Knowing what's hot right now in leasing and property management helps professionals and others to understand the most significant trends in today's industry and their impact. We're including some of the top property management safety tips that are helping to improve jobs related to these fields.
Here's what's happening behind the scenes as companies innovate in managing housing and rental properties.
One thing to keep in mind is that many of these trends started in recent years and were amplified in 2021-2022. Most trends start small, often under the radar, and emerge a little at a time. Rome wasn't built in a day, after all. Having said that, some of these trends are current to this year, and others may have become part of the real estate world in previous years but were amplified in 2022.
Volatile markets and a combination of factors have pushed rental costs higher. With that in mind, it's getting harder for many renters to qualify for a given rental. Specifically, this change makes things harder for both parties. Leasing professionals have to factor that into their analysis and consider things like changing interest rates. Then there's the work involved in the average deal, where some studies report that it takes 8-10 touch points to convert a lead into a lease.1
There's also been a shift to remote work in the wake of the pandemic. The past couple of years were quite the eye-opener!
Virtual showings are an excellent example of that. Increasingly, leasing professionals are conducting showings online, partly for social distancing purposes, instead of meeting someone at an empty sample apartment or commercial space.2 This method is also much more convenient for many people looking to rent.
There's another big trend in property management and leasing these days. Career professionals utilize artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) tools to help make deals and get people into rental units.
These helpful computer programs create massive efficiencies in this market by automating different workflows. For example, an AI tool can look at large sets of archived data and tell human operators how a multi-unit property is doing concerning vacancy, trouble calls, maintenance needs, etc. There's no more guesswork when looking back through old records and evaluating how much profit a unit has generated over time, after expenses. AI tools can even help with phone calls.2 A story from Respage this past June shows some of the emergences of these AI leasing assistant tools in 2022. For example, in 2022, there's a trend toward making these tools more robust and addressing details like bookings, people with late rent, etc.
This is a powerful help to leasing companies, contractors, and companies that maintain units. Having one-step access to digital service records shows the reality of how a property has been maintained over several years. These records provide a wealth of data on water and storm damage, tenant damage, police calls, appliance issues, and other logged events.
With evolving digital rent collection systems, the book-keeping side of things is getting much easier. Landlords no longer have to physically receive checks from each tenant in the mail and drag them to the bank for endorsement and deposit. New systems started in past years continue to evolve in 2022-2023, offering self-service portals for tenants and additional transparency tools to make things like late fees clearer.
What do you do when your leasing and property management employees don't feel safe onsite? More companies are turning to options like Apartment Guardian's OnSite Safety Devices, which allow their employees worried about their personal safety to quickly call 911 or call for help with the push of a button.
The hope is that employees never have to use these onsite safety devices, but having them in their pockets makes workers feel safer as they go into rental units to conduct showings or other business — for example, for maintenance evaluations.
Then there's also a trend in commercial real estate that's taking off this year. J.P. Morgan estimates that commercial retail real estate leasing has decreased by 20 basis points.3
That's a lot!
All of this is having an impact on the leasing and rental world and is influencing property management.
Apartment Guardian wants to help you stay current with today's trends and keep your property management team safe and successful. You, too, can integrate these tips and tools into your business to knock it out of the park with your leasing and renting strategies. Get in touch to learn more about Apartment Guardian's Onsite Safety Devices or book a meeting for a complete overview and introduction to this powerful tool kit.
https://www.appfolio.com/blog/industry-leaders-virtual-leasing-tools
What Can an AI Leasing Assistant Do? (leasehawk.com)
2022 Commercial Real Estate Market Trends | JPMorgan Chase