The Data-Led Leasing Playbook
// Watch the playbook
How RL Property Management runs their leasing
Tech stack
CRM / prospect communication
RentEngine
Showings & scheduling
RentEngine
Tenant screening
RentEngine Applications
Lockboxes
Codebox
Property management software
Buildium
When we recorded in September, RL Property Management’s median days on market was 11 days. Their target is 21.
“As I’ve traveled around the country to various conferences this year and heard a lot of people struggling with days on market, talking 30, 40 days plus average, we’re like half that.”
— Peter Lohmann, Principal Broker & Owner
RL Property Management manages 720 doors across the Columbus, Ohio metro. Peter Lohmann, the Principal Broker and Owner, has built a leasing process that rigorously leverages real-time data. Tiffany Haynes, Director of Accounts, has three KPIs for leasing: days on market, application processing time and how many listings are still on the market after 45 days. When the numbers show a process isn’t working, they change the process.
“You know I’m a data guy, and for good or ill, I’m gonna chase a thread down until I find the facts and make a decision based on that.”
— Peter Lohmann, Principal Broker & Owner
RL got to an 11-day median by testing each leasing expense and process against these targets. The team dropped some costs, moved others to their owners and kept the ones where they could see a result.
Here’s how they do it.
RL posts a scorecard of eight operating numbers on their website, from days on market to rent collected by the 5th. An owner comparing property managers can check RL’s track record before the first sales call, without going to a review site.
A public scorecard holds RL to a set standard and lets any owner compare RL’s numbers with other managers’.
Peter has written that “a process is only as good as your visibility into whether it’s actually moving.” RL tracks every multi-step leasing process, so the team can see which tasks are overdue and by how long. Each target comes with a set action, so when a listing or an application misses it, the team already knows the next step.
Tiffany chose 45 days because that’s when most owners start to worry about a vacant home.
“45 days is usually when our clients start getting a little antsy. Some of them are like, ‘I want it rented in two days.’ And some are like, ‘I know it’s gonna take some time, especially in this market.’”
— Tiffany Haynes, Director of Accounts
She expects the count to rise in the slow season, once school starts and fewer people move, and adjusts the internal target when it does.
When a listing passes 45 days, RL does two things:
“We focus on making sure that the application process from start to finish is around two to three business days. Anything outside of that is a red flag for us.”
— Tiffany Haynes, Director of Accounts
RL receives 30 to 60 applications a month, or five to 10 a week in busy months. The team time-stamps every application and processes the first complete one first. When someone submits a partial application, the leasing lead contacts them about what’s missing.
When an application takes longer, it’s usually because the applicant needs to provide more income documents or a previous landlord hasn’t replied to a reference request. RL gives the applicant a date to send it in. If the applicant misses it, RL moves to the next applicant.
Prospects can book a self-guided showing or one with a team member. With a self-guided showing, someone can see a home at 7pm on a Saturday without leaving work early. For an accompanied showing, RL has to send a team member, but more of those prospects go on to apply. Some owners also ask for an in-person option.
RL hires its showing specialist for personality. Tiffany looks for someone who can answer questions about the home and the application process, and who wants to help a person find their next home.
RL uses a pod model for property management, but runs leasing as one central department. Each of RL’s three property managers owns about a third of the client list. One leasing lead works only on leasing, across every listing, from first inquiry to signed lease.
“We think leasing is a narrow enough skill set that it’s best to have an expert who can be over all of our listings and deal with any escalated questions that we’re getting from prospective tenants or folks working their way through the application process.”
— Peter Lohmann, Principal Broker & Owner
RL uses RentEngine AI to answer most prospect questions and to schedule and confirm showings.
“I don’t really care that it’s AI. I just care that it’s right.”
— Peter Lohmann, Principal Broker & Owner
Once a prospect has toured a home or applied, RL brings in a person. Tiffany says this is when prospects ask to talk to someone, usually about rental history, employment verification and pay stubs. Peter sees the reply itself as a message to the prospect about what kind of landlord RL will be.
