How I Used this Unlikely Program to Easily Fill a Vacancy For Free
Imagine this. You're working a full time job and suddenly your best tenant tells you they're leaving. You don't want to pay for a property manager or a broker to fill the vacancy, it should be easy enough. Right? You post on all the sites and are OVERWHELMED with keeping track of who was interested in what, who you've already screened, who didn't work out and who did. Couldn't there be an easier way?
I recently had a unique opportunity to try out a new way of screening tenants. I live in a two bedroom apartment currently, and one such opportunity popped up when my current roommate decided to move out. With the permission of my landlords (yes, I currently rent), I began generating interest in the rental. I wrote up a listing for the property and posted it through craigslist and before I knew it, had too many calls and emails to count.
This was when I decided to use a popular project management freeware; Trello which I had been using for some time with my J.O.B, but hadn't seen it used for Real Estate. Please note I am no way affiliated with Trello, I just love their product.
Here is very very briefly what I use Trello for:
- Trello lets you easily create organized lists for anything you want to keep track of
- For each item in the list, you can add due dates, attachments including spreadsheets and pictures, color code them, etc.
- The most beneficial part of Trello is that like any Kanban board, you can easily see how work (in this case, screening potential tenants) is flowing through your system, allowing you to easily see where things are too slow, and where your time would be most valuable.
I separated my Trello board into 7 steps to easily see what was slowing me down from getting the vacancy filled.
- Email or Phone Lead: Added a name here whenever I got a brand new contact
- Questionnaire sent/given: I pre-screened all applicants over the phone with a few basic questions and weed out problem applicants early
- Physical visit: Once they passed the screener, I set up time with them to see the place, and used this column to track visits and included due dates on all of the individual cards.
- Awaiting Application: After their physical visit, I gave everyone an application, and waited for their return
- Application Received: I kept them in order of receiving the applications and reviewed them here
- To Landlords: Once their application checked out I ran them by the landlords for final approval
- Dead End: If at any point, they didn't pass the questionnaire, the application, or landlord approval, they were put in this column and given notice of denial.
You can see how it turned out in my first success post here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/223/topics/218626-my-first-successful-tenant-screen
Check out a sample of this Trello board here:
Interested in trying Trello out? Sign up here:
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