As you know, the demand for rental properties is booming. In fact, at least half of American households rent in 18 of the country’s 35 largest cities and, according to Zillow Economic Research, 35.7% of all occupied homes across the U.S. are rented. With a growing renter population, multifamily properties are taking advantage of smart technology to fill their vacancies faster… and you should too.
While the differences between renting a single-family home and a standard apartment unit are sizable, to say the least, taking a few pages out from the many multifamily leasing techniques can set you apart from your competition.
The Best Rental Showing Tech is Free
You wear many hats, and spending hours scheduling showing appointments is a waste of your valuable time. Think about using a digital scheduling service or app that will allow interested renters to make appointments and automatically update your calendar. All your applicants will need is a link to your scheduling system or app. There are tons of free and inexpensive apps available that do this function, but some notable ones I like are Setmore, Appointfix, and Schedulista.
Follow Up Like a Pro
If you find yourself with a little extra time on your hands, go the extra mile to get your viewing appointments excited. Draft a follow-up email for all of the viewing applicants interested in your rental vacancy confirming their appointment and giving the viewer a sneak peek into the available unit. This can be as simple as taking a video and posting it privately to YouTube, or using the app MagicPlan to create a staged floor-plan of the property and send it to them.
Quick Tip: Keep frequently used follow-up information on a landing page on your website to slowly improve your own website’s traffic rankings!
Reevaluate Your Showing’s Pre-Planning
It can be easy to get used to how you personally stage and plan showings, especially if you’ve been showing rental properties for a long time. Take some time to audit your process and consider new alternatives. Test it out!
As you learn and adopt new rental showing technology and techniques, you might be surprised how quickly you’ll fill your vacancies and surpass your competition. While not every multifamily leasing process is right for real estate agents and your landlord clients, trying new things will help you gain more confidence in your methods and help you grow.
Have You Adopted Any Practices from Multifamily?
Let us know in the comment section!
