How AZ1st Realty Increased Performance by 39% with Rilla

About AZ1st Realty

AZ First Realty manages multifamily apartment communities across Tucson, Arizona, with over 20 years in the market and locations spanning Midtown, the south side, the east side, and central Tucson. For a company built on filling homes, the leasing conversation is the business — but for years, AZ First had no way to see what was actually happening on a tour. Conversion was their biggest pain point, and the only way to check in on a leasing agent's performance was to hire a mystery shopper and wait.

“We don't have to do a mystery shop anymore. We have the data right there in our hands, and we can look at it almost instantly.”

Becky Dowty

Brand Manager Assistant, AZ First Realty

39% Better Performance — Without a Single Mystery Shopper

For AZ First Realty, converting a tour into a signed lease is the whole business — but before Rilla, the team was flying blind. The only window into what was actually happening on a tour was a mystery shop: a company would send someone in to pose as a prospect, walk the property, and report back a simple pass or fail. There was no way to know what criteria they used, no way to hear the actual conversation, and no way to coach a real leasing agent based on a fake tour.

Rilla replaced the mystery shop entirely. By recording every real tour as it happened, AZ First's leasing agents and assistant managers could finally be coached on their actual conversations — not a manager's secondhand summary, and not a mystery shopper's guess. Becky could hear exactly where a tour lost momentum, what objections came up, and why a prospect didn't close, then act on it immediately instead of waiting a week or two for a report.

That immediacy changed how coaching happens day to day. Becky now runs 2 to 3 ride-alongs a day, each taking just 5 to 10 minutes, supported by Rick AI to help her focus the feedback. Instead of shadowing agents in person or relying on limited in-office observation, she can review a tour and coach an agent the same day it happened.

The results showed up directly in the numbers. AZ First split its communities to test the impact directly — putting its underperforming communities on Rilla first. Those communities had been trailing top performers by 5 to 10%. After adopting Rilla, they jumped to an 89% closing ratio, and communities using Rilla outperformed those that weren't by 39%.

The impact extended to individual reps, too. One newer agent, still early in her leasing career and navigating a language barrier, used Rilla's feedback to improve tour after tour — proof that the coaching loop works regardless of experience level. As Becky put it, the biggest challenge now isn't the tool itself — it's getting every last team member to adopt it. The ones who do get better, fast.