Too many prospective tenants?
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Rental Property Investor · Lawrence, MA · Member since 2020 · 252 posts · 153 votes
3yQuote from @Paul F.:
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!
15 Replies
- Rental Property Investor · Lawrence, MA · Member since 2020 · 252 posts · 153 votes3yHi, I remember when 84 people were interested in one of my units. I had talked to them by phone, and then I had asked a few questions to see if it would be worth to see the unit. After that, I did one open house on a Saturday. And to finish the story, no one was suitable until I saw the last person. She didn't the best credit score, but I have to say that she has been a great tenant for 6 years. Hope this helps!
Quote from @Paul F.:
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!
- Member since 2023 · 6 posts · 2 votes3y
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 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.
- Severna Park, MD · Member since 2013 · 7k+ posts · 7k+ votes3y
Quote from @Paul F.:
Yes , you can raise the rent .
But you will find that you have 40 people interested , you will have an open house . If you are lucky 4 or 5 will show up , then if you are real lucky 1 or 2 will qualify .
- Real Estate Broker · Cody, WY · Member since 2010 · 28k+ posts · 41k+ votes3y
Quote from @Paul F.:
1. You are probably under-priced.
2. This often happens when you don't pre-screen. I recommend your marketing include some of your major requirements. For example, by making it clear that every adult will have to pay $30 and submit to a credit/criminal screening, you will probably eliminate 1/4 - 1/3 of these applicants. My ads say the following:
All occupants 18+ must apply and be approved
$30 application fee per person
Submit a government-issued picture ID
Prove combined income of 3x monthly rent
I also state whether it will allow pets. If it does, I include what the pet fee may cost. By including some of these major requirements, a lot of applicants will self-screen and walk away. When I first started 14 years ago, I would get 30-40 inquiries per rental. Once I refined my marketing and pre-screening, I cut it down to 10-15.Yes, you can make changes to your price or other requirements at any time. Once someone has actually applied for the rental, then I think it's only fair you stick to what you advertised. You could still increase the rent rate for future applicants in case the first one falls through.
The DIY Landlord Book4.7247 Reviews I've found the best way to show my property to prospects is to have them prescreen themselves using a smart form.
You can set a smart form up to ask basic questions: do you earn at least $nnnn / month and have paystubs/invoices to support it? How often do you smoke? How many times have you been evicted? If they answer in a manner that disqualifies them it lets them know and closes the conversation with a note that if they would still like to see the place, they need to go back through the form and answer in a specific manner.
Doing this has significantly cut down on bad apples and I don't have people getting pissed at me for telling them they don't make enough money or we don't accept people with evictions. I've also found the majority of people that book showings at the end seem like higher quality tenants. I use oncehub for this.
- 3yJaron WallingPro MemberRental Property Investor · Indianapolis, IN · Member since 2018 · 4k+ posts · 4k+ votes
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.
- 3yCorey ConklinPro MemberInvestor · Member since 2021 · 129 posts · 209 votes
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.
- 3yMackaylee BeachPro MemberReal Estate Agent · Kansas City, MO · Member since 2020 · 1k+ posts · 492 votes
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!
- Real Estate Agent · Northern Virginia · Member since 2021 · 106 posts · 50 votes3y
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.
- Chicagoland Area · Member since 2018 · 22 posts · 46 votes3y
@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.
- 3yAlecia LovelessPro MemberMember since 2019 · 3k+ posts · 2k+ votes
@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.
- Thanks for the advice. We will work on the pre screening questions to ask and hopefully narrow things down! We had great tenants last time and pray we get the same quality this time!
Quote from @Alecia Loveless:
@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.
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