Context:

In this age of tech and convenience, self-guided tours for apartments have started taking off.

With the demand for more accommodations, the real estate industry needs to implement self-guided touring because it offers benefits that save money and time. And now, with its popularity soaring among property owners, managers, and prospective residents, it’s clear that self-guided touring is here to stay.

Let’s take a closer look at self-guided touring and how it benefits your real estate marketing.

In this guide, we walk you through:

• Self-guided apartment tours with ButterflyMX
• What are self-guided apartment tours?
• How do self-guided tours work?
• Why you should offer self-guided tours of your apartments
• 3 benefits of self-guided tours for apartments

Self-guided apartment tours with ButterflyMX

After installing a ButterflyMX access control system at your property, we offer the best self-guided apartment tours. Our self-guided tours allow for prospective residents to have the freedom to explore your property without putting your building’s security at risk. You’ll receive notifications when prospective residents arrive and can keep track of who has done a self-guided tour at your property.

Self-guided tours of apartments with ButterflyMX works as follows:

1. With ButterflyMX’s self-guided apartment tours, prospective residents schedule a tour of your building online.
2. Prospects use a link either on your website or on a listing site to book a tour. The entire process — from selecting a time-slot to submitting their ID or credit card — is completely automated. Email notifications to the prospect are also automated. This allows the leasing agent to focus on building a relationship with the prospective tenant.
3. Once the prospect’s identity is verified and the tour is scheduled, the prospect receives a Visitor Pass to access the building through the ButterflyMX intercom you can also enable access to amenity spaces and/or garages through our keypad.
4. The leasing agent sees that the Visitor Pass has been used to tour the building and then follow up with the prospect accordingly.

ButterflyMX products that empower self-guided tours

ButterflyMX offers several access control products that make self-guided tours easier.

Some of these products include:

• Video intercom. With the ButterflyMX video intercom, you can remotely allow prospective residents onto your property. If necessary, you may see them on video and communicate with them remotely from your mobile device. Additionally, the video intercom creates a date-and-time stamped audit log of each entry event, which you can review at your convenience.
• Keypad and readers. With the ButterflyMX keypad, you assign temporary PIN codes to prospective tenants, which they use to access the building during their tour. The PIN code expires after a set amount of time.
• Front desk station software. This software integrates with your other ButterflyMX products and features no additional hardware. You can communicate with prospective residents through your video intercom and answer any questions they may have. Additionally, you also can stream live video from the intercom.

What are self-guided apartment tours?

Self-guided tours allow prospective residents to view an apartment on their own at a time that works best for them without being accompanied by a leasing agent. Various self-showing technologies and platforms are available. Most solutions require a prospective tenant to make a reservation and request property access through a website.

Touring a building is crucial to a resident’s search for a new home. In recent years, virtual apartment tours — namely 3D and video — have enhanced rental listings on sites like Zillow and Trulia. However, today’s tenants prefer to see their future home in person — especially since they spend more time at home than ever before.

How do self-guided tours work?

First, prospective tenants visit a property’s website and view the available apartments. Once they have found one (or many) apartment(s), they would like to see, they request a tour.

The prospective renter submits any required documentation or identification directly on the website (e.g., contact information, driver’s license, credit card, etc.). This information is verified in real time and either accepted or denied. If it’s denied, the prospect must resubmit or add additional information. If it’s accepted, they receive a Visitor Pass to access the property and the apartment unit. They also receive additional details about amenity locations and other points of interest. 

Simultaneously, the leasing agent receives an email notification that a prospective renter has booked a self-guided tour. They can then follow up accordingly.

Watch how ButterflyMX self-guided tours work: 

Once at the property, the prospect can access the building, amenity spaces, and available units in a few different ways:

• Property access is granted by either scanning a Visitor Pass at the video intercom or entering a single-use PIN.
• Amenity spaces can be viewed by entering a single-use PIN on an available keypad.
• Apartment units can be toured by smartphone unlocking a smart lock.

Why you should offer self-guided tours of your apartments

Traditionally, renters have had to navigate a cumbersome process to tour an apartment in person.

Obstacles renters have to overcome include:

1. Contact a leasing agent.
2. Schedule a time to view the apartment.
3. Meet in the lobby or outside the building.
4. Follow the agent around to view the available units, amenity spaces, parking, etc.
5. Wait for the leasing agent to follow up.

In this old system, renters and leasing agents must find time in their busy schedules that works for both of them. On top of that, leasing agents can only show a finite number of apartments in a given day. This leaves them with less time to focus on building relationships with potential renters and signing leases.

As such, self-guided apartment tours offer far greater flexibility for prospects and property managers.

3 benefits of self-guided tours for apartments

Self-guided tours offer many benefits, including time and cost savings and added safety for prospective applicants.

Below are just a few of the benefits of self-guided apartment tours:

• Save time for prospective residents and building staff
• Increase leasing agent efficiency and offering more tours per day
• Provide a comfortable, stress-free experience for prospects

Save time for prospective residents & building staff

Your prospective residents are busy. They work all day and have social lives and hobbies at night. So in order to see an apartment in the middle of the day, they might have to take time off work or reschedule other obligations.

Your building staff is busy, too. From addressing maintenance requests to preparing leases and everything in between, property managers have little time left to show vacant units.

Self-guided tours are a win-win.

They allow prospective tenants to see an apartment at a time that works best for them while allowing property staff to focus on only renters ready to sign a lease.

If a prospective renter can see the apartment at whatever time they please, they’re more likely to schedule a tour. After all, they can drop by after work instead of pushing the tour off until the weekend. Additionally, leasing agents can focus on following up with only the prospects who are ready to sign, not the administrative work of trying to schedule a time to show the apartment.

Increase leasing agent efficiency & offer more tours per day

Because leasing agents don’t need to be physically present, you can extend tours to after business hours. Leasing agents can show available units at night, on weekends, etc. These added hours increase the number of tours you can provide, thus helping you lease units faster. Furthermore, you no longer have to worry about double-bookings for apartment tours, as a self-guided system like the one that ButterflyMX uses will prevent this.

Provide a comfortable, stress-free experience for prospects

Prospective tenants enjoy touring apartments in a pressure-free environment. Most renters don’t like the feeling of a leasing agent watching over them as they explore the property and picture themselves living there.

With self-guided tours, prospective residents can explore the space at their own pace. They won’t have to feel pressured to make a decision on the spot. They’ll also appreciate knowing they can stop by again for a second tour before signing the lease.