Too many prospective tenants?

Question

We listed our townhome in Woodbridge, VA (South of DC) and have about 35 interested people wanting to see the property. I set up around 10 individual appointments, but for the more recent inquiries I am offering 2 time frames on Saturday for showings. More like an open house, but by invitation. The first showing is 10 days away, and Im worried that we may have listed a bit too early, as we are getting about 3 additional inquiries per day, so 10 more days could bring in potentially 30 MORE people. Do we just let everyone see the property that wants to? or should we do a prequalification first? How many is too many? This is a highly populated area and the low supply is really evident here!

Brandon Wagner · Answer

Always do a little prescreening of potential tenants before sending them to your home. You don't want to waste your time individually on them.

That being said in an open house style environment, you don't have much to lose by unqualified people showing up.  In fact, more people there will make it look like there is a higher demand for your unit, and the serious renters in the bunch will be more willing to make a move quicker, and potentially pay more in rent to beat out the competition.  They don't know who is qualified or not, use that to your advantage.

Similar to what others have said, there are many that will waste your time. If they can't make it to one of your 2 open houses, they aren't that serious.  I wouldn't bend over backwards for an individual unless they have completed a basic questionnaire ahead of time. (income, credit, landlord reference, etc)  If people won't spend 5 minutes to fill out a basic form, don't waste hours+ on them driving to the property, doing a showing, and coming back. Chances are there is a reason they don't want to fill out the form.

Corey Conklin · Answer

There are a lot of comments that addressed the reality but I figured I would add to the message. Out of the inquires you receive only 5-10% are really qualified to rent the property (at least in my area). So if you have 35 people interested I would say only 3-4 of them actually qualify to rent the place.

I suggest only doing open houses and not doing individual appointments if you haven't received some sort of prequalification from the prospective tenants. You'll get ghosted by a lot of people if you don't do it this way. Unfortunately its the down side of online postings. You'll get a ton of people window shopping for places that they know they don't qualify to rent but don't consider it rude to waste your time in inquiring and setting up a viewing that they know they won't go to.

Jaron Walling · Answer

We experienced the same situation (housing shortage) and I bet 85% of the people were tire kickers. Once I texted the pre-screening questions they ghosted. People would leave comments saying "$$$ for that location, no way", then 5 more people inquired about it.  We ended up renting to a contractor we worked with a few times. They met our income and background check requirements anyways.

Julien J. · Answer

@Paul F.

Congrats! There are worse problems to have.

1. Follow local laws to ensure you are not exposing yourself to liability.

2. Set open house time.

3. List your criteria, ensure it follows fair housing and local laws.

4. Raise the rent.

Elizabeth Flores · Answer

Paul, I think it is not the quantity but the quality of your prospect tenants. Many times, even if tenants like the house, they might not qualify for renting your property. I will do a pre-qualification. It will save you time and stress. If you are doing an open house, I will just print out your requirements and handed it to them. Believe or not, many people don't read online, they just apply.

1.- List your requirements (short and sweet, pass a background check) and  phone interview:

2.- Show the house.  You can have a sense or feeling if they can be good tenants or not, but it is not guarantee.

3.-Verify their documents: (e.g., references, banking statements, and so on)

4.-Send the lease agreement for them to review (optional)

5. Sign the lease agreement with a secure payment method (cash, cashier check, zelle and so on)I hope it helps; I do house hacking :P

Mackaylee Beach · Answer

PRESCREEN! This will definitely save both you and the prospect time. If you provide them with screening criteria prior to scheduling, you will find that many are not too serious and won't respond. This narrows down your prospects to those who are actually interested and possibly qualify. Best of luck to you!

Alecia Loveless · Answer

@Paul F. I don’t just do background/credit checks on 40 applicants because that’s a ton of money wasted as MySmartMove, the site I use charges $42.99 for the checks I use. I know the prospect pays for it which may weed a bunch of them out, or not but that decision is up to you. I usually wait till after the showings and I’ve met people in person and then narrowed down the pool.

Wallace Pendleton · Answer

@Paul F.

I schedule individual showings 30 minutes apart. It gives me a chance to actually talk with the tenants to get to know them to see if they will be a good fit and someone to deal with. Asking them questions, to see how they answer and react to certain questions. Also allows you if they are possible smokers or not. Just gets you an overall feel for the person. Also let’s you see who makes it a priority to show up timely, or who is communicating with you if they are running late. Almost like a job interview but for your property.

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