A disparity between leads and signed leases can be frustrating, especially if you don’t know why. Generating interest in your properties is the first step, but you need tenants to sign leases for your business to survive.
Your lead-to-lease conversion is one of the most informative metrics. The better you can pinpoint exactly where you’re losing prospective tenants, the sooner you can change what isn’t working.
The most effective way to learn about your lead-to-lease conversion is by checking in with tenants at each stage in your rental pipeline.
Here are six tips for maximizing your lead-to-lease conversion and understanding tenant decisions.
1. Respond to Inquiries Immediately
When a renter expresses interest in your properties, you should respond to them immediately—ideally within a few minutes.
Research shows that the snap-decisions consumers make when shopping online are incredibly fast. If you wait any longer to reply, you run the risk of the renter moving on to a different property.
An even better solution is implementing an AI or automatically generated response system. This way, renters hear from you immediately, even on holidays or weekends.
If your numbers show high initial interest in your properties but low conversion, it may be because you’re waiting too long to provide information.
2. Communicate Standards
Another reason for low lead-to-lease conversion rates is that renters are getting the wrong idea of your property.
If you don’t advertise that your properties are pet-free, you may receive high initial interest that quickly declines as renters realize they won’t be able to bring their beloved pets to your housing.
Instead of misleading renters, communicate your minimums and standards for tenants as soon as possible, preferable in your inquiry responses.
3. Follow Up with Leads
Now that renters have the right information about you, it’s your job to follow up with them. Renters looking for housing may be looking at a lot of properties and could easily forget about yours. A friendly email or text can go a long way toward reminding tenants that your properties are available.
When you follow up, try to engage potential tenants in a conversation. Ask them what kind of unit they’re looking for: how many bedrooms, ideal price, etc.
If tenants feel like you’re invested in helping them find a match, they will be more likely to respond to messages and sign a lease.
4. Use Insights from your KPIs
Your KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) help you track important metrics and decipher trends in your data. KPIs can also help you increase your lead-to-lease conversion.
For example, comparing vacancy rates with tenants won and lost can help you determine whether competition is relatively high or if your numbers are unusual.
Your website analytics can also offer insight about problems in your lead-to-lease conversion. For instance, you can identify which pages viewers spend the most time on and decide whether you can better advertise certain units.
5. Collect Data on Your Rental Application
Your rental application is another opportunity to capture data.
If you’re looking to increase your lead-to-lease conversion, consider adding a question on your rental application about where the applicant heard about your properties. If many renters learn about you via social media, you can then dedicate more attention to streamlining your application process starting on social media.
For example, perhaps it’s easy to reach out to you via your social media pages, but there’s no clear way to navigate to your website, where your application lives. To improve your conversion rates, your first step might be to make it more obvious where to find your rental application.
6. Use Property Management Software
Finally, best online property management software is a great way to maximize your lead-to-lease conversion. Property management software makes KPIs, application information, and aggregated data highly accessible.
Property management software companies also offer on-platform tenant screening. The faster you can screen new applicants, the sooner you can sign leases and fill your vacancies.
Achieve Lead-to-Lease Success
Leads are exciting, but leases are better. With insightful metrics and tools at your disposal, you can locate blockages in your lead-to-lease pipeline and efficiently solve them. Before long, prospective tenants will be funneled into your business with lease agreements to follow.
