We took some time this past weekend to ask Missy from SGI Property Management what it was like in their office before they started to outsource their leasing calls and tenant screening.
Q:What did your in-house leasing process look like before you started using a third party company to outsource?
A: We had three staff members who were constantly on the phone dealing with prospects wanting to see homes and talking to applicants. A lot of time was spent going back and forth with prospects before we were able to determine if they were actually qualified to rent the property.
Q: Now that you’ve started to outsource your leasing calls and tenant screening, what’s different?
A:We were able to re-purpose the staff dealing with all of this back and forth and instead assign one employee to manage and oversee our leasing process. We don’t take nearly as many phone calls.
Since we began outsourcing, we only look at the viable applications. We don’t waste time trying to acquire documents for incomplete applications anymore. The tenant screening is more thorough and covers things we didn’t have time to look into such as:
- Checking for pets
- Verifying landlord references
- Checking employers and proof of income, etc.
Q:Considering the positive experience that you’ve had outsourcing your leasing calls and tenant screening, are you considering delegating anything else?
A:Absolutely. After having this success, we are looking at what else we can take off our plate.