Noob here. Overwhelmed by response to my 'for rent' sign.

[Lesley Futterknecht]

This is a good problem to have, but I have no idea what the best way is to handle it.  Hubs and I closed on our first ever income property last Friday.  It's an unoccupied duplex in a so-so part of town (but on the border of a good school district, which was part of the appeal.)  I was fully expecting it to take a couple of months to get tenanted.    We got the keys Friday, got the power turned on, and threw up a sign Sunday afternoon.   I've gotten easily 30 calls in the last 24 hours.  I'd say the property was undervalued, but the price isn't on the sign, just a phone #.   About half the people who called said thanks but no thanks when they heard the price, and the other half want to come see it.   DH and I both work, and he's out of town for the next few days anyway, so rather than making 15+ individual appointments, we decided to basically just open it up for a few hours Friday after work, and I've been telling people to come, have a look, and then fill out the application if they are interested, but I'm honestly totally blown away by the # of responses, and my phone is still ringing.  What should I do?  Keep telling people to come?  stop answering the phone?  Am I over thinking this?    

also, assuming we get applications from even half the people that are interested, any pointers on how to weed through them?   Income of 3x rent, no past evictions, stable employment, decent credit history?   anything else?  No smokers for sure (can I put that in the lease though?) and probably no pets.    Are families generally more stable/reliable than singles?  Or do you experienced landlords find that little kids tear up houses?    I don't want to choose the wrong tenant!

[Account Closed]

You will always be deluged with applicants who can't find another landlord to rent to them.  That is going to be 99% of the responses you'll get.

1) Write up your criteria now.  Make sure it's legal.  Look it up. You should have already known this before you advertised.

2) When they call, let it go to voicemail.  Anyone who is screaming at someone in the background or someone is telling them what to say on the voicemail - don't call them back.  As you go through each voicemail, keep a notebook with the phone number and why you're not calling them back.  Make sure your reasons are not illegal.  

Your job is to discriminate.  You just can't do it for a few reasons.  It's perfectly legal to say your criteria says that people who are swearing at the kids on the voicemail get denied.  You don't have to rent to people who swear at their kids.

3) When you do call people back, go over all of your criteria with them and ask them if they meet each one.  Many will screen themselves out.

I love these books.  I haven't read this particular one, as I had their California one, but they're easy to read, even though they're written by lawyers:

http://www.nolo.com/products/every-landlords-guide...

What you can do right now, is take down the sign and tell people you realized you're not ready.  

Also, you can just put your info on a voicemail.  Let them call and hear the info on the voicemail and leave their number if they are still interested and think they'll qualify.

"Hello, you've reached the manager of the available unit at ____________ Parkside Lane.  The rent price is $____________, we require income of 3 times the rent, no smoking, no dogs, we do extensive background checks including criminal, eviction and credit, and you must have great landlord references who are not relatives and we thoroughly check everything.  If you're still interested and believe you will qualify, please leave your name and number after the tone."