How One PM Replaced Manual Scheduling With a Scalable Leasing System

The Pre-Covid Era: Automating and Centralizing Showings

In early 2014, APS coordinated showings manually. This took a lot of time and effort, on all sides.

Tenants called to schedule showings, and a single front-desk employee managed everything using paper notes, email, and Google Calendar. When that employee was out, Cook described it as a “nightmare scenario.”

But even when that employee was in the office, problems persisted. Showings went unconfirmed, agents waited on no-shows, and tenants often received no notice before a showing.

It was a continual fire. It was just a question of how big the fire was. It was like whack-a-mole. Every day we were just whacking out fires trying to get people into homes.
Peter Cook, President, Annapolis Property Services

So Cook set out to find a solution, and ShowMojo stood out. He explained, “I loved the customization of ShowMojo. It worked because we were doing things uniquely.”

For instance, APS has strict tenant screening criteria. Using ShowMojo’s customizable screening questions, APS can edit, add, and remove questions as they see fit.

When APS implemented ShowMojo, they saw immediate results. Prospects scheduling showings online eliminated the front desk as a bottleneck.

“Out of all the technology we’ve implemented, ShowMojo probably had the biggest effect on increasing productivity. It definitely saved us a person from the very [beginning]. I remember when we first started, it was like a human being saved straight away.”

Cook’s team also improved communication with tenants in occupied units. Previously, the team often forgot to notify residents of scheduled showings, leading to awkward interactions and avoidable frustrations.

Now, every tenant receives automated multiple text and email reminders.

“Your system is great because we always used to forget to tell tenants. The last thing on the list was to tell the occupant that there was a showing. That’s huge because even though we meant to do it, we never got around to it,” Cook explained.

The COVID Era: Building a New Showing Model

During the pandemic, APS had to rethink its operations. While in-person showings became impossible, demand for tours didn’t slow down.

APS had already centralized scheduling, but COVID pushed the team to explore self-showings.

Peter was cautious. “Prospects didn’t want to give a credit card or driver’s license upfront. And I didn’t love the idea of completely unsupervised tours,” he said.

He decided on a balanced approach—assisted self-showings via Zoom. The idea was for the prospect to be at the house and the agent to be on Zoom. This approach transformed the way APS shows vacant homes.

Cook and his team realized they no longer had to spend 5 hours a day driving from one showing to the next. What’s more, APS could have one agent doing multiple showings at the same time.

You’re just there to make sure that they open it, lock it, and are there for any questions. So instead of one agent being able to do 10 showings in a day, one agent could do 30.
Peter Cook, President, Annapolis Property Services

Smarter Access with MojoBox

Around this time, APS also upgraded from static combo lockboxes to MojoBoxes. Before, APS relied on traditional combo lockboxes for both showings and maintenance.

But those boxes had static codes, which was a security risk even before APS implemented self-showings. Now, with prospects, agents, maintenance staff, and third-party vendors using those boxes, this setup would be riskier still. And it would make it hard to track down lost keys.

Cook anticipated this and used MojoBoxes to provide secure, code-based access that could be issued and revoked remotely. APS still uses combo lockboxes for vendors and maintenance but relies on MojoBoxes for showings.

As Cook explained, “If the keys go missing from the code box, we know it’s a showing. If they go missing from the lockbox, it’s a vendor. We can track it.”

The Present: Building Out the Remote Showing Team

When Cook realized his team could do showings from anywhere, he started to expand the remote team. As of this writing, APS has three remote team members who conduct all remote showings.

He said, “It’s much better using remote team members [for remote showings] because they’re at their desk. So when a tenant’s early or late, they’re always online. They answer the phone and get to it.”

The local APS leasing team is still responsible for tenant-occupied showings. But with the remote team handling remote showings, the on-site team can focus their time on the issues that require their presence.

If we didn’t have ShowMojo, I would have to have at least one, probably two more people. Without question.
Peter Cook, President, Annapolis Property Services

Sticking with ShowMojo, 10 Years Later

Peter Cook’s loyalty to ShowMojo comes down to three things:

1. True Value

For the APS team, ShowMojo is a foundational system they rely on every day. The platform’s value has never been in question.

“I never winced at the ShowMojo bill because it absolutely saved me a person. You could have doubled the price and I wouldn’t have looked elsewhere,” Cook said.

2. Customer Support

Having a single point of contact that his team can call means a lot to Cook. Whether it’s a crisis or a simple question, “It is really nice to have a support person that we know that we can call,” Cook said.

3. Freedom

By using ShowMojo to automate scheduling, showing reminders, screening, and access, APS built a business that doesn’t depend on owner involvement.

For Cook, that was always the goal: “My goal is to do absolutely nothing. Like, if I’m doing nothing, the machine is running perfectly.”

I’m always happy to jump in and tell people they need to use it. It’s a no brainer. Everyone should use it. There’s no reason not to. I can’t believe people still don’t.
Peter Cook, President, Annapolis Property Services

By the Numbers: APS and ShowMojo

Over the past ten years, APS has processed around 120,000 leads and ran 36,000 showings through ShowMojo.

They’ve centralized and automated scheduling, shifted most of their showing volume to remote showings, built out a dedicated remote showing team, and grown their portfolio from [# of units in 2015] to 650 units.

APS has also:

• Eliminated the equivalent of 1–2 full-time admin roles,
• Tripled their showing capacity from 10 to 30 per agent per day,
• Improved tenant communication
• Reduced no-shows through automated reminders.

In short, APS has transformed from a fully on-site, manually operated team into a hybrid property management company with a highly efficient leasing process.

That transformation was about vision as much as it was about tools. APS continuously adapted to meet new challenges and came out stronger for it.

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