All Forum Posts by: Katrina Cabral

GREAT advice and feedback!! Thank you. I’m Changing things now. I should have floated that email here before I sent it out. And the rent payment terms and late fee - I took those off of my previous PM’s lease agreement. They had a 15% late fee which I thought was harsh so I scaled it back to 10%. Obviously, I didn’t scale it back enough. I will revamp my email and try again. Thank you so much for the honest feedback! 

I only have one rental and this is my first time listing it for rent. I listed it and got close to 50 inquiries within 24 hours. I sent a reply to all those that inquired and suggested that they reply with their name and number if they believed that they 'meet the minimum qualifications' and if they 'found the rules agreeable'. All I got were crickets . . . so now I'm sure that I must have done something wrong . . . Can you please take a look at my screening email and hit me hard with advice. Eager to learn and trying to recover from this blunder. See my screening email below:

Thank you for inquiring about our Home located in the Rock Creek Community. We would love to invite you to apply. Before we do, we want to make sure that you are okay with the terms below and that you meet the following minimum qualifications. Please take a moment to review the two lists below and confirm that everything passes inspection. If you believe that you are qualified and are still interested in the property then please respond to this email with your name and phone number. We will schedule a brief phone call to learn more about you and what makes our home a good fit. Thank you for considering one of our properties to make your home. We look forward to working with you.

3 Bed, 2 Bath in Rock Creek Swim and Tennis Community

Minimum qualifications:

• No evictions on credit report
• No felony convictions
• No registered sex offenders
• Minimum household income of $3,600 per month ($43,200 per year)
• Favorable rental history with good references from previous landlords
• Have a credit score of 600 or more
• Every person in the home 18 and older is required to apply

Rules and Pricing info: This is a partial list and more specific details will be in the lease agreement.

• Rent is $1,200 per month and is due in advance on the 25th of each month
• Late rent, rent not paid by midnight on the first day of the month in which it is due shall be late.
• Rent paid after the due date must include additional rent of 10% of one months rent for late payment
• Upon application approval, payment of a non-refundable holding fee of $1,200 is due within 24 hours. This will convert to the security deposit upon lease signing.
• Pet deposit of $300 for pets under 25 lbs, Maximum of 2 pets allowed
• No smoking or vaping allowed on the property
• Tenant pays all utilities (gas, electric, water/sewer, garbage, phone/internet)
• This is a one year lease
• Appliances provided are Range, Refrigerator, and Dishwasher.
• Washer and dryer hookups in the garage allow for tenant to install washer and dryer
• Lawn, landscaping, gutter cleaning and declogging, and exterior maintenance are the tenants responsibility
• Pest control is tenant responsibility, excluding termites and rodents
• Regular HVAC filter changes are tenant responsibility
• Shall abide by all Rock Creek Community rules & regulations; violations with fines associated with them shall be paid by the tenant and included in monthly rent.
• No waterbeds
• Clogged toilets & drains, as well as light bulb replacements are tenants responsibility
• Storage of personal property shall be at tenants sole risk. Tenant is required to obtain personal liability insurance with landlord listed as additionally insured on the policy. Required to have proof at time of lease signing.

If you respond to the email above with your name and number then you are affirming that you meet the minimum qualifications and that all of the above rules and regulations are agreeable. You can expect a phone call within a couple of days of your response. Note that the unit will not be available until August 1, 2019. We still have tenants in the property and we will need to schedule walk throughs when it is convenient for them. We have had a great deal of interest in the property and will likely schedule one or two group showings to minimize the inconvenience to our tenants. After our phone interview, we will begin scheduling showing the home.

Have a great day and we look forward to working with you,

Katrina

Thank you! I will let you know how if goes....assuming they are agreeable. 

Good catch Bill Plymouth. I checked and it was underpriced. Thank you!!

Thank you for the quick reply. Good to know and thank you for elaborating. I’ll get started sending out my tenant profile responses tomorrow. 

OK. I just did it! I followed all the advice from Brandon and Seth about how to list a rental. I listed my property on Zillow and now I have 14 inquiries in just a few hours! Is this normal? Do I call and pre-screen each one? Do I have to respond to each one? I don't want to ask each of them to pay the money to fill out the application unless it's worth their time. Should I use the Zillow application? I haven't collected applications before but in looking at the different PM companies I like the look of the Turbo Tenant reports better but it would be hassle to redirect all these people to them to do the application. Thoughts?  

Thanks a bunch for all of your replies. Very helpful. Glad to hear that it's not a 'crazy' idea and in my situation may work out well. I listed my place on Zillow this afternoon and I already have 14 inquiries! I'm wondering if that's normal?

I asked around and realtors want the first months rent to do the job. That's $1,200. Seems like a ridiculous sum of money unless they have to go out there a dozen or more times. My tenant is a stay at home parent and is home all the time and would probably appreciate a few hundred dollars for letting people walk through. I'm wondering what the drawbacks could be. If they were unhappy then they might disparage the place or me but they are happy with the place and sad to leave. So, I think they would promote it well. 

I'm out of state and wanting to PM my property but meeting applicants and showing the place is posing a stumbling block. Trying to find a way to do it and thought that I would ask my existing tenants to show the place. I'm planning to offer to pay them a few hundred dollars for the service. I would pre screen people and then set up one day a week for walk throughs. My tenants are happy and helpful so I'm hoping that it isn't a bad idea?

Wow, John Underwood, you must be an Excel Wiz! That sounds amazing!