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Posted over 6 years ago

Tenant Screening Like a Pro Series- Advertising

Now I know what you are thinking.......

What does advertising have to do with your screening process? 

It has a lot to do with it! 

Why you ask?

This is the first thing potential tenants see before they call or apply. 

So that means this is the first thing in your bad tenant screening process. 

I'm of the old saying Quality over Quantity. 

It may feel nice to have 20 people call in regarding your property but if only 2 are qualified tenant applicant that fit your guidelines you just wasted your valuable time explaining to 18 other people what your screening guidelines are. 

I'm going to assume that your screening guidelines are following state and federal statutes and you are not putting anything in the advertisement that is illegal or misleading. Since I'm not a lawyer or know all the statutes in every state I will leave that to you for homework. 

So what things should you have in your advertisement that will allow tenants to understand that they will need to meet the qualifications to get into the property?

The first thing is the rent you are charging

Some landlords feel that if they leave it blank they may be able to get more rent.  Others feel that if they put it to high or low they will get the best tenants. Luckily nowadays most websites that you can advertise on require you to put what your asking rent is. 

So what do you put? 

 By this time you should have already done your due diligence and now know what you need to get for rent to make this property profitable. You should have also checked the comps in the area to make sure that your rental isn't outrageously priced. 

Second is the details of the property. 

You want to have enough information about the property to keep the tenants that you want to call you and apply interested. Only putting "2 bed 1 bath home with kitchen and fridge" will only get you the desperate tenants that are trying to get into a 2bd1bth in your area. The way you word the details of the property will help get more people interested in the property.  Take some time to find things that stand out in your rental and make sure they are in the details. 

Third is requirements to get the keys and move in. 

I will assume here that you already have your standards for approval set up and will be following it. 

Since you need to make sure that the tenant applicants know exactly what level they have to be at to get into your rental, you have to put in some of the basics. 

Do they need first, last, and security?

Are pets allowed?

Do you have any other charges that you need to disclose? (tenant pays lawn maintenance, landlord pays water)

This will give the tenant applicant a better understanding as to what they are getting into and they won't be surprised. This will also discourage most of the tenants that don't qualify from calling you asking for more information. 

Will you still get calls from unqualified tenants? Yes. Will it be as many as before? I doubt it.

Fourth is security from fraudsters stealing your ad info. 

This is a very important part nowadays especially with the Craigslist scammers. 

  • Make sure that you dont use the full address only use cross streets and the city, state and zip. 
  • Make sure that the pictures that you are using have your contact information listed on them so that scammers are not able to just copy and paste your pictures into new ads
  • Be careful of people calling offering to bring you a tenant. Especially if they are asking for a commission of the tenant they "have" or find.  
  • The main picture doesn't have to be the front of the house. Having the 3rd or 4th picture of the front of the home is safest. 

In The next blog post I will go over how to handle talking to tenants and how to weed out the guys looking to take you for a ride. 



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