Fully rented! The words are magic to my ears. The alternative is the pesky vacancies that need to be filled. There are several issues associated with vacancies that are unappealing. There is the stress of the financial piece. How long will it take for me to find an acceptable new tenant? How much will it cost to bring the place back to rentable condition? It is best not to skimp on either. My strategy is that it is best to wait for the right person and make sure the place looks great and is clean, clean, clean. People hate other peoples dirt. I can’t tell you how many people come to my place and comment about how many dirty rentals are out there and how clean my place looks.

I spend lots of time on the phone qualifying a potential tenant before I agree to show them my place. I ask them who will be living there, when they want to move and if they are familiar with the neighborhood. My goal is to separate the tire kickers from the real potential renters. It is always fascinating to me how entitled people feel when it comes to looking at property. They do expect you to provide a service just to educate them about what is out in the marketplace. They will walk all over your property peeking in windows when you have asked them just to drive by. They will have you show them your place knowing that they aren’t moving for 6 months. There are also those who insist that you must come and show them now because this is the only time in their life that they will ever be able to see you place and they are SURE this is the place for them. FYI, don’t bother changing your schedule and rushing down there to show them. These appointments never turn into renters. They walk through quickly, and out they go. Off to the next landlord who they have likely told the same story of urgency.

The other non starters are the people who start the phone conversation with “I am calling with regards to”. Sometimes it takes them quite a long time to spit it out. I want to chime in and help them “the rental, spit it out”. But it takes them a long time “I am calling with regards to, um, an ad I saw on craigslist for a bungalow. Can you tell me what a bungalow is?” I want to say “I know why you are calling. I have taken 10 calls like this this morning. If you don’t know what a bungalow is you could use google to find out. It would be faster than calling me.” Anyway bottom line these prospective tenants, if you want to call them that, never turn into renters because they do not have a CLUE what they want.

So who are the good prospects? People who know the area, people who like the area and need to move soon! I actually love talking to these people because it is likely we can connect and I can tell them about why I like living nearby. I can get an idea of who they are and see if it is a good fit for both of us.

But for now, I am fully rented. Yay!