Navigating Unchartered Waters

Ideas for successfully leasing apartments in the midst of coronavirus.

By CATHY MACAIONE, Cathy Macaione Consulting Services

The COVID-19 pandemic has infiltrated all aspects of everyday life, including apartment leasing. Since people still need housing in the midst of the global crisis, property managers and leasing professionals are considered essential workers and must be available. So, the question is, how can property managers and leasing professionals stay successful and, most important, safe in the era of social distancing?

The answer: Remote leasing, self-guided tours and virtual tours.

As someone who has worked in the multihousing industry for more than 36 years, I know it is imperative for property managers and leasing professionals to be transparent about how to deal with the risk of leasing apartments right now. After all, this is a time of many unknowns. Our goal is to spark the innovations that will define how we continue to do business while keeping our team, prospects and residents safe. Here are the keys I have personally implemented that all communities can utilize:

Communication

More than ever before, the response time with prospects must be immediate. When people are under stress, they are less patient and need answers right away. Therefore, it’s imperative that you have multiple communication tools setup. This means going beyond phone and email.

Implementing and learning how to use tools like Skype, Zoom, GoToMeeting, FaceTime, TikTok, Facebook Live and Facebook Messenger are essential. Don’t pick just one. You need a combination to tools setup and ready to use, because each prospect will have a different communication preference. Use the tool your prospects are most comfortable with. This requires you to be adaptable and knowledgeable of all the different communication options. Fortunately, all the options are simple to use and you can find many tutorials for each online.

More than ever before, the response time with prospects must be immediate. When people are under stress, they are less patient and need answers right away. Therefore, it’s imperative that you have multiple communication tools setup. This means going beyond phone and email.

Create Property Videos for all Prospects

If you have not yet done so, now is the time to create videos of your property and vacant apartment homes that you can send to prospects. According to Zillow, the number of 3D home tours created with its software has skyrocketed, surging 215% as compared to the volume seen before the virus's outbreak.

Your videos don’t have to be fancy. You can self-produce, using your phone, virtual tours of all your unit types. Using Zillow to make your videos is a simple process. Go to https://www.zillow.com/video-walkthrough/. Take a video of the following: • Exterior of apartment community • Model, if you have one • Ready vacant apartment homes Do both narrated and non-narrated tours.

It does not matter to the prospect if the videos are not professionally produced. What matters is that you took the time to create the video and send it to them via text or email. Have fun videoing the apartments. Talk about the closet space, the kitchen counters, the views, the size of the bedrooms, etc. Use the videos to show that you care about your prospects and residents. You can even store the videos on your website so they are easily accessible.

Touring Procedures

You need to ensure the safety of your team, prospects and residents. The key personal protection items for leasing professionals are disinfecting products, protective masks, gloves and plastic door hanging bags. Make sure you have these items in stock at all times. Due to social distancing requirements, it’s best if you let prospects self-tour the vacant apartment. Here are the steps to help them have a successful experience. • Schedule appointments with prospects. Give them a specific address to go to (the actual apartment they will tour) and let them know they have a specific time period allotted to them. They cannot arrive early or stay late. • Important: When scheduling, make sure you allow enough time in between tours so you can visit the apartment to disinfect high-touch areas like doorknobs, light switches, appliance doors and cabinet pulls. • One tool you may want to implement is Rently (www.rently.com). I was first introduced to this tool by Katherine Gibson of McCormack Baron. This self-touring technology allows a prospective renter to tour a community safely and securely, without a leasing professional present. The prospect checks in to the community via a smart lockbox, smart lock or smart home using a one-time code. If you’re not using a tool like Rently, make sure you arrive a few minutes before the prospect’s appointment time so you can unlock the door for them. Do not wait around to greet the prospect face-to-face. • When they arrive at their appointment, they should find a plastic door hanging bag on the outside doorknob. Instruct them to

When I first implemented these new leasing protocols, the first few tours were a learning experience for everyone. As more prospects came to tour the community, the process became more streamlined and easier. The first week we implemented these procedures using virtual and self-guided tours, we leased two apartments. The second week, we leased six apartments.

take that. Inside will be touring procedures, disposable gloves they must wear, brochures, application process directions and an application. Everything in the bag is theirs to take with them. • Since they will undoubtedly have questions as they tour, encourage them to use their communication tool of choice while touring the apartment. Some will want to video chat with you while touring; others will be fine with a simple phone call or text exchange. Regardless of the tool they want to use, be on the ready to answer questions and verbally guide them to key apartment features you want to point out. • After they complete the tour, follow up and be sure they are aware of next steps. If your community is setup for online leasing and can take applications and fees electronically, direct them to the webpage to do so. If your community is not currently setup for online leasing, then schedule an appointment for the prospect to return with their application and fees. If you must meet any prospect face-toface, encourage everyone to wear gloves and masks. Have enough personal protection supplies on hand, since many prospects may not have these items on their own.

