Time is precious, for both landlords and prospective
tenants. So, having a little conversation before the prospective tenant’s visit
to your property is beneficial for, perhaps, both of you. That will help both
parties to get an idea whether or not the home is a good fit for both.
Make sure that you have some standard information to tell
and ask for from the party before both of you decide to go ahead with the
process. This standard information will help you to figure out what the type of
tenant the person, you are talking to, would be. Furthermore, this little
conversation will also help you to know whether the person has contacted you
with a legitimate interest in renting your place.
Good thing is that you can have this conversation with the prospective tenant over phone. What this conversation would be like? Let’s
discuss.
Ask them about their knowhow
regarding the property
You first need to ask this question when the prospective
tenant calls you. Before you get the answer, the tenant may get silent for a
few seconds or stutter while answering. This is pretty normal because tenants
are not usually asked questions in the very first conversation.
Nevertheless, this question can give you quite valuable
information and bit of insight about the caller. From there, you should be able
to do a little but safe judgment about the type of tenant the person could be.
Ask if they are well
aware about the terms of rentals
At this step, you basically ensure that the prospective
tenant is well aware about the rent, lease terms, deposit, utilities, general
home description and amenities. This part of conversation will help you and the
tenant to figure out if the property renting is in the benefit of both of you.
For instance, the tenant may be looking for short term lease but you cannot
provide it. Furthermore, the tenant may be looking for certain amenities which
are not available at your place. Hence, this conversation can help you and the
tenant to save valuable time which would otherwise get wasted in the tour of
home.
The qualification
standards
When you tell about the qualification standards to the
prospective tenants, they would more likely be unhesitant to tell you whether
or not they qualify according to those standards. For instance, if you tell the
tenant that they need to have an earning of at least $2500 per month, they
might tell you that their income is not more than $1500 per month. Obviously,
you will save time because they won’t be visiting you to have tour of the
rental.
Let the caller talk
Besides asking questions, telling requirement and explaining
qualification criteria, let the callers talk about themselves. Be patient while
hearing them even if they stutter a lot while talking. Moreover, expect the
caller to fill the gaps in conversation. This would definitely help you learn a
lot about the tenants.
