First time finding a tenant - CL frustrations

[Neo]

All buildings I have bought to this point have been fully occupied, but now I have a vacancy and am trying to source a tenant for the first time. I posted the ad on CL yesterday and had 6 individuals contact me and say they were coming to view the place today. None showed up. Tomorrow I have 10 people supposedly coming to see the place and another 3 scheduled for Thursday. After today's no shows I am curious, is this result typical with CL prospects? The neighborhood is probably a C- but I provided the adddess in the listing and included pictures which the prospects saw prior to contacting me. I dont understand why so many people seemed interested and then not one even came to view the apartment.

[Stachetastic]

Been there, it is so frustrating. You are doing well by scheduling multiple showings at once; it can be maddening to keep going back to the property multiple times for no-shows. We had a listing last month that I scheduled 24 showings in one evening. We had about 12 show up, which is on par with what I was expecting. People flake out, things come up, they take a closer look at finances and realize they can't afford it, who knows...

I wish you luck!

[YttriumNitrate]

Things might be different where you are, but in my experience advertisement on Zillow (and the automatically syndicated sites associated with Zillow) produced "somewhat" less flaky applicants than Craigslist.

[Neo]

I'll post here after tonight's showings as an update. If I go 0-10 tonight I'm going to have to rethink my strategy and maybe give Zillow a try.

[CareCPA]

I would also consider doing an "open house" for the rental. This way you can limit the time you spend there, and not have to drive over every time someone says they want to see it. Might be slightly more efficient, although there is still the chance no one will show up.

[Ocinfo]

One tip, I put specific questions in the posting that they must answer or they don't get a response. Examples are to verify if they have at least 3x rent as income, any pets and if so what kind, desired move in date, etc...This provides a pretty good filter if they care enough to properly respond to basic questions. I then setup an open house and you either show during that time or you don't. Applications are available and the first person to submit an app, pay the fee, and pass requirements gets to rent it.


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[Cwadda]

I advertise on Craigslist, Hotpads, Trulia, and a number of Facebook groups. I recommend using all of these.

[umterp1999]

While I use CL, I got my current tenants from  Zillow.  I also got a number of leads through Trulia. 

True story, I got my first tenants (in 2005) with a flyer on the bulletin board at the grocery store.  I also post flyers at big employment centers, such as the nearby hospital. So don't overlook old school marketing. 

[gregg687]

I have had better success with Zillow as well. 

I tell people to please text me if for any reason they are unable to make it- it drove me nuts when I would wait there and they can't even let me know they wont be showing up. 

Good luck, I'm sure you'll be able to find decent tenants with some work. 

[Megma]

Also schedule appointments close together, like every 15 minutes,   i was advised to do this with having this issue last year and it helped. Once or twice people left bc they showed up at the same time and didn't want to compete but overall i found it helpful. Usually at least half of people came.

When i tried an open house,  no one came. Might be my market.

I also took a book and chair. 😀

[Neo]

Update: had 12+ prospects tell me they were coming tonight. I treated it like an open house and told all prospects I would be there from 4:30-5pm. 5 prospects showed up and 4 brought the requested proof of income documents. One tenant was very interested and said she was ready to move forward right away. I sent her the eviction/credit/background check through www.mysmartmove.com for $35 and her info came back good. We are signing the lease Thursday. Success!

[badassprof]

One tip, I put specific questions in the posting that they must answer or they don't get a response. Examples are to verify if they have at least 3x rent as income, any pets and if so what kind, desired move in date, etc...This provides a pretty good filter if they care enough to properly respond to basic questions. I then setup an open house and you either show during that time or you don't. Applications are available and the first person to submit an app, pay the fee, and pass requirements gets to rent it.


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Although we have a different problem (high demand and interest, thus too many folks to see individually), we have found open houses to be useful too.

