Prescreen Tenant - First Rental
Hi All - I’ve been reading a lot on the forum and learned a ton! First time posting here and hope to continue to learn from you all.
I finally listed my first rental on zillow and marketplace for rent after remodeling. I’ve received 70 generic inquires and 15 applications on Zillow after 9 days of posting. I also just listed my place on FB Marketplace yesterday with about 15 ‘is this available’ messages overnight. For all these inquiries, I replied back with a quick questionnaire on pre-screening questions, but only received a handful (5-10) responses. I also had an open house yesterday with low turnout. My questions are:
1. Is this normal?
2. How do I weed out who to show the house to?
Unsure if I’m doing anything wrong here, I’d love your feedback!
Thanks for your help!
1. Yes, that is normal. Except, not sure if you meant that 15 out of 70 filled out an application on Zillow, if so, that is much higher than normal.
2. You already are off to a great start weeding people out. You may look at getting only 5-10 responses with your prequal as low, but that is just what a prequal does. It weeds the looky loo's out.
What you will find is a large number of people on both click on many homes asking for more info etc. If you call them they may not even remember your home because they clicked on so many.
right now sounds like you are doing great and are exactly where you should be.
@Scott M. Thank you for your response! Yes, I’ve received 15 applications on Zillow where these individuals didn’t even request for a showing. Needless to say, they didn’t meet the rental requirements.
While I like to put my requirements for renting (income requirements, no previous history of dispossessory filings or evictions, etc.) first in a rental ad I find many don't bother reading the ad before they respond. This is especially true with FB Marketplace. I respond with "have you reviewed the requirements which include.....blah blah blah) and I rarely hear back from the majority of folks who initially sent a request to view the property.
What you are doing is correct and a good timesaver to weed out those who do not meet your rent requirements.
@Gail K. How long does it usually take you to find a tenant? Also what’s your minimum credit score for your requirements? I’ve mine set at 650.