Do Showing with Cammera

[Keivan Darius]

We have an Apartment with 20 units available to rent. One issue we are running into is that our PM is not on site so we can’t do showing when it’s convenient for tenant leads. Has anyone tried to do showing using lockbox and Camera. So tenat leads can come for showing themselves?

[Erik W.]

I don't have apartments (yet), but we do lock box showings all the time with our SFH's and plexes. We ask for full name, income, when they want to move, and reason for moving as a basic pre-screen. I can do a quick free background check on the person, and if no major issues we send them the code for a self-tour. Been doing this for 5 years...worst thing that happened is someone used the toilet in a place where the water was turned off. Not a big deal. Flush, bleach, swish, flush again...done.

I have saved about 1000 hours of my life and countless miles & gasoline & vacant units because I can't show when the tenants are available.  Even if something bad does happen, I'm so far money ahead on this strategy I'm never going back to the old method of dropping everything to run over to a place and unlock it just so people can text me 15 minutes after their appointment, "Sorry, but we're not coming...."  I did enough of that back when I was a young LL.

If you're not comfy with that, do a detailed walk thru video of the unit and post to YouTube.  Send them the link.  You can put "reference" items in the room on the floor like a yard stick in case they're curious about the size of rooms.