Leasing Winter Blues...How To Get The Smoldering Passion Back!

Passion, Do You Have It?
How Do We Put Passion Back Into Our Office Staff ? As the slow season begins we tend to lack passion for leasing and the property. It's common for those of us into the industry to get the winter blues. But the question is how do we break away from the winter blues and put the passion back into the entire staff from Property Manager to Maintenance and into the property residents. There are several ways to do this and I want to share a few with you and hear your thoughts. I think we can learn allot from each other on this subject.

Lets get excited about marketing now more than ever. What you do now for marketing is going to set the tone for the spring and summer. You want to get the word out there now before others do, you want to stay in the back of peoples mined. You want your prospects remembering you every time they think about moving this spring or summer. The only way to do this is to market your community everywhere. Spice up your marketing locations by venturing to areas you have never been before. Also get the entire team involved make it a contest on who can come up with the best marketing location, idea, or new business contacts. I was recently just told not to spend money on marketing right now because you would not get any traffic, that right now it would be a waste of money. I beg to differ; now is the time I want to market so that I’m the busiest property this spring and summer in my region.

Time to Get excited about leasing again. Yes you actually can get leases in December. You know the ones who wait till the end of the school term to move. They need places to live and are going to be looking. Set a weekly or monthly goal of how many applications you are going to get. Create a Leasing Bam Board that every time you get a lease you get to grab the number lease you are on and hit the board yelling BAM. It is a blast to be able to hit the wall and see efforts of your work. So if you have a goal of 20 applications then your numbers are going to be 1-20 and they can be in funky shapes. The goal is to get all 20 applications by your deadline. This motivates everyone in the staff. Put the Leasing Bam Board where it is visible for everyone to see. You can also do a Deal or No Deal game. This is a fun one that can again involve everyone. Turn your wall into the brief Cases, have the brief cases number to the amount of lease you want to reach. So every time they get a lease they can pick a brief case and you can make them an offer from FREE Lunch to A Gift Card or whatever, remember you’re the banker. Of course the person who gets the last application will have to make a deal at that time. It’s a blast to play and has been a big success on properties that I was at.

Get excited about resident activities again. I know we all loved the summer for the pool party’s but who’s to say we can’t love the winter. There is so much we can do in the winter. With Christmas coming we can do so many things to help our residents out and give them some fun. For instance take Toni Blake’s Summer Olympics and make it a Winter Olympics. Christmas is around the corner have a kids night at your community so the parents can go shopping together with out having to pay for a sitter. Have a gift wrapping night for the parents only. They can come in drink some wine eat finger foods while you the staff wrap the presents for them. If you are lucky and have snow you can have a snowmen building contest with the residents on a saturday and serve hot chocolate afterwards with cookies. Go christmas caroling in a residental neighborhood or around your own community.  Oooh you can have a ladies night with a makeup person, some beauty techs that need service hours to do pedicures and manicures for free. Serve a nice dinner for the residents. Make it fun to live at your property year round not just the summer. Organize a community service project from stocking stuffers to the homeless shelter or going to the soup kitchen & serve food as a community.

These are just some of my ideas on how to put Passion back into the office and the community. I know there are tons more ideas out there and would love to hear them. I hope everyone has a great winter leasing season and they enjoy it.

Jolene Sopalski
Assistant Manager
Finlay Management,LLC

This is an example of a Leasing Bam Board. The original idea came from Tammy Burgett.

* Please note that this was orginally written for Toni Blakes Facebook Page Apartment Leasing Ideas - Fabulous Fundamentals where I'am one of her guest co-host. I wanted to share this with everyone on MFI because I know you guys are not all fans of her page, which I'm not sure why you are not :). I hope you guys enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed writing it!*

* Last Posted on Multifamily Insiders on December 7,2010*

Tips On How To Show Your Community To Get That Lease!

You have already created the excitement for the prospect to see the apartment home. The key is to keep the prospect excited about leasing from you while you take them on the tour of your community.  Below you will fined some key items that I have found useful  in any situation and property. But first I want everyone to remember that every person who walks into your office has a dollar sign over their head whether it is a current, previous resident or new guest they equal money. Treat them the way you want to be treated and always keep making the sale to them.


How to start your tour:
Take the prospect to the apartment home first this is what they came in to see. Be sure to talk to the prospect about what they are looking for in a community. Ask the questions why, what, and when while talking to them. Write down their answer on the Guest Card or in a notebook that you have taken with you. Don’t rely on your memory rely on your notes. Use your notes to help you sell the community.

Inside the apartment home:

When you open the door, these words should be popping out of your mouth: “ Welcome to your new home at ________________ “.  Start introducing the apartment to the prospect by showing the key points that they are looking for in the apartment home (you should refer to your notes). Ask the guest about the furniture they have and with the guest placing the furniture in the apartment home. This will help them visualize the apartment as their own. Try to get the prospect to commit right then and there to place the application; you should always have the applications in the apartment home to fill out.

Outside the Apartment Home:

Continue the excitement with showing your amenities that you have to offer. Talk to the guest about the different programs you offer for them, after all, this will be their home - they should know. Plus this will give you an edge to close with if they say, "wow I really like that you offer a home ownership program."

Use the five sense rule:

Touch - Pool “Feel how wonderful the pool is - you are going to love swimming in it this summer.”

Smell - Nature “Smell how wonderful it is outside, you will love going for walks around our community. You can also use smell by putting an apple pie in the model oven and setting the temp at low. This will set the smell of the apartment all day, there just something about the smell of apple pie meaning home.

Hear - “Listen to how peaceful it is here at ____________.” “Don’t you just love the sound of the birds?”

Sight - Play/Park “See our beautiful park or nature area you are going to get to enjoy everyday as a resident here at _____________”

Taste - Put some fruit or cookies on a table at the end of your tour, invite them to taste the food. They will remember the really good food.
By incorporating the 5 Senses they are going to remember you and your property. You have also heightened the experience by  simply incorporating the 5 senses that are sending signals to their brain.

Back to the Office:

Once you have gone back to the office if you have any pictures framed or album of resident activities is sure to show them off. After all this is your community and you should be proud to show it off. This is a great way to lead into the final close. “So Mrs. Barbie, you see that we have all these great resident activities and community, wouldn’t it be great if you became part of our community today?” If the prospect says well I just want to look some more before I commit. Ask where else they are going to be looking at today.

Make sure you are familiar with the other communities in your area. You should have a competition book that has their floor plan, prices, amenities and pictures. Pull this book out and show the prospect start comparing your property to theirs by doing this you are reminding them all the good things you have to offer and they never left your community. The key is to keep the prospect in your office to place the application and lease from you not your competition. After showing them the competition book and pointing out all the great things they like about your community ask them to place the application with you.

Remember you are a sales person and your job is to sale the apartments. Every person you let out your door without placing an application right then and there, you have just lost money out of your pocket and your owners pocket. #1 Rule Don’t let them walk out the door without placing an application! If you maintain the thought that everyone who comes in to view will lease the same day it will happen. Stay excited and positive the entire time you are with the prospect, you will start to see a difference.

Jolene Sopalski
Assistant Manager
Finlay Management,LLC

*Originally Posted On Multifamily Insiders on October 13,2010*