The New Normal of Apartment Leasing

When I first implemented these new leasing protocols, the first few tours were a learning experience for everyone. As more prospects came to tour the community, the process became more streamlined and easier. The first week we implemented these procedures using virtual and self-guided tours, we leased two apartments. The second week, we leased six apartments. Each week, as we have continued to perfect our new normal of doing business, the number of new leases has continued to increase.

Unfortunately, no one knows exactly when this crisis will be over. One thing we do know for sure is that how we train our leasing professionals, how we interact with prospects, how we lease apartments and how we manage our leasing goals have changed forever. The communities that embrace the changes and respond rapidly will fare much better in the coming months and years, and they will more easily convert prospects into residents.

Cathy Macaione is president of Cathy Macaione Consulting Services. She is an Apartment Marketing and Management Specialist with more than 36 years in the multifamily housing industry. Macaione is available for training, virtual-coaching, consulting and lease-up service. You can contact her at CM@Cathymac.net or 630-800-6895.

Reshaping Communities

How coronavirus could alter apartment living and operations for the long haul. By MORGAN TAYLOR, HAA Managing Editor

As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, the way we work, the way we socialize and the way we interact with the world on a daily basis has changed. As apartment communities have embraced public and healthy safety precautions to help control the spread of the virus, a quarantined Houston has reshaped apartment living and operations.

Social distancing is transforming apartment communities. In addition to immediate changes, the pandemic and could ensue longterm consequences on amenities, leasing and design. While we continue to social distance, here are some changes to consider as COVID19 reshapes the apartment industry.

Package Deliveries

The apartment industry has been experimenting with ways to better handle the overwhelming amount of packages properties receive on a daily basis for some time now. Package lockers have been a great option for many apartment communities, but it hasn’t been a realistic solution for all properties.

Camden Property Trust shook the industry when the company announced it would no longer accept packages nationwide in 2015. Camden’s new package policy made headline news when the Wall Street Journal released an article on the matter, with local news sources across the nation picking up the story.

Amid COVID-19, properties have stopped accepting packages only because doing so poses public health concerns. Why haven’t other property management companies considered following Camden’s lead? In the past, apartment owners and managers may have been concerned about how residents would react.

Camden’s Chief Information Officer and SVP of Strategic Services Kristy Simonette gave many reasons as to why Camden made this decision in an article published in National Apartment Association’s UNITS magazine back in 2015. A reason that feels especially relevant today was because Camden’s leasing offices aren’t open at all hours, seven days a week. Simonette added that since the change residents were getting their packages quicker than before.

With shortened workdays, closed leasing offices to ensure social distancing and, above all, with public health being a top concern, apartment communities and property management companies may want to consider implementing a similar policy for the long term.

Fitness Centers and Virtual Fitness

Your residents want to know what you’re doing to ensure their public health and safety. Please refer to the Texas Apartment Association, Houston Apartment Association and https://gov.texas.gov/news/P0 for updates and guidance on gyms.

Apartment community fitness centers may need to be reconfigured to increase the space between workout equipment and stagger workout times. Enforcing social distancing within your fitness centers limits your residents in an impactful way. Residents will no longer have the freedom to come and go when they want for their workouts. For your busy residents, you may want to find a solution for them to be able to workout whenever they want.

From the start, fitness was adapted to fit our stay at home needs. Fitness groups responded to the pandemic by offering virtual workout programs. Quickly, exercising in your living room became the new normal in late March, April and May. People now may even prefer to work out at home but may want the option to go downstairs and run on a stationary bike if it’s available.

To better accommodate residents, subscription-based exercise programs that your residents can stream in their apartment homes are available for purchase. Comm-Fit offers an app called Wellbeats that offers up to 400 user app licenses. Fitness suppliers are adjusting their services to benefit your residents, too.

Behavioral consequences as a result of longterm social distancing are unclear at this point. Will people feel comfortable going to their apartment community’s fitness center even when social distancing measures are relaxed or lifted? Consider these questions: What do your residents want out of their apartment gym? Are fitness centers in their full capacity necessary? If residents have access to virtual fitness classes, will they need a fitness center with all the bells and whistles?

Leasing

Leasing was easily one of the first aspects of apartment operations to change due to the pandemic. While many apartment communities started leasing apartments virtually at the beginning of quarantine, virtual leasing or parts of it may stick around for the long term. Technology has made it easy for prospect residents to tour your apartments virtually, which could free up your leasing professional’s workload for other duties. There are companies that offer AI leasing assistants that can grab your leads, schedule tours and livestream video between you and your prospects.

Management companies are emphasizing scheduled tours and face coverings for all visitors, both prospective residents and supplier partners. It’s important to enforce health and safety precautions if your leasing offices are open, such as the use of face coverings, social distancing, environmental cleanliness and sanitation (cleaning and disinfecting all surfaces that a prospect touched or may have touched) and a no-chair policy. A no-chair policy removes all chairs from leasing offices to reduce the number of touch points.

According to Harris County’s Stay Home, Stay Safe order, a face covering may, for example, be a homemade mask, scarf, bandana, handkerchief and other cloth masks. Here is the CDC’s recommendation for face coverings, which includes a video on how to make your own face covering: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/clothface-cover.html.