As property managers, we don’t talk enough about just how complicated the leasing process is. There’s this idea that leasing is just, “This property’s for rent! You want it? Great, you can move in next week.” In reality, leasing is a lot more than just posting a property on Facebook. It’s a detailed, complicated process that can be sometimes frustrating for everyone involved.
If you’re a quality, professional property manager, you’re looking for qualified, credit-worthy residents. You’re not just accepting whoever walks in the door, because you know that’s going to cause more headaches down the line.
If you ask me, there are twelve crucial points in the leasing process—points where property managers like us have to win over and over again. If we lose at even one of those twelve steps, we’ve lost that qualified applicant entirely. But if you know what the applicant wants at each step, you can get your vacant properties filled a lot faster, with great residents.
One of the things that makes property management so unique (and, for many of us, so exciting) is that we’re wearing so many hats, even just in the leasing process. When you’re buying a home, there are multiple different people who each have a specific role to play.
The Realtor is there to show you the home of your dreams and convince you that you should buy it, even if it’s at the top of your price range. The lender will counsel you through the process and push to get you approved for a mortgage. And then the underwriter is the bad guy. They’re this mysterious person behind the scenes. They’re the one who typically takes the blame if the mortgage doesn’t come through and you can’t buy the property.
As property managers, it’s just us. We have to be the good guy and the bad guy. We have to market properties, woo applicants, enforce restrictions that determine whether they qualify, and then deliver the news, good or bad. Then, once someone’s moved in, our job is to keep them in line while also keeping them happy. It’s a lot of different jobs at a lot of different points in the process, so let’s take a look at the twelve wins you need to get to lease the property at market rent to a qualified resident.
When an applicant starts their journey of finding a home to rent, you aren’t there to help them. They’re out in the ether somewhere, and all you can do is market that property as best you possibly can and try to get them to apply.
The first step is to be where the qualified applicants in your area are spending their time. In 2025, that’s typically online. You need to be on listing sites, search results, and social media so that people searching for rentals will find you.
Yes, some people still drive around and look at for-lease signs, or ask their hairdresser, or scan the newspaper. But the vast majority of qualified applicants are looking at Zillow, Trulia, Apartments.com, and other major listing sites.
If you’re not on those sites, they’re never going to find you. That’s not genius marketing, it’s just table stakes.
Once people have found you, you have to actually get them to click on your particular listing. This is one of the top three wins to be optimizing. Picture it: they’re probably scrolling through page after page, dozens if not hundreds of different properties. How do you stand out to be the one they click on? No click = no lease.
It starts with filters. When people look for rentals, they’re filtering by price, by number of bedrooms, by pet friendliness. You need to have your listings structured correctly so that you’re not getting filtered out accidentally. Take a look at your pricing strategy. If you’re listing a home at $2200 a month, and someone adds a filter for “under $2200,” you may not show up at all. If you list at $2199, suddenly you’re right in the mix. I’ve tested this theory. I’ve gotten twice as many leads on the same property just by changing the price by $5 per month.
Next, you have to have a great headline and thumbnail. Show the best aspect of that unit right in the first image, and emphasize it in the headline. If you operate a portfolio where you have consistent inventory, like build to rent neighborhoods, townhomes, or condos, you can do some experimenting with how you word these headlines. Try different things and see what resonates.
Don’t be afraid to go on these listing sites and actually browse like you’re a resident. See where your properties are and aren’t showing up! You can even shop your competition or look at what people in other markets are doing. Most property managers no longer know what the modern leasing experience is like for applicants, and that’s why they’re falling short.
At the end of the day, your thumbnail, headline, and price have to beat out all the other tiny rectangles on that screen to win that click.
The thing about online listings is that you can’t be there to ask, “Do you have any questions for me?” If someone has questions you haven’t answered, they’re probably going to move on.
Remember, a lot of people are browsing rentals at 3AM on a weeknight. They’re tired, they’re stressed, and they’re trying to plan a weekend of tours. (Trust me, I see when the emails and voicemails come in booking showings.)
If your listing isn’t answering all of the questions that applicant has, it’s not going to make that list of places to go see on Saturday. Your ad has to be thorough enough to cover things like “Does it have a dishwasher?” and “Can I have a cat?” If it doesn’t do that, they are not likely to waste their time finding answers. Make it easy!
If you’ve made the short list for a showing, you’ve still got some work to do. The thing is, it takes a lot of energy and motivation to get up, get in the car (or on the bus, or on a bike, or whatever!), and go see a property. This is where your listing needs to really excite that applicant.
You need to provide a realistic vision of what it’s like to live in that home. Is this somewhere they want to bring their family? Is it somewhere they can have friends visit and be proud of? You need photos, videos, and descriptions that sell the lifestyle, not just the walls.
Scheduling is just an administrative task, but it’s where a huge number of applicants drop off. Your job here is to make the scheduling process as easy as possible. It has to be foolproof, or you’re going to lose qualified residents.
Remember, it’s 3AM! This is not a fun process for them! You need the logistics to be dead simple so that they can immediately self-schedule online, without a phone call, and get their confirmation immediately.
Once you’ve gotten someone interested, convinced this is the place for them, and on the showing calendar, it’s time to move them through the showing process. The good news is, this is where you finally have their information and you can start communicating with them personally!
