The previous landlord tip went through the process of pre-screening tenants to ensure you make the most of your time. This tip gets down to the process of filling that property with great tenants once you have finished screening .
Book Crowds
This particular landlord tip can really depend on the state of the rental market and the property, but if you can schedule viewing periods for prospective tenants to all show up at once or in a certain time frame, you are set. Usually this is most effective the first week ads are running and calls are coming in. It does becomes harder as the ad gets older which is why it’s important to work on right away.
This works by booking time slots when you will be able to show the property and then booking viewings into those slots. As people call in, and after they get through your screening questions, then them know the two time slots you have available for viewing.
I like to pick say a Friday evening from 7 until 8 or 9 depending on the response to your ads, (OK, I don’t like to work Friday evening, but hey it’s a business and if I sacrifice one Friday to get it filled versus twenty different days, I’m happy!) and then a Saturday afternoon from 1 until 3. This covers off the best times for tenants to view, although I will do a Saturday and Sunday as well if it works better for me. This also works best if there are two of you showing the property.
I prefer to book the viewings in 10 to 15 minutes intervals depending on how many people are coming to view. This also creates a sense of urgency as I make sure to tell people there are people before or after them, whatever the case may be and once again raises the concern that someone else may get the property instead of them.
Whichever you choose, use the time you have with them to show the features of the property and get a feeling as to whether these prospects would make good tenants for you. It’s very handy if you have your list of questions along with the notes you had during your original pre-sreening chat with them. You can re-ask some of the questions for clarity and to confirm you receive the same answer!
As your prospective new tenants go through you should be able to gather a sense of whether they will be a good fit for you or not and as the tour ends you can have them fill out one of your applications right on the spot. Your goal should be to gather three or four good applications with each set of showings, but this can depend on the current market, your advertising and your times.
The other tactic I use with less than stellar potential applicants is to hand them the application (if they even ask for one) and ask them to fax it back to us. Realistically if they don’t fit the profile you are looking for to have as your renter you shouldn’t focus to much on their application. Unless someone was crunched for time the hand filled applications receive first priority, plus you can review them while they are there and clarify any messy hand writing or unclear answers.
The biggest aspect of coordinating the showings like this is to get that excitement going, it’s all part of the complete system of putting new tenants in as quickly as possible and ensuring your time isn’t wasted. In the upcoming tip number 3, I will give you an excellent process for ensuring you save even more time!
If you missed Landlord Tip #1 it is available here, Landlord Tips – Filling Vacancies 1 of 5 in a Series of Tips
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