Insight #9: Decentralize the Leasing Office

By: Jay Parsons, Tracy Saffos, David Polewchak and Krista Hurley For decades, property managers built leasing offices designed to be the heartbeat of the apartment community. Developers built amazing, inviting spaces to welcome prospects and residents. Operators wanted people to come inside. For residents and prospects, they had to come inside to do pretty much anything – take a tour, fill out an application, sign a lease, pay rent, negotiate a renewal, file a service request or participate in a community event. Oh, how our world has changed. COVID-19 accelerated the shift, but consumer preferences and new technologies were already shifting many functions away from physical leasing office. Now, leading apartment operators are working to decentralize the leasing office. Communities no longer revolve around a centralized engine on-site, but rather a continuous circulatory system that powers the new era of instant gratification, 24/7 service and lean business operations. A well-designed, decentralized leasing office drives cost-efficiencies, providing a more consistent service model to residents, and ensures the leasing funnel doesn’t pause when the on-site team locks the doors and goes home for the night. What does that model look like? Here are the top tips from leading apartment executives. Staff specialists, not generalists, on-site This trend began long before the pandemic, as the role of community managers and leasing agents have evolved dramatically. But many property managers aren’t all the way there yet. What is the most important role of the on-site team? To drive revenue by generating new leases and retaining existing residents. That means you need on-site teams highly specialized in selling and service. It’s a people job. But in years past, these were jack-of-all-trades positions that involved an endless list of job duties – advertising, marketing, comp tracking, application processing, make-readies, service request...