All Forum Posts by: Polina Orlova

I do most of my advertising on FB. You will get a lot of "is this available?" responses because people will hit the wrong button on their mobile phone. I have done it by accident myself looking at things on FB marketplace. I have also noticed that people just want to message all the time and not make a phone call. I copy and paste a response with my phone number for them to call me because I can't stop what I am doing at work all day to answer text messages. I am constantly shocked at is how few people actually call the number. They all want to text me with 50 questions. If they don't call and leave a message I don't respond. After work, I start returning phone calls to the people that have left messages. One thing that is nice about FB marketplace is that you can see how many people viewed your ads. Giving all the info in the ad will curb some of those responses. Like @Nathan Gesner says, it doesn't mean you are too low in price. Just make sure you know your market. Lots of response is better than no response. 

It doesn't mean your rent is too low. Private Landlords tend to get a lot more inquiries because bad tenants think there won't be a screening process and they can sneak in. Or maybe they think you'll be a pushover and negotiable on the price.

Your advertising should be clear about your most basic qualifications. This will allow potential renters to self-eliminate. For example, just mentioning you will run a credit/criminal background on every person 18 or older will stop about 1/3 - 1/2 of all inquiries. I would keep it pretty basic to your top 3-5 requirements:

• Must make 3x the rent
• Credit score of at least 620 for each applicant
• No animals allowed

Anyone with a criminal record or a 550 credit score will (usually) move on to the next rental. This will dramatically reduce the number of inquiries.

I would take the ad down for a day or two, beef it up, and then try again.

@Sakib J. yeah insurance rates are way up too, you're right.  For taxes, every year you should be getting a mailout of your assessed value for the year with a form that you can fill out to protest that opinion.  At the very least, you should be filling out that form every year.

A very long-term rental I own has had 16% overall for maintenance, repair and capex. It was built in 1910.