Perhaps not surprisingly, our data shows that renters prefer to tour listings around their workday — during lunch and after work especially. Yet showing agents tend to schedule tours around their workday.
To align better with renters, and in effect get more showings, our data indicates that you should be shifting your showing schedule just an hour later.
In other words, the early bird may get the worm. But lest we forget, the second mouse gets the cheese.
Don’t take our word for it. We’ll walk through the data in this blog post.
How We Determined Renter Preferences
To come up with the charts you’re about to see, we compared the local times of scheduled self-showings and in-person showings by hour.
The assumption is that since prospects can schedule self-showings on their terms, the times they choose are the truest indication of their preference. The times that in-person showings are scheduled are more indicative of which times agents prefer.
By analyzing when the biggest spreads between accompanied and self-guided tours occur, we can make educated guesses about the optimal showing schedule.
On Weekdays, Renters Prefer Lunchtime or After Work
The chart below shows when self-guided tours and accompanied tours are scheduled on weekdays.
What does this tell us? If given the choice on a weekday, more renters schedule listings:
- Before the start of the workday (6:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m.)
- At lunchtime (Noon to 1:00 p.m.)
- Just before or after the end of the workday (4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.)
Yet when listing agents do live showings, they conduct the showings during times renters usually don’t choose:
- At the start of the workday (9:00 a.m.)
- Hours before the end of the workday (2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.)
Our takeaway: With a small shift (one hour) in their schedule, property managers could increase showings by offering showing times more aligned to renter preferences.
On Weekends, (Most) Renters Prefer To Start a Little Slower
The chart below shows when self-guided tours and accompanied tours are scheduled on weekends.
Most leasing agents run the bulk of their tours from 11 a.m. to noon. But self-showers’ preference peaks from noon to 1 p.m. And in general, while some renters prefer to start earlier, most would opt for later showings on the weekends.
So (to the tune of Banana Pancakes by Jack Johnson) maybe you could sleep in… and make banana pancakes.
Then get up and start showing.
Where’s This Data Coming From?
The data and graphs here come from more than half a million successful residential leases facilitated through ShowMojo. That’s nationwide activity across all housing types and broken down by urban, suburban, and rural zip codes.
Did you find this interesting? We certainly did. And we have a ton more to share. Sign up for a complementary leasing data talk and get actionable data and tips about how best to improve your leasing game.
Prefer To Do Other Things With Your Time?
Whether you do accompanied tours, you’re running self-showings, or both, ShowMojo won’t just take scheduling them off your plate, it’ll do it a lot better than you can.
By automatically screening and qualifying prospects and scheduling showings based on your team’s availability, your listings’ locations, and real-time traffic data, ShowMojo makes even more time for banana pancakes.
We want you to start working less. Seriously.