Chapter 8
Handling Prospects When They
As a rental property owner and manager, it’s easy to see that the correlation between successfully attracting and securing long-term tenancies with qualified tenants can be influenced by that first impression. Your rental property isn’t the only one on the market, and your rental prospects have many options, so remember that you’re competing for the best renters with everyone in your area who has a vacant rental property. You need to make a positive impression to stand out from your competition.
Do you ever go to a restaurant and feel like everything is so chaotic that you’re never going to get the best service or meal? You probably leave and don’t even give the restaurant a chance to surprise you with a good experi- ence. This behavior is human nature, and the same concepts are true in rental housing. Everyone’s looking for the piece of mind and reassurance that they’re making the right decision about something very important — where to live.
Being organized and professional from your very first contact through the entire rental process instills confidence in your prospective tenants that you have the ability to meet their housing needs. A professional attitude and presentation also let them know that if problems occur with the rental property, you’re likely to address their concerns promptly.
The way you advertise or promote your rental property is part of making the first impression in rental housing, but the chief impression-making factor is that very first time you have contact on the phone or in person with prospec- tive tenants. One way to make a positive first impression is to be organized and professional, and using technology helps you achieve this state by being easy to reach and responsive to rental inquiries. Nothing turns off rental prospects faster than an inability to get in touch with you. Even the most diligent prospects only call once or twice before giving up and moving on to other rental properties. Of course, if you answer prospects’ calls promptly on your cellphone but are distracted because you’re at the grocery store or your child’s soccer game, don’t expect to secure a rental property showing.
You also need to be prepared with all the information necessary to present your rental property in the best light to your prospects and to answer their questions. Remember each of your contacts with every rental prospect by taking good notes on tracking forms so that you can recall which features prospects like most about your rental property, as well as any concerns they express. People like to feel important and that they’re really being listened to.
Being able to recall prior conversations or correspondence can be a powerful tool in ultimately closing the sale and securing a rental contract.
After your prospects are willing to make a commitment and apply for your rental property, you need to have your rental application and rental contract, with all addendums, ready for their review. A disorganized rental property owner doesn’t get a second chance. Being prepared allows you to focus your energies on evaluating each rental prospect to find the most qualified applicant who’ll be your next long-term tenant.
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Chapter 8: Handling Prospects When They Come A’Calling
Making the Most of Technology
The goal of advertising your rental property is to reach the pool of qualified prospective renters who’re currently looking for a new rental property and inform them that you have one that may be desirable to them. When your advertising and promotion generate interest in your rental unit, expect a ringing telephone or a flooded e-mail inbox. Many of the online advertising options explained in Chapter 7 allow prospective renters to immediately contact you via e-mail, or even submit their rental applications electronically.
This e-submission is a great feature for rental prospects from out of town, but it most certainly doesn’t replace the benefits of the traditional telephone.
If your rental prospects can’t reach you, they immediately lose any potential interest in you and your rental property. So you need to make sure you can be easily reached by prospective tenants — and current tenants — at all times.
Advances in telecommunications technology have made rental housing management much more efficient today than it was even just a few years ago.
However, with so many options, you need to know how to use communica- tions technology effectively and efficiently. In the following sections, I cover the basics of doing just that. Later in this chapter, I share more specific information on using the telephone in particular — because the telephone is still your main link to your prospective tenants.
Using your phone to your advantage
The telephone is traditionally your primary way of staying in touch with prospective tenants. Although the recent trend toward electronic communi- cation, especially for an initial inquiry in response to an online ad, has made keeping in contact with prospective tenants much easier, the telephone is still your main communications tool.
Because of the limitations and misunderstandings that can occur with short, cryptic e-mail messages, the telephone will forever have an important role. Its direct, instantaneous form of two-way communication still offers the best means of communicating when a prospect is considering your rental property. Prospective tenants have many questions that can’t be simply answered via e-mail. Likewise, you want to be able to ask them important questions to make sure they meet your rental criteria.
Using the telephone isn’t just about putting your phone number in your classified ad or on your rental sign. Today’s telephone comes with all kinds of special features that can help you manage your property more effectively.
I cover these features in the following sections.
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Call forwarding
If you’re advertising a property for rent and the only contact number you provide is your home number, for example, but you work outside of the home all day, you won’t be available to take the incoming calls you need. If this is the case, you may want to consider using a cellphone where you can be reached during the day, or where you can at least be immediately notified of incoming calls.
If you don’t want to list your work phone number in your advertisements, you can still use your personal cellphone, your home phone (if you have one!), a separate rental property phone line you’ve established, or a pager by enabling the call forwarding feature available through most phone companies.
With call forwarding, you simply set up your phone to forward all calls to another phone number — basically any number where you can be reached.
And you can turn the call forwarding off when you return home.
Caller ID
Another great phone feature you can use to increase your time manage- ment efficiency and lower your costs is caller ID. When you pay for caller ID through your telephone company, your phone displays the phone number of