Renter's Remorse

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.”

It Is Always About the Customer!

I was a terrified, eager, skinny little first grader who learned quickly in life to shut up, observe everything that is going on around her and be ready with the right answer when the teacher asks a question. Unfortunately, this can leave you excited to learn but anxious, too. It isn’t easy to be barely five-years old and burdened with the pressure of being right all the time. I mean, who could possibly have the answers at such a tender age? I was often left focusing on how to find the answer and oftentimes resorted to prayer. (Who had Google to rely on then? Not us.)

In any event, when you grow up like this, I believe you develop either good self-esteem or low self-esteem, depending upon the feedback you receive from those around you. Your peers can accept you but most likely they come to resent you. To counteract this, you must employ your keen powers of observation and learn to adapt to their patterns. For me, this meant simply being strong and deciding that if God thought I was “good enough” then why on earth wouldn’t everyone else? I made friends with others one at a time when I was little. What was the point of having too many? Friends deserve your time and undivided attention. If you spread yourself too thin, then there isn’t enough to give to make the other person feel special and appreciated, and I didn’t mind having a small group of tried and true friends – those who would stick up for you when you inevitably did make a mistake or didn’t have the right answer.

Maybe this is why in today’s world I enjoy exploring stores and shops that exude those personal touches that make going there fun. During this holiday season, as promoted a couple of years ago, I love “Shopping Local” on #SmallBusinessSaturday. Shopping in these stores is usually a much more friendly experience and it seems to mean more to the shop owners and employees who don’t ignore you when you walk into the door.

A couple of weeks ago, when my best friend was with me from Kentucky, we stopped at a store called Backyards around 4:00 PM. The shop was closed and dark and as we turned to walk back to our car, the Owner opened up the door and ushered us inside. I tried to protest – I know what that is like when you are closing your Leasing Office and someone comes to tour at the last second. It can be annoying if you’re tired and cross but it can also be an opportunity for a lease too, if you have the forethought to rally once more time.

Anyway, it was such a pleasant experience! Although this store carries beautiful outdoor furnishings, all the things you need to create a real life Fairy Garden, I did discover it also carries a line of paper goods with a killer sense of humor and a lot of inexpensive wine accessories, too, that I was not expecting to find among the otherwise high price merchandise. My best friend discovered a jewelry line she loved, so we had a great time, bought a few inexpensive items and left. I returned the next Saturday to purchase a piece from the jewelry line for my friend, and wow! Those Owners made me feel very special – they remembered tidbits of the conversation with my friend, they showed me a couple of fun wine corks (only $1.99!!!!) and had cookies and hot chocolate waiting to boot. No questions asked about how many cookies one took (because there were some hubbies nibbling more than one, haha). I realized how relaxed I felt, how nice it was to be acknowledged, and if I ever return to house ownership, I will definitely purchase the Adirondack chairs they carry!!! They put the customer experience first and for someone who frequently reverts back to that little girl who feels anxious and scared and is afraid of feeling inferior, I truly enjoyed shopping there. This is the kind of experience we need to create for our Prospects who come from all kinds of backgrounds and who may feel a bit anxious and overwhelmed themselves when looking for a new place to call home. How do your Leasing Teams create this experience for your properties and communities?

Leasing Isn't About Romance; It's About Sex

Leasing is not about romance. Leasing is straight up about sex. You can’t get to the romance stage, the stage of wondering if this person is The One, the complement to you, your better half, unless you have the innate, insanely physical, wonderfully blissful chemical attraction. That’s sex, baby, an unadulterated, raw, feral passion.

Leasing has been compared to dating lately, but I am wondering when the last time most of you have been on the dating scene. That’s all changed since some of you married, even five years ago. Once you are married, your priorities change; they evolve.  When’s the last time you went on a date?

Gone are the days where the guy sees a girl and asks her for her phone number, waits politely until Monday and then calls and asks her to a Friday night dinner and a movie. Gone are the days where he arrives on time, rings the doorbell, perhaps brings flowers, and helps her on with her coat, opens the car door, and demonstrates impeccable manners at all times. Nowadays, people meet in groups and travel in packs. People see someone in the group they are interested in and casually start conversations. This may lead to a hook-up long before it leads to dinner. This may happen many times, or may happen only once. He may go to her place and end up sneaking out at some point leaving her to wonder if he will call, or thanking her lucky stars he had a condom. Dating may be frequent and there may be plenty of online chats, texts and Skype chats which may lead to online intimate moments that would never have happened in the fifties! And guess what? Ladies often pay their own way. Girls still confide in their friends and guys still share info, too – info gotten from Google. Yeah, expect that your “facebook friend” will have googled you at some point. Dating is typically very casual these days. This is not to say it can’t or won’t lead to a long term relationship. That may be the end game; but the short term goal seems to be most likely: finding someone to have fun with without a commitment.

Translate that to our Leasing Consultants and their jobs. Compare that to a few of the Top 40 songs out there and redirect your Leasing Teams to lease like it is 2014. You can take any song playing on the radio, on your ipod, through your Beats headphones and apply it to leasing (property management.) Often when we work with new hires or send our veterans to training seminars, we are looking for new ideas for touring, tools to speed up our application processes, and new ideas for resident retention. All great things! But, I truly believe it goes back to the basics.

Maps by Maroon 5: “I’m following the map that leads to you.” Leasing consultants must be able to give correct and accurate directions. You don’t want your Prospect whom you’ve been chatting online with for the last two days to not know how to get to you or how to find the Apply Online button on your website.

All About That Bass by Meghan Trainor: First, the most important thing is for leasing consultants to be real and dress for their body type. “Every inch of you is perfect from the bottom to the top.” Second, quit using photos from when your property and models were brand new. Quit “working that Photoshop!” People feel cheated when the current product is not shown.

Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke featuring Pharrell & T.I.: Not suggesting sleeping with the Prospect; however, there is every reason to let the Prospect know that you know he “wants it” (the apartment) and that you certainly do “want it” (the lease) and flaunt that instant happy connection you felt when he walked through the door. Just for the record, wearing cut offs that leave nothing to the imagination is a No-No. Wearing a super smile, displaying interest in his needs and wants and meaning what you say can be intoxicating to a Prospect.

Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off: Even Superstars can have off days. “Players gonna play, play, play. Haters gonna hate, hate, hate. I’m just gonna shake, shake, shake. Shake it off!” You can’t win everyone who walks through your door or sends you an online lead, but with the right amount of charm and sincerity, you can capture the bulk of them!

Once that lease has been signed, sealed and filed, the next phase happens. In dating, this is known as a Booty Call. In property management, it is known as the after-hours call to emergency maintenance. And, this my friends, is where the love begins. There is nothing more wonderful for a resident than to want someone RIGHT THAT MINUTE and have her every desire fulfilled when SHE NEEDS it. Think about it. The phone rings in the middle of the night. The on-call technician picks up his phone. It’s her! He dresses and speeds over to her apartment. She opens the door, so relieved he’s here! That allows the love to ignite and grow from a professional one to a more personal one. That happens first with Sam Smith’s Stay With Me and cemented with his Latch. Ahhhh, the perfect song for resident retention!

Am I Wrong (Nico & Vinz)?