My Screening Process with VERY MINIMAL showings :)

[Kyle Curtin]

Hi everyone!

I wanted to share the screening process that worked out pretty well for me after successfully turning over my first unit in the past couple months with very minimal showings and how it worked out! I would love to hear your feedback below and also what you would implement/take out :) always open to shifting!

The renter criteria I used initially was as follows:

*Min. 3x rent multiplier

*Credit score of over 650+

*Small dogs and cats are ok

*No smoking

*No criminal record & eviction history

*The first step was to take really good pictures and write a nice and detailed description and list the unit on Zillow Rental Manager and FB Marketplace.

*The second step that I took was to create a template note in my phone saying the following:

“Hi!

If you are interested in this unit for rent, please fill out this Pre-showing form and if you meet the owner’s criteria, they will reach out to you to schedule a time for you to walk through the unit.

Thank you!”

(I would then send a link to my said Google form with a bunch of pre- qualifying type of questions like credit score, eviction history, reason for moving, etc. I found it from a BP member and am happy to share a copy with you if you would like one, it’s customizable!)

*This form was absolutely awesome and gave very good results. Over 160 people on Facebook marketplace reached out, and I would copy and paste this dialogue and send it to everyone.

*When I sent over the form, it deterred many folks from even bothering to fill it out, and about 25-30 people did. I thought it was very interesting, and my theory was it would eliminate the folks who were not serious and I was VERY surprised how many it actually deterred.

*This form is very short, and can be manipulated very easily if one chose to, but I found that most people seemed to be honest. (The next step is how I tried to hedge against this the best I could :) )

*After comparing all of the data from the applicant’s information from the Google form, I reached out to the tenants to schedule a showing. I sent them the following email template below:

“Good afternoon X,

        After going through your Google form responses, I wanted to reach out and see when you have some time to come check out unit 1 on 123 Main St in X.

After you do a walkthrough of the unit, if you still would like to move forward, the final step would be to fill out the Zillow application with the official income verification, credit & background checks, etc. and then the owner will make their final selection.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Kyle”

*After they received this email, we scheduled a day/time for them to come and walk the unit.

*If everything checked out so far after their initial Google Form response, chatting for a while in person and getting a good feel for each other, my final step was for them to fill out the official Zillow rental manager application with the $29 one time fee for tenants. This provided me with a real credit and background check, and an eviction record. I would ultimately find out here if the tenant was BS’ing their credit score and income etc. :) The tenant I ended up selecting from this process is absolutely fantastic and I ended up signing a 1yr lease with them with a docusigned Massachusetts standard residential lease.

It ultimately resulted in a very small selection of very high quality tenants with very minimal showings, what do you guys like to do when screening tenants? I would love to hear below!

Have a kickass Wednesday!

Kyle :)

#lowell #boston #worcester #leominster #fitchburg #gardner