. In addition, we\u2019ll also compare top findings from the Renter Preferences report with Ronald\u2019s experiences from his \u201cLeasing Across America\u201d project, where he secret shopped more than 100 different properties across the United States.<\/span><\/p>\nLet\u2019s dive in now to see why delivering on resident preferences is the key to standing out and staying competitive in 2025 and beyond.<\/span><\/p>\nMegan Eales Monroe:<\/strong><\/p>\nWelcome, Ronald. We are so excited to have you on this episode of The Top Floor Podcast.<\/span><\/p>\nRonald Harrington:<\/strong><\/p>\nYeah, so hey, thanks for having me on The Top Floor. I\u2019m so excited to be on the podcast. My name is Ronald Harrington. I\u2019m a training manager with 29th Street communities. We\u2019re based out of Louisville, Kentucky. So if you like bourbon, Bourbon Country, that\u2019s the place to be. I also am the host of the podcast Rooms with Ronald, where we talk about everything leasing and marketing. Yeah, what else do you want to know about me? I\u2019m kind of boring.<\/span><\/p>\nMegan Eales Monroe:<\/strong><\/p>\nI wouldn\u2019t say so. Tell us a little bit about your Leasing Across America project that you did. I think that was something that I was really stoked to hear about when you shared about it at Apartmentalize and then also on Rooms with Ronald, but could you fill our listeners in?<\/span><\/p>\nRonald Harrington:<\/strong><\/p>\nYeah, so in 2023, I had this crazy idea that was out of the world, is I wanted to shop a hundred different apartment communities across the United States because I really wanted to see what the experience was like post-COVID, right? So we knew we were status quo up until COVID and then COVID really shook the industry and turned it upside down and we were trying so many different things and I thought, \u201cWell, 2023 we\u2019re back to a normalization of some sorts,\u201d and so I wanted to see what that experience was like. And with the company I was working for, we had created a new experience department that we were transitioning into where we\u2019re, \u201cHow are we going to create these experiences?\u201d and I was like, \u201cWell, what better way to see what other people are doing so we know what to do better?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nSo I set out across the country when I was traveling for pleasure, when I was going into workplaces, I went in early and I end up shopping 101 because I like to be an overachiever and I shopped 88 different property management companies in 28 different cities in 13 states. So I wanted to make sure I got a sample size of the whole country because there\u2019s Lease Across America, what I didn\u2019t want someone to say was, \u201cWell, you only shopped in Indiana,\u201d or, \u201cYou only shopped in Texas, I really wanted a wide variety,\u201d so I made sure I shopped in markets like Miami, Las Vegas, New York City, and then on the flipside, I also did my hometown of Muncie, Indiana and I did like Columbus, Ohio and Cincinnati and Louisville, but there was also Dallas and San Diego. So just a really wide variety of properties across the country to really see in different sizes and different high rises and mid-rises and garden style really to examine that experience.<\/span><\/p>\nMegan Eales Monroe:<\/strong><\/p>\nWere there any cities that stood out either in a good way or a bad way?<\/span><\/p>\nRonald Harrington:<\/strong><\/p>\nI think, overall, the experience was probably not what I was expecting. I was not really blown away at the experience. I found it to be impersonal and very, \u201cDo this, do this, do this.\u201d No one really got to know me. I think Las Vegas stood out to me probably the most, but not in a good way, like there was one property in particular that turned it for me, and literally, I walked in and the manager refused to tour me, so it was not a great experience. She proceeded to argue with me that I didn\u2019t have an appointment and I\u2019m like, \u201cWell, I have confirmation,\u201d \u201cNope, if you\u2019re not on my calendar, it wasn\u2019t anywhere.\u201d That really stood out to me.<\/span><\/p>\nI remember going to New York City and, like, it was one of the properties I toured, one of the apartment homes I was shown overlooked The Gershwin Theatre. So I just imagined myself every morning waking up to see The Wicked sign. So I thought that was super cool, but my friend went and toured that with me and it was a hybrid in-person guided for the amenities and then a self-tour. And so when we\u2019re touring the minis with the leasing professional, they added no value to it. My friend was like, \u201cWhat she did could have been a QR code that you scanned with your camera, so she was really unsure.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nThen we saw another one that overlooked Penn Station that was very amenity-heavy. It was the first time I had ever heard of properties doing add-ons, right? For ancillary income, they were saying, \u201cHere\u2019s the gym and here\u2019s the clubhouse. It\u2019s not included in your rent. If you want it, you can add it on.\u201d So it was like $130 if you wanted both or $80 if you want just the gym and $60 if you wanted the clubhouse. So that was the first time I had ever experienced that, and I thought, I was like, \u201cOh, that\u2019s a really cool way to gauge what people\u2019s interests are,\u201d and those spaces were immaculate. They were so clean because the people are paying to use them, right? So there\u2019s not the entitlement. So I thought those two cities to me were what really stood out.