Killed my first rental property open house - Or did I?

[Adam Craig]

I had my first rental open house last Sunday between 12-2. After getting tons of interest I decided that was going to be better then individual showings.

This house was freshly rehabbed so it was in demand. I had nearly 40 people come through in 2 hours and I had about 20 fill out pre-qualification applications. All of them sensed the competition and asked me detailed questions about how they might be selected.

I went home that night and out of 20 applications - 8 seemed qualified. So I sent out the TenantCloud application/credit/background check via email to all 8 applicants and told them it needed fill out in full within 5 days and a decision would be made Friday. 

The surprising thing is I only got 3 "paid" applications. Luckily I found some very qualified tenants but is this common to receive a ton of interest at the open house, then maybe they "sleep on it" and the excitement goes away? I guess I could always make more of a point to follow up with all contacts that said they were interested. Just wondering if this should be expected.

Thanks