This is another of the top three areas most PMs can improve. It’s easy to forget how much can change between the time someone schedules a tour and the time they’re supposed to show up. They may have booked that showing with the full intention of being there on Saturday morning, but then the weekend rolls around and they’re tired, or someone’s not feeling well, or they forgot that their kid had a little league game.
Your job is to keep building anticipation ahead of their scheduled showing, reminding them that it’s coming up. As a property manager, you can’t afford to lose five days thinking you have showings lined up for Saturday, and then no one shows up. You’ll be back to square one and a week behind.
If you get ghosted, remember, that person went somewhere and rented something. They have to be living somewhere, and it should have been in one of your properties. You should be doing everything you can to maximize your show-up rate. Experiment with reminder cadences, incentives, get creative!
When a resident shows up to that property, you need to actually deliver the experience that you promised in the listing. The home needs to be clean, well cared for, and smelling good. The garage band next door can’t be practicing in the middle of a showing. Sometimes little things you might not think about can have a huge impact.
I once showed a property that was around the corner from a school. It was a cute house in a great neighborhood, and ridiculously convenient if you had kids. But it’s also a nightmare at 3:00 on a weekday. For just that half hour on school days, it’s a remarkably inconvenient place to be, because the streets are filled with children. In reality, the residents may work outside the house and they’d never be coming or going at that time anyway, but that was the situation when I had a showing, and it was a disaster. Lesson learned, don’t show houses near schools at pickup time.
After the showing, your role starts to shift from just a marketing person to more of a compliance role. This is where you’re collecting applicant information, determining qualifications, and often delivering some tough news.
Applying to rent a home is a lot. You’re asking for this person’s pay stubs, their social security number, and a whole bunch of money to process their application, not to mention the emotional aspect of committing to this particular home. Basically, you’re now telling them that you don’t trust them unconditionally just because they came and looked at your property.
Plus, best case scenario for that applicant, they get the pleasure of giving you their largest expense every month and moving all of their belongings across town (or farther). It’s not an easy process.
We should be talking with leasing agents about how to overcome these objections and win these applications. One tip: you’re a lot more likely to get cooperation if you’ve properly set expectations in the listing. When you tell applicants exactly what they’ll have to provide as part of the application process, they won’t be caught off guard later.
When someone applies for one of your units, it’s because they need to find housing, and they usually need to do it quickly. They aren’t just sitting around waiting for you to get back to them; they’re out seeing other properties. They’re still getting emails from Zillow and Apartments.com about new properties that are available, and they’re still getting calls from the other leasing agents they’ve met with. That means that every day you spend processing the application is an opportunity to lose that resident.
You need to keep them on the hook. This is the last of those top three most important steps. You should be doing everything that you can to cut down the time it takes to get to a decision, while also still properly qualifying applicants. Speed is a competitive advantage here.
In the meantime, keep communication open. Don’t let that applicant feel like you’re ghosting them. Let them know where things stand. It can make a huge difference to just shoot them a text or an email and say, “Hey, this is taking a little longer than I had hoped, but I have all I need from you and I will update you daily.” That keeps them engaged while you work toward an approval.
Once you’ve received and processed the application from a qualified resident, your role shifts again. Now you’re trying to close the deal, get that resident to sign on the dotted line, and move them in so you can transition to their day-to-day manager.
This is another step where a lot of property managers get ghosted. The resident is approved, but they never reply to your email. The key is to present the “yes” as quickly, cleanly, and confidently as possible. You want to communicate enthusiasm and make that applicant feel over the moon about their new home. Don’t be overly dry and boring—really make them understand how excited you are to have them and that they should be excited, too. A personal phone call is a great way to build excitement and get them ready to commit.
As property managers, we sometimes forget how big of a commitment a lease can be for residents. Let’s look at it objectively: you’re asking them to sign an agreement that, while fair, is typically very one-sided. At most property management companies, it’s not negotiable, and you’re asking them to commit to the biggest monthly expense they have, for at least a year. Oh, and you’re telling them that if they screw up along the way, you’ll take away their home.
It’s also a lot of money up front. Between pet fees, security deposit, and first and last month’s rent, they’re coughing up a lot of money.
We need to be understanding of that and help coach them through the process. No, we’re not here to be therapists, but a little bit of empathy and understanding can go a long way in one of the most important decisions a person will make.
You might think that the leasing process ends as soon as the PDF is signed, but there’s actually one more step where you need to earn a win. It’s resident onboarding.
It’s not enough just to get the resident in the door—you have to get them bought in on your policies. They need to be willing to pay the rent, your RBP fee, and any late fees if they miss a rent payment. They have to be willing to cooperate with maintenance teams and routine inspections. You need to be as transparent as possible about how you manage properties and what your expectations for your residents are.
Whether you use an onboarding video, a resident handbook, or an email campaign, you absolutely need to be communicating your expectations through the first 30, 60, and 90 days of the lease. It goes a long way toward reducing problems down the line and increasing the chances of a renewal.
There are a lot of steps here, and it can be tough to earn a win at every single one. If you are like my company, you’re declining 45% of applications, so think about how wide the top of the funnel needs to be to get through all twelve wins and get a qualified resident moved in. But by breaking it out step by step, you can start to make tangible improvements and earn more wins.
And remember, you can’t let the difficulty of getting all these wins push you to accept less qualified residents. You should always be doing everything you can to meet the standards of your market and the housing you manage.