<\/span><\/p>\nMegan Eales Monroe:<\/strong><\/p>\nWow, that\u2019s so interesting and it makes sense. Both of those cities have a big reputation, so it doesn\u2019t surprise me. Well, it sounds like you\u2019ve really been on both sides. You\u2019ve seen things through the resident eyes, you\u2019ve walked a day or two in their shoes, but also on the, you know, leasing team\u2019s perspective, I think you\u2019ve really lived that as well. So I\u2019m excited to dive in and talk a little bit about resident experience today. As you know, that\u2019s a topic that AppFolio recently did a big survey on. We reached out to renters across the country and asked them what they expect during the leasing journey and from their interactions with property managers. So I think you\u2019ll have a great perspective to share with us on that. But before we jump in, I was wondering if you could share what your definition is for resident experience and why is it so important to prioritize it?<\/span><\/p>\nRonald Harrington:<\/strong><\/p>\nYeah, so I think the resident experience is actually a twofold. For me, I think it should just be called the living experience because you have to really break it down into a couple things, right? Before they even get to become a resident, there\u2019s the prospect experience and that prospect journey and what it is. And that\u2019s going to set the tone for your whole gamut of the life cycle, right? So I think when people \u2026 There are companies that really focus really on the resident experience, but it\u2019s not so much the prospect experience. There\u2019s no tech. It\u2019s status quo and I\u2019m like, \u201cWell, you don\u2019t have the stage set for what the expectation is.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nSo for me, that resident experience is all in companies from the moment I go to Google and I\u2019m searching a property to the post-move out that I\u2019m going to get when I get my final account state in my deposit, right? So that\u2019s that whole experience and I want all the different touchpoints in there and I think it\u2019s so important to really prioritize that because this is what renters are expecting now, right?<\/span><\/p>\nWhat\u2019s important to prioritize though is that customer service is not experience, and I feel like a lot of companies they think that they\u2019re providing excellent customer service or resident service or whatever that service piece is that that is the experience. I\u2019m like, \u201cNo, they\u2019re two different things, you know\u2026but you have to keep that in mind.\u201d So I think prioritizing both of that, \u201cWhat is it that the renters looking for in your demographics to create that experience?\u201d keeping in mind that you still have to provide that stellar customer service as well.<\/span><\/p>\nMegan Eales Monroe:<\/strong><\/p>\nI love that you called out that those aren\u2019t the same thing. In my mind, I think of customer service, that\u2019s what happens when something goes wrong. You know, resident experience includes everything, hopefully all the things that are going right as well or the things that maybe you never hear about and for a good reason. So that\u2019s a great point. So you have an interesting vantage point, because as a podcast host on Rooms with Ronald, you hear from property management and multifamily experts from around the country. So from your experience, how have you seen conversations about resident experience evolving or changing over the last few years?<\/span><\/p>\nRonald Harrington:<\/strong><\/p>\nProbably since 2022 on, we\u2019ve started hearing about this experience. 2022 was that beginner year. We were testing the waters like, \u201cWhat does the experience mean? What\u2019s the journey?\u201d 2023, we started to see more and more of these companies adapt to it. And what I really started noticing happening in 2023 was the tech-forward, those innovative companies, they started to change their leasing professionals title. So they weren\u2019t calling them leasing specialists, they were calling them experience specialists.<\/span><\/p>\nAnd so I think we\u2019re finally catching up to what other industries are doing and I\u2019m hearing a lot of this, \u201cHow are we enhancing the resident experience for people that they want to live here as we adopt more technology?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nMegan Eales Monroe:<\/strong><\/p>\nIt\u2019s interesting because technology is driving the change. It\u2019s changing what people expect from every kind of experience that they have and their experience renting an apartment is just one facet of that. So that\u2019s what we really tried to unearth in the renter preferences report that we did this year<\/span>.<\/span> We were able to gain a lot of insight into what prospects are looking for when they\u2019re evaluating a new rental. So 88% of them told us that a property management company\u2019s reputation on review sites is important. 95% of them said that clear and transparent listing information really matters. And then 76%, said they\u2019re expecting to hear about a listing when they inquire within 24 hours of first contacting the owner property manager. And I bet that a subset of that 76% is expecting to hear back in 10 minutes or less.