What Is a Leasing Agent?
What does a leasing agent do, you ask? Put simply, a leasing agent specializes in helping people find the right rental unit. Whereas other agents focus on assisting their clients with buying or selling properties, leasing agents help tenants rent a property for a set period of time. They typically manage leasing transactions from start to finish, including finding viable properties, giving client tours, submitting leases, and negotiating with landlords.
Related: Successfully Changing Real Estate Careers
What Does a Traditional Leasing Agent’s Day Look Like?
When people think of a day in the life of a traditional leasing agent, they picture someone sitting in an office. Typically, leasing agents work for one apartment complex, and they wait for interested renters to come to them. They take responsibility for keeping all the units in that one complex as full as possible.
To achieve this goal, traditional leasing agents often market the apartment complex to the surrounding community, take potential tenants on tours, answer any questions that prospective tenants may have about the complex, oversee the lease-signing process, and manage move-ins and move-outs.
Because of the constant repetition, many traditional leasing agents find that their job gets a little stale after a while. After all, there are only so many floor plans and unit types in one complex, plus the leasing process is nearly identical for each new tenant.
What Does an AptAmigo Leasing Agent’s Day Look Like?
While the constant repetition can lead to a higher than average turnover rate in many leasing offices, at AptAmigo, a unique brokerage that works with many apartment complexes, sales reps bypass that challenge. Instead of remaining chained to a desk, our agents benefit from flexible, hybrid scheduling and collaboration with a variety of buildings in their city. Instead of fishing for qualified clients to fill a single building, we match our varied clients with the buildings that best meet their needs.
As a result, our Apartment Locators (the job title of our leasing agents) facilitate that matchmaking process by getting to know their clients’ wants and needs, then scouring the area for the most relevant apartment buildings.
From there, Apartment Locators help clients narrow down their top choices, sometimes conducting tours of the buildings that pique their clients interest, and, once they discover the perfect match, work with that complex’s leasing office to complete the transaction.
Ultimately, what sets an AptAmigo Apartment Locator’s day apart from a traditional leasing agent’s is the variety. No two client’s needs will be the same, which means that agents become experts on all of the best apartments on offer in your city.
Do I Need to Get a Leasing License to Become an Apartment Locator?
The short answer is, it depends.
Leasing license requirements are determined on a state-by-state basis. In Georgia and Colorado, for example, you don’t need a license to become a leasing agent. In Texas, however, you will need to show proof of a license before you can start as an Apartment Locator. Illinois, meanwhile, takes a middle ground approach and allows agents to start working with a student license while studying for their exam.
Since no one-size-fits-all answer to this question exists, you’ll need to check out the requirements in your state. Typically, your state’s real estate board will be able to provide you with information about any educational requirements.
How Do I Apply to Amigo?
Learn more about how to break into real estate with AptAmigo and how to make it as an apartment locator. Then, when you’re ready to get started on your career path as an Apartment Locator, applying to AptAmigo is as easy as clicking a button. Use the button below to take a look at our current openings in your area.
AptAmigo is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and does not discriminate based on race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, genetic information, physical or mental disability, medical condition, marital status, gender, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law, in connection with any aspect of employment at AptAmigo.
Tara Mastroeni is a Freelance Real Estate and Personal Finance Writer whose work has been featured on sites like Forbes, The Motley Fool, and Business Insider. You can find her at TMWritingServices.com.
