Adjusting Your Processes to Thrive in Any Market
by Vanessa Anderson
It’s a rough time to be a property manager: leads are down, there’s an oversupply of units, and workers are burning out — while somehow not replying fast enough to prospects.
But not everyone is struggling.
Property managers who have adapted their operations and workflows in the last few years are thriving right now, converting at near-record levels.
Their secret? Automations and self-service technology that keeps them responsive 24/7.
In this article, I’ll explain what that looks like with data we gathered from 1.7 million leads, 25 million showings, and 705 million conversations between property managers and prospects. You will walk away understanding how you can adjust your processes to thrive in any market.
Boost Conversion Rates by Automating Initial Prospect Interactions
Right now, leads are down between 13% and 19% YoY across most rental tiers. Despite recent downturns in new apartment construction, the market is still working through an oversupply. Further complicating things? The rise of “accidental landlords,” people who wanted to sell their home but instead have found themselves seeking tenants, which has reduced the number of leads per listing.
As of Q1 2026, average leads (35) and scheduled showings (18) per listing are the lowest they have been since we’ve kept track.
But, crucially, conversion rates are holding steady for PMs who use leasing automation technology:
» Inquiry-to-scheduled showing rates stand at 51%
» Inquiry-to-showing rates stand at 31%
How to do it // Invest in technology that automates responses to initial inquiries, so your agents do not have to. As many as 70% of prospects search for properties after business hours, which explains why your team can not keep up no matter how hard they work.
Effective solutions include automated email responders, automated texting, or even AI chatbots trained on your policies and property details.
Convert Leads When They’re Most Motivated with AI & Automation
When your team is making dinner or taking the kids to practice, renters are most active. They are finally off work and are eager to check apartment hunting off their to-do list. Give them what they want: functionality that lets them self-serve for the most important next steps.
How to do it // Invest in self-scheduling features and offer an AI-powered virtual agent.
Self-scheduling lets prospects book a tour when they are most motivated, whether that’s 8:00 pm on a Friday or 6:00 am on a Tuesday.
AI agents can answer pre-screening questions, book showings, and answer common questions about pets and security deposits (and more). We launched an AI-powered agent this spring. So far, 61% of queries happen outside of business hours (see Chart 1).
Without that tech in place, prospects’ questions go unanswered, which can drive them to search for other listings where they can get an immediate response.
Slash Days on Market by Embracing Self-Guided Showings
One of the most eye-popping trends our data showed was the impact that offering self-guided showings has on days-on-market. In our data set, units that let prospects conduct self-guided showings got rented an average of 6 days faster than those that only offered accompanied showings.
It is no wonder, then, that the balance of self-show-only vs. accompanied-only showings has flipped in recent years (See Chart 2):
» 2023 // 37% self-show vs. 54% accompanied only
» 2026 // 48% self-show vs. 44% accompanied only
How to do it // Do a risk-benefit analysis. Self-showing is not right for every unit. But with the right fraud-prevention features in place (screening questions, timed access codes, verification phone calls, video calls during walk-through, etc.), self-showing makes the rental process more convenient for everyone and greatly improves conversions.
Minimize Days on Market: Adjust Prices Within 7 Days of Listing
In its first week, a listing generates about a quarter of its leads and showings. After two weeks, activity significantly falls.
What’s more, units that are priced correctly see, on average, double the leads in the first week vs. those that are not (10 vs. 5). [We assume units that rent without a price adjustment to be correctly priced and units that require a price adjustment to be incorrectly priced.]
The sweet spot for adjusting pricing, then, is within the first week.
How to do it // Check your leads-to-scheduled-showings rate. Correctly priced units convert at an average of 50.4% in the first week versus 43.3% for incorrectly priced units. If you are below average, consider adjusting your price.
Leasing Automation Drives Performance in Any Market
What worked in a strong market will not necessarily work when leads are scarce. But there is good news: Implementing technology and automations to help you survive and thrive in a lean market will make you even stronger when it turns around.