<\/span><\/p>\nRonald Harrington:<\/strong><\/p>\nSo I found that statistic interesting of the 24 hours because I was expecting it to be within an hour or two. And actually, it\u2019s like 83% of people expect a response in 20 minutes. So I found it interesting that they gave us a little leeway and my first thought was, \u201cWere these renters maybe \u2026\u201d We do know a lot of renters look off hours, right? So they probably are 8:00, 9:00 at night. So that would understandably why they would say 24 hours, right? Because if I\u2019m doing 8:00 or 9:00 at night, well, no one\u2019s working. And so then I instantly went, \u201cSo if they\u2019re looking for a response, are they looking for an AI response? Are they looking for a personalized response? What type of response?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nBut I thought that was cool that they\u2019re going to say, \u201cHey, here is \u2026 I\u2019m going to give you a 24-hour leeway,\u201d which is a lot nicer than I am. So I found that interesting. I thought the transparency one, that was a no-brainer to me. I knew that number was going to be high because that\u2019s really what we\u2019re looking for because we\u2019re at a cross point in multifamily where it\u2019s no longer consistent, right? So no longer can I go to a website and know what the price includes. 10 years ago, when I started in the industry in Sacramento, all of our pricing said on the website, \u201cCall for details,\u201d right? You knew you had to call the property.<\/span><\/p>\n2018 became \u2026 we started putting it out there, which was the base rent. And then now what\u2019s happening is I can go to a website to Property A and they have a price and the price tells me everything gets broken out into. I go to Property B, it just tells me the price, I don\u2019t know what that\u2019s included because different PMS systems and how everyone\u2019s doing things is not consistent anymore, right? Or what\u2019s happening is I see the base rent price until I start the application. So I think there\u2019s not the transparency in that manner, which it should be and I\u2019m hoping, my hope is that in the next year we, as an industry, come together and find what that streamline looks for. And I think especially now with the news of legislation and junk fees and all of that, that we come together and say, \u201cNo, they\u2019re not junk fees, but I can understand as a renter how they appear to be that way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nMegan Eales Monroe:<\/strong><\/p>\nYeah. You know what I find interesting about the move towards greater transparency? When price is out there, it\u2019s available for anybody who\u2019s looking on a listing website to at least understand the base rent. That makes experience such a differentiator when renters are shopping for apartments because if they know, \u201cThese five apartments are all within my price range,\u201d or they have a very similar price point. What they\u2019re left to compare is on experience.<\/span><\/p>\nRonald Harrington:<\/strong><\/p>\nYeah, I teach people all the time, \u201cRenters that are coming to your property and they are going to your competitors, guess what? You all are about the same price point. That\u2019s why they\u2019re competitors, right? What they\u2019re really coming to look at is you and the experience that you are providing to them, right?\u201d And in my shops, there wasn\u2019t a lot of differentiation between Property A and Property B. They all blur together. They all, for the most part, treated me like a number. No one got to know me, no one got to know the story and all of that. And so I found that very interesting. I\u2019m like, \u201cWell, how are renters deciding?\u201d So I realized what they\u2019re probably deciding is, \u201cwho responded to me first and I can go from there because I don\u2019t remember Property A from Property B. I remember the bad ones because I knew I didn\u2019t want to live there. I remember the gyms. They all kind of looked the same. The finishes all looked the same.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nActually, I was just in Houston the other week and I shopped five properties in one day like a true prospect would do. And at the end of that day, I was exhausted. I was like, \u201cWhich property was that again?\u201d And so I decided, \u201cI remember, okay, this property had the valet parking because no one else did. Didn\u2019t know how it worked as a prospect because no called, so that stood out to me. The second property became the property that had resort-style amenities, right?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nSo I started finding these little things until I got to the last property and that experience of the last property was not perfect, but probably the best tour I had experienced in the last two years because she was personable. There was an experience behind it. She got to know me, she got to know what made me click. She tied things back into it. She found the instant connection of our love for coffee and Starbucks, right? And the fall drinks had just been rolled out and so we had, I\u2019m like, \u201cOh my gosh, you have to try this drink. Here\u2019s what I love about it,\u201d and she tied it in and then she found out along that, she\u2019s like, \u201cOh, one of my favorite things to do at Starbucks is to collect Starbucks mugs,\u201d and instantly, I was like, \u201cOh my gosh, me too. I actually have 102. I had Curio collections that fit in.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nSo when we went into the apartment, the first thing was, \u201cWhere are you going to put your Starbucks mugs, right?\u201d because that was a big deal for me, the first time anyone had made that correlation and got to know me on that level.