More apartment operators are opening the door to the idea of self-guided tours for their prospective residents.

Apartment communities find that with self-guided tours they can accommodate significantly more tours per day, use less staff time, and see a higher conversion rate. The approach is not intended to minimalize the role of leasing agents, but rather to enable them to focus more on other aspects of their job, such as customer service and tracking leads.

Residents are benefiting from the flexibility that a self-guided tour brings as they can make touring appointments based on their schedule (not the leasing professional’s or apartment office hours) and take them in a potentially more comfortable environment.

“We’ve all been in what can seem like a pressurized situation when shopping for something, such as a car,” Eric Brown, CEO, Urbane Apartments, Detroit, says. “You want to take a test drive, but you don’t want the salesman sitting next to you or in the back seat talking to you.”

Kristi Fickert, Vice President of Marketing and Training at 30 Lines, says when she is with her husband, out looking to make a purchase, they designate predetermined hand signals to use if they are in the presence of a salesperson — a form of communications through body language — to share opinions or to signal next steps.

“Self-service is a trend we are seeing all over consumerism,” Tina Mortera, Vice President of Marketing and Training, Progress Residential, says. “Whether you are at the checkout area buying groceries or checking in for an airline flight. It’s what consumers want.”

Brown was a trailblazer in offering self-guided tours, a strategy many scoffed at when he first introduced it in 2006. He says it has been successful for him. He and the others commenting on this topic were presenters at the 2018 AIM Conference in May.

Brown says he was inspired to try out self-guided tours based on the efficiency he saw from Post Properties, which had approximately 4,000 apartment homes in a tight, geographic area in Dallas.

“Only using our leasing professionals, we might have only been able to do three or four tours per day,” says Brown, who operates 20 Class B apartment communities that total 700 apartment homes spread over Michigan, with most in the Detroit market. Now, typically, we are doing up to 20.

“By offering them from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week, our leasing office is ‘open’ for about 42 percent more time than the typical 9-to-5 property.”

Following are Urbane’s traffic and leasing figures for 2017:

·        47,280 website visitors converted at 8 percent to 3,789 guest cards
3,789 guest cards converted at 31.2 percent to 1,183 tours
1,183 tours converted at 38.65 percent to 457 leases

Named the “Go Solo” program, prospective residents are given a key branded with the Go Solo name and a tip-sheet that includes details and specifications for the community. “This creates a memory point for the prospective resident.”

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