1st showing results
Well. Many of you have been helpful (THANK YOU!) to me already so I'm going to continue to share my experience. This is my 4th or 5th post since I've begun this process. On Friday, I listed my first property for rent on Craigslist and Postlets. Today I received my first call from a prospective tenant. After pre-screening over the phone and asking the tenant to drive by the property, which she quickly told me she already had, I showed her the property this evening. My family still lives in the home so it was fully furnished but clean and depersonalized as much as possible. I fessed up during the showing that I was the owner. It's going to be difficult for me to "act" like I'm not the owner.
The prospective tenant brought one child with her, told me that she, her husband, and their 3 kids were interested. I let her walk through the property. She asked to see the back yard so I walked out with her. She asked about a move-in date and we discussed my desire for a 15 month lease so the lease isn't expiring during the holidays each year. I tried to make small-talk but honestly, I was a little nervous and I think that she could sense that. I've never leased apartments or anything for that matter. She asked how the neighbors are and asked how much storage was in the attic and whether the shed in the back yard was included. She was in and out in about 10 minutes or less. I managed to give her two applications and asked her if she had any more questions. She said she would talk to her husband and get back with me.
Here's the thing. I have no gut feeling about whether she has intentions of calling me back or if she didn't like the place at all. Do those of you that have shown properties before have any input to offer on whether you were able to predict whether a person was going to apply or not after looking at your property? Do you send follow up communication after showing the property? Should I just let her ride off into the sunset and wait for the phone to ring again? How do you suggest acting like I'm just the property manager when showing the home before we've moved out? Especially since there are photos of my ugly face in spots around the home? Here is my postlets ad link if you want to offer any feedback.
https://postlets.com/posts/12683938/review
I know this is a really long post but I have wanted to do this for a really long time so I'm excited and want to do this correctly. To be honest, I listed the property at a premium price while we're still living here to make it worth our time and hassle if someone wants to push us out quickly. Any nuggets of wisdom are greatly appreciated!