Overview
RentEngine supports five showing methods. Each one controls how a prospect tours a property, how they schedule it, and how they receive access instructions.
All showings can be manually scheduled, reassigned, rescheduled, and cancelled at any time from the Command Center. Availability can be configured at the company level (Settings > Showings > Company) or at the individual unit level.
Accompanied
An agent meets the prospect at the property in person.
How scheduling works Accompanied showing availability comes from each agent's personal showing windows, which agents set up under Settings > Showings > Personal > Edit Showing Windows. More than one agent can be assigned to a property, giving prospects more available slots across the team.
When Smart Assign is enabled, RentEngine automatically scores available agents for each slot based on factors like whether they're already on-site, how close their next showing is, and drive time — and assigns the top-scoring agent. If Smart Assign is off, a PM must manually assign an agent.
Several settings can be customized to fit your team's workflow:
Showing duration — how long each accompanied showing lasts
Back-to-back showings (Piggyback Maximum) — how many consecutive showings can be scheduled at the same property
Max visits per property — how many times an agent can visit a property per day or week
Drive time buffer — an additional percentage added to Google Maps drive time between showings
Stacked showings — how many showings can be scheduled at the same property at the same time
What the prospect receives An SMS with a cancel/reschedule link. Optionally, the message can include a meeting location and a prompt to call the leasing team when they arrive, depending on how your access instructions are configured.
Self-Guided
The prospect tours the property on their own using a lockbox code.
How scheduling works Available in 30-minute slots. A slot is only blocked if another showing already overlaps on that unit. No agent is involved.
What the prospect receives An SMS with a link to their self-guided showing page. When they arrive and click "I've Arrived," they see the full access instructions. If the unit has a digital lockbox connected to RentEngine, the system generates a unique code valid from 1 hour before to 1 hour after the scheduled time. If not, it falls back to the static code entered in the unit settings.
If location verification is enabled on the unit, the prospect must be within the configured radius (default 0.5 miles) before the code is shown.
Remote Guided
The prospect tours the property while on a call with a leasing team member, who guides them through access and the unit remotely.
How scheduling works Same as self-guided — 30-minute slots, unit-level overlap check only. No agent is auto-assigned.
What the prospect receives An SMS with instructions to call the leasing team when they arrive. No lockbox code or gate code is sent.
Remote Guided with Gated Access
Same as Remote Guided, but prospects must book at least 14 hours in advance. This gives staff time to arrange gate access before the showing.
What the prospect receives Same SMS as Remote Guided — call the leasing team on arrival. No lockbox code is sent.
Accompanied or Self-Guided (Combined)
The prospect can choose between an accompanied showing or a self-guided tour depending on the slot.
How scheduling works RentEngine runs both Accompanied and Self-Guided availability calculations independently and combines the results:
Slots where an agent is already on-site are offered as Accompanied only
Slots that overlap with both methods are offered as Accompanied or Self-Guided — the prospect picks one
Slots with no agent overlap are offered as Self-Guided only
What the prospect receives Depends on the method they selected. Accompanied prospects receive the agent meeting instructions; self-guided prospects receive the lockbox access link.
How prospects schedule a showing
Regardless of method, the scheduling flow works like this:
The prospect views available slots for the unit
They select a date and time (and a method, if the unit uses Combined)
The system validates the slot is still available and checks for duplicates
The prospect completes the unit's prescreen questions — if they don't qualify, scheduling is blocked
If the unit requires PM approval, the showing is created as Pending until a PM approves it
Once confirmed, the prospect receives their access instructions via SMS