Increase Your Leasing Conversion Rate - 4 Tactics

Think of leasing like a funnel 🔽

You start with a whole bunch of leads and at each step some % of leads convert. If you put it on a vertical bar chart, it looks just like a funnel.

Sometimes your property is so amazing (or amazingly priced) that the first person who sees it submits a qualified application.

But more likely you're fighting for every lead.

Every step of the funnel is an opportunity to win or lose.

We run non-stop experiments at RentEngine to discover new high-conversion tactics. Today I can share 4 pretty simple ways to increase your own leasing conversion rate.

TL;DR It's all about reducing friction for your prospects

1. Response Time

Tenants spend less than 6 minutes per session when searching online for rentals. They jump on Zillow, set their filters and send messages or call the handful of properties that fit their criteria.

After that there's really nothing else to do except wait, so they move onto something different.

That 6 minute window is your golden opportunity.

If you respond to their message immediately (literally within 30 seconds) then you're lead->showing scheduled conversion rate will be over 45%. Compare that to the industry average rate of less than 25%.

It works because you are engaging a lead who is both actively thinking about their next place and has just seen the details for your property. You'll get their full attention to schedule a showing.

And it's even better if your first message is a text (or call) 👇

2. Texts >>> Email

Email doesn't work anymore - not really.

If you're inbox is anything like mine, it's a bottomless pit of marketing emails, order confirmations and pure spam.

And it's the same for your prospects. Zillow, Rent.com and Apartments.com overwhelm them with an email for each property they contact, plus weekly check-ins on that property AND near-daily recommendations to check out other similar properties.

So when you reply via email (or via their built-in messengers), you're just lobbing another email into the prospect's bottomless pit of email. Chances are they'll never see it.

But you can embrace a far more effective and virtually free alternative - texting.

So here's how you can leverage texting and immediate response to boost your conversion rates at every step of the funnel:

Choose a business phone provider like OpenPhone or RingCentral that has a Zapier integration. Now set up a quick Zap that parses incoming lead emails, finds the phone number and sends them an engaging text message.

This will cost you less than $30/month and is almost guaranteed to give you a double digit increase in your lead to showing scheduled conversion rate.

3. Evening & weekend showings

Most prospects are working 9-5 like us. Many don't have the luxury to dip out for a showing, and even if they can it might not be worth the hassle.

So make it easy on them - and watch how it impacts your lead->showing conversion rate.

The data backs this up too. On RentEngine prospects can schedule anytime from 7am to 8pm, 7 days/week. So we see that 45% of showings happen before 9am, after 5pm or on weekends. Even if you don't use RentEngine for remote-guided showings, you can still get some of the same benefits.

Using a simple tool like Tenant Turner lets prospects schedule self-guided showings at the best time that works for them. And if you're not comfortable with self-showings, consider blocking off time for a few after hours showings each week.

By removing all their objections for scheduling a showing, more prospects convert and you'll ultimately have a fatter funnel with more applicants.

4. Follow up - early and often

A common refrain in sales is that you need about 7 touch points before a prospect converts.

So it's all about the follow ups!

Work with your team to define a list of follow ups at each stage. You can write out the message and cadence, so that following up is as easy as copy/pasting.

If you feel like you're on the verge of being annoying, then you're doing it right! Aim for 3 follow ups at each stage. If they're still ignoring you then you can feel confident to mark them as uninterested and move on.

Let RentEngine increase your conversion rate

Built by property managers, RentEngine is the most advanced solution for scattered-site leasing. Customers report 2.8x faster leasing, higher margins and simpler operations.

If better leasing is a priority for you, let's chat here