Book Crowds – Build Excitement
If you’ve ever read a psychology books that talks about crowd behaviours, this is right up your alley. This also relates to the excitement you often see at auctions where bids get pushed up just because of the environment.
One warning with this, this particular landlord tip can be dependent on the state of the rental market and the property, but if you can schedule viewing periods for prospective tenants to all show up at once or in a certain time frame, you are set and you’ll find filling vacancies much easier.
Usually this is most effective the first week your ads are running and the majority of calls are coming in. It becomes harder as the ad gets older and traffic and calls decrease, so it’s important to implement this immediately.
You can make this work by booking times when you will show the property and then booking viewings into those slots. As people call in, and after they get through your screening questions, then them know the two time slots you have available for viewing.
Showing Vacant Properties
I like to pick a Friday evening from 7 until 8 or 9 depending on the response to my ads, (OK, I don’t like to work Friday evening, but hey it’s a business and if I sacrifice one Friday to get it filled versus twenty different days, I’m happy!) and then a Saturday afternoon from 1 until 3. This covers off the best times for tenants to view, although I will also show units on a Saturday and Sunday as well if it works better for me. This also works best if there are two of you showing the property.
I also prefer to book the viewings in 10 to 15 minutes intervals depending on how many people are coming to view. This creates a sense of urgency as I make sure to tell people there are people before or after them, whatever the case may be and raises the concern of potential tenants that someone else may get the property instead of them.
Filling Tenant Vacancies Effectively
Whichever you choose, use the time you have with them to show the features of the property and get a feeling as to whether these prospects would make good tenants for you. It’s very handy if you have your list of questions along with the notes you had during your original pre-screening chat with them. You can re-ask the questions for clarity and to confirm you receive the same answer!
As your prospective new tenants view your property, you should be able to gather a sense of whether they will be a good fit for you or not. Once the tour ends, you can have them fill out one of your applications right on the spot, if you like them and they may be a good fit. Your goal should be to gather three or four good applications with each set of showings, but this really depends on the current rental market, your advertising and your times.
The other tactic I use with less than stellar potential applicants is to hand them the application (if they even ask for one) and ask them to fax it back to us. Realistically if they don’t fit the profile you have for your renter, you shouldn’t focus to much on their application. Unless someone was crunched for time the applications filled out in person receive first priority, plus you can review them while they are there and clarify any messy hand writing or unclear answers.
The biggest aspect of coordinating the showings like this is to get that excitement going, it’s all part of the complete system of putting new tenants in as quickly as possible and ensuring your time isn’t wasted. If you’d like to read more about how psychology can help you as a landlord, I’d really recommend you check out the book Influence, the Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini.
I actually use several of the techniques in that book within my landlording business and even on this site. If you’ve read the book, can you tell me how I’m using it right on this page? The tactics have been helping me filling tenant vacancies for years!