How can I prescreen tenants faster?

[Dale Lotts]

Hi Everyone! I have several units and I work full time, so I work hard to automate my rental business as much as possible. So far so good! Tenant screening is working great once the tenant moves in! Three evictions in 17 years, rent collection is automatic via ACH, maintenance is always preventive so late night or emergency calls from tenants, etc. I have recently changed to having only one group showing a few weeks after the current tenant gives notice that they are moving out. Now I find myself spending a lot of time screening tenants for the showing ( no need to invite someone that won't qualify to rent when they apply) This pre-screening takes at least 20 minutes per tenant- if I get 10-20 calls it takes much too long to screen all of these prospective tenants. My goal is to have exactly one showing with 4-5 prospective tenants that are highly likely to qualify if they apply - in my experience, of those that look at the property, at least 2-3!will apply. Am I going about this completely wrong? Does anyone have a better way to pre-screen prospective tenants? Any other advice on this will be welcome!

[Ryan Murdock]

Why is it taking 20 minutes to pre-screen a prospective tenant? Are you doing this over the phone? I can't imagine a rental call taking more than 5 minutes to get the info you are looking for. You should control the conversation, not the applicant. Ask the direct questions you want answers to. Be firm but polite. It's amazing how many people will call on a rental and have no idea even what to ask. They will wander all over the place if you let them. You, as the landlord, need to hammer the info to them and take the info back from them that you need.

If you want to weed them out even further require that a tenant submit an application before you will even show them a unit. Do a cursory inspection of the app and then decide whether to proceed further. As always, beware of fair housing laws and don't selectively require one applicant to do something you don't require of another but this additional pre-screening step may save you some time later on. It may also alienate some otherwise good prospects so use your judgement as to whether or not this is benefical to you in your market.

On the flip side, if you're corralling all of your people into one single showing, why not just let anyone who is remotely interested show up? You're only making one trip anyways. Show it to everybody and then have anyone interested submit an application for your further review.