10 WINNING TIPS TO SHOW A RENTAL PROPERTY TO THE PROSPECTIVE TENANTS

Written by Helen Sheplyakova on Sunday, 20 November 2016 10:45 am

Putting your rental property on the market and showing it to the perspective tenants has to be done wisely. As the landlords make the living out of their rental properties, bear the responsibility of keeping them in order and take both safety and financial risks related to providing rental housing, a throughout preparation and a well-though plan have to be developed and conducted in order to find the best fit for the rental premises you own and do that quite quickly not to bear financial expenses and revenue loss during the time an apartment or a house remains empty.

Consequently, you ultimate goal of a landlord is to sell the deal to the reliable and trust-worthy people who’ll pay you on time and maintain your property in a great condition, you have to employ a few marketing tricks and take a couple of safety measures to make sure that your rental dwelling goes to the right hands at the desired price. The more effort you put into it, the better deal you’ll achieve.

One of the most important steps on the landlord’s way to finding tenants to copy his empty rental premises is getting the latter ready for the big show, as well as preparing a strategy on how to approach the clients, which information to put forward and which precautions to take to ensure his own safety.

So, here’re a few tip on showing rental property landlords may use to make their houses/apartments appear more attractive and valuable to the prospective inhabitants and get their rental apartments/houses occupied by the quality enters.

TIPS TO SHOW YOUR RENTAL PREMISES TO POTENTIAL TENANTS AND COME TO THE BEST DEAL

Conduct a brief pre-showing background check. This is the number one safety precaution you need to take seriously. When talking to the people who’d like to see your premises, make sure to ask their full name, real phone number to contact them, the reason why they want to move, the date when they’d like to do that, the number of people they’re going to move in with and their income to determine whether they’ll be able to pay the rent on time. Those questions are totally acceptable, even though some of them will feel quite weird to ask a complete stranger. However, such a quick talk will not only increase your personal and property safety, but also prevent you from wasting the time on showing the premises to people you definitely don’t want to rent to.

Be clear with your terms and conditions. If you don’t want your tenants to have pets, or drill holes in the walls, or something like that (non-discriminative, of course), make it clear to the people viewing the house right away or better show them the draft of the tenancy agreement with the price of the rent, key and security deposits and estimated utilities costs.

Make your house appealing from the outside. Seeing the porch or the apartment building staircase is the first impression that will influence the way the perspective tenants will perceive your rental property and the choice they make towards it. Thus, make sure to clean and dress the entrance and the exterior up.

Scrub it from top to bottom. No tenant will appreciate coming to a cluttered dirty apartment/house. And, he certainly won’t see the real value of the premises behind the mess that’s ruling it. Thus, if you’re going to show an empty dwelling, hire house cleaners from HireRush.com to get it sparkling clean and fresh. And, if that’s the occupied accommodation you’re trying to find the new tenants for, ask your current tenants to clean it up and come to the place ahead of the people you’re going to show it to in order to check everything and make quick adjustments if needed.

Make your house cozy. Arrive before the viewing people and set the thermostat to the appropriate temperature to make the dwelling feel warm or cool enough depending on the season. Use aroma sprays or burn the candles to make it smell fresh and homely.

Set the mood. Remember that everything looks 100% better in the good lighting, so turn all the lights on for the show time. Turn some quite and neutral background music on.

Conduct minor repairs and renovations. Well, even if you get need tenants, they’ll complain about that leaky bathroom sink or faulty air conditioner and ask you to fix the issue anyway. Thus, why don’t you do that in advance to provide good-quality (even if quite modest) accommodation without any major plumbing, heating or other issues at a great (for you) price and develop friendly long-lasting relationship with the tenants? Getting some maintenance renovations and fix-ups completed after your current tenants move out (like painting the walls where needed, hiring carpet cleaners to get your carpets deep cleaned, getting the door knobs repaired, all appliances –cleaned, scratched floors – refinished, etc.) is always nice. And, you may point those things out as the renting advantages to the prospective tenants.

Let them feel welcomed. If the people you’re going to show the premises to have time, offer them a cup of tea/coffee/refreshing drink and a couple of cookies to set the mood and discuss the renting conditions in a friendly, relaxed atmosphere.

Concentrate on the ‘selling’ points. Draw the tenant’s attention to the advantages of the dwelling and explain everything to them in the best light possible. Don’t avoid the ‘drawback talk’ as well, especially if they ask.

Let the tenants explore. I’m not saying that you have to stay in the hallway and let the people you don’t really know walk around the house unattended. But, after you tell them everything you planned, give them a chance to explore the rooms and see the house once again without you talking about how amazing it is. Let the people evaluate what they’ll be paying for. You may follow them, of course.

Trust you guts. Show the premises to a few tenants. Don’t stop at the first one who likes the house and agrees on your terms. This should help you find the tenant you feel like is worth trusting and if the situation doesn’t seem right for you, move on to the other candidate.

Good luck on your tenant search!