Demetri Themelis, Co-Founder, Knock; Todd Katler, CEO, Anyone Home; and C.J. Edmonds, Chief Revenue Officer, Smart Rent; discussed what data to consider and the tour-conversion relationship during a session at National Multifamily Housing Council’s OpTech Conference in National Harbor, Md.
Self-guided tours became a leasing tool of necessity during the pandemic. Many operators accelerated implementation of whatever solution they could get immediately up and running. Unfortunately, operators sometimes skipped critical considerations in the self-guided tour experience.
The past 12 months have been hard on us all. Apartment leasing – and life in general – have felt upside down at times. But the leasing experience during the pandemic is not an anomaly. Instead, with its proliferation of touring options like self-guided tours and video tours, it points the way to the future.
Self-touring already had been considered the wave of the future in the apartment world. Then the pandemic arrived and left no doubt. But while self-guided tours might imply a distant, do-it-yourself atmosphere, they are not as detached as they sound.
According to a recent RENTCafe survey of 3,500 renters, 83% of the respondents said they would take a self-guided tour if it was available at an apartment community. The benefits of self-guided tours extend beyond allowing prospects to visit a community in their preferred manner.
Prospects want to experience a potential new home on their own terms and without having to interact with a leasing associate. Some multifamily operators are beginning to take notice, but the apartment industry as a whole has yet to fully embrace self-guided tours.