Managing prospective tenant inquiries

[Scott Wang]

I'm a newbie with 3 single-family homes in rural Wisconsin (towns around here have populations under 2,000).  I'm in the process of finding a tenant for one of the homes.  I stuck an ad on craigslist and quickly received 25+ inquiries.  Rental inventories around here are very low and a lot of people are looking.

My question is how do I sort and manage these inquiries?  I have shown the house to 3 of them and have minor details on a couple more, but the only thing I have on the remaining 20 interested parties is their phone number.

When you are looking for a tenant, how do you manage those inquiries?  Do you give everyone that applies a fair shot or do you select the first good applicant you see and tell everyone else sorry?

[Dana Dunford]

@Scott Wang - Some of my own thoughts;

• Fair housing: You want to be very careful that you are not turning someone away due to any discrimination that violates this law. Craigslist Fair Housing has a great summary of this information for you
• Objective criteria: You can (however) have objective criteria that must be met in order to qualify for your property. For example, you can say ... you must have an income-to-rent ratio of 3-to-1 and credit of 650+.
• Selecting the first qualified applicant: This is recommended but many States don't require it. 
• Showings: I don't recommend one-off showings. I recommend open houses, because (1) people flake, (2) if they really want the place, they'll coordinate to attend, (3) it shows other demand, so people make decisions faster
• Comprehensive listing: I recommend putting a lot of details in your posting, including the floor plan. You will help avoid getting questions such as "how big is that room, do you allow pets ..." Oh and use bullet points ... people don't love reading a lot.

I hope that helps!