Took a leasing seat on a 312-unit lease-up and asked for the weekly report
I wanted the license for brokerage originally. Then I got offered a leasing consultant seat at a lease-up, 312 units delivering in four phases, and took it because I figured I'd learn more about how apartments actually make money than I would sitting in a class.
The thing I negotiated for, and it took asking twice, was a copy of the weekly performance report that goes to the owner. Not the traffic sheet. The one with net effective rent on it.
What 11 weeks looked like: 42 leases signed against a 38-lease target. Concession was six weeks free on a 12-month term, so a $1,595 asking rent nets out around $1,411 in year one. Traffic ran about 100 inquiries a week, tours converted at 22%, tours to lease at roughly 18% of tours. My close rate was 21% and the person who'd done this for six years was at 29%, and the difference was almost entirely follow-up inside 24 hours.
The part that nearly broke it: phase two delivered three weeks late and we had 31 approved applications with no units to put them in. Nine walked. That's about $12,700 of annualized rent gone for a construction reason nobody on the leasing team could touch.
What I'd keep: reading the owner report every week. Once you've seen net effective and absorption pace next to your own tour log, the concession conversation stops being about being nice to prospects and starts being about what the phase costs to fill. I've got two months of hours left and I already know I want the operating side, not brokerage.