According to a March 30th survey conducted by RentCafé, 52% of renters still want to move when they find the right apartment, even considering the concerns posed by the coronavirus. While home buying is a long, multi-step process, rental transactions take place in a much shorter period of time, and can be done entirely online! See how how to find your client an apartment without ever leaving your home.
How to Find Your Client an Apartment Without Leaving Your Home
1. Communicate with your client over Skype
Depending on where you live, by now you might be fairly accustomed to trading in-person conversations with some friendly Skype or Zoom calls. Communicating with your clients is no exception. While most homebuyers have chosen to suspend their home search until public life resumes, most renters remain largely undeterred by the current global conditions and want to go ahead with their moves. Acquire some tech know-how and make sure that you understand how Skype works, and can set up a quiet area of your home where you can talk to your new rental leads.
Use your first meeting to remind your lead why it is great to have a real estate agent on their team. Remind your lead that you are a local expert, and, thanks to your brokerage, or the tech tools you use on a daily basis, you can lead virtual showings.
2. Find the Right Apartment on Digital Portals
Make sure that your client’s needs and wants have stayed the same considering COVID-19. For example, perhaps searching for a fully furnished apartment makes sense for someone relocating and renting. Or, perhaps, it might make sense to adjust a price range in accordance with any budget cuts your renter may be anticipating. Treat your client’s concerns empathetically, and always be honest. If they are thinking about reducing their budget, let them know what on their wishlist might have to be compromised.
And, make sure you’re doing your research, too. Always check to see if there’s a landlord ready to offer increased commissions to real estate agents who can fill their vacancies. Landlords are eager to get renters into their units, so are increasingly hopeful to assist real estate agents ready to make this happen. If these units match up with your renter’s wants and needs—perfect! Let them know about these great options.
3. Check to see if it has Virtual Showing Capacity or Great Photos
Choose the listings you show your clients deliberately. Some apartments allow the user to follow an animated tour of the home. And, some apartments have realistic, high-quality photos that can give your client a great idea of how their life in that unit might look.
While your client goes on virtual showings from the comfort of their own homes, make sure to send them any extra information you think might be useful, including apartment amenities or any move-in specials that the landlord is offering.
4. Lead your client on a live showing
Vacant apartment units are still getting shown, and, for a totally contact-free experience, you can film walk-throughs not just for your clients, but for your whole sphere of influence. Go LIVE on Instagram or Facebook and (with the property managers or landlord’s permission), show a vacant apartment that can be rented right now.
The real estate community is adopting quickly to the limitations being placed on public life, and are quickly making sure that units have virtual showings capacity. Real estate agents are integral members of their communities and dedicated to finding their clients a home that fits their lifestyles, and creating lasting relationships with property owners and renters. So, work with property owners and sellers to try to make virtual showings possible for your clients.
If the unit is empty, and it’s possible for you to go outside, try live streaming a showing.
Like a showing conducted face-to-face, make sure to apply the best practices you use during your showings everyday–walk slowly, pay attention to lighting, be clear about what you are seeing, leave some time to explain the amenities that the apartment complex or this specific unit offer, and make sure to let your viewers know about any specials that the landlord is willing to offer new movers.
Check out these top tips:
5 Secrets to Stand Out Virtual Showings
Top tip: Run through your showing with a friend, family member, or fellow agent before you show it to your client.
How Can You Find Apartments With Virtual Showing Capacity?
It can be tough to find units that have virtual showing capacity, but it’s crucial to figure out how to find your client an apartment virtually. Rental Beast maintains the nation’s largest and most comprehensive database of apartment units in the country, and our database can be filtered by virtual showing capacity.
5. Fill out an online application
Have you taken your rental applications digital? This is not only a great solution for times when staying contact-free and paper-free is important, but also a great way to ensure that your applications run smoothly and quickly during any part of the year!
We’re pleased to announce that Apply Now by Rental Beast is lightning fast, 100% online, and totally free for real estate agents. With credit scores processed instantly, and viewable only to designated reviewers in a secure portal, Apply Now gets your client into their apartment and your commission in your hands at lightning speed.
6. Reach back out with a coordinated outreach scheme
Here’s another reason why so many real estate agents work with rentals to sustainably build and grow their business: renters become homebuyers. This transition can even happen from one of the first conversations you have with a rental lead! Dispel myths about a 20% down payment, and let them know what type of timeline makes sense. Also, remind them that the home buying process is a long one and you’d be happy to helping them start now–some would-be renters really can buy a house, and your expert opinion and guidance will be invaluable.
Learning how to find your client an apartment virtually is the first step. Adapt to these new situations and start building your business with rentals! Rental Beast allows agents the ability to access the nation’s largest database of no co-broke rental properties, filterable by virtual showing capacity. To learn more about the Rental Beast platform or to request a no-obligation demo visit Rental Beast for Real Estate Agents.