Tired of no shows?

[samwei]

Hi everyone,
One of the frustrations of renting out a place is having "no shows".

I found this comment by a landlord on Rentboard.ca. It undoubtedly reflects the frustration some of us have felt about this process.


"If you have no intentions of showing up to a viewing appointment, don`t bother calling. I`m tired of being stood up."

I had a bit of a chuckle with this.

sam

 

[RedlineBrett]

That owner sounds like a novice landlord that isn`t too keen on management. Possibly one of the many people that have chosen to lease their property because they couldn`t sell it?
No-shows are a definite pain.

We ask that prospective renters either call us or provide a phone number that we can reach them at one hour prior to our scheduled meeting at the property. No call, no showing. We tell them it`s a business policy and most understand why.

We head off A LOT of no-shows this way.

QUOTE (samwei @ Jul 20 2008, 07:28 PM) Hi everyone,

One of the frustrations of renting out a place is having "no shows".

I found this comment by a landlord on Rentboard.ca. It undoubtedly reflects the frustration some of us have felt about this process.


"If you have no intentions of showing up to a viewing appointment, don`t bother calling. I`m tired of being stood up."

I had a bit of a chuckle with this.

sam

 

[TodorYordanov]

Calling them one hour before the appointment or having them call you works! Yesterday 4 out of 5 potential tenants showed up at one of my showings. In the past without call it would`ve been 1 out of 5.

 

[Ready4Rent]

QUOTE (RedlineBrett @ Jul 20 2008, 07:43 PM) That owner sounds like a novice landlord that isn`t too keen on management. Possibly one of the many people that have chosen to lease their property because they couldn`t sell it?

No-shows are a definite pain.

We ask that prospective renters either call us or provide a phone number that we can reach them at one hour prior to our scheduled meeting at the property. No call, no showing. We tell them it`s a business policy and most understand why.

We head off A LOT of no-shows this way.

Exactly,


I tell prospective tenants, that they must call 1 hour prior to showing to confirm or the showing is automaticlly canceled. This eliminates the tire-kickers, and saves me time and money by only showing it to serious applicants.

2 cents


John

 

[writeabooknow]

I`ve got to say that since we started using this strategy several years ago, it has worked incredibly well. Yep, ask them to call you 1-hour before the showing time to confirm that they will be there.
"If you don`t call, I certainly understand. We all lead very busy lives. But if you don`t call, then I won`t be there, so please remember that so you`re not inconvenienced."
Subsequently, I`ve added a new twist that also works well. All showings take place on the same day at the same time. I go to each room and stick up green pieces of paper at eye level, each one having a feature/benefit that is either in the room, or can be seen from the room. Some rooms have several of these signs on the walls, and they`re in the halls as well. Next to the thermostat: "Convenient, low cost natural-gas heating and fully air conditioned." This means I don`t have to accompany the several couples as they go through the house at the same time, and they get the pressure of scarcity from the presence of the other potential renters. (I also never forget to mention something that`s important for renters to see.
Cheers,
Steve

 

[brentdavies]

Try this trick, schedule all showings at a certain time, say Wednesday at 6 pm and schedule the first at 6:00, the next at 6:05 and the next at 6:10. You are haveing a mini auction, and lots of potential renters. This really works in the busy summer rental months.

Beats going to the property 2-5 times per week for people who don`t show

25- 40% of all prospective tenants do not show. They find something else, they were tire kicking, etc.

Would love to hear about any other ideas.

Brent

 

[TerryF]

This is what we do and it seems to work. Anyone interesting in seeing our property MUST complete an application form, including the section giving permission for a credit check. The last ad we ran, we had about a dozen inquiries. We responded to all with more information. If they were still interested they were sent the application form (maybe 6 of the original dozen). If they were still interested after that, they returned the application form (we got 2 returned application forms). THEN, and only then, would we schedule a showing of the property. The showings were booked 20 minutes apart and after the showings, both parties wanted to rent the house. Both were good applicants (otherwise we would have denied them a showing), and we picked the applicant that we felt was the least risky of the two. This all happened over 4 days of advertising on Kijiji from July 15 - 19 for a September 1 vacancy.

We like this method because it eliminates unnecessary showings and saves us and our current tenants a lot of time and inconvenience. Most tire kickers will eliminate themselves from the running and most applicants with bad credit will also eliminate themselves once they see a credit check will be done.

When we advertise, we get a lot of calls or inquires straight off that request to see the house. We won`t show to anyone that quickly because we may be wasting our time if they are unsuitable applicants for us. So we take back control over the rental process by requesting the application form be completed. It always has been a good system for us. The key is not to get nervous that you will turn off prospective tenants and won`t get the place rented. Good tenants have no problem going through the process and after doing so, they rarely turn into no-shows at the showing.

 

[Manjula]

I like Brent`s idea and have tried it - I found that a higher percentage filled out the application form immediately since there was that "mini-auction" feeling,

Thanks,
Manj

 

[TommyK]

Manj,

So you would actually schedule a showing for all potential tenants, and then have them fill out the application on the spot?

I read a lot of you do the reverse. Pre-qualify them via application form and credit check, then show the property.

Anyone else has done the showing before application process?

would like to hear many different perspectives!

GREAT INFORMATION. LOVE REIN!

QUOTE (Manjula @ Aug 5 2008, 08:03 AM) I like Brent`s idea and have tried it - I found that a higher percentage filled out the application form immediately since there was that "mini-auction" feeling,

Thanks,
Manj