Leasing Apartments – Do You Know What it Takes

Do you know what it takes to lease apartments? It takes having a professional image, successful attitude, product understanding, knowing your customers. So, do you know what it takes to have all this?

A Professional Image:

1. Think about what you are wearing and how you look.  Is your outfit wrinkled?  Is your hair a mess?  You need to make sure you dress professional.  Keep your clothing, hair, nails, etc. clean.
2. Learn what your body language is saying about you.  Did you know crossing your arms makes people think you are defensive.  So be careful of your body language.
3. Watch taking personal phone calls or even having your cell phone on during business hours.  It is not very professional if you are talking to a potential resident and your cell phone goes off…and worse yet, you take the call.
4. Watch how you eat.  If you are eating something that might make a mess, then make sure you are careful not to spill anything on your outfit.  After eating, check your teeth and make sure you don’t have food stuck between them.  If you eat garlic or onions, make sure you freshen your breath before dealing with customers/residents.

Successful Attitude:

1. You need to enjoy what you do.  If you enjoy your job, then customers will enjoy dealing with you and living at your complex.
2. Help your co-workers.  By sharing your success stories with your co-workers will help them become successful also.  You can learn from each other and everyone can share in the success.

Understand Your Product:

1. Having a Leasing Kit will help you find answers to all your questions in one place.  With everything Resident Managers have to do in a day, it is not unusual for us to forget things, so if you have a Leasing Kit, then you have the answers at your fingertips and you don’t have to try to think about it.
2. Your leasing kit should have things like floor plans, community information, maps, school information, etc.  Anything that you can think of that will help your potential applicant become an actual resident.

Know Your Customers:

1. What are the questions your applicants/residents usually ask?  If you have several residents asking about new appliances, then you need to address that before the next resident asks.  If the applicants are asking about the size of the rooms, have that information handy.

Learning to do these four things will help you be successful at leasing your units and keeping them rented.