Hey everyone. So I’ve had my condo listed online for a week, and out of all the people who’ve come in, I only have 1 potential tenant, but he hasn’t submitted the application yet. 80% of the inquiries never even reply back to me after I send them my pre-screening questionnaire. And my questions are kindergarten compared to some of the hardball questionnaires I’ve seen other landlords requests. I don’t even ask for first, last and security, I just ask for first and security, but still it’s not good enough for these people. So my question is - do people just expect that I’ll put my assets on the line just to make some stranger happy and bypass all the questioning and background/credit checks? When I signed my car lease, I figuratively had to give them a blood test to prove to them that I was worthy. And we’re talking a car lease which is half the lease of my condo. So what I’m getting at is this: Why do people get so turned off by questions? I already wasted hours for the few days showing the condo to people who didn’t even have a credit history. Then I got wise to the game and started the conversation with the pre-questionnaire. Or is the right answer for me to just stop wasting my time, hire a professional tenant placement agency, pay them a month’s rent for their services, sign the lease and call it a day?
Your rent is too high. If you’ve been able to attract traffic, and nobody will bite, then you don’t offer enough for the money. Time to adjust your offer until you can generate a conversion. Leasing a unit is a sales job. And you take apps in person, not by email, etc. If you are quoting rent, and generating traffic, but are unable to generate a conversion, then you are overselling the unit, and wasting everyone’s time and money.
That’s exactly what I thought. I must be getting smarter.
Can I ask what’s in your prescreening questionnaire? Here’s mine…
Do you have a criminal record (which I would verify), and what is your monthly income (which I would verify). I also might consider asking them where they are moving from and why. Also, how long they’ve been in their job.
I don’t know that I would go straight there. It’s possible that he wants people to fill out an unreasonable form without giving them anything in return, like selling the unit and the things it offers. I don’t do prescreening, other than a minimal amount on the phone. It’s always worth my time to meet someone who wants to give me money.
I see this a lot in my sales job, people (engineers) who underestimate the emotional connection required to sell something and get straight to brass tacks. It’s irritating and off putting for people to have a serious inquiry and not get basic answers to their questions without an onerous request.
That’s great insight.
However, I’ll stand by my original proposition that the rent is too high, considering the marketing that’s being done.
I mean, if he lowers his rent far enough, there will be less resistance to his incompetent marketing. Right?
Of course, lower rents attracts lower quality tenants. Those are the ones who can ‘only’ afford the quoted rent.
Meantime, lower rents will also attract bargain hunters. The ones with higher incomes, better credit, and more options.
Either way, lowering the rents will attract more interest, and increase the incentive to jump hoops, and probably overcome incompetent marketing, as you pointed out.
So, either improve the marketing to achieve market rents, or lower the rents, and continue marketing like an abject absentee landlord, crossing your fingers, hoping prospects will jump all sorts of paperwork hoops, and finally settle for less cash flow. :banghead
So, it would seem that improving the marketing is the more profitable strategy, rather than simply lowering the rents, to compensate for the lack of marketing.
Tell me where I’m wrong…