“There is a point where the non-use of AI is a signal to the person on the other end showing your level of caring. It’s going to set the tone for their expectations moving forward of how you’re going to be as a landlord or as a property manager.”
— Peter Lohmann, Principal Broker & Owner
RL replies in the channel the prospect chose. If a prospect texts, RL keeps texting. If a prospect calls, a person picks up. Tiffany says most prospects prefer text, and prospects on a phone call usually ask several questions instead of one.
“You gotta default to what the prospect wants to do, because some prospects do not want you to call them, especially younger prospects.”
— Peter Lohmann, Principal Broker & Owner
RL’s team also answers every question about housing vouchers and fair housing. Voucher rules differ between towns in the Columbus metro, and Tiffany wants a person to give those answers so RL stays compliant.
RL checks every leasing cost against their targets and cuts the ones that don’t change the numbers.
Peter compared lead volume with and without the Zillow premium payment and saw no difference. Whether RL pays or not, Zillow still publishes their listings.
“It didn’t really seem to make a difference whether we were paying them or not. So we actually stopped paying them and haven’t seen really much difference in the volume of leads that we’re getting from Zillow.”
— Peter Lohmann, Principal Broker & Owner
RL does pay apartments.com for FeedPro, its premium listing service, so the full portfolio shows up across apartments.com, homes.com and the other sites in that network. Peter’s goal is to reduce the portfolio’s reliance on Zillow.
RL has tried discounted application fees and similar offers, and the team found no evidence that renters responded to them. A renter sets a price filter before looking at any listing. If the rent is above that filter, the renter never sees the listing, so they never see the offer either. RL lowers the rent instead.
“When you’re looking for a place to rent, you’re looking for price range. You’re not looking for a reduced application or free application or reduced security deposit.”
— Tiffany Haynes, Director of Accounts
RL hasn’t paid for boosted listings either, because data-backed price reductions have been enough to rent most homes in their target time.
RL puts professional photos on every listing they can, shot by PlanOmatic. They write amenities like pool or gym access into the description and add a floor plan for renters moving from out of state.
RL used to pay for the photos. Now they bill the owner directly.
“Why would we pay for your property’s photos? The photos are gonna belong to the owner anyway, and you really only need them every couple of years or less.”
— Peter Lohmann, Principal Broker & Owner
For one owner, photos cost a few hundred dollars every few years. Across the portfolio, Peter estimates it saves RL tens of thousands of dollars a year.
Peter doesn’t treat any of these decisions as permanent. Listing sites and vendors change their terms and pricing often, and RL reviews their spending when they do.
“These things change all the time. So we have to just continue to evolve as operators and stay close to what’s happening on the ground.”
— Peter Lohmann, Principal Broker & Owner
Peter prefers to run the business on as few tools as possible. For about 15 years, RL ran screening through their property management software, with a separate vendor for rental verification. Earlier this year, the team waited weeks for background and credit reports and got little explanation from the provider.
“Applications as far as their background checks and credit checks were taking weeks sometimes, which is well out of our metrics and unacceptable, and we had prospective tenants that were just not happy, which turned to bad Google reviews.”
— Tiffany Haynes, Director of Accounts
RL moved applications into RentEngine, the platform they already used for listings and leasing. After the move, RL no longer needed their rental verification vendor. Applications are back to two to three days.
RL started on RentEngine for leasing and saw a significant drop in their days on market.
When their rental application vendor started taking weeks to return screening reports, RL moved applications into RentEngine too. Listings, leads, showings and applications now all run in one system.
That lets RL run leasing for 720 doors with one leasing lead. RentEngine AI handles most prospect communication, so the leasing lead spends their time on prospects who have toured or applied.
Let your agents focus on closing, instead of chasing leads and manually coordinating showings. Give your team the best tools, from lead to approved application.
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