This Leasing Mistake Is Hurting Your New Development

The way we think about leasing in multifamily today is broken. 

We see it all the time—properties hiring entry-level leasing agents, fresh out of college, underpaid, and undertrained, to handle one of the most critical roles in your business: sales.

This is the person responsible for filling your building and driving your revenue. Yet, in most cases, they have no idea what they’re doing.

Let me tell you something: leasing is sales. And sales is the lifeblood of any business. But for some reason, the multifamily industry treats it like an afterthought. You’re putting untrained, entry-level employees in charge of the most important aspect of your property—getting it rented! That’s like handing the keys to your Lamborghini over to a new driver who just got his learner’s permit. It’s crazy! If you’re serious about filling vacancies, growing revenue, and delivering an exceptional experience to your prospects, you’ve got to rethink your approach.

This week, we're breaking down the leasing mistake we see far and wide across multifamily: entry level leasing. 

Leasing Is Sales—Not Property Management

Here’s what a lot of people don’t get: leasing is not property management. They’re two different beasts. Leasing is about selling a dream, selling a lifestyle, selling the experience. Property management is about budgets, operations, and maintenance. You wouldn’t expect a property manager to close deals, just like you wouldn’t expect a salesperson to handle building maintenance.

And that’s where the multifamily industry is totally missing the mark. You’re hiring people who want to be property managers, but then you throw them into leasing roles where they have to sell, negotiate, and close. But these aren’t salespeople! They don’t want to be salespeople. That’s not what they signed up for. And guess what? It shows.

In every other industry, the people responsible for driving revenue are your top performers—the ones who are highly trained, highly motivated, and paid to close deals. But in multifamily, the leasing agent—the one who’s supposed to get people in the door and fill the units—is the lowest-paid, least-experienced person on your team.

Think about it. 

Training and Compensation: Invest Where It Counts

Here’s another hard truth: you’re not investing in the people who matter most. Your leasing agents are the face of your property. They’re the ones who walk prospects through the units, answer their questions, and ultimately convince them to sign that lease. But most leasing agents get maybe two weeks of training—if they’re lucky. Then they’re tossed into the deep end and expected to close deals. It’s no wonder so many of them fail.

If you’re not willing to invest in real, serious training for your leasing agents, you’re setting them up for failure. And if you’re not paying them what they’re worth, they’re not going to stick around long enough to get good at what they do.

Salespeople are motivated by success, by commissions, by results. If you’re hiring people who are underpaid and overwhelmed, they’re not going to put in the effort to drive results for your property. You’ve got to compensate leasing agents like the revenue drivers they are. Pay them well, give them the right training, and watch them perform.

Fix the Disconnect Between Leasing and Marketing

Let me ask you this: how well are your leasing and marketing teams working together? If your answer is “not at all,” you’ve got a huge problem. Marketing generates leads, but it’s your leasing team that closes the deals. And if those two departments aren’t in constant communication, you’re throwing money down the drain.

Leasing agents are on the front lines every day, interacting with potential residents. They know what people are asking for, what they’re concerned about, and what’s stopping them from signing a lease. But too often, there’s no feedback loop between leasing and marketing.

Without that connection, marketing doesn’t know what’s working and what’s not. Maybe you’re spending money on campaigns that aren’t bringing in the right leads, or maybe you’re missing key messaging that could close more deals. Either way, you’re losing out on money, time, and leases. And that’s a problem.

The Solution: Specialize and Centralize

Here’s the bottom line: if you want to crush it in multifamily new development, you need to specialize. Stop treating leasing agents like they’re jacks-of-all-trades. You need dedicated, seasoned professional leasing teams who only focus on sales. 

That’s how you win.

At my company, we’ve taken it a step further. We don’t just hire one leasing agent to sit at a desk all day hoping people walk in the door. We’ve centralized our leasing operations, so our agents work across multiple properties, getting more reps in, more experience, and better results. We’ve also trained them to sell like pros, and we compensate them like the top performers they are. That means more leases, happier residents, and higher revenue. Simple as that.

Time to Stop Leaving Money on the Table

The traditional way of doing things isn’t just outdated—it’s costing you big. Entry-level leasing agents aren’t cutting it anymore. If you want to stay ahead in this game, you need to stop thinking of leasing as just another property management function and start treating it like the critical sales role it is.

Invest in your leasing team. Train them like sales professionals. Pay them like they matter. And make sure they’re working hand-in-hand with your marketing team to maximize every lead. When you do that, everything changes. Your occupancy rates will go up, your revenue will grow, and your properties will outperform the competition.

So stop leaving money on the table. It’s time to get serious about leasing. The future of your property depends on it.