April 11, 2022
As a previous agent who spent over 10 years primarily focused on rentals, I’ve experienced firsthand how overwhelming juggling multiple deals can be, especially during the busy season months.
As rent prices continue to rise at historic rates, many tenants who previously benefited from favorable lease terms during the height of COVID are now being priced out of their current rentals as landlords raise rates. It's expected that an even greater volume of turnover will be seen this spring and summer, bringing an increase in leasing activity for agents.
Set yourself up for success with these 5 practical tips to get you ahead of the upcoming busy season
Now is a great time to reach out to the prospective renters that connected with you last year. Not only will they appreciate you remembering them, but they may be more likely to refer you to friends and family or work with you again this second time around.
It’s also important to check in with renters you successfully placed to learn if they intend to renew their lease or if they require your help to find a new home when their lease ends. Again, even if they don’t need your help at this time, there’s a chance that they have a friend who does.
Creating a touchpoint with your landlords is also really important, since things change throughout the year and you’ll want to see if a lease is ending earlier than expected or if they have insights into tenants’ intentions to renew or not. Either way, establishing a touch point with your landlords is always helpful to maintain your working relationships with them.
Lastly, be sure to capture any important information from your landlords or renters by creating follow-ups and promptly reaching back out to them as needed. Being on top of your follow-ups shows them that 1) you’re responsible 2) reliable 3) you want to build a lasting relationship with them. Overall, follow-ups provide one of the quickest paths to strengthen your stakeholders' trust in you.
When it comes to marketing your listings, nothing is more important than the photos of the property you display online. Take the opportunity before your calendar gets hectic to reach out to your current listing’s tenants, and schedule a time to take new virtual tours and updated photos.
If you haven’t used virtual tours for your real estate, we recommend checking out kuula, 3dvista, my360, or matterport. Schedule a filming time that’s during the day and after the property has been recently cleaned. Most importantly, make sure that all of the toilet seats are down when taking photos of the bathrooms!
Get the most out of your visit by checking in with the current tenants on how they’re liking the place and getting along with the landlord. A potential future deal could be right in front of you.
Reviews are one of the most powerful ways to establish your brand and online presence as an agent; not only does it build immediate trust, it also can lead to long term success. The more recent the review, the better – recent positive reviews are stronger and generate more trust for those potential clients who are considering working with you.
There are many ways to get creative in asking previous clients for reviews. A simple email expressing your gratitude in working with them can be the easiest opportunity to request a testimonial. You can either have a pre-made questionnaire sent to them or ask them to share a positive experience they had when working with you. Be sure to specify in a subtle way how much a 5 star rating is appreciated. See email templates for requesting a review from Zillow’s article.
Alongside being a powerful way to establish your credibility, a good review can be a strong marketing tool to utilize in multiple channels. Not only does it help with your SEO search on Google, you can also use it to create a post for Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn.
Before the busy season hits, take the time to enhance your personal brand by updating your agent profiles and website. This includes investing in a new headshot (studies show that photos lead to 80% more engagement) and creating a nice profile description that reflects your experience and expertise. It’s all about building the trust factor – this is how you will attract more clients to you. Google has also started creating agent profiles, which can lead to an increase in organic leads directed towards you.
To build on your connections with your leads, you can add a personal touch to your profiles such as your hobbies and interests. Something as simple as “when I’m not helping clients find their next home, you can find me rock climbing or going on a hike” can make you more relatable.
One of the best ways you can support yourself and make the most of your time during the busy season is to have the right technology set up to automate your backend work. With an influx of interactions between your landlords and leads, you’ll want to have your documents and data centralized and organized in one location.
Technology is your key to making the most of your time. It’s the pathway to get your rental data to act as a personal assistant, rather than you feeling like a personal assistant to your data.
Some ways to help streamline your rental business is to use a good CRM that addresses your rental needs, keeping your data on a cloud database like Excel or Airtable, or automating your entire leasing workflow with RentBase’s rental-centric platform.
Ultimately, these tools and practices are here so you can save time and close more deals.
Busy season doesn’t have to get you feeling scattered and drowned in workload. Apply the above suggestions to get ahead of the game, and watch how busy season can shift from overwhelm to ease.
Noaam Blum
NoaamBlum is the co-founder & CEO of RentBase. Noaam served as a real estate agent in the Boston market for over a decade, leasing nearly 1000 apartments and closing more than $25M in sales transactions. Throughout his career, Noaam has trained and managed new agents at both small boutique offices and major brokerages like Keller Williams Realty. He holds a BA from Brandeis University and an MBA in International Business from Tel Aviv University.