[cchrissyy]

I really appreciated the info in this thread, especially the link from "no nonsense landlord" with sample text for your email contact before offering a showing.

https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/real-estate-and-landlording/first-rental-viewing-was-a-flop-any-suggestions/msg1145188/#msg1145188


When somebody emails interest, they get a detailed reply from me that is, honestly, designed to scare off anybody who is not serious or not qualified. I don't do open houses and I don't show to people who aren't serious.   This email sets my professional tone, the content of which is basically "here is the address, please map it or drive by but do not disturb. the photos are recent. it is available on date. the lease term is however long and it can be renewed. the house has features. it has parking. there are lots of stairs. I am looking for this credit score and that income. The cost to move in is this plus that plus the other. I pay these utilities you pay anything else. If you are still interested, I need to give 24 hours notice for a showing. Please suggest some times that work for you"

[powskier]

Give all the details and pictures of property up front, only schedule inside viewing if they have already done a drive by.
Get details on them up front( life/work/income/name), only schedule with ones without a courtview rap sheet.

Be professional, not like a pal.

[Car Jack]

You have to understand that craigslist is used by scammers, spammers and phishers more than by interested people in whatever is being offered.  Having sold literally thousands of things on Craigslist, I understand that only 1 out of 10 responses is legitimate.  Sometimes, scammy sounding, obviously from a phone responses can be quite legitimate.  Out of 10 legitimate responses, perhaps only 1 will actually show up as scheduled. 

I would not at all feel uncomfortable setting aside a Saturday and directing anyone who passes your email test to show up then.  Out of the 100 responses, you might end up with 1 who meets all of your requirements.

[Cwadda]

Update: had 12+ prospects tell me they were coming tonight. I treated it like an open house and told all prospects I would be there from 4:30-5pm. 5 prospects showed up and 4 brought the requested proof of income documents. One tenant was very interested and said she was ready to move forward right away. I sent her the eviction/credit/background check through www.mysmartmove.com for $35 and her info came back good. We are signing the lease Thursday. Success!

Congrats!

[NoNonsenseLandlord]

Update: had 12+ prospects tell me they were coming tonight. I treated it like an open house and told all prospects I would be there from 4:30-5pm. 5 prospects showed up and 4 brought the requested proof of income documents. One tenant was very interested and said she was ready to move forward right away. I sent her the eviction/credit/background check through www.mysmartmove.com for $35 and her info came back good. We are signing the lease Thursday. Success!

I wonder how you can approve a tenant so fast.  My background checks take a lot longer.  Credit is fast, income verification takes longer.  Do not sign a lease, get a holding fee.  A lease obligates you, a holding fee obligates the tenants.

Here is a post I wrote about how to get good tenants, even off Craigs.  With out any hassle, and not wasting time on low quality tenants.
http://www.nononsenselandlord.com/2016/08/screening-tenants-rental-property/

[Neo]

The service I referenced in my post verifies credit, evictions amd background in just a few minutes. I verified income by asking prospective tenants to bring recent pay stubs. Seemed to work okay. Do you see a problem with that method?

[Gronnie]

The service I referenced in my post verifies credit, evictions amd background in just a few minutes. I verified income by asking prospective tenants to bring recent pay stubs. Seemed to work okay. Do you see a problem with that method?

I would call their employer and verify they are currently employed. Paystubs can be easily forged.

[Blatant]

^^ This. In my day job I see this all the time with the background services provided by companies to landlords. Forged socials, CPNs instead of socials, forged identities, forged pay stubs. They backstop the forged identities using the trade lines thing you see so many folks here talk about. And don't fool yourself thinking you'll recognize these people. This is a different class of criminal.

[NoNonsenseLandlord]

The service I referenced in my post verifies credit, evictions and background in just a few minutes. I verified income by asking prospective tenants to bring recent pay stubs. Seemed to work okay. Do you see a problem with that method?

If you have a decent credit score, say 650+, it may work.  People with that level or above generally do not lie.

Did you get a National Criminal check?  Or a county level?  A national check is not worth beans.  They are out of date and do not have many smaller crimes in the database that might be of value.

A past landlord check is nice, just in case.  Although that is always the least value check.  There are far too many false recommendations from past landlords.