I typically run a craigslist ad saying showings will be on xx date, about a week in the future, and they should email for an appointment on that day. This is convenient for us (as we live 20 minutes away) and the current outgoing tenant (they only need to have the place clean on one day). As the week goes by I indicate how many appointment spots are still available, and I'm open to have showings the day after xx, but indicate that the place might be filled by then. That gave prospectives plenty of time to drive by and decide if the neighborhood was for them. Then I racked the appointments up, 20 minutes apart, all day long. For our last opening, we had 19 appointments, 16 showed up, we got 9 applicants, almost all of whom were qualified. We narrowed it down to four finalists and went with the best communicator who also happened to have a great credit rating.