When faced with difficulty selling their houses, a record number of homeowners are opting to rent their properties instead.
Zillow reported that 3.4% of single-family homes listed on its site are now owned by accidental landlords.
Another report shows just how common accidental landlords have become in certain markets. In Houston, for example, 7% of for-sale listings turned into rental listings, a 41% increase over the previous year.
For property managers, this means more homes in the rental pool and more competition for every lead. But accidental landlords are inexperienced, which is where professional property managers can win.
By giving prospects a fast, convenient leasing experience, you signal the many advantages you’ll offer to prospects once they’re tenants.
Here are four strategies to make leasing faster and easier for prospects to set yourself apart from accidental landlords.
1. Respond Faster to Capture Leads
In a competitive market, you can’t afford to lose a single lead. Data shows that more than one third of renters expect a response to their inquiries within the same day or faster.
Quick responses help you outshine accidental landlords, many of whom have other priorities dividing their attention.
The challenge is, responding instantly is easier said than done. You can’t spend your whole day monitoring your email or waiting for the phone to ring. And what about nights and weekends?
Leasing Line Call Center
If your team can’t respond instantly, but you still want a human touch, a call center is your first line of defense. The staff in our Leasing Line call center act as an extension of your team, taking prospects’ calls and responding to their questions using answers that you provide.
We offer extended hours on nights and weekends, so that your prospects’ questions get answered, even when your team is off the clock.
Virtual AI Agent
An AI virtual agent (currently in beta) will also make sure prospects get their questions answered, no matter when they’re asking.
The chat widget will live on your website. When a prospect reaches out and, for example, asks about your pet policy, the AI agent responds instantly, pulling information from your listings to answer the question.
The agent moves interactions through the leasing process, from initial inquiry to scheduling and pre-qualification.
If the agent isn’t able to answer a question, it will route the question to you.
Tools like the Leasing Line and AI virtual agent eliminate the back-and-forth communication that slows leasing to a crawl, so prospects can get the answers they need in minutes instead of days.
2. Automate Follow-Ups to Nurture More Leads
Proactive follow-up is just as important — and time-consuming — as responding to incoming questions from prospects.
If you automate your communication, you’ll never miss an opportunity to follow up — and you’ll deliver a level of service that accidental landlords will struggle to meet.
Instant Lead Texting
Sometimes people need a friendly nudge to keep moving through the leasing process. You can nurture prospects automatically through instant lead texting.
Here’s how it works: when prospects inquire about a listing, the system automatically sends them a text inviting them to schedule a showing.
Since 70% of prospects already schedule showings via text, this automated communication gives them the info they need to move forward in a preferred format.
Zapier Integration
Through Tenant Turner’s integration with Zapier, you can automate communication workflows between Tenant Turner and other apps you’re already using. For example, automatically create a lead in LeadSimple once a prospect completes a pre-qualification form.
By automating your communication, you’ll never miss an opportunity to follow up, and prospective tenants will always have the information they need to keep moving forward.
3. Make Scheduling Frictionless
As Andrew R. Smallwood, Chief Strategy Officer at resident experience platform Second Nature said, “Convenience is not a luxury, it’s a strategy.”
He’s right. Renters default to the easiest option, so you have to deliver convenience to them. One way to do that — and distinguish yourself from accidental landlords — is by making scheduling as easy as possible.
Lead Scheduling Flow
Our new lead scheduling flow aims to do just that. We’ve updated the scheduling process, based on our customers’ feedback, to make scheduling simpler for prospects.
Now, when a lead opens the link they receive after submitting an inquiry, they see a prompt to select their preferred showing time, based on the availability you’ve provided. You capture their intent to schedule before anything else gets in the way.
The next steps are entering their contact information and completing pre-qualification questions before the showing is confirmed.
This streamlined flow captures intent early and reduces drop-off at every step.
Zillow Tour Scheduling
Thanks to internet giants like Amazon, prospects are used to making a purchase in just a click or two. Our new integration with Zillow makes scheduling a showing that easy, too.
A prospect can now click “Book Tour Now” on Zillow and secure a time for their showing instantly. They no longer need to navigate to your website or pick up the phone to choose a time to tour your property.
In a matter of seconds, you’ve converted a prospective renter into a confirmed lead by removing friction from the scheduling process. And it’s another way you can win over accidental landlords — for a portfolio of one, they don’t have automation or integrations in place.
4. Deliver Convenience With Self-Showings
Self-showings work by giving a lead remote access to a property, typically through a smart lock or lockbox, for a certain amount of time. The lead can tour the property on their own.
Leads love the flexibility of self-showings. They aren’t restricted to your leasing agent’s availability and can tour whenever it’s most convenient for them, whether that’s after work or on the weekend.
Self-showings deliver convenience to your team, too. Countless Tenant Turner customers have replaced a hectic scheduling process and cross-county drives with self-showings, saving their agents time and stress.
In The Age of Accidental Landlords, Service Is Your Edge
Accidental landlords present a new challenge for property managers in an already tight market. But property managers will win by delivering a better leasing experience.
Automate your leasing process to deliver faster, frictionless service. And use your listings to emphasize the services and solutions you offer that make renting with you easy, e.g., efficient maintenance ticketing or an easy rent payment system.
Because in today’s market, renters don’t wait. They move forward with whichever rental company makes it easiest to say yes.
If your process slows them down, they’ll find one that doesn’t.