College Rentals - Open House or Multiple Showings?

[Dar Fornelli]

I have a single family rental in Lawrence, KS near the University of Kansas. Leases typically run August-July to align with the school semester. Can't seem to count on students sticking around for more than a year, so I'm listing now to get a head start on my lease for August.

Those of you with college rentals (or anyone turning over an occupied unit), do you typically schedule an open house a week or so in advance, coordinate multiple showings at the same time, provide one-off showing, etc.? 

I know the answer isn't one-off showings. What's the best approach to be respectful of current tenants time, and efficiently lease the unit? 

[Will Gaston]

@Dar Fornelli I own ~50 student rental doors near the University of South Carolina in Columbia and have been using this practice for the last several years for pre-leasing my occupied units.

-Schedule showings on Friday afternoons between 3:00-5:00 when many students don't have class 

-Set appointments for showings every 15 minutes (3:00, 3:15, 3:30)

-If we have more than 3 groups during a 30 minute window, we purposefully stack 2 showings at once

This sense of urgency that manifests when there are tons of students looking at a property at once is fascinating. The speed at which we get signed leases from these types of showings dwarfs what we get with one-off showings. The "Fear of loss" is the only thing (other than beer) I've found that will motivate college students to take action.