When to start posting and having open house for rental properties

Question

Hi, BPers

I have my current tenants move out from a 3be/1ba SFH July 23rd. When do you guys think it is the best time to post ads for new tenants and arrange open houses? The reason I asked is that I do not want to start too early so that new tenants may not feel urgent and motivated. Also, it is a better idea to have open house with my current tenants there or show it after they move out and everything is cleaned.

Thank you!

Lee

Paul Ronto · Answer

@CJ Ashton I live in a college town, so part of it is because students leave the first week of may and tend to be gone all summer, so tenants are looking for new places to live the next school year in March and April. After the first week of May my audience is literally cut in half, if not more. But no tenants have ever had a problem with this, they usually know if they want to stay another year, or if they are graduating and leaving, or want to live in a different part of town close to the bars, or close to the mountains or whatever has become important to them over the past year.

Also, people looking 4-5 months out have been good tenants for me, the people I pick up 2-3 weeks before a needed move have tended to be lousy tenants in my experience, they typically are late for rent and a bit disorganized. Just in my experience, again, lots of college kids here.

Alex Deacon · Answer

@Leon Lee The sooner the the better. Whatever you need to do to get it rented and keep your downtime minimized. It should be in the tenants lease with 24 hours notice you can show the apartment. Problem is sometimes the tenants are dirty or horrible decorators or they are now living out of boxes so the place may not show well but what can you do.

CJ Ashton · Answer

@Paul Ronto,

Holy cow.  5 month notice of intent to renew or not?  I thought 30 day notice was standard practice and I was getting greedy asking for 45 days.

I'm a fan of the "open house" method while it is still occupied by current tenant.  I ask the current tenant for 1 to 2 hours and advertise heavily.  I've always been able to find the next qualified tenant through this method and the vacancy is at most a couple of weeks and sometimes as little as a couple of days.

Paul Ronto · Answer

@Leon Lee I agree with the post from above, get it posted ASAP! The sooner the better. I show my properties in April that turnover on August 1 every year. The more lead time you have the better tenant pool you'll have to pick from. Plus responsible tenants are looking 6 months out for their next move.

What I do, is about 5-6 months before any of my tenants leases are up, I reach out to see if they plan on staying another cycle, and if they say no, then I start showing it then, I don't wait for them to give me notice that they are moving out, by then it's too late.

I show the property open house style too, as to inconvenience the current renters as little as possible. I market my property on every online listing site possible, about 50+ (seriously), plus Facebook and Craigslist, I get a bunch of interest and tell everyone that there will be an open house on a Saturday afternoon coming up, and I let the current tenants know to clean and that I only need the house vacated for 2-3 hours one time, and usually I get enough interest in that one open house to have a good tenant pool to select from. It saves me from having to do 20 individual showings, and bug my tenants 20 different evenings.

I also have in my lease all of this, that I need to know 5 months out if they plan to re-sign the lease, that they have to allow for showings, and that the house has to be cleaned and presentable.

You still have plenty of time, but I would list your property today if they are moving out in about 4 weeks. Good luck and let us know if you have any questions, always happy to help.

Leon Lee · Answer

Hi

Thank you all for sharing your experience. It is really odd that my experiences show that if I show the house by appointment, prospects usually don't feel the urgency and will not apply. But if I show it during open house, the traffic makes the potential prospects apply immediately. Am I the only person who had this kind of experiences? Most of my

Thanks

Lee

Thomas S. · Answer

As Deanna and Alex state asap, no open house only private showings. When landlords list and show as soon as a tenant gives notice you have the ability to attract the best quality candidates and need never experience a vacancy.

When a landlord begins to look for a tenant with less than a month to occupancy the quality of applicants drops drastically.

Deanna McCormick · Answer

As soon as I get a notice, I let tenant know the apartment will be listed for showing, I set appointments and give tenant 24 hour notice that I will be showing the apartment within a 2 hour window, the sooner shown the sooner rented..

I don't do a open house, I do only by appointment. I will schedule appointments back to back within that 2 hours.. if I have the chance to do that.

I let people I'm showing know current tenants are still there and sometimes it's nice because furniture still there gives them idea of how things will fit.

Up to you on what you want to do but I show ASAP..

When to start posting and having open house for rental properties

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