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How would you manage multiple lease deals at once to ensure all deadlines are met?

RoleBusiness Development Associate

DifficultyDifficult

TopicTechnical

Asked at

Why This Is Asked

With no verbatim questions publicly documented, this scenario is grounded in SM Prime's confirmed theme of managing multiple lease deals simultaneously and the role's duty of monitoring new leases through sign-off. The interviewer wants to see your organizational skills and how you handle competing priorities in a fast-paced leasing environment.

General Approach

Describe a concrete system you would or did use: tools (even simple ones like Excel), regular check-ins, delegation where appropriate, and how you prioritize urgent tasks. Emphasize outcomes like meeting deadlines or improving efficiency.

General Answer

Use a single tracking system, even a shared spreadsheet or a simple project tool, that lists every active deal with its current stage, next required action, responsible party, and deadline, so nothing depends on memory. Set a recurring check-in cadence, such as a short daily or twice-weekly review, to scan for anything approaching a deadline or stuck at a stage longer than expected, rather than waiting for a deal to become urgent before checking on it. Prioritize deals by a combination of deadline proximity and business impact, such as deal size, strategic tenant, or contract expiry risk, rather than treating every deal equally, and communicate proactively with counterparts, legal, finance, the tenant, when a deadline is at risk rather than waiting until it's missed. Where tasks can be delegated or run in parallel, such as a document review happening while you chase a separate signature, structure your week to run these in parallel rather than sequentially. Keep a simple audit trail of key correspondence and approvals for each deal, since lease processes often need to be reconstructed later for compliance or dispute resolution.

PH Interview Gotcha

Steer away from saying 'Bahala na, kakayanin' because it implies risky improvisation. Instead, say: 'I will use a prioritized tracker and set clear milestones to manage the workload reliably.'

Sample STAR Answer▾

Situation

In my leasing coordinator role, I was simultaneously handling 10 deals at different stages, from initial inquiry to lease signing, across three commercial properties.

Task

My task was to ensure that each deal progressed without missing deadlines for document submissions, credit approvals, or permit requirements, while keeping both internal teams and prospects updated.

Action

I set up a master tracker in Excel with columns for each deal's milestones, owner, and due dates, color-coded by priority. I scheduled a 15-minute daily check-in with my manager to identify bottlenecks, and I used Outlook calendar reminders for external deadlines. I also created templated emails for common status updates to save time and standardized my note-taking in our CRM so that anyone could pick up a file if needed.

Result

All 10 deals closed on time or early, and the team adopted my tracker format for future pipeline management. We reduced average deal cycle time by 8 days over the next quarter.

Key Takeaway

A visual tracker and disciplined daily review habit are essential for managing high volumes without dropping details.

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