Setting up Your Leasing Office for Success

Today I would like to evaluate the use of 7 techniques that will set up an enjoyable work environment for your staff and greatly impact your leasing success. These 7 techniques are meant to help you give prospective tenant that great first impression that means so much in $$$.

  1. Curb Appeal – When a prospective resident drives by your property, they have to say WOW! Some of the most economic ways of making that happen are: Keeping the property clean, frequent upkeep of the landscape, and every 1-3 years (depending on need) power-washing the exterior of your apartment and leasing office. Not only will this attract prospective residents, it will help with resident retention, and will make it more enjoyable place of work for your staff.
  2. Lighting – The type of light and the placement of light fixtures is important both inside your leasing office and throughout your property.
    1. First, lets address the issue of lighting outside. It is important that your property have lighting throughout for various reasons, but the two most important ones are safety and careful lighting of your apartment’s curb side sign (if you dont have one, you should) will add aesthetic value to your apartment at night.
    2. Lighting fixture should be placed higher than eye level, because low lamp like fixtures can shine direct light into people’s eyes. There are several types of light, but the best and most calming light is natural light (because of this, sky lights are great). The human body natural physiological response to light is general awareness and the general psychological response is happiness. The physiological excitation elicits a psychological response of happiness. The best way to explain this is: What is a nice day? Sunny and warm or dark and gloomy? When it is a nice day outside, people tend to be more active and typically enjoy themselves more.
  3. Color – Colors are a second important component of the environment. Dark colors and red (fire-like) colors are the worst choice. You will want to have light pastel colors that promote calm and secure feelings. Careful color selections can make prospective residents feel happy right when they walk in your door, and will keep your staff happier for a longer period of time. Read more about the psychological response to colors.
  4. Smell – This should be fairly self explanatory, but I have been in dozens of apartment offices that are musty! If your office does not smell good there is a big problem. The physiological response to bad musty smells is to leave the area! When you smell something old, musty, bad, etc, the sensory nerves in your brain trigger a “get out of here” or “dont eat this” response. So please, find a happy, soothing fragrance, it will do wonders for your prospective resident’s first impression, not to mention your staff will enjoy it as well.
  5. Sound – Soothing sounds such as running water have evolutionarily become a source of happy thoughts for humans. When I was an undergraduate, I participated in a study (as in I was a test subject) where we were asked to sit in a waiting room for 30 minutes before we were asked random questions about our week and our day. There were two test groups. One was placed in a “waiting” room with sounds, such as flowing water (like from a fountain) and light music. The second test group sat in the same empty “waiting” room without the soothing sounds. Six-hundred students and faculty participated in this study (300 in each scenario). As you may have guessed, people waiting in the room with soothing sounds, answered the questions positively 80% of the time, while people sitting in the room without the sound, answered questions positively only 48% of the time. SO, hopefully if you follow this logic, your staff and prospective tenants will respond positively 80% of the time.
  6. Comfortable Seating – Ok, this is a big deal especially when you want to have a prospective resident fill out an application or a lease. Sitting comfortably elicits a response from the parasympathetic system (or in other words, a calming effect). It is also smart to have snacks near by, because when the parasympathetic system is stimulated, a secondary response is slight hunger (so a bowl of different types of candy works quite well).
  7. A Mirror – This tip came from one of my neighbors. For over 25 years he has been a customer service consultant for several companies including Ford, and GMC. Having a full wall sized mirror behind your front desk at your leasing office will do many great things. First, it will make your office look much bigger than it actually is (this is great for properties with small leasing offices), this also positively affects your prospective resident’s first impression of the property because they wont feel as cramped in a small office as they usually would. Secondly, having a full wall sized mirror will help you deal with angry residents. Putting a large (full wall) mirror behind the customer service desk will drastically reduce angry resident outbursts. The reason it works: People do not like watching themselves be angry (just like you dont like to watch them get angry), it is a subconscious psychological reflex to seeing their angry selves staring back. Simple, but effective.

