Interviewing properties

Interviewing for the job

Finding just the right place to rent an apartment to suit the renter’s needs can be a difficult task considering there are so many places to choose from. What does the average renter look for? How do they know what to look for? Each individual has their own priorities in the search for the perfect apartment to call home. (At least for the time being).

Remember your first apartment? Was it at all what you expected during your apartment hunt?

I remember mine. Living in the city with about 100 apartment complexes advertised in the newspaper to choose from… 30 that actually fit into my criteria. You start by circling and calling all of the ads that include the most information that falls within price and guideline range, right?

I had the newspaper strung all out on my kitchen table, markers, writing pen and paper in hand ready to take notes and score the individuals I interviewed. You know, because I want to make sure it is going to be a good fit.

With all of the possible apartments you start to narrow down your search. How? Call after call after call. You get the pool of possibilities as far as trying to reach someone over the phone… the no answer, busy signal or answering machine full message. These call attempts have already lost out due to the fact that they were not available when you needed them to be. You’ll most likely have already spoken to a certain number of locations that have caught your interest.

O.k. so some locations have answering machines. Are you a “message leaver” type of person? Or are you like the next guy who doesn’t like to leave messages, especially since you are calling a wide range of locations. And when they finally do call you back, how will you ever find the original ad in the paper to match up to what this person is telling you over the phone? So you decide that you’ll just call back at a later time if you have time and if you haven’t already found a location that suits your needs.

So now you have left a few messages here and there. There’s always a few that never get to the person they should have due to someone accidentally erasing it, or your machine goes out of whack. Then the leasing agent or property manager has so many messages to catch up on before they call you back. Then there’s the “yes, I left a voicemail and now you’re calling back. But I will remember that you weren’t available the first time I called you to get the information that I needed.”

So far your search has been narrowed down automatically for you by the outcome of answers vs. no answers. After that, what grabs your attention in order for you to decide that “yes, for this location I will spend money on gas, sit in traffic, and deal with road rage (whether it be myself or someone else) in order to look at one of these fantastically advertised apartments?”

I learned quickly that the advertisements didn’t mean a thing if there was nobody available to answer the phone and answer my questions when I needed them too. I was interviewing to fill the position. And I had a deadline to meet.

Change of plan. All of the awesome amenities and location and pricing were no longer the first reasons why I would rent from the apartment complex that first caught my interest. Now, what’s more important is if someone can help me make a decision now while I have time to make these phone calls. I’m not typically an impatient person, but I do prefer a company who will be able to meet my needs as a consumer… answer my questions, show me things I wasn’t aware of and make me smile when I am in a tight squeeze. And I don’t necessarily like to have to ask all of the questions in order to get the information I need. I expect the person on the other end of the line to be the helpful, caring, sensitive person that I look for when I want things to go my way.

And whatever you do…please don’t put me on hold!

So a few things to keep in mind:** Always have someone available to answer the phone  Smile at your customers  Be patient  Be personable  Always be able to answer the caller’s questions without hesitation  Know your property, availability, pricing and schedule  Don’t place your callers on hold unless absolutely necessary  Walk your callers through the entire process without them having to ask too many questions.

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