<\/span><\/p>\nMegan Eales Monroe:<\/strong><\/p>\nI love that the thing that stood out the most wasn\u2019t the fanciest technology or the best amenities, but it was a human being who cared about you and listened to you and focused on the relationship. And I think that it\u2019s paradoxical. We\u2019re here to talk about how technology affects the resident experience, but it\u2019s not really about technology. It\u2019s about, \u201cDoes that technology get out of the way and fade into the background so that the human side of things can come out?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nRonald Harrington:<\/strong><\/p>\nRight. And I think there\u2019s opportunities for technology and AI. You put in show notes, right? Sooner than later and it\u2019s probably already happening, AI is going to take those notes and it\u2019s going to create a followup as if it were a human based off those notes. So in the followup, it can say, \u201cI really enjoyed getting to learn more about your Starbucks collection, your 102 mugs. Remember in this apartment that we saw, you thought it could go on the wall where the TV\u2019s going to be mounted and you would flip it, right?\u201d Guess what? AI could do that. And a lot of times you\u2019re not going to know the difference.<\/span><\/p>\nSo I think, but getting down to it and not treating me a number was perfect. And let me tell you, she didn\u2019t handle the objection. One of my objections was is I\u2019m noticing all this smart home technology like digital keys. They had everything. They had built-in Bluetooth wireless speakers in their apartment home.<\/span><\/p>\nBut then I look at the thermostat and it\u2019s an old thermostat that\u2019s not like a Nest or anything like that. It was just a regular analog normal thermostat and I was like, \u201cSo you\u2019ve been bragging about how technology-forward you are, but yet, you don\u2019t have Nest thermostats,\u201d and she didn\u2019t handle it well. She\u2019s like, \u201cWell, if you really want that, you can put that in yourself.\u201d But I was willing to overlook that because of the relationship that we had built together.<\/span><\/p>\nMegan Eales Monroe:<\/strong><\/p>\nThat makes so much sense. I think that\u2019s a real deciding factor. Humans make decisions based on that gut feeling and so that\u2019s why that relationship matters. So shifting gears just a little bit, you train leasing teams. You help them improve and boost their performance.Leasing agents play such an important role in that prospect experience. What are some ways that they can help to meet some of these high renter expectations?<\/span><\/p>\nRonald Harrington:<\/strong><\/p>\nSo I think it goes back to the foundation of leasing. I feel like, in the COVID world, we kind of hired a lot of bodies and these order takers and we didn\u2019t give them the technology and the skillset to lease, right? So I think we have to teach them like, \u201cWe are going to have to go and really sell. Sell, sell, right?\u201d So I think we go back to there. I think making them aware of what the expectations are in the unspoken because the prospect isn\u2019t going to speak it anymore, right? They\u2019re not going to go in and say, \u201cHere\u2019s my expectation. I expect you to respond within 24 hours. I expect you to treat me like a person. I expect it to be clean. I want \u2026\u201d They\u2019re not going to say that, right?<\/span><\/p>\nSo give them the tools and the surveys and encouraging people to go and learn on their own like, \u201cHey, here\u2019s going on.\u201d I\u2019ve trained so many leasing agents in the last couple years. And I\u2019ve been hearing, \u201cI\u2019ve been doing this two years,\u201d \u201cI\u2019ve been doing this 10 years.\u201d This was the first sales training I\u2019ve ever went through that wasn\u2019t computer-generated from an LM, a learning management system. So I think we\u2019re getting those into understanding that and really letting them understand the psyche of what selling means and in that individualized sales process to that customer because how you sell to me is probably going to be different than how they sell to you, Megan, because\u00a0<\/span>we\u2019re going to want different things and understanding that.<\/span><\/p>\nAnd what\u2019s so unique now and why this is so important today versus five years ago is that I used to be able to tell you the clientele when I was in a market because everyone didn\u2019t really move around, right? We didn\u2019t move across the country. If we moved, a lot of times it was interstate. We would move from one city to another city, but now, you have people moving from California to Austin or you have people moving from New York City to Portland, right? Those expectations are different because they\u2019re used to one way or another, right? They\u2019re used to it.<\/span><\/p>\nI would venture to say Florida probably is the most equipped to lease to these types of people because they\u2019ve always had the snowbirds coming down for the winter month, so they\u2019ve experienced that and not a lot of other states in the country have. So I think it\u2019s so important to really help them understand, \u201cEach renter is going to have a different expectation and you need to find out what that expectation is,\u201d because we haven\u2019t experienced this in \u2026 We\u2019re just now seeing the tip of the iceberg of people relocating across the country. I remember, when I moved to California 10 years ago, I did everything via email at the property I was going to work at and the onsite team was so frustrated that they had to lease over email like, \u201cHow do I get you the application? I had to print it out.\u201d It was uncommon.<\/span><\/p>\nNow, you know, 50% of our prospects are probably moving from out of the state into new states. So these expectations are changing within the demographic that you\u2019re used to.