Centralized leasing has gained popularity over the past several years and especially as of late. This model moves away from the traditional leasing model—on-site teams leasing and operating at each property in the portfolio—and centralizes them in one or multiple regional locations.
Centralized leasing can ultimately lead to better efficiency and increased sales = signed leases. But, many communities are still in the early phase of actualizing a centralized leasing model.
One way to effectively implement centralized leasing? An all-in-one video engagement app specific to multifamily.
There’s the Convenience Factor
Using a virtual tour app, leasing agents or salespeople can connect with prospects anywhere and anytime. This could be with local prospects or those who live far away. It helps create a seamless process, allowing them to connect easier and faster no matter where either party is.
Virtual touring also saves teams time. Leasing agents can have 3Xs as many virtual tours in the same amount of time as a single in-person tour. Virtual tours last, on average, 17 minutes whereas in-person tours can take up to 45 minutes to an hour. According to a recent Zillow survey, 60% of renters say they would rent without an in-person visit. They don’t need to visit and are open to renting sites unseen or through a virtual tour.
So, virtual tours save time for both the prospect and the leasing agent, but in addition virtual tours save money on unnecessary trips to the property. For example, if a prospect meets with you virtually but ultimately decides to go with a different community, at least they didn’t have to come all the way out to the property to make that decision.
Tour More than One Property at Once
With centralized leasing, prospects can tour more properties at once. Convenient, right?
Virtual tour software and virtual tour apps allow the leasing agent to give tours of multiple communities at one time especially if the prospect is interested in a pool but the property they mentioned didn’t have a pool. With a centralized leasing model, it would be required for the leasing agent to be knowledgeable of other properties within the portfolio. With a video tour, the leasing agent could easily pull that video of the property’s pool up to show. That’s going to create a much better process for everyone involved.
Without centralized leasing processes and a solid virtual tour creator, prospects currently have to shop each community individually across various markets or neighborhoods—even if they are managed by the same management company.
Instead of forcing them to do that, they can access multiple properties and see features and amenities across all of the communities at once in one meeting or consultation through virtual touring. In a centralized leasing model, you have the ability to connect virtually using a platform like Realync. In doing so, you’re creating a more seamless process with better connection and time-saving.
Using a virtual tour app also allows for a simple centralized leasing model within an entire property portfolio or at least with sister communities in the same neighborhood. It can act as a highly focused Internet Listing Service (ILS).
Using an ILS is typically how prospects shop in the early stages of their apartment search. When you have the information you can share about several different communities at one time, you’re acting as your own ILS. Ultimately, this is what you’re doing when you move to a centralized leasing model with a virtual leasing app.
Take the travel industry as an example. When you look to book a vacation in a specific city, you don’t necessarily know the name of the hotel or resort where you want to stay. So, you’re starting with a quick Google search or a travel website like Tripadvisor. You’ll type in where you want to visit and get all kinds of results back. Those results will vary in terms of ratings, location, amenities…all sorts of things.
That’s what an ILS does for apartments. When you have a centralized leasing model, and you know how to take prospects on a virtual tour, you can show multiple properties at once. Each of those properties is going to be a little bit different. They may have different floor plans, price ranges, amenities, policies – the list goes on. Regardless, that prospect is going to appreciate seeing all their options and starting to narrow them down.
It’s Better for Your Teams
When you have a centralized leasing model, paired with virtual tour software, it allows your team to specialize and even better at what they do. We all do better work when we like what we do- when it’s something we are passionate about, gravitate toward, and where our natural skill set lies.
Your team can also be more agile with property acquisitions. When you acquire a new community, you don’t have to wait to onramp a new team with your unique policies and procedures. Your existing team can step in virtually and take care of prospects and residents from day one from anywhere.
Video and virtual tour apps also allow for more scalability on the service and maintenance team’s side. It allows the service team to quickly and efficiently support residents, fixing and repairing issues in the units, even remotely, with a live virtual visit or recorded how-to videos and explainer videos.
Overall, using a virtual tour app is a great and economical tool to help with the centralized leasing model. Even if you don’t have the best virtual tour software at your disposal, finding ways to allow for virtual tours is going to go a long way in adding convenience and a better overall experience for both prospects and the leasing team.
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