04/26/2023
Day 26/30 - Tenant screening best practices with .james
1.) The Ad. Make sure that your ad has bright, high quality photos. I like to use a wide-angle lens to capture the whole room, and make the space feel bigger for prospective tenants. Be descriptive and include details about the positive features of the rental unit. Things like: in-suite laundry, dishwasher, natural light, open concept layout, A/C, parking, details about the neighborhood, etc. I also like to include a video walkthrough, to further filter.
2.) Pre-screening tenants. Here is the template that I send to all applicants:
“Hi there! Have you had a chance to watch the video walk-through?
https://youtu.be/example
Would you mind sharing what you do for work currently, and who the unit would be for, including any pets? Also if you have any questions, feel free to pass them along!”
This answers a variety of questions about the applicant, and even things like their ability to communicate clearly.
3.) Scheduling and Executing The Showings. I personally do 10min intervals, rather than the “open house” technique. The benefit of the open house is generating FOMO (fear of missing out) and demain for your unit - but this can be done by simply telling tenants that you’ve had a dozen showings today, and that you’ll need their application by tomorrow at 9:00am in order to call references, review the application, etc. With this strategy, you have 10min to ask questions, get a feel for the people, see if their give you a good “gut feeling”, and if they seem like a *good fit* for the unit. The “fit” is often overlooked - make sure the unit makes sense given their life situation, number of people in the household, and their relationship with each other, where they work, etc.
