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

[Adam Craig]

Originally posted by @Marcus Auerbach:

@Adam Craig congratulations to your first rental OH! The market response is showing that you did a fantastic job with the rehab!

What you describe is esentially a lead funnel and you loose numbers on every step towards the end, so that's quite normal. The fact that you got only three paid appliactions is not a surprise. Most tenants will look at five or more places and if they pay $40 at every one it adds up quickly.

Our system is very similar, we offer appointments twice a week, usually on a weekday night and a weekend afternoon. We book in ten minute intervalls (having an appointment at 3:40pm sends a message) and we double book after the hour is full.

On site we have free paper applications. We continue to work with the best candidates and will only sends a "paid" application - aka background check to  the top one or two applicants. They already know at that point that they are almost approved unless the background check brings something up, they did not tell before.

The problem with your approach is that the 3 out of 8 who responded were not necessarily the best 3. Often times I find that the strongest applicants are a less needy and more reluctant to jump through hoops, because they have options. The lesser qualified people will do whatever it takes.

I would say you did pretty well with your approach. You just learn every time you do this and keep making small adjustments.

Thanks Marcus - Great tips and that makes sense because the only people offering me cash on the spot to hold the property were those with a 550 credit score :) 

I am currently in the process of phasing out my 6 year property manager and transitioning all 26 properties in house one by one. I plan to manage them myself for a few months to get systems in place then I want to hire and train someone to do everything except maintenance calls which my crews already handle. 

I really liked seeing and meeting the applicants at the open house because its nice to know who will be living in my home - but with 3 business and a young family I have other things I can do on a Sunday afternoon so eventually I will have to learn trust whoever I hire to do showings and make those decisions.

Do you feel I should do a phone follow up with what seemed to be interested clients or just email the application and leave it alone if they dont reply?