how to deal with a lot of inquiries for rental

[Joe Capobianco]

I posted my home for rent yesterday and received 22 messages about a tour of the home and 1 person filled out an application and paid for background and credit check already. I messaged them all back last night stating I will be holding an open house style showing on sunday between x-x times. I felt that was the best way to manage my time efficiently with all the interested renters. 

I'm writing this post to see if that was the best decision in order to pick out the best applicant or should i just show the first few people that contacted me that are interested in order to get this rented out as quick as possible. I did post the home isn't available until 11/1 due to closing on another property im moving into. 

The first few people do seem like qualified tenants but after reading so many nightmare tenant stories im sceptical to rush into the first application that's sent to me. this is my first rental and want to make the best decision and also want to make sure i'm doing this all legal as well. 

[Nathan Gesner]

An open house sounds reasonable. When you have that many inquiries, it may indicate you're priced too low or you weren't clear on requirements. When I first started, I would get dozens of inquiries on a rental. After a few months, I started requiring an application fee and credit/criminal background on every adult. The number of inquiries dropped to 1/3 what they were!

In my town, people know I'm a professional and won't tolerate bad renters. When I post a nice rental for a good price on facebook, I'm lucky to get 1-2 comments or shares. When a private Landlord posts a rental, they'll get dozens of comments and many of them are people I personally know that would never qualify to rent from me.

Know the market and charge the appropriate price. Get rid of the bad renters easily by posting some of you major requirements (i.e. must make 3x the rent, $30 application fee per adult, must pass full credit/criminal background, two years of Landlord references). That will save you a lot of phone calls.