Have you ever had a Prospect walk into your Leasing
Office, take a tour, submit an application and once he walks out of the office
your Consultant jumps for joy. Oh, Boy! Another Lease! All right, all right,
all right!
Unfortunately, the very next day, he either calls or
emails you to tell you he has changed his mind and decided not to sign a lease.
Or, worse, he signed the lease and paid the deposit and fees and calls a week
or so later to say he “can’t move in” and wants to cancel the lease and get the
deposit back. What?
We call that Buyer’s Remorse (or Renter’s Remorse.)
Is there a way to counter that, or prevent that from
ever happening, or even save the Lease that is quickly slipping through the
Leasing Consultant’s fingers? Yes and No. The short of it is, no, if you have
trained your Leasing Team to push
people to make a quick, on-the-spot decision, you may not be able to save it
(unless you want to play hard ball.) If you have encouraged your Team to not
ask appropriate questions and make a solid connection with their Prospects,
then you may have to let it go, especially if they haven’t signed a lease and
paid the deposit.
The best leasing decisions are made thoughtfully,
from the Prospect’s gut, with plenty of communication between the person and
the consultant. That is in a perfect world. But we don’t live in a perfect
world. This is the one situation that annoys me to no end when a Leasing
Consultant tells me “we lost one.” Why? I always want to understand the why of
this situation. Here's the long of it.
Ask the Prospect WHEN he wants to move.
Ask the Prospect WHICH floor plan is best for his
lifestyle and which one he PREFERS. Just because you have a lot of two bedrooms
available SHOULD NOT dictate where the Prospect should be taken on tour. If you
have a Consultant on your team who gets pissed off because someone asks to be
shown three different units, then shame on that Consultant – get rid of that
person. No one should be told by your staff where he has to live. If you push
them into accepting the decision of the team, then forget about getting the
renewal.
Ask the Prospect HOW MUCH HE WANTS TO SPEND on rent.
Seems like a simple question, but oftentimes, a Leasing Consultant just tells
the Prospect how much the apartment is without deducing the optimal payment he
can afford. After all, he might be able and more than willing to spend a few
more dollars to get the apartment of his dreams. Or, during the conversation,
the Consultant may learn the Prospect is in seasonal employment, or has plans
to go back to school and will have less money to spend on rent. It pays to
listen.
Finally, again, it PAYS TO LISTEN. Ask WHERE ELSE
the Prospect is considering living. This may help the Consultant gain a
competitive advantage and can guide him to present the best features of his
property compared to the other one being considered. Leasing Consultants have
to be able to get the Prospect excited about moving, moving to your community, and
about spending money to live in that community (value!). If he does that, I
doubt seriously, there will be many times you will be told, “We lost one.”
