"How Much are Your Two Bedrooms?"
"How much are your two bedrooms?"
I'm going to be calling various communities around the Puget sound area in the next few weeks, asking them just that question. It's the most common opening question when a leasing consultant answers the phone and I'm curious to see how the general population of leasing consultants out here are handling it. Archstone-Smith consultants are trained rather heavily on their reply to this question, and on pulling information out of the caller, and in all my time shopping them, I've only had one who just threw the price out there. Mad props to Archstone!!! Most companies though, do not focus enough on this important task in their training, and that leads to calls with less than a 10 second duration.
I know, I know... Heather, Why should I keep trying to sell to someone who isn't in the price range? Well, here's one of the great mysteries of the American consumer's wallet: It's often deeper than they will let on. If my price range is $1500 a month for rent, but I like you, I like the service, and the apartment is AMAZING for $1575... I'm probably going to find some way to make that work. But I'm definely not going to know if I like you, the apartment or your service if you only keep me on the phone for 10 seconds. Truth be told, my current apartment is $150 over what we really wanted to pay, but I LOVED the leasing consultant and the company had a great reputation AND the apartment fit our needs exactly, so we made it work in our budget. Your future residents will, too.
I'll post the results of my phone poll in about three weeks, but until then, do any of YOU have great ways of getting through, "How Much Are Your Two Bedrooms?"
I'm going to be calling various communities around the Puget sound area in the next few weeks, asking them just that question. It's the most common opening question when a leasing consultant answers the phone and I'm curious to see how the general population of leasing consultants out here are handling it. Archstone-Smith consultants are trained rather heavily on their reply to this question, and on pulling information out of the caller, and in all my time shopping them, I've only had one who just threw the price out there. Mad props to Archstone!!! Most companies though, do not focus enough on this important task in their training, and that leads to calls with less than a 10 second duration.
I know, I know... Heather, Why should I keep trying to sell to someone who isn't in the price range? Well, here's one of the great mysteries of the American consumer's wallet: It's often deeper than they will let on. If my price range is $1500 a month for rent, but I like you, I like the service, and the apartment is AMAZING for $1575... I'm probably going to find some way to make that work. But I'm definely not going to know if I like you, the apartment or your service if you only keep me on the phone for 10 seconds. Truth be told, my current apartment is $150 over what we really wanted to pay, but I LOVED the leasing consultant and the company had a great reputation AND the apartment fit our needs exactly, so we made it work in our budget. Your future residents will, too.
I'll post the results of my phone poll in about three weeks, but until then, do any of YOU have great ways of getting through, "How Much Are Your Two Bedrooms?"
Hi Heather - Just started reading your blog and am loving it! When I was reading this post, specifically, I had two different reactions. The first was that I loved your explanation and that should put leasing consultants concerns to rest about who they should be spending time with.
However, I always try to think forward to the renewal and wanted to get your thoughts on this: If the prospect is overextending themselves for an apartment that usually includes a concession, how does that translate to the ability to renew them once that concession starts going away a year from now? By pulling in prospects whose budgets can't handle rent without concessions, are we destined for lower retention down the road as they are forced to move out? What do you think?
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Who said the C word?! There is no concession!!! That is a naughty word on this blog! My personal beliefs on this are that we should NEVER offer money off rent. Take it out of the deposits, the move in fees, whatever, but NEVER decrease rent. You're decreasing the value of the home that you've just worked 45 minutes to build up in your leasing presentation.
I know I'm dreaming, but I think saying "Move in special!" for anything that is not waiving a deposit or move in fee is 1) asking for trouble and 2)saying to your potential resident, "Something is wrong here...don't trust these people"
You can offer move in specials with out offering deductions from the rent, too. There is a property right now in the area that I was talking with about their current special. The manager isn't offering a "concession" off the rent, but is offering a $1000 visa gift card. Heck, I think Lisa Trosien pointed out a couple of months ago that Gen Y rents for "stuff" like Ipod nanos (Under $100 depending on your supplier) and it's a heck of a lot cheaper than giving 2 weeks free rent!
I think that just starting on that foot eliminates the problem of rental budgets. Also, you have to figure that the cost of living raises for most places range between 3%-9% and the rental increases can range anywhere from 3%-9%. Suspiciously correlative, no?
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I agree with you 100%, but unfortunately, I think that line of thinking is the exception rather than the rule in our industry!
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C*ncessions! The bane of an asset manager's existence and the crutch of too many otherwise good PMs. With a nationwide portfolio I can't tell you the number of times I've heard "we're a c*ncession-driven market" or "they just want the deal" in response to my repeated pleading to move away from that.
Here's what I try to do to get around it: If you give residents money, all they do is use it to pay bills or buy groceries. Where's the fun in that? If you give them a gift card or a gym membership or a season pass to a water park, you've given them a 'splurge'. It's something they wouldn't normally buy for themselves or their children. Not only do you make a positive association -- we could do this because we moved here -- you also give your site team an excellent way to do the soft sell for renewal. "How was the restaurant?" "Are the kids headed to Water Town today?" "Did you get all this at Target?" It's a natural and very comfortable way to connect with residents.
But man, try selling that to the site team that knows better than the owner 1000 miles away...
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Out here, of course they want the "deal" but it's all in how you present it. We can never recover lost rent. That's the fact of the matter, right there. Marketing fees, we can recover via some creative ancillary income projects, but lost rent, never.
And I LOVE your idea, Will, about the season's passes! Think about some of the directions that you could take there. Tickets to the Seattle Pops for a year would get me to rent. Passes to different museums and arts centers. The Great Wolf Lodge can be the friend of any PM who is lucky enough to be located close to one since they have a huge indoor water park. And shopping always is a great thing.
Best of all, not only do you get that positive association and renewal opportunity, but you also know that by the statistics, they have told at least two other people about a great thing that was done for them. There's nothing more powerful then straight word of mouth!
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