When Advertising an Apartment For Rent do you recommend mentioning/having an Open House?
Do you recommend weekend or weekday? morning, afternoon or evening?
Hi.
I can`t say that I am experienced (so far two apartments), but I noticed that putting an add sunday night into kijiji for a saturday open house (without the exact address- only location) worked for me very well.
I asked to send me a phone no to make an individual appointment for the showing. Both times I did it I had between 4-7 appointments.
Hi Neil,I`ve done this in sudbury, etc. - best time as per my experience & I think most people`s schedules is saturday afternoon is good 2-4 and Sundays similar time as some people who go to church Sundays 10 or 12 would have lunch after that. This would catch people with regular work hours & creates a competitive atmostphere as well. Or instead of open house even just scheduel at least 2 or more viewers on one time slot--this is how I rented my tiny Woodstock condo after weeks of single viewings with no success-viewers felt desperate watching another competing applicant fill out an app. & hand out cash that I got my target applicant to commit right on the spot. This wasn`t an open house - just 3 people I booked at the same time --saves you time too if you are unable to confirm who`s showing up & have to drive 4 hours away...
I do the open house thing when it`s a busy time of year, like when I`m renting for sept. It seems to work well and gets a lot of people through in a short period of time. Saves me from doing 100 showings or trying to do 5 showings similtaneously. sat and sundays 2-4 is a good time. I like to do it during the day when there is natural lighting to show off the place better.
I don`t know if I would go that route at this time of year. What I would do is try and schedule showings back to back in 1/2hr increments so that I can minimize my trips there yet still devout sufficient time to each potential tenant that does come and get to know them and answer questions.
At a time of year when there may not be as many potential renters I want to make sure that the ones that do exist have my full attention.