You already know it’s important to measure leasing performance. The problem is figuring out which metrics to collect and how to use them.
For example, you know you want to hold your leasing team accountable to certain numbers. But you don’t know which metrics to measure their performance against.
Or maybe you want an objective metric to clue you into when a particular marketing channel is working well (or not).
Whatever aspect of leasing you want to measure, this post will show you the most important metrics to collect and how to use them.
(If you’re not already collecting these metrics automatically, check out our post on Tenant Turner’s built-in reporting.)
7 Metrics to Hold Your Leasing Team Accountable
Here are the numbers that help you hold your leasing team accountable for providing a fast, high-quality prospect experience.
Lead Handling & Responsiveness
|
Metric |
How to measure |
|
Speed-to-first-response |
Average minutes/hours from inquiry to first contact |
|
Response coverage |
% of inquiries responded to within X hours |
|
Follow-up cadence |
% of hot leads that get at least N follow-ups |
|
Follow-up coverage |
% of “stuck” leads that receive the required follow-up |
If you’re using Tenant Turner, you don’t have to worry about speed-to-first-response and response coverage, since Tenant Turner responds automatically to all leads.
In that case, emphasize metrics like follow-up cadence and coverage to get your team to focus on ensuring no one gets stuck and providing personal outreach to high-intent leads.
The goal: Keep your team from ignoring new leads or letting warm prospects go cold.
Prospect Experience
|
Metric |
How to measure |
|
Prospect satisfaction |
Post-tour thumbs up/down or 1–5 score |
|
Complaint rate |
Documented complaints per X showings/leases |
|
Agent-driven cancellation rate |
% of showings canceled or rescheduled by the agent |
These metrics help ensure your team doesn’t become so focused on being fast that they start to treat prospects poorly.
The goal: Prevent substandard service levels.
4 Metrics to Maximize Your Marketing Spend
These numbers provide additional context for the accountability metrics and help you optimize your pricing strategy and marketing spend.
Showings & Conversion
|
Metric |
How to measure |
|
Showings scheduled per qualified lead |
Scheduled showings/qualified leads |
|
Show-up rate |
% of scheduled showings that actually happen |
|
Application rate per showing |
% of showings that result in applications |
|
Lease conversion rate |
% of applications that become signed leases |
You can have a full schedule of showings, but if they don’t turn into leases, your busy schedule is all for naught. Keeping an eye on these metrics helps you focus your advertising dollars on the channels that produce the highest converting leads.
The goal: Monitor pricing signals and focus your leasing team and marketing dollars on quality showings and signed leases, not just booking tours.
3 Metrics to Hold Yourself Accountable
Time-on-Market & Pricing Execution
|
Metric |
How to measure |
|
Days-on-market |
Average of days-on-market per listing |
|
Rental rate |
% of listings rented within target window (e.g., 21 or 30 days) |
|
Pricing strategy adherence |
Assess adherence to pricing/discount playbooks |
The ultimate goal of holding your leasing team accountable is to minimize vacancies and maximize rent. So if everyone’s hitting their numbers but listings are lingering on the market, these metrics will flash red, and you’ll know there’s a bigger issue, like pricing.
The goal: Tie performance to revenue and vacancy loss.
A Cautionary Tale: When a Metric Becomes a Target
In 2000, the United Kingdom set a 4-hour A&E target. (A&E is what we call the emergency room in the United States.)
The goal was to improve emergency care.
The target was that 98% of patients must be admitted, transferred, or discharged within 4 hours of arriving at A&E.
According to the BBC, before the target was set, 23% of patients spent longer than four hours in A&E. By 2004, this had fallen by almost 5 times to 5%.
It sounds like a resounding success, and it was an improvement. But the new target led to gaming.
Researchers found that extra staff were brought in when performance was being measured, which meant operations elsewhere in the hospital had to be cancelled. Reports also surfaced of ambulances idling outside hospitals to delay the start of the 4-hour clock.
This is a prime example of Goodhart’s Law, which says, "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure."
Don’t Be Fooled by Your Metrics
In the property management business, you can’t afford to be fooled by your metrics. Even numbers like average days-on-market per listing are susceptible to gaming through loosened screening criteria or below-market prices.
To prevent this, avoid overreliance on any single metric to assess performance and use common sense. If certain metrics are off the charts good but revenue is flagging, take another look.
And keep an eye out for unintended consequences. For example, if you start tying agent performance bonuses to booked tours and tours start to skyrocket with no increase in signed leases, it’s time to revisit those incentives.