<\/span><\/p>\nMegan Eales Monroe:<\/strong><\/p>\nThat\u2019s a good point. So you mentioned something a minute ago that I want to come back to. So you said that leasing is a sales role. I think that that might be a controversial thing. I agree with you for what it\u2019s worth, but for folks who maybe haven\u2019t thought of it that way before, why is leasing actually a sales role?<\/span><\/p>\nRonald Harrington:<\/strong><\/p>\nBecause they drive the revenue and that\u2019s the other thing, right? Customer service is also not sales, right? They\u2019re two different buckets, right? Someone can provide great customer service and be horrible at sales. I see people interviewing, they\u2019re like, \u201cHow would you handle this?\u201d and we never asked them to sell me anything or we never talk about closing ratios. And I think this is where we start to see people start struggling, because again, you can be smiley and provide great customer service, but if you cannot ask for that sell, that\u2019s where the trouble comes in. And I would venture to say, on my 101 shops, only 11 people ask me to apply for the apartment, which tells me we only have 11 people who are truly salespeople out of the 101 properties because a salesperson is going to ask you to apply for the apartment every single time.<\/span><\/p>\nAnd so I think, you\u2019re right, it\u2019s controversial. People say, \u201cOh, they\u2019re not salespeople.\u201d They\u2019re salespeople. If you are telling them they need 10 move-ins in this month and you\u2019re paying them a commission, they are salespeople. If there\u2019s the word commission involved, they are salespeople.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nMegan Eales Monroe:<\/strong><\/p>\nAbsolutely. And when leasing agents understand it that way, they can understand better what actions they need to take to improve their performance, right? It\u2019s not just, \u201cBe nicer. Provide better service.\u201d It\u2019s now, \u201cHow are you affecting revenue? What is your contribution?\u201d and getting them to think in those terms I think changes maybe the way that they interact with residents.<\/span><\/p>\nRonald Harrington:<\/strong><\/p>\nI think I was very fortunate when I entered into the industry 10 years ago to have a manager who made me take her on a mock tour. It was just thrown to me, right? We went through the normal process. She guided me through and then she says, \u201cOkay, you\u2019re going to take us on a mock tour. We will guide you to the apartment. Obviously, you don\u2019t know where that is, but everything else is on you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nAnd she said to me, \u201cI\u2019m not expecting you to know specifics like square footage. I can teach you that. I just need to see if you can sell in your personality.\u201d Luckily for me, I did my homework. I knew that it had four pools on site and I knew it was like how many units. I did some homework that I could talk those talking points and I remember getting to the apartment and we were walking back to the office. So I said, \u201cSo what do you think? Are you ready to apply?\u201d and she was like, \u201cWell, we need to think about it,\u201d and I verbatim quoted their special at that moment that they were offering.<\/span><\/p>\nAnd so we get back, she\u2019s like, \u201cHow\u2019d you know the special?\u201d I said, \u201cWell, while I was waiting, someone answered the phone and they told them over the phone, right?\u201d So I took that like, \u201cHey, that was the first interview I\u2019d ever did in multifamily, so I assumed that was standard practice, right? You do this. Every company does this.\u201d So I took that away, right? So now anytime I interview a leasing agent on site, I make them take me on a mock tour. I think it\u2019s her thing. Once they\u2019re hired, the other thing that she did is she really made sure everyone in our office knew the financials, \u201cHere\u2019s how one apartment impacts revenue. Here\u2019s how vacancy impacts revenue,\u201d and we started talking about cap rates and all of that.<\/span><\/p>\nSo really understanding, making sure your leasing team understands their impact on it is going to help drive revenue and that experience, right? Because I\u2019m going to treat things differently now if I know, \u201cOh my gosh, we\u2019re losing $3,000 a month on this apartment. I\u2019m going to lease this because I don\u2019t want to lose $3,000.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nMegan Eales Monroe:<\/strong><\/p>\nThat changes everything. So speaking of training leasing teams, I want to connect this back to what we were talking about with response time earlier. We know it\u2019s important, residents want to hear back quickly, but what are some of the obstacles that leasing teams run into that prevent them from being able to give that quick response?<\/span><\/p>\nRonald Harrington:<\/strong><\/p>\nSo I think our properties are inundated with lots of different things, right? And I feel like a lot of times what happens is, as people advance in their career, the further they get removed from the onsite position, they forget what it\u2019s like. So now you have investors wanting this report, so now that falls into the property management. Now we\u2019re seeing an uptick in leads, right? Because we need more leads because we\u2019re not leasing. So now, instead of having 25 quality leads that I can really respond to, now I have 150 that I have to respond to. The resident expectation has changed, right? Now we\u2019re not only property managers, we\u2019re counselors and babysitters and problem solvers and all these. So residents are coming in and wanting to spend 10, 15, 20 minutes in the office with us, talking through things because guess what? They\u2019re working from home more so now they have more time to kill and talk to the office.