Showings to Tenants

To prepare for showing the property to Tenant/Tenant-Buyers:

• Show up early.
• Turn all lights on.
• Adjust temperature... turn AC to cooler in summer, heat to warmer in winter
• Open windows if house is vacant and stuffy
• Replace missing marketing materials (yard sign, flyers, etc)

Meet your prospective Tenants and Tenant-Buyers outside at the property near their car when you initial gree them to show the property.

Peek inside their car to see how they maintain their car. That's how your house will look.

Introduce yourself and invite them inside the home.

Strongly recommend you take your shoes off and encourage them to do the same... this sets the tone that you take care of your property and they should too.

Give prospective Tenants/Tenant-Buyers a quick tour of the property highlighting the things you love best about the property. Remember, why did you buy the property? Those are the things to share.

Invite them to take their time and look around the property.

If the property is still occupied... do not let the prospective Tenant/Tenant-Buyers out of your sight. Be aware of people looking in medicine cabinets or at the current occupant's personal stuff. Remember, you have NOT done your background check yet!

While looking at the property, explain your pet policy and pet fee policy to your prospective Tenants/Tenant-Buyers.

While looking at the property, explain how utilities work (which ones are in their name and which ones are kept in your name) as well as the utility fee policy to your prospective Tenants/Tenant-Buyers.

If you happen to know average utilities for the property, share that as well.

While looking at the property, explain the next steps to your prospective Tenants/Tenant-Buyers:

• Fill out application (and what that means)
• How the application approval process goes
• How you notify them
• How the reservation deposit works when they're approved

Provide any prospective tenants and/or tenant-buyers your "Rental Application" to complete by each person 18 or older that will be living in the property.

If you are a licensed Real Estate Agent renting your own property you must also send over a copy of the "Brokerage Disclosure to Tenant" via DocuSign at this step as well to have them acknowledge that you do not represent them in the transaction.

Once the Tenant/Tenant-Buyer has completed the "Rental Application" collect it from them. In an ideal world, you'd collect it from them at their current residence giving them little or no notice so you can see how they maintain that property.

Is the property clean? How is the outside maintained? This is how your property will look.

This is also a chance for you to visit with their pet to make sure it is friendly.

It should include:

• A complete application for each person over the age of 18 who will be living in the property. That includes children over 18. Check the application to make sure you can read everything and that every spot is filled in. Ask them to mark any blank spots with "N/A" if they really are not applicable.
• Application fee of $30 per application in cash, money order or cashier's check only. Do not accept personal checks.
• Copy of valid Driver's License (or state-issued photo ID if no Driver's License). Check to make sure they look like the person on the ID and that the name on the ID matches the name on the application.
• Proof of current balances in checking and savings accounts.
• Previous 3 months of statements for checking and savings accounts.
• Latest W-2 and most recent 2 months of paystubs (or if self-employed, previous 2 years or tax returns)

Remember, you're about to loan someone an asset worth (in many cases) hundreds of thousands of dollars... treat the application process as such!

When you pick up their application, do a pet visit. This is also an opportunity to see their current residence.

Either meet the Tenant/Tenant-Buyer at their car when they pull up or walk the Tenant/Tenant-Buyer out to their car after the showing so you can look inside their car.

If the inside of their car is full of trash, that's how your property will look since that's how they take care of stuff. Write down the condition of their car in your notes.

TIP: If this is not part of your written Tenant Evaluation Criteria, we strongly recommend adding it.

If the prospective Tenants/Tenant-Buyers do not submit an application do not chase them... you're not trying to convince them they should rent from you... you want someone who wants to rent from you and loves the home.

If they are interested, they'll follow up with you.

Do more marketing instead of chasing.

While we recommend scheduling individual showings for the property, there are some alternative methods you may consider in the right situation.

For example, you could also:

• Put a lockbox on the property and have people show it themselves. Not good when tenant-occupied.
• Hold an open house. "I'll be there from 1 to 3 PM on Saturday." Not good when tenant-occupied.
• Scheduling back t back showings, every X minutes (usually 15). Recommended.