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Updated almost 14 years ago, 02/20/2011
3 No Shows in One Day
I had my rental open house today, I had set up two appointments to show the units, and had 4 other people who were going to call today to let me know when they would be able to come. One of the people who was going to call called and told me they would be coming to the open house. No one showed up at any of their scheduled times. I tried calling them back, but only got answering machines. Has anyone else had anything like this happen? Does this mean I should change how I am doing something? Lower rent, advertise differently, schedule differently?
On an average day our office will schedule 25-30 showings for various properties. Some days we have two no shows, some days 12. There may be no rhyme or reason. They may have been busy, something came up, drove by and decided against it. Its just a part of the business, one that can more easily frustrate an owner doing it themselves as its an other wasted day.
#4 Off Topic Contributor
- Investor
- Round Rock, TX
I would suggest by changing to let a property manager handle this crapola. Stuff like this is the reason I don't manage my own properties for the most part.
Bryan is exactly right, we are set up to handle situations like these. When it happens our staff is not going to get upset and think of it as a blown day. They will use the extra half hour or so they now have to hang signs, flyers, call back leads, etc. They know its a part of the process.
An owner would be more inclined to see it as a waste of a day.
If you're going to do this yourself, require the person to call you on their way to the property (within 15 minutes of the appointment time) just to confirm that they are still coming.
Let them know that if they don't confirm within 15 minutes of the appointment, you won't be there.
Or, try to schedule multiple appointments within a short period of time. Worst case, you have more than one potential tenant show up at the same time, which will create a sense of urgency in their minds.
#4 Off Topic Contributor
- Investor
- Round Rock, TX
Scheduling multiple appointments definitely sounds like a great idea. If one misses you could have another slot like 30 minutes later so that trip and appointment process isn't a total waste of your time.
For my lower-income rentals I'll make an appointment and say my brother-in-law will meet up to show it.
Then if I get a call from the prospect that no one is at the rental I'll say something like: "Damn my shiftless relative for not showing up! I'll come over and personally let you in!"
That's one reason I like my properties close by.
Couple of good points to add in. Multiple showings at once always helps and confirmation calls. We call all showings that morning to confirm....this doesn't mean they will still show, but helps.
Originally posted by J Scott:
Let them know that if they don't confirm within 15 minutes of the appointment, you won't be there.
Or, try to schedule multiple appointments within a short period of time. Worst case, you have more than one potential tenant show up at the same time, which will create a sense of urgency in their minds.
This is how I do it, but I schedule all the appointments for the same time. I have my contractors show the properties for me but their time is valuable too. If no one confirms half an hour before the appointment, they don't go.
Tenants are rarely on time anyway, but if they all do show up at the same time, it's an incentive for them to fill out the application on the spot when they see other applicants. And if we're expecting X amount of them, and they all show up at the same time, my contractors can leave sooner.
I schedule prospecitve tenants to come all at the same time. For me it seems to be approximately a rule of 1/2. For instance I just rented a SFR that I had 13 people call and want to look at, 6 actually made it to the showing and I had 3 that filled out applications on the spot.
Originally posted by Kyle Meyers:
Ok, wait, was this an "open house" or just multiple appointments? With an open house, you advertise in the newspaper and online and simply wait for the masses to show up and meet them inside with pens and applications ready if they're interested.
If the only people who know about your "open house" are those by appointment, then you're simply showing the property on demand and defeating the purpose of the open house.
I agree that multiple scheduling is the way to go. You started out by sying it was an open house and I think that is the crux of the problem. "Open House" translates to "I'll be here if you want to show up". Appointments need to be firm and hard and let the prospects know you have plenty of people scheduled to come see it.Double bookings are good in this kind of situation. And I like to only schedule for one day - they usually find a way to rearrange their schedule when they know they will lose the opportunity completely if they don't.
Originally posted by Mitch Kronowit:
Originally posted by Kyle Meyers:
Ok, wait, was this an "open house" or just multiple appointments? With an open house, you advertise in the newspaper and online and simply wait for the masses to show up and meet them inside with pens and applications ready if they're interested.
If the only people who know about your "open house" are those by appointment, then you're simply showing the property on demand and defeating the purpose of the open house.
I scheduled several appointments for one day and then put an ad online for an open house as well. I did not have anyone show up for the open house and also no one came for their appointments.
Originally posted by Kyle Meyers:
That bites! It sounds like a slow market. You may have to lower the rent since it appears your prospects are finding "greener pastures" elsewhere.
I do tenant placement, and the majority of my tenants are from sx8 or other programs.
I have at least a 50% no show rate. My wife always asks if it drives me crazy, and I tell her no, it is part of my business.
I do schedule multiple, simultaneous showing appointments though, seems to create excitement and saves me from wasting time.
I usually dont show at the same time if I dont have to. If one tenant finds something they dont like about the place it will make the other tenant think twice also. Keep them 15 minutes apart so one is filling out an app as the next arrives.
Also, Jason is right about having them call before. I use a half hour but I am sure 15 minutes works also.
Usually, the lower the rent is, the more people have a problem showing up (and paying) on time.
Originally posted by Kyle Meyers:
In my experience I found that if they don't show up you never hear from them again anyway, so I didn't bother calling anyone back.
Also, if anyone begs you to hold the place "just for a day" for them don't do it. I made the mistake of doing this and the people never showed up at their appointed time to bring the application, etc and didn't answer their phone.
I always schedule the showings 15 minutes apart. And, if I have only one showing at any given time, I call the person back and tell them I have to reschedule. I then reschedule for another time which I already have showings set.
Sometimes the showings overlap and I consider it a good thing because it suggests competition to the prospects.
I just schedule them at the same time. Usually, if multiple people show up they come at slightly different times, or someone waits outside while the other person looks. Very rare to actually have two groups looking at once.
I tell them to call 30 minutes before the appointment to confirm. I tell them if they don't call I won't be there. Three people who claim they want to see it is usually enough to get at least one. I only show once a week, and just push everyone to that same time slot.
I do make sure they've actually driven by and seen the place.
Originally posted by Jon Holdman:
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That sounds like a good idea Jon, but if the showing time is, say, six days away from when they called, do a lot of them lose interest? I've found that some of them don't have much of an attention span.
I've not found that to be much of a problem. If we're getting close to the end of the month, I'll be more flexible, since I've found that generally people want to start a lease at the beginning of the month.
I might be off topic here as I don't know the property details but perhaps the property doesn't look clean from the street. In my experience if several prosepective tenants don't show up there is something wrong with the quick drive by. Lawn, Neighbor, etc???
I always schedule multiple prospects around the same. There are always a few no shows and it is rare that I can't make use of my wait time.
I have also found that Dec and January are some of the toughest months to rent.
