of her marketing, including marketing to churches and other business as the solution to the problem.   Awesome job Victoria and keep up the great work!

Kristi McMillin.  A special thanks to Kristi McMillin for not only going out on a short break, but hitting an absolute home run on a challenging student lease-up in Texas.  Kristi, we know you were exhausted but your effort and attitude was phenomenal.  We were equally impressed with her organization on the property.  The “leasing logistics” of the project made it very confusing to track and approve her applicants.  She kept multiple reports and did a fantastic job managing the situation.  Enjoy your much needed vacation Kristi!