<\/span><\/p>\nSo I think having that combination and just the day to day, right? We are seeing more maintenance problems, so those are taking priorities, answering that. We are seeing reporting isn\u2019t being automated. We\u2019re still old school on reporting in a lot of places. So that\u2019s taking time and a property manager can only handle so much that then they start delegating to the assistant manager. Well, the assistant manager can also only hold so much. Now we\u2019re going back to the model of now to the leasing agent from the onsite. So that\u2019s part of the problem. The second part of the problem is we can\u2019t hire people, so we\u2019re always short-staffed. So sometimes you\u2019ll see a leasing agent who\u2019s now a maintenance person because they need to go fix the maintenance problem. So we\u2019re dealing with short staff.<\/span><\/p>\nAnd as great as centralization is for the leasing world, I also think that that\u2019s causing some barriers too because these people are still going to the site and they\u2019re still dealing with the people. So we might have taken \u2026 Normally, we might\u2019ve had two leasing people on this site and now we\u2019ve removed one because we\u2019ve centralized the endowed leads part to handle that, but the people are still coming in. So I think we\u2019re still seeing some of that. It\u2019s not a perfect world yet in this centralized model. We\u2019re only talking about it for two to three years now.<\/span><\/p>\nSo I think adding all those obstacles into just the basics etiquette of who we\u2019re hiring and things like that is causing us to have a delay in response because we don\u2019t know how to prioritize our day. We\u2019re not teaching time management skills just yet.<\/span><\/p>\nMegan Eales Monroe:<\/strong><\/p>\nI\u2019m so glad you brought up centralization because I was going to ask about that next. I feel like that\u2019s always offered as the solution to the problem of onsite teams being pulled in too many directions, like leasing agents being pulled into maintenance or whatever. It\u2019s like, \u201cOh, centralization will fix all of that.\u201d So I\u2019m glad that you pointed out that it\u2019s not really a silver bullet. do you still have an overall positive take on centralization or is it something that you\u2019re more hesitant about?<\/span><\/p>\nRonald Harrington:<\/strong><\/p>\nNo, I think there\u2019s a place for centralization, and actually, I don\u2019t like the word centralization. I think, for me, you hear the word centralization, site teams instantly freak out because, \u201cOh my gosh, my job\u2019s in jeopardy,\u201d right? That\u2019s not the case. For me, I would much rather call it a specialization because you\u2019re going to find the people that love to do the things that they do, right? I knew, when I was onsite, I worked my way up, right? I\u2019m a people person. I love leasing, but at that time, the progression for me was, \u201cYou could do leasing. You go to assistant manager. You go to manager, right?\u201d Well, I was a horrible assistant manager.<\/span><\/p>\nI was horrible. So horrible like they had to combine my roles assistant manager into a leasing manager into one and then we had an accounts manager because I remember telling a resident \u2014 and I do not condone this, so this is not what you should do, this is why I was a bad assistant manager \u2014 she came in and she said, \u201cMy grandmother died. I can\u2019t pay my rent. It\u2019s going to be late,\u201d and this was the fifth that I\u2019ve heard this same story from this resident. And I said, \u201cWell, how many more grandparents can I expect to die because this is the fifth one, and where I come from, you usually only have four?\u201d I was not very empathetic, because again, it was an excuse, right? Not the best way that I could have handled that, right? I learned I would never do that today. I\u2019m actually mortified that that\u2019s what I did, right?<\/span><\/p>\nBut if you said to me, \u201cYou know what? You can advance your career, you can make more money. We\u2019re going to give you a specialized role where all you do is you go around and you tour all the people and you get them to apply.\u201d Because there are people who are really great at getting people in the door. Their phone etiquette and their email etiquette is so convincing that they can come into phone. They get you in front of them, they can\u2019t handle that, right? They don\u2019t want to be pushy and say, \u201cDo you want to apply for this apartment? Are you ready to live with it?\u201d They can\u2019t handle that. But if I can just get you in the door, I could create that niche market for my company, that\u2019s a specialized role.<\/span><\/p>\nAnd then I could have someone who is the closer that can come in, they can read the notes, pick up on the relationship, build that relationship, get you to apply, I can do that. And guess what? You have some people who are really good at conflict resolution and providing those kind of things, so they can be my complaint department, right? Resident services can go to them. They can handle those types of issues. They\u2019re really good at. For me, that wasn\u2019t my strong point. So I think there are those buckets that we can do it in. I think we\u2019ve spent so much time thinking of centralization or specialization as the money saver and the problem, the solution to all of our problems that we didn\u2019t stop to think about, \u201cWell, people are going to move in and they\u2019re still going to have issues that they want to talk to the office about. So what are we doing to ensure that the resident, once they move in, is taken care of, which is then inundating the teams?