I hope you enjoyed it,

Sergio Navarrete

Apartment Marketing by Occupancy100.com

Bookmark and Share

Free 'NO RISK' Trial - get unlimited renter leads and online apartment applications for one month at no charge
FREE TRIAL - Apartment Marketing Solutions Sign up risk free one month trial of our tenant lead generation and online rental applications. For one month you get unlimited leads and online applications at no charge.

Related posts:

  1. Psychology and Physiology of Customer Experience as Applied to the Multi-Family Industry – Visual
  2. Tips for Leasing Apartments Online
  3. More info on Hispanic Marketing Focus
  4. Online Apartment Leasing Leads – How to Find Them and How to Win Them
  5. Apartment Marketing, Sales and Leasing Fundamentals

201 Responses to “Setting up Your Leasing Office for Success”

  1. Kelly says:

    Agreed, online rental applications and quick contact are almost crucial these days. Availability is huge, especially because there are so many apartment listings out there that many potential renters will move on if they don’t receive a timely response.

    • migraine says:

      Migraine is hoofdpijn die in aanvallen komt. De hoofdpijn komt plotseling op, soms midden in de nacht zodat u er wakker van wordt. De pijn zit meestal aan

  2. [...] Setting up Your Leasing Office for Success | Apartment Marketing … [...]

  3. How often do you write your blogs? I enjoy them a lot 8 4 1

  4. WallsClare says:

    Houses and cars are not very cheap and not every person is able to buy it. Nevertheless, http://www.lowest-rate-loans.com are created to aid people in such cases.

  5. I always learn something new

  6. CarrAddie19 says:

    My promise to you is that I will incessantly strive to provide matter that provides great value & benefit to you anytime you come to this page. Everytime you visit here I want you to feel that it’s your time well spent. . I find it very beneficial especially when you need custom papers.

  7. High technologies develop every single day. In such way, the term papers writing companies emerged. Thus, college students feel free ordering custom research papers.

  8. With your help only people know about dissertation service! Thus they order the good thesis report connecting with this good topic at the custom thesis service.

  9. VickieBeck25 says:

    Here are some tips about the correct way to reach the academic success. Therefore, people should read through the knowledge referring to this post and just finish the best africa essay paper. The more easy way is to search for the professional custom essay papers writing service and just order essay in Internet. Hope this will help.

  10. Thanks for taking the time to chat about this, I feel strongly about this and I take pleasure in learning about this subject. If possible, as you gain facts, please add to this blog with more information. I have found it very useful. watch luther online

  11. Hopefully more populatecan learn from this columnwhat I have. A fantasticcontribution to the world at large

  12. the best idea is 100% content. Use content when you do your promotions. You’ve probably noticed on this blog whenever I do a blog post that pretty much just recommends a product or service, always a few people don’t like that.

  13. I wish I could find the time to write consistantly at my blog, on a day to day basis, like you do. Nicely done! I look forward to your additional article.

  14. Gail Askew says:

    I am brazillian and actually have 2 internet business, and answering e-mails take me at least 2 hour per day! I can’t continue with this anymore. But, I don’t know someone that is able to answer the same way I do, so I wonder the day I will can get a trip without headaches.

  15. I have not drawn the blog review yet. As long as you stay subscribed, you’ll be in with a chance to win a review weekly! :)

  16. Bless you ! Do you have methods sort of gift box where I will transfer donation in PayPal?

  17. There are spam reviews on your blog. Always, your website is almost certainly recording complications on my IE 6 internet browser.

  18. bibliography says:

    I’ve been reading your site for quite a lot of time, and finally decided to thank you for your work! Thank you, you saved me a lot of time searching the web. Regards.

  19. Would have been more exciting to hear a teaser clip of the engine than this picture.

  20. Fantastic web site, where did you appear up with all the information in this web site post? I’m pleased I observed it even though, ill be checking back soon to find out what other articles you’ve got.

  21. I like your website – super work!

  22. I adore your website – excellent !

  23. Adams28Pansy says:

    Thank you, it’s very admirable article it might be very polite for students. For example last year when I had a difficult of time at the end of semester with a endless flow of academic assignments and tasks, I had a brilliant idea to buy it somewhere and than use check for plagiarism. I was so crippled that I did not care for what can crop up when my academic work was written by flipside person. To my adroitest surprise, research paper was estimable the price I paid for it. I was so appreciative with the quality and now everytime i use this service.

