UDR has adjusted its leasing team structure to provide more opportunities for its best leasing professionals to improve closing ratios and earn higher commissions.
Jerry Davis, Senior Vice President of Property Operations for UDR, says UDR now uses a “leasing pod” philosophy, having consolidated leasing teams in some locations. Where three or more communities are located within a seven- to 10-minute drive of each other, leasing agents can now sell at multiple communities, Davis explains.
“We have taken the best leasing agents and, where there may have been eight people leasing at three communities, now there are four [leasing agents] on a team,” Davis says. “These agents now have the chance to lease more and earn more commission.”
Davis says that “in the past, our agents tried to sell what they had. Now they can sell what the resident wants” under this new pod arrangement. As a result, he notes, “People are making more money, our best leasing agents are less likely to leave the company—and less likely to move up to make more money—and customers can look at more properties at once to better find what they want.”
UDR also has changed the way service requests are handled. In the past, these were given to the leasing agents. Now they are given to those who deal with customer service and administration, leaving the leasing professionals with more time to lease. “The best sales people are focusing on sales and they are having higher closing ratios,” Davis says.