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nMegan Eales Monroe:<\/strong><\/p>\nI love that shift, thinking of it as specialization because you\u2019re right, that creates more of a trajectory for people to grow their careers within as they improve their craft and that\u2019s one of the things that affects the difficulty I think hiring and retaining leasing teams because there\u2019s not that perception of upward mobility, but with specialization, it creates all these opportunities.<\/span><\/p>\nRonald Harrington:<\/strong><\/p>\nI had a boss who I worked for and she came on board as the director and she had never worked as a manager, assistant manager because the company she worked for told her, \u201cYou would hate those jobs and you\u2019ll be bad at those jobs. You are all about the experience.\u201d So she worked for her previous company for a very long time and she had experience in her title like before it was cool to have experience in the title.<\/span><\/p>\nMegan Eales Monroe:<\/strong><\/p>\nSo going back to the question about response times, I feel like we have a much better understanding now of what are some of the things going on behind the scenes that makes it difficult to respond faster. I\u2019m curious if there are any strategies that you\u2019ve seen actually work to speed up response times?<\/span><\/p>\nRonald Harrington:<\/strong><\/p>\nYes. So one way I always look at is I look for quality over quantity. \u201cWhat is the data telling me?\u201d right? One way to help response time is get rid of the leads that aren\u2019t helping, that aren\u2019t converting. I don\u2019t need to be inundated, right? So that\u2019s one way, right? So I would rather have those 25 from the source that is always \u2026 My ratio is 75%. If they come in from this source, they\u2019re going to apply, right? I can focus on that. That\u2019s the first way. The second way is to take off some of those mundane, so using the AI and those chatbots to help. I will tell you from experience, I will not go to a property and tour if I cannot book an appointment online. So making sure that I can book the appointment online because that\u2019s going to take the back and forth out, \u201cI\u2019m going to be able to schedule.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nThere\u2019s nothing worse than getting email, \u201cI see you want to book an appointment. When are you free?\u201d \u201cOkay, so you want to do Friday. Great. Does morning or evening work better for you?\u201d \u201cOkay. Oh, you want to do 2:00. I can\u2019t do 2:00 now. Can you do 2:30?\u201d So right there alone was five or six different emails, phone call, whatever the form of communication is. So having those self-scheduling or what I like to call self-service and I think, as an industry, I\u2019m hoping, I\u2019ve been saying this, 2025, 2026 is going to be the year of self-service and that\u2019s going to speed up response times, right? Whether it\u2019s a work order that I can put a work order in, I get an email back that says, \u201cDo you want to try to fix this yourself?\u201d \u201cOf course.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nI get a video of how to reset my garbage disposal from the maintenance people onsite. I watch it. It works. I get a follow-up email that says, \u201cWere you successful?\u201d I say, \u201cYes, the work order closes out. We track it.\u201d If I say, \u201cNo,\u201d it then goes to the maintenance team and then they come and fix it, right? That speeds up the response then. Because here\u2019s the thing, people are already doing this. I learned it on TikTok, was a huge trend for a very long time like, \u201cWhy not just track the data?\u201d So I think that speeds up the response time as well and just making sure teams understand what\u2019s the priority and understanding, \u201cOkay, so your priority needs to be focused on leasing and handling the leads that are coming in. The assistant manager, your focus needs to be on the resident and the resident satisfaction and understanding delinquency.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nSo people understanding what their job is and the overall [inaudible 00:41:50] will re-speed it up. But just taking these mundane tests, there are so many tools out there to make life easier and really using it and making sure that the teams are bought in.<\/span><\/p>\nMegan Eales Monroe:<\/strong><\/p>\nThat makes a lot of sense. It\u2019s like technology can help there because people, like we said, they want those human interactions, but they don\u2019t need them for everything. Sometimes you just want to get something done quickly.<\/span><\/p>\nRonald Harrington:<\/strong><\/p>\nRight.<\/span><\/p>\nMegan Eales Monroe:<\/strong><\/p>\nSo to round out our conversation today, I also wanted to talk a little bit about renter preferences and expectations when it comes to financial services. So for example, we\u2019re talking about things like security deposit alternatives, flexible rent payment options, things like rent reporting. So in our research, we saw that even though these services are considered important by residents, they\u2019re not really widely offered yet or available to most of them. So if you\u2019re working at a property that does offer these services, that can be a really good way to stand out and possibly attract more renters, especially in competitive leasing market. So can you speak to a little bit from the perspective of a leasing team, how does the availability of these financial services factor and during the leasing journey and the interactions that you have with residents?