The leasing process has significantly evolved over the past two decades thanks to vast technology advancements. But as tech continues to reshape the multifamily landscape, the industry must also continually reexamine the leasing process and resist the temptation to become complacent.

Attracting prospects, following up at opportune times, maintaining contact and eventually getting them into the doors of your community can be a cumbersome process. But with the right blend of strategy and utilization of digital resources, it doesn’t have to be that way.

Here’s a look at three concepts apartment operators can employ to digitally streamline the leasing process.

Leverage automation whenever possible

Manual follow-ups can carve into a leasing agent’s day like no other. The more frequently you can automate many of these processes, the more time the leasing agent can spend greeting prospects onsite and pursuing fresh leads.

Automation can be leveraged in several timesaving ways, such as auto responders for emails, chatbots for prospects needing community information while on your website and even self-touring capabilities for prospects who might arrive outside typical leasing hours. With these processes managed by automation, leasing agents are empowered build relationships with prospects and residents.

Use sophisticated property management systems

Like technology itself, property management systems seem to evolve on a daily basis. If yours is clunky and outdated, it could be draining your time and costing you leases. Many of today’s systems have the capability to incorporate updates on the fly, which prevents them from becoming obsolete with each new iteration. When you decide to add a new feature or technology to your leasing process, software that can integrate quickly and customize easily will prevent slowing down your teams with unnecessary training and software updates. Essentially, you need a property management system that can grow with your organization.  

Test new technologies, ways to communicate with residents and prospects.

Being too content can be counterproductive, particularly as search behavior changes, resident preferences continue to morph and tech steamrolls forward. It's important to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to communication preferences and regularly test new technologies. For instance, resident portals for maintenance requests and online pay capabilities initially appeared to be far-reaching concepts, but imagine today’s apartment world without them. If you aren't looking for the next consumer-facing technology trends, you are already behind.

The leasing process is deeply involved and multi-tiered, and that will never change. But when you use tech to your advantage and can lean on your expertise to adapt to the constantly changing multifamily landscape, you can digitally streamline the leasing process.