Insight #4: Accelerate Fully Virtual Leasing—Not Just Tours

By: Jay Parsons, Jonathan Breakstone and Tracy Saffos When the pandemic hit, virtual tours quickly became the buzziest topic in apartment property management. We saw operators sprint to offer all types of socially distant tours to keep their businesses running – YouTube video tours, self-guided tours, virtual guided tours, 3D floorplan tours. The pivot paid off. When prospects retuned beginning in May, apartment operators successfully reignited their leasing engines. What’s next? As leading apartment operators reflect back on 2020 and look ahead to 2021 and to the post-COVID era, many come to the same conclusions: Virtual touring is a “must,” but it’s not enough to sustain momentum for the long haul. It’s critical to remove “layovers” in the prospect’s journey. Virtual leasing isn’t just a Class A thing. Prospects and residents at all price points now expect and prefer to conduct their business online. Watch the video on this topic. Removing Layovers and Stop Signs in the Prospect’s Journey Virtual tour options bridge the gulf to allow prospects to see your property, but now property managers are focusing on the prospect’s path TO that bridge and the prospect’s path FROM that bridge. In other words: How do we drive more prospects into our powerful new virtual touring options? And how do we provide a seamless, frictionless path from tour into application and lease signing? That’s the focus for 2021. Some call this entire process the “virtual leasing office.” This was a big theme at industry events over the last few years, but for most operators, a truly virtual leasing experience remained a distant vision. Most property managers invested in pieces (such as virtual tours or online payments) but not the entire prospect journey. That piecemeal approach leaves property managers with a bumpy, uneven leasing process where the prospect’s journey is slowed by...