  24. A symptom that you could have terrible blood circulation in your legs is yellowing of the skin. If you discover a blue, purple or pale spot on your leg, then this might be a symptom that the bloodstream is not moving as well as it should to the spot.

  25. An indication that you could possibly have weak blood flow in your legs is discoloration of the skin. If you become aware of a blue, purple or pale region on your leg, then this may be a symptom that the blood is not going as well as it should really to the spot.

  26. Howdy, I was viewing this site with my N97 and it seems kind of strange. Assumed you would want to be aware of. This is a good blog post however, didn’t mess that up.

  27. I’m glad I found your site through google , really enjoyed it. Thank you..

  28. Fonda Smiht says:

    Right off the bat, I realized this is the most staggering blogs Ive examine in a long time. The quantity of info in right here is brilliant, like you pretty much wrote the book about the subject matter. Your blog is terrific for any person who wants to fully hold this subject matter much more. Remarkable things; please keep it up!

  29. I’d like to thank you very much for the data provided! I was looking for this info for many hours now, but too bad it’s hard to find a creditworthy website.

  30. I just couldnt leave your internet site just before saying which i genuinely enjoyed the high quality facts you present for your site visitors… Is going to be back again generally to check up on new things you article!

  31. What was my enchantment to come accross an article like this. Direct my favorites! See you soon !From http://www.healthyedu.com

  32. I have been visiting variousblogs for my dissertation study. I have found your blog to be fairlybeneficial. Keep updating your blog with usefulinformation… Regards

  33. I really like your site and i really appreciate the excellent quality content you are posting here for free for your online readers. Can you tell us which blog platform you are using?

  34. I agree with you. This type of projects should be encouraged and I think that these type of projects are the projects for the future. . . . .

  35. I’ve really enjoyed reading your articles. You obviously know what you are talking about! Your site is so easy to navigate too, I’ve bookmarked it in my favourites. . . . .

  36. Good ideas there. Congrats on getting linked from ProBlogger! Keep up the good work.

  37. Tweetadder says:

    I think you already have social bookmarking in your blog see the footer. But that is from some other website. I assume you want to make it direct? There are various methods to do that but none of them are sio simple so you need do some hard work. Try

  38. Good read. Where is your contact details though?

  39. Make Money says:

    Aw, this was a really quality post. In theory I’d like to write like this too – taking time and real effort to make a good article… but what can I say… I procrastinate alot and never seem to get something done.

  40. I was just browsing for relevant blog posts for my project research and I happened to stumble upon yours. Thanks for the excellent information!

  41. I definitely enjoying every little bit of it. It is a great website and nice share. I want to thank you. Good job! You guys do a great blog, and have some great contents. Keep up the good work.

  42. I wish I could find the time to write consistantly at my blog, on a day to day basis, like you do. Nicely done! I look forward to your additional article.

  43. Very timely post for me. All I’ve been hearing lately is affiliate marketing and list building. And I’m finally taking action by writing an ebook to accomplish both! I am actually reorganizing my whole business based on affiliate marketing and referrals! Selling other people’s products is a solid gig.

  44. Thanks for your awesome submit, great web site to! It makes be want to get a blog site. What software do you must get started? I hear a great deal about this Wordpress?!!

  45. Good read. Where is your contact details though?

  46. Delma Baine says:

    I’m not certain I totally concur with you on this article. On the other hand I am definitely open to innovative options. May have to think about it. Solid blog incidentally.

  47. Substantially, the post is actually the sweetest topic on curing acne naturally. I concur with your conclusions and will thirstily look forward to your future updates. Just saying thanks will not just be sufficient, for the tremendous lucidity in your writing. I will right away grab your rss feed to stay abreast of any updates.

  48. I wanted to thank you for this interesting I definitely loved every little bit of it. I have you bookmarked your site to look at the latest stuff you post.

Leave a Reply

Spam Protection by WP-SpamFree