The lease-up playbook

Before the doors open

Build a name, an interest list and a search history before move-ins begin.

• Launch a coming-soon website with an interest form, real renderings and a clear target move-in date.
• Use the community's real name everywhere from day one, so reviews and search history build under the right name.
• Set up the Google Business Profile as soon as you can meet Google's rules: a real location with customer-facing hours, such as an open leasing office.
• Keep the interest list warm with short, honest updates, so those renters do not sign elsewhere while they wait.

There is no proven rule for how many months ahead to start. We looked and did not find a reliable source, so we do not give one.

Go deeper

• When should we start marketing a new apartment community?
• When can a new community set up its Google Business Profile?
• What is pre-leasing, and how should we approach it?

Plan around a realistic pace

Budget and staff for the pace you are likely to get, not the one in the pro forma.

• Set a monthly lease target from real market pace, then build the marketing budget from that target.
• Show the owner the math early: at 10 to 11 leases a month, a 300-unit community needs more than two years to lease every unit.
• Update the target every month as actual pace comes in, and say so in your owner report.

Why: the numbers

Go deeper

• How long does a lease-up take?
• How quickly are new apartments being rented after completion?

Buy visibility while you have no name

Be found by renters who do not know you exist yet.

• Lead with paid visibility: featured listings plus search and social ads with retargeting worked best for one operator's new developments.
• At the same time, build what keeps working after ads stop: the Google Business Profile, a fast website and early reviews.
• Track cost per lease by channel from day one, so you can shift spend as the community matures.

Why: the numbers

Go deeper

• Which marketing channels matter most in lease-up?

Use concessions deliberately

Compete on price only as much as the market requires.

• Check what nearby communities offer every week. Lease-ups often lead with concessions, so your offer may not stand out as much as you expect.
• Test an offer on the unit types that are slowest, and measure whether leasing pace actually improves before extending it.
• Price the true cost of every special before you approve it.

Why: the numbers

Go deeper

• Do concessions speed up a lease-up?
• How big are typical apartment concessions?
• How common are apartment concessions right now?

Hand off to stabilized

Keep the residents you won, and the reviews they write.

• Ask your first residents for reviews early (all of them, not only the happy ones, per Google's review policy), so the community has real resident reviews by the time the next lease-up opens nearby.
• Plan renewal outreach well before the first leases expire.
• Shift budget from paid visibility toward retention and reputation as occupancy climbs.

Why: the numbers

Go deeper

• How does a nearby lease-up affect a stabilized property?