How to Deny a Showing Request ?

Question

Hello!

I am a newbie whose first ever tenants are not re-signing the lease. In my first ever round of advertising the unit I always included the rental requirements in any response to a showing request; for example 3x the rent in income etc. Anyone (who I assume) could not meet those requirements never responded.

These same requirements are being sent this second time around. Now during my second time around I have prospectives who openly state in their responses to me that they do not meet the income requirements but want to set up a showing anyway. They also of course provide every assurance that they've never had an issue paying rent before.

Do you experience this as well?

Do you develop canned responses to deny the showing requests? Is it a simple response of "Thank you but we apply the income requirements strictly to all candidates and we will not be able to do a showing at this time."

Jake Hottenrott · Answer

@Christina Wrightsman - I think your response is really well written but I might leave off the no showing portion.  While I don't share the same excitement of showing properties to unqualified candidates as @Mike Cumbie, I would schedule someone who stated they don't meet the income requirements.  I would do this by scheduling them at the same time or close enough to cross paths with a potential tenant that they it might apply some psychological pressure that there is a lot of interest and at the very least as Mike stated, it does allow another person to see it and talk about the property.

Gail K. · Answer

Many landlords who self manage will present themselves to applicants as "property managers" rather than telling them they own the property.

Thus when someone who doesn't qualify based on the criteria you have set still wants to view the property it's a little easier to say that you must follow the criteria set by the "company".

In the past I was more soft hearted and allowed more wiggle room with things like income criteria (at least 3 times the rent) and credit history (i.e., collections) and by doing so, I was often bitten in a tender spot in my anatomy.

I grew tired of this (and probably have gotten mean over the years)  and now I find myself have little patience with many of the excuses I might hear from applicants as to why they've gotten themselves into the financial pickles they have.   I'm not their social worker as sorry as I may be that they can't seem to pay their bills.

At any rate, pretending to be the property manager may be a more "gentle" way for you if you just can't say "this is the criteria I must legally follow for every person that contacts me regarding this rental property".

Gail

Mike Cumbie · Answer

@Jake Hottenrott

In Jakes defense he is an accountant and they don't usually get very excited in general soooooo   :)

Mike Cumbie · Answer

I like your response except the last line where you turn down the showing. I like as many showings as possible, they may not qualify but people talk and i'll show things all day. Gets me in front of people. I would say those are our requirements and we apply them to all applicants equally, if you do not meet the qualifications you will not be approved.

Account Closed · Answer

@Christina Wrightsman I think it depends on how much time you have on your hands. I don't have a lot of extra time so I thank them for their interest and tell them I will put them on the list for the next property I find. If you are not actively looking for more properties, I'd tell them that I will pass their qualifications on to  some colleagues. If you don't have colleagues, get some. It's a lot more fun doing real estate when you have colleagues.

I'm dealing with a couple right now that I would love to have but I gave them a couple of things they must do to qualify. If they won't do those things, they will be a problem in the future, so I don't want them. On the other hand, If they do those things, I know I have a long term tenant I will be happy with. We want long term tenants. When rules are broken and things come too easily for people, they assume too much and become a problem.

Christina Wrightsman · Answer

Account Closed not much! As I'm working full time and now self managing two units. Thanks for your words!

Ann Bellamy · Answer

I do a mini-screen on the phone on people requesting to see a unit:

My income requirement is XXXX, do you meet that requirement?

How many pets do you have?  (Note I don't ask whether, I ask how many)

Do you smoke indoors or outdoors? (Note the question assumes they smoke.  I don't allow smoking indoors OR outdoors, but this question seems to generate a more honest answer than "Do you smoke?"  If they don't smoke at all, they are quick to say so.)

If they don't meet my requirements, I simply say, "I'm sorry, you don't meet the requirements of blah blah, so I appreciate your interest, but I don't want to waste your time. "  If they push, I simply say no again.

I don't have the time to show units to non-starters, and I only do group showings, no single showings.

There is a great post here about pre-screening that might interest you.

Thomas Williamson · Answer

I let YouTube do all my showings.  One video tour of the property, and done.  I got tired of a ton of people who

1.  Don't take the time to read the ad and see exactly what the qualifications are.  When they e-mail or call it's clear that aren't qualified.

2.  I work a full time job, so this saves me a lot of unnecessary trips.

3.  There's no uncomfortable situation about not wanting to show the property to someone.

I state very clearly in my ads and the YouTube video that I do not conduct showings until the person has made it to the second phase of my screening process.

I don't understand why anyone would show a property to someone who is not qualified to rent / lease the property.

No showings until the applicant has been pre-qualified.

Nathan Letourneau · Answer

I experience this kind of thing a lot. For me only a few are people who don't qualify financially.  Most of the ones for me are people who have pets that are wanting to rent my no pet property.  I put "NO PETS" about 3 times throughout my ad and I still get a ton of requests from people with pets that want me to make an exception.

I used to show the property to anyone who had interest.  I found myself wasting a bunch of time on people I didn't ultimately want.  Then, I would show the property to anyone who replied to my online ad who said they qualified.  I would find myself doing showings and the people would say something like...."we love the house and want to rent it, but..." and then tell me they don't meet the income requirement, credit score requirement or even more often that they have a pet they want me to consider on a no pet property.  Again a huge waste of time.

So now I call each online prospect and go through a list of questions and re-iterate my requirements before I ever agree to do a showing.  Doing this has weeded out a ton of people who would not qualify.  I spend a bit more time on the phone, but for me that is much better than wasting my time driving and doing the showing for no reason.

One of the other problems I used to have was people scheduling a showing, but not showing up.  I got tired of this pretty quickly so now I always reconfirm with them the night before (usually by text) or tell them to contact me 1 hour before the showing.  If they don 't reconfirm in one of these two ways I don't show up.

Chris Grenier · Answer

Unless they paid an application fee, you don't have to tell them anything :)

How to Deny a Showing Request ?

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