Bidding wars among potential tenants?

[Amy Janota]

Hello all! I'm in the process of re-renting one of our SFRs, and have 3 separate (seemingly qualified, although obviously not yet fully screened) parties who would like to move forward with the application process.

How do you all handle choosing between interested tenants? In the past I've typically just gone with first-come-first-served, but we've also (once) generated a bidding war, which ended up being incredibly lucrative, but I felt a little yucky about it.

Tough problems to have, I know. Life in Austin. :)

Thanks for any thoughts!

-Amy

[Bill S.]

Personally, I too don't really go for the bidding war approach. I have heard of people not setting a price and asking people to name their price. It's supposed to come out higher than if you didn't. I haven't done it though.

For me I have a question on my application that asks how long they want to stay. I go with the one that says longer than 1 year but also ask them and get a longer lease period. Helps me sort the wheat from the chaff. It also gives me a reply as to why I didn't select one of the others that might fend off a illegal discrimination claim. BTW longer terms always include a rent escalation clause on the annual anniversary.