Difficulty renting basement apartment

[Troy Sorrento]

Greetings all, 

I have listed my basement apartment located here in Toronto on many websites, including realtor.ca since July. There were many interests, shown the unit to many potential tenants, however, it appears to me that when I send them the requirements, it fails to get to the next stage.

My process is as follows:

• > Receive calls/respond to emails and schedule viewings
• > After showing, they indicate they really like the place, very clean, yada-yada. They are very interested in renting the place.
• > They then ask the requirement, I then send them the list including the application form
• > Then everything goes quiet.

The requirements I ask are basically the same as everyone else:

• Recent credit rating clearly identifying applicant name
  Reference letter from previous landlord
  Maximum Number of Tenants
  Copy of Valid Photo ID - Driver's license or passport
  Income Verification - Employment letter - Recent work paystub or bank statement
  First and last month rent deposit

I begin to wonder maybe my requirements are a bit excessive? Maybe my process is wrong? 

This is my first rental property and I am hoping to expand by adding more but I am re-thinking maybe this business idea is a challenge. I made sure to have a place close to malls, highways, amenities thinking that renting the unit would not be an issue, I'm finding the reality to be the opposite.

Anyone encounter the same difficulty?

Troy

[John Warren]

@Troy Sorrento if you have showings but no applicants then what you are experiencing is simply a pricing issue. You should do a modest price reduction and see if that helps. You don't have a link to the listing so I can't help much, but in my market here in Chicago I have done this a few times with my one bedroom apartments. I would have them listed for $915 and when I dropped to $895 they rent like hot cakes.