The Early Owner/Manager Gets the Rental
The web is an amazing thing, between our
two sites,
CalderCityRentals.com and
RentingMetroDetroit.com we are
seeing tens of thousands of page views
each month and thousands of visitors
visiting the sites from all over
Michigan.
As the
website grows, the number of inquiries
has also grown. When making an inquiry
visitors to the sites are reporting they
do not get replies for days and
sometimes more than a week....On more
than a few occasions they get a reply to
the effect the landlord is out of town
and won't be back for 2 weeks.
YIKES!
As I try hard to remind folks, the web
makes things happen pretty fast. You
want to be ready to reply to folks
within hours, not days. Check your email
every few hours, if you have text
capability you can forward your email to
your text ready cell phone and reply
instantly to prospective tenants.
Yes, I
know there are those of you who will
bulk at the idea of high speed responses
to a prospective tenant, but not
responding is your first impression gone
bad in a world where instant
communication over the web and by cell
phone is fast becoming the norm...and
more to the point their are more than a
few owners responding in minutes. If you
want to compete with them for the best
tenant, you must compete with them,
checking email every 4 days is not going
get your apartment rented.
So check those emails through the day,
everyday!
Listing Style Counts!
I read
a lot of rental listings between
Craigslist and our two rental sites,
CalderCityRentals.com and
RentingMetroDetroit.com. I find many
listings to be utterly ineffective.
These listings are often vague, request
inappropriately personal information as
a condition of seeing the property, or
my favorite, have pictures of toilets as
the major selling point of the rental.
On
those not so rare occasions when I put
on my mystery apartment hunter hat and
exchange email to learn more about the
listing skills, I find a comment that
touches on the poor listing skills
almost always gets a touchy response,
even if the comment was a light joke.
If I continue the exchange I usually get
an insult as the owner self
congratulates him or herself chasing me
away. As a tenant I have dismissed
owners with this attitude, as the owner
of these sites I am blown away by the
number of owners who expect good results
from bad listings.
Last
week we discussed chasing away tenants
with good credit, this week it is
attitude when making your first
impression. Attitude in a market where
owners are competing with literally
hundreds of other owners to find the
best tenant. In both our markets,
Craigslist is strong. In Grand Rapids we
find an average of 80 listings a day,
and in Detroit there are as many as 400
listings each and every day. There are a
lot of folks trying to rent their
places, and you want to stand out and
attract the great tenants, not chase
then away with sloppily written listings
and presenting a poor attitude toward
prospective tenants expecting
professional owners. Remember the best
tenants have options, they will simply
pass you by for the more skilled
presentation and response.
Today
there are hundreds of people looking for
the best tenants. They are providing
great images, terrific thought out
descriptions, and they know lifestyle
details about their rentals. They know
the best tenant is more sophisticated
than ever and requires more than a
bathroom view to prompt them to call.
The World Wide Web can cut you out
without your even knowing it. The last
thing you want to do is convince people
on the web not to call because of a poor
presentation.
Skilled
tenant scammers take advantage of your
poor presentation and you won’t catch
them until the rent starts coming in
late or stops coming at all. You’ll
growl about this class of people called
tenants and self righteously believe
your expression of prejudice is correct
not knowing it was your own actions that
lead the scammer to directly to you. Why
would anyone with steady work and good
credit choose an owner who does not
respect them handing over thousands of
dollars a year in the first impression?
Listings with a grainy image of a
toilet, a winter scene in August, or a
blurry picture of the side of the garage
does not bring you the best people, it
chases them away. Yes, as our mother
told us, first impressions matter, and
on the web you'll not know who took one
look at a bad listing, snorted with
laughter, and moved on, after all you
are one of hundreds.
So what
can you do? Really take some time and
think about what you want to say. Ask a
few people to look at the description
you're planning to post and get some
critical feedback. Use new pictures and,
when possible, get in the habit of
taking pictures when tenants first move
in so you have great shots of real
living space with real furniture; just
be sure to note the rental is
unfurnished. Find out about local
schools, recreation facilities and other
lifestyle options in the area. Do you
know good daycare providers in the area?
Are there any good restaurants near by?
Is there public transportation or
cultural venues within a few minutes?
Entice
your tenants, and you'll win the better
tenants. If you don’t someone else will
and you’ll be left in the District Court
trying to figure out why all you have to
show for your effort is successfully at
finding the bottom of the barrel.
Chasing Away the
Tenant with Good Credit
As
you may imagine I spend a lot of
time reading your listings,
speaking to owners and managers,
and getting feedback from
tenants. I
tend to see things from the
perspective of our end user, the
tenant. One place of interesting
tension are those of you who
will not show rentals before you
get some very personal
information as a condition of
showing a rental.
A
sophisticated tenant with a good
credit history and a good job
knows better than to give out
personal information before
deciding on a rental. The last
thing they want is 10 or 15
inquiries on their credit
report. They
value their good credit rating
and will not be handing our
personal information before even
seeing a rental. Do
you want the smarter tenant who
protects their
credit rating?
Are you asking these questions
about social security numbers,
birthdates, and driver’s
licenses as a condition to see a
home? The scammer knows you are
not running their credit. They
know there must be a legitimate
reason to run a credit report,
and “I am showing a house to Joe
Smith” he may never rent ain’t
it . Sadly
you’ve probably turned off the
person with excellent credit
because of this practice.
It
is interesting to me as I talk
to owners how many really get
ticked off at the idea of
someone saying, “Hey, this is
really not a good idea and you
are chasing away the tenant with
the better credit rating.” I
hear all the reasons from “this
is my screening process” to
“this is how I’ve always done
it.” However, when I ask how
many inquiries turn into actual
conversations with prospective
tenants I find they lose a lot
of people after they send their
first email to the tenant’s
initial
inquiry. In fact, the landlords
who demand very personal
information before showing a
home seem to have the least
follow through from tenants.
Some of these landlords tell me
this is because
they have weeded out
people who are not serious…Not
true, you are weeding out the
best people who are careful
about their credit rating and
see you as already too
intrusive. When
you have a choice because you
have been responsible you are
going to make a responsible
choice.
Here is an actual response to an
inquiry asking to see a see a
rental, "Thank you for your
interest. Our procedure is to
have you complete a short form
application prior to arranging a
viewing. We also suggest that
your drive by the property
first, to make sure that you
like the neighborhood. Please
return via email or you can fax
to 313-964-32XX."
So
is this a scam? Is "Gerald" a
real landlord or is he a slick
identity thief? Who knows, but a
smart tenant with good credit is
going to move on to someone
other than this landlord rather
than take a chance of ruining
their credit from Gerald.
Do
I advocate doing credit reports?
YES! Wait until you have
narrowed down your list to a few
tenants whose employment you
have checked, whose references
you have checked and to a few
people you would like living in
your investment property . If
you are collecting social
security numbers as a condition
of seeing the rental in the
first place you are making a big
mistake, smart people are not
going to give you access to
their credit report so quickly
especially when they have their
choice of most any rental.
****************
Do you have your legal stuff
covered? Did you know there is specific
words you must have in every lease? Did
you know not having a tenant complete an
inventory checklist can make it
impossible for you to keep a tenant's
security deposit? Did you know if you
keep any part of a deposit for any
reason other than past due rent and the
tenant does not agree, YOU have to sue
the tenant to keep the deposit?
...and if you don't do this the tenant
can recover double what you kept.
Let's start with the lease. There are
words you must have in the lease, the
good news is the Michigan State
University Law School created a model
lease! Click below for your copy of this
Michigan Model Lease in WORD or PDF
format!
Michigan Model Lease in WORD
Michigan Model Lease in PDF Format
