Consider the following best practices for onsite leasing professionals:

• Establish a professional dress code that aligns with the property’s image or theme
• Provide clear job descriptions with detailed tasks and responsibilities
• Familiarize staff with leasing goals
• Provide initial and ongoing training. For example
• Legal compliance
• Problem-solving skills
• Online leasing system procedures and troubleshooting o Sales techniques

 

Guest Cards

Guest cards (also called prospects cards) serve as a tracking tool to gauge the prospect’s needs. They document key information about a prospect, and can be either physical cards or electronic guest cards can be scaled to match mobile applications enabling real time completion. Recording prospect information during and after initial contact helps the leasing professional prepare for the site visit.

 

CHECKLIST: GUEST CARD INFORMATION

• Occupation
• How the prospect learned about the property
• Reason for moving
• Rental requirements
• Special needs
• Section to document apartments shown to the prospect
• Section to log follow-up contact (refer to figure 3-2) below
• Section to record any questions the prospect possess:
• Remember the first two questions are the prospect’s “hot buttons”—the factors this prospect considers vital in leasing the apartment.
• Questions typically involve price or availability and other vital factors for the prospect. Unless these factors are satisfied, the prospect will look elsewhere.

Effective guest cards:

• Collect information that tells when to follow up with prospects and how to concentrate on the strongest sources of guest traffic
• Identify peak periods for showing and become an excellent resource and reference on where prospective residents live and work and why particular prospective residents did not choose the property.
• Provide valuable marketing information regarding the effectiveness of specific advertising, particularly whether it is reaching the target market:
• By asking the prospective resident how they found out about the property and listing the item.
• Prospective residents’ home addresses tell what geographic areas the advertising has reached
• If management is planning an open house or large-scale promotion of a property, this information, along with a zip code breakdown of qualified prospective residents, will help generate a targeted mailing list.