How we cut nine days off time to lease

Two years ago our portfolio average from vacancy to signed lease was 27 days. It is now 18. Nothing about that improvement was clever. It was three scheduling changes, and any manager could make all three tomorrow.

Start marketing at notice, not at move-out

The clock starts the day the tenant gives notice. Where the lease allows showings during the notice period and the outgoing tenant is willing, we photograph and list immediately with an honest available date.

This alone took about six days off the average. It is also the change tenants complain about most, so we ask rather than demand, give proper notice for every showing, and offer a small rent credit on the final month where the outgoing tenant agrees to a showing schedule. Almost everyone says yes when it is framed as a trade rather than an obligation.

Accompany every showing

Self-guided lockbox showings are cheaper and they cost you more. An accompanied showing produces feedback, answers the objection in the room, and converts to an application at roughly twice the rate in our own numbers.

It also means someone with a licence is deciding whether the property is left secure, which matters more than the efficiency saving on any spreadsheet.

Decide in two business days

Slow screening loses good applicants to faster managers. We publish a written standard, process applications in order of receipt, and return a decision inside two business days with the reason recorded either way.

That last part is both a fair housing discipline and a practical one. When the standard is written down and applied in order, the decision is quick because there is nothing to deliberate about.

• 27 days to 18 days portfolio average, over two years
• About 6 days from pre-marketing at notice
• About 2 days from accompanied showings converting faster
• About 1 day from a fixed two business day screening decision

Written for a demo website. Figures are samples drawn from a fictional portfolio, and nothing here is legal, tax or investment advice.