2 Words That Have Saved Me Hours of Frustration

[Matt Vanden Toorn]

Like most of you, I do most of my advertising for my rentals through craigslist. Nothing irritates me more than setting up an appointment, driving over to the rental property to meet a prospective tenant and no one shows up. No call, no text, no email.. nothing. Homeboy is probably sitting at home watching family guy and I just wasted an hour of my time.

I discovered something that has been insanely useful to me and has nearly eliminated no shows, and its 2 words. The two words are “will you?”

More specifically, when you’re on the phone with your potential tenant and you finish your pre-qualifiers, you set up an appointment, THEN you ask them one important question, “will you call me if something comes up and you cant make it?”, and wait for their “yes.”

MOST IMPORTANT: It needs to be exactly that or something close to it. Saying “Give me a call if something changes”, “let me know if you cant make it” “please call if you something comes up” do not have the same effect. It needs to be a question and they need to respond. It cannot be a statement.

Obviously, the key is in the psychology of them verbally agreeing to do something you have asked them to do. There is very little commitment in simply agreeing to a statement.

Believe it or not, this makes a huge difference. I still have people cancel last minute, but they almost always call or text and let me know they’re not interested anymore or cant make it.