I didn’t expect much from this weekend for showings because it’s a holiday weekend. I went to the casino ( again) where I didn’t drink or gamble ( again). At this point it’s more about the buffet . Anyway, I got some responses from several “super interested” people . I didn’t do my prescreening questionnaire because that hasn’t been working out. Instead I called the super interested and they all answered and were eager to set appointments. Of course nobody followed through. This is a class A rental. It’s got great curb appeal but nobody actually even made it to the curb. On another ( class C rental) I didn’t send the prescreening questionarre or call.... I texted. Set more appointments than I could handle. So now my strategy will be to text them all and just set group appointments. Prescreening saved me a lot of time but may have lost some opportunity?

Super Random.

Rents...

You may have heard of my "all calls to go voicemail system". This or something like this is critical to avoid wasting your time.

Yeah, those websites like Zillow, etc could get rid of the "I'm soooooooooper interested" default language. After you see it the 500th time, you know it's just garbage B.S.

Here's how my systems works:

1) Set up all my ads on Zillow, Zumper, and Apartments.com.

2) Set up filters/auto-email canned responses in Gmail. This is easy to do. Several good YouTube videos can show you how.

3) Someone clicks the "I'm soooooooper interested" button and it auto emails me.

4) My filter catches it and auto-emails back immediately. No waiting for me to interact. If you're willing to invest a few extra minutes, you can customize the reply for the address contained in the subject line.

5) I check emails twice per day: once in the morning, once in the afternoon. I copy all phone numbers into Google Voice and blast our group texts which are the same canned responses to my ads. Take a few seconds. No calls.

6) I don't return voice mails. My voice mail greeting tells folks what to do. "Go to our website and fill out a showing form"...I give the address three times. I clearly state that's how we set up viewings. A lot (80%) ignore my message... "This is so-n-so and I'm sooooooper interested in your unit, please calls me back at..." DELETE. Not interested. Can't follow my process. Not the cooperative tenant I want. I manage a lot of my stuff automatically: maintenance requests, etc. If they won't follow my process now, they will not follow my process after leasing. So I'm not interested in them.

Last night, my auto-filter/auto-responder answered 43 "I'm sooooooper interested" emails. Out of it, I got two requests for showing and one application. Bingo, found my cooperative people. So far the app is screening well. We'll see.

Value your time by limiting access to time-wasters. No one else will do it for you.

I still screen by speaking on the phone and showing in person. My no-show rate was as high as 80% until I stopped making appointments on the first call.

I do a quick little chat on the phone, looking for red flags, and then I request that each applicant do a drive-by and call me back if they like the outside of the house and the neighborhood.

Of the applicants that call back for an appointment, about 70-80% of them will show up. I've had as high as 100% show up for their appointments, which I bunch into a block of time all on the same day.

Adding this: if a tenant really truly needs a new place to live, they will jump through a couple of hoops. Those who can't be bothered to follow directions are just tire kickers, entertaining themselves with day dreaming about moving.

I do the exact same thing as Oregon Woodsmoke. I have one addition. After the prospective tenant has done a drive by and states he/she likes the house, I set an appointment.

Sid MO

Thanks for the excellent detail of how you automate!

Its easy to get trapped in a way of doing things and your step by step kicked me out of my rut. Building my processes today to help make life easier!

THANK YOU!!!

RentsDue, Why do you say that your prescreening questionnaire hasn’t been working out?