Dear Heather - Frustrated with Fibbing

Dear Heather,

At our property, we are asked to do weekly shops of our competing properties.  I'm supposed to call them and get how much they are renting all of their apartments for, if they have any specials, what their traffic has been like, and what their current occupancy is.  For 2 of my comps, this is really easy and they're really nice to me.  1 of the other ones never answers their phone, but sometimes if I fax them our sheet, they will return it.  The other 2 flat out refuse to give us any information or they lie to us about their stuff, even though we are willing to give them ours and we're always honest.   One weekend,  the bigger one was doing a free 47 Inch TV with a new lease, and we didn't know about it!  How can I get those two properties to give me the information I need?

-Frustrated with Fibbing

Dear Frustrated with Fibbing,

This is a song that we hear all too often!  Kudos to you on actually doing your weekly market survey/comp shops, since so many leasing consultants don't.  Your dedication to being armed with the right information is commendable!

Early in my career, I had a property that refused to work with me on my comp shops.  I was annoyed with them, and indeed, over time I became annoyed with the whole market survey process.  No matter what, every week, my surveys were incomplete because I could NOT get information from this one property.  Finally, I got so frustrated that I went over there one day on my day off, scones and Starbucks in hand, and asked them why they wouldn't give me any information.  When they couldn't give me a real reason (because I knew that bunk about it being "company policy" was just that - bunk), I asked them if they had any one bedroom apartments open.  The leasing consultant hesitantly told me that, yes they did, and I told her I sure wished I had known that because I would have loved to send her a couple I had to turn away the day before, as my property didn't have any open one bedroom apartments.  I left her my card, the starbucks and scones, and wished them a good week.  The next week when I called, they gave me the information I was looking for, because I had shown them that I could be an aide, not just an adversary. 

My advice to you is this: Build bridges with these people.  Reach out to them on a personal level and a professional level, and even though they swat you away a few times, be persistent.  If that doesn't work, I encourage you to use the tools at your disposal by searching Craigslist for open units with their phone number.  If nothing more, you'll be able to gain prices and potential specials from their postings.  But before you take the sneaky route, try the more honorable method of just building the relationship.  I promise you, it will yield rewards even greater than the information you're seeking now.

Best of Luck,

Heather