Showing A Rental
I'm looking for some ideas on how to make a renting a condo a little more enticing. I recently had a showing however the timing was awful. I had scheduled to have a security door replaced then shortly after show the place. Well the repairs took longer than expected and and the pontential renter showed up while the work was being done. She did take an app but I know I would not be impressed with the situation if I was renting. This applicant seems ideal but she could be scared off by the poor showing of the place. ioffered to waive the application fee. Shoud I pursue further?
First impressions are lasting impressions. I would not chase this potential tenant.
Keep advertising. There has to be more than one qualified tenant that would be interested in your condo.
Hey,
Setting up appointments with prospective tenants is a BAD idea.
On my first rental property, I didn't know any better, so I set up appointments with people. I would get a phone call, set up an appointment and then drive 30 minutes over to the house. If they were on time (or even showed up!!), they then walked around the house for 10 minutes and left. I then drove home. A whole lot of wasted time. Also, the house never was prepped properly.
Bottom line is now I have one Open House a week. On Sunday between 1:00 and 4:00 is a good time. I can get over the house at 12:00 and get the house ready. That means turning up the heat/AC, brewing coffee (makes the house smell nice), etc, etc.
Have all your ads mention a phone number to call for more information. Have an answering machine play a message describing the house and giving the time of the Open House.
You will never run in to the problem of the house not being ready.,
The first applicant was the obvious first choice. My second choice is a divorced mother of two with a bankruptcy. This may be considered a new topic but is a bankruptcy an immediate throw away? Thanks for your help.
Hi,
wow. great tips! Do all of you charge a fee for credit/back ground checks?
Thanks
-Ariel
Well, I still like to do appointments so that I can get to know the individuals better.
I like to have the prospective tenet do a drive-by and then call back to setup the appointment and I'll generally setup all the appointments for the same day 15 minutes apart.
As far as showing the property, I will make a list in my head of the top 10 best things about the property and sort them into catagories like, single, family, college etc. When the college student stops by I tout the DSL and proximity to the school, when the family shows up, I tout the great school district and big fenced yard, when the single views the house I tout the proximity to nightlife etc.
I'm sure you get the picture that you talor the presentation to the tenet's assumed needs and really sell the property.
Bruce that is great info. I like the idea of brewed coffee too.
I would also be curious to hear about yehoshua30's comment does anyone charge for the credit check?
I charge $50 for an application. I use that money to processing the application and running the credit/background check.
great advice! what happens when you have all the prospective tenants roaming the house on the day of open house? u schedule them for different times correct?
Hey,
I charge a $35 application fee. I have a company that charges me $30 to run the credit, employment and past rental check. I am not trying to make money, just to cover my costs.
Be careful charging a high application fee (you decide what high is) because many tenants will refuse to pay it and you could lose some very good people that way. In the beginning, I thought this was a clever way of getting good tenants, but it does NOT work that way. People are penny wise and pound foolish and will go to another house.
Depending on the market conditions, I might refund the Appliation fee to the person who signs the lease.
Having an Open House full of people is about the best feeling in the world!!! You want a full house, it creates a "feeding frenzy" among the applicants.
I prepare a detailed flyer for the house and hand it to each person/group as they walk through the door. It lists ALL the features of the house. You do NOT know what is going to be important, so list everything you can think of. After they get the flyer, I leave them alone. If someone has been in the house for 10-15 minutes (that is a long time to me), I will go over and talk to them.
Good Luck!
Quote:
On 2003-10-07 10:30, Bruce wrote:
Hey,
I charge a $35 application fee. I have a company that charges me $30 to run the credit, employment and past rental check. I am not trying to make money, just to cover my costs.
Be careful charging a high application fee (you decide what high is) because many tenants will refuse to pay it and you could lose some very good people that way. In the beginning, I thought this was a clever way of getting good tenants, but it does NOT work that way. People are penny wise and pound foolish and will go to another house.
Depending on the market conditions, I might refund the Appliation fee to the person who signs the lease.
Having an Open House full of people is about the best feeling in the world!!! You want a full house, it creates a "feeding frenzy" among the applicants.
I prepare a detailed flyer for the house and hand it to each person/group as they walk through the door. It lists ALL the features of the house. You do NOT know what is going to be important, so list everything you can think of. After they get the flyer, I leave them alone. If someone has been in the house for 10-15 minutes (that is a long time to me), I will go over and talk to them.
Good Luck!
Hey Bruce, nice to meet you. Great advice on the application. Sometimes I'll waive the fee upfront on really good looking tenets and then add it into the security deposit, but I never thought about refunding it on people who actually end up renting. I may try that out.
The group showings are the best. I like to refer to them as pirahna showings (for the feeding frenzy).
Simply schedule everyone for the same time. When people call about the property I schedule an exact "appointment" with them...I say, How's 1 o'clock on Saturday? I then schedule all remaining prospects for the exact same appointment.
One of the keys to making this work is to call it an "appointment," not a "showing."
To get around the application part, I just add the $50 application fee to the move-in costs of the approved applicant.
I don't run credit checks until I've verified income and rental history. This only cost me time. When I've narrowed it down to one or two applicants then I run the credit check.
Good Investing,
Greg
Thanks for all the replies. Great ideas. I can smell the brewed coffee and the frenzy already.
You gave me some great ideas. Thanks for the info.
Check out the book "Landlording". It has some great ideas (Big yellow book)
smell and sight are what will influence people the most
You may consider getting a keybox and when people want to see it just tell them the code. Change the code weekly if you're worried about theft and or vandalism. I'd recommend getting someone's full name and phone number before you mention anything about the keybox.
As has been said, sell the best aspects of it and never mention the downside of the property. They may not even notice otherwise.
Lastly, Find out what they want/need and give it to them. If you find a great tenant, but they need some help on the deposit, work with them, etc. Many landlords say this is what is required, period. If you can offer some flexibility, you'll be a step ahead.