22 Time Management Tips for Leasing Teams in 2022

If one of your New Year’s resolutions was to spend less time stressed out and more time enjoying what you love, then you are like so many others, especially in the multifamily industry. 

Leasing teams know that their schedules can get jam-packed and they can quickly become overwhelming. Working as a leasing agent often means finding creative ways and solutions to problems that suddenly get dropped on your plate.

That’s why it’s important to have some helpful time management tips for leasing teams heading into this new year. 

In honor of the new year, we’ve compiled a list of 22 great time management tips for your leasing team to apply to their daily operations so they can spend more time converting those leads to leases.

1. Flexible Office Hours

Designating a set time for office hours can make a huge difference in helping you manage your time. Encourage residents to schedule appointments ahead of time and ask them what they might want to discuss so that they can prepare for the meeting. It’s important to have set office hours on weekends and weeknights so every resident has an opportunity to schedule an appointment, but also you can use those office hours to meet with prospective residents to walk them through a virtual tour or schedule an in-person tour. 

2. Make a To-Do list

Having daily, weekly, or even monthly to-do list will help you stay organized and on track of all of your responsibilities. Sometimes having things written down makes it more efficient for leasing teams to know what still needs to get done, or what is on their agenda for the next few weeks. Having an individual to-do list is great, but why not take it one step further and have a leasing team to-do list. This can help other team members know where to pick up the slack once they are done with their own responsibilities.

3. Set Aside Time for Calls and Emails

Starting your mornings by setting aside some time to look through emails and listen to any voicemails can be a great time management tip for leasing teams. This way you can delegate any leads or maintenance requests right away to begin a productive day.

4. Utilize Technology

Online calendars, group texting, Slack, and electronic banking can be very useful tools in helping your leasing team manage their tasks. These collaboration tools not only help with time management, but also boost communication and culture within the team.

5. Give Yourself a Break

Sometimes things come up and emergencies happen, so you can’t always complete or even start the tasks you had planned for that day. Just remember that that’s okay. Incorporate today’s unfinished list into tomorrow. Schedule some downtime for yourself and your team so you don’t get burnt out. 

6. Make a Schedule

It can be hard to focus on just one task for several hours, that’s why making a schedule for your day can be incredibly helpful. Maybe you are working on emails and then to give yourself a break from that you schedule some online virtual tours for prospective residents and then you go back to working on emails. Breaking up your tasks like this can help you optimize your time so you aren’t getting overwhelmed or distracted. 

7. Cross Off the Most Difficult Tasks at the Beginning

The best way to start your day is by tackling the most difficult task right away. Getting a challenging task done and out of the way early on helps you to avoid that feeling of something important hanging over your head all day. Getting the difficult tasks done first can help you focus the rest of your day on the responsibilities you might enjoy more. 

8. Learn to Say “No”

One of the best time management tips for leasing teams is learning to say “No,” when you can. It’s okay if one person on your team doesn’t handle everything. That’s why you have a team. Knowing when you can’t handle any more tasks for the day is crucial. You would rather have a team doing their best work than one person doing okay work because they are taking on too much.

9. Stay Organized

Staying organized is a great time management tip for leasing teams. Staying organized allows your leasing team to meet residents’ demands and assist potential tenants better with questions or concerns. One great way to do this is by keeping a contact list of potential tenants. You can use this list for personal details so a team member can find a reason to reach out to them again in the future.

10. Be Honest

As a member of the leasing team, a potential resident may ask some tough questions during the leasing process. The best policy is honesty. Being honest shows your community is trustworthy and helpful. After answering honestly, its important to follow up with a solution the community has in place. 

11. Continue to Network

Networking is huge in any professional capacity. It allows you to meet prospective residents and other leasing agents. Building relationships in any industry is important, but especially the multifamily industry because that’s how you can gain new clients.

12. Dress for Success

The type of residents your community attracts could determine how your leasing team should dress when meeting with prospects. Matching your dress code to the needs of your clients can help your leasing team feel more confident and successful in their leasing endeavors. 

13. Learn How to Problem Solve

Learning how to problem solve is an important time management tip for leasing teams. Sometimes it can be difficult to fill vacant units. Not everyone is looking for the same type of home. It’s best to understand what potential tenants are looking for and how your community can help solve their problems. 

14. Keep Developing and Training

Continue to train and develop your skills as a leasing team is important because it can help you improve your selling techniques. Between online courses, books or in person training sessions, there are many options to help make sure your leasing team is at the top of their game. The industry is ever-changing. Learning about the new ways to attract clients, like using virtual leasing can help find those leads and sign those leases quicker.

15. Learn Closing Techniques

There are many ways leasing teams can perfect their closing techniques. Using personalized messages for that extra touch, or informative one-sheets for your teams to help answer many common questions during the leasing process are great tips to help your leasing team expedite the closing process.

16. Ask For Feedback

In any job, asking for feedback can be very beneficial. In this case, asking for feedback can help improve your leasing team’s overall strategy. Maybe someone on the team has a different approach when taking prospects through a virtual tour, or maybe a current resident really liked how a team member showed all the different floor plans during the initial tour. Whatever the feedback may be, it can help to improve your leasing team.

17. Schedule Meetings

Well-organized staff meetings where everyone is engaged, feedback is encouraged and ideas can be shared can create an overall better culture among the team. Giving this time for your team to support each other can help your property thrive overall. When the team works great together and trusts one another, the entire property benefits. 

18. Master Your Morning Routine

How you start your day is just as important, if not more, than how you end it. A study from Harvard found that students who slept in had lower GPAs. While it might be nice every once in a while to snooze your alarm clock, waking up at the same time each morning helps you set into a routine that your body and brain can count on. 

19. Spend More on Lead Generation

This might seem strange, because if you are having trouble managing your time, why would more leads help that? But spending more on lead generation helps give you more data to work with. With that comes, a better understanding of where and how you should focus your time. This can help when it comes to sending out email campaigns and learning how many people are actually opening it and what changes you might need to make. Spending more on lead generation will actually help your leasing team save time.

20. Delegate Tasks and Responsibilities

You have a leasing team for a reason, it’s not just you working on everything. We like to think we can do everything ourselves, but we can’t and it’s perfectly okay to ask for help.

21. Set Deadlines

A great time management tip for leasing teams is to set deadlines. When you create deadlines you give yourself a time frame of when something needs to be completed. This helps you stay on track and focus and understand what other responsibilities you can take on during that time.

22. Reward Yourself

Probably the most important time management tip is rewarding yourself. After completing a project don’t forget to reward yourself. This kind of positive reinforcement will encourage you to work towards other rewards and help you complete more projects in the future. Good rewards could be sleeping in a little the next day, enjoying a few hours at the spa, or giving yourself a nice treat.

Scheduling, prioritizing and making lists might seem like easy simple things to do to help manage your time but these time management tips for leasing agents will go a long way in helping you boost your productivity. As a leasing agent, your job can be demanding but it’s important to implement these time management tips so you are treating your residents and prospective residents as people, not just potential commissions. 

If you’re looking to help your leasing teams out with more digital marketing content, contact our sales team today. 

LCP360 is a National Digital Marketing company located in Chicago specializing in photography, virtual tours, 3D renderings, video animations, virtual staging, and floor plans. LCP360 offers multifamily, senior living, and many other real estate industries a creative and innovative way to showcase space. By combining the best technologies from web marketing and panoramic photography, LCP360 has developed a best-in-class virtual tour web application that lets renters virtually tour a property from any location.