<\/span><\/p>\nRonald Harrington:<\/strong><\/p>\nYeah, so these are all great sources. I\u2019m glad to see the shift towards alternative deposits and those kinds of things. From a leasing standpoint, for me, that\u2019s what you want to talk about on the tour, right? Because again, there\u2019s an expectation, there\u2019s transparency. I can read it on the website, alternative deposit, but what does that mean? What\u2019s the benefit of that? So bringing that into once they\u2019re there because they\u2019re there for a reason and you have to add value to their journey. Otherwise, it could be a QR code or a self-guided tour. So making sure you\u2019re bringing those kinds of services up at the time of tour with them and you\u2019re building that relationship.<\/span><\/p>\nSo no one ever really talked about it. I was recently in Houston when I was shopping those properties. One of the properties offers a $0 deposit on approved credit always. That\u2019s always the caveat and that\u2019s for me why I don\u2019t really like those kinds of things on the website because it\u2019s always an asterisk and then it\u2019s always at the bottom at the fine print. And then when they come in and then you tell them the requirements, and all of a sudden, now it\u2019s not a $0 deposit because you were conditionally approved, right? Well, your website says this, so it breaks the trust.<\/span><\/p>\nI would rather be able to have the conversation say, \u201cYeah, we have different programs or you know what? We can report this to the credit bureau for you. How does that sound?\u201d So I think having it involved in the process and really understanding that it\u2019s a selling tool, it\u2019s a technique for the site teams to sell and stand out among their competition because not everyone\u2019s doing it.<\/span><\/p>\nMegan Eales Monroe:<\/strong><\/p>\nThat\u2019s a great point. And I guess that as these services become a little bit more prevalent, it\u2019s going to go from a differentiator to a baseline expectation. That\u2019s the way these things go as they become more adopted.<\/span><\/p>\nRonald Harrington:<\/strong><\/p>\nAnd here\u2019s the thing too that I always like to point out like financial reporting, things like that. For a lot of these companies, this is a source of revenue. It\u2019s an ancillary income, right? And so if you\u2019re offering it, you have to be sure that you equip your sales team with, \u201cWhat\u2019s the benefit for the resident, right? Why should they pay $5 a month, knowing that it probably cost the company a $1.99 or $2.50 or whatever to report it, that there is no manual work on the company because it\u2019s going to pull from these systems, right?\u201d So making sure that, if you\u2019re offering it, that\u2019s going to be the expectation. And I think in probably five years, that differentiator is going to be your baseline and they\u2019re not going to want to pay for it.<\/span><\/p>\nThey\u2019re going to expect it like, \u201cI\u2019m already paying you $2,000 a month for rent. That\u2019s why I had to go to a flex. I had to pay the flex, monthly rent flex payments because I can\u2019t afford that all up front,\u201d or even what I\u2019m seeing a lot of companies do is they don\u2019t want to take the partial payments, so you have to pay it in full and you have to find those alternatives. We\u2019re going to start meeting the renter where it\u2019s at. And I think it\u2019s so important to do that because Gen Z is all about transparency. They grew up thinking that the American dream is out of reach. They\u2019re not going to be able to pay, ever afford a home and they hear about credits and then they go to college and then they get the debt of student loans and so now they tank that, but I also think we\u2019re doing a better job at freshmen and even in high school teaching financial literacy, \u201cSo I\u2019m aware of what my credit score is because I know that\u2019s everything.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nAnd I think before my generation, I\u2019m a Millennial, my parents helped me out with my first car and all of that things, but with the way things are now, we\u2019re not seeing a lot of that happen. So now I\u2019m more self-aware of that and I have to do everything I can to build that because I also know that a lot of companies are doing credit checks when you apply. So if my credit isn\u2019t satisfactory, it now affects me to get a job. It affects my ability to get a job. So I\u2019m going to make sure I can do everything that I can to build on what I\u2019m already doing.<\/span><\/p>\nMegan Eales Monroe:<\/strong><\/p>\nAnd that was something we saw in our data was that Gen X, Millennial and Gen Z renters rated the importance of financial services offering significantly higher than Baby Boomers or Silent Generation. So that I think really backs up what you were saying and that\u2019s some great context about why these services are so important. I think it also connects a little bit to something you mentioned before, just with the housing crunch that we\u2019re seeing a lot of these renters want to build up their financial future so that someday they could buy a home, but for now, they have to rent.<\/span><\/p>\n
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