My experience is folks who end up renting my place always

- show up early for the showing

- put in an application within 24 hours of the showing

- linger after the showing and ask questions

Oh, let me clarify my post. My experience is folks who end up renting my place XXXX. There are lots of folks who show up late, don't show up, etc....however they never seem to end up renting the place.

Hope that clarifies my post, I have lots of lots of bad applicants...But the good once have certain characteristics i.e. showing up early , etc.

Laura,

Great observation!

You have inspired me to consider how your observation fits into our system.

Its called,

The day All of the Planets lined up,

and the Unicorn strolled through the Front Door,

qualifying or surpassing your minimum (Legal) requirements.

And the word Bingo, could be heard for miles as confidence

was restored in humanity, until the next vacancy.

I agree, Laura. In fact I agree so much that I have a "one strike and you're out!" rule. If someone blows me off or does not communicate BEFORE the showing, they will be a horrible tenant and I just don't deal with them again. They are "on the list!" and that's that.

BTW, keeping that list really makes a difference. Recently had someone answer my Preview Questions for the third time for a third place. In the previous two questionnaires, she had indicated she had a non-neutered male dog. We turned her down twice. In the new one she said he was neutered. I emailed her and asked if she could confirm that...crickets.

I would agree with your observations from back when I used to do in-person tours. People displaying those traits had very successful tenancies.

Today, I use an almost fully automated process of pre-screening, showing, and app screening that saves me from wasting time on the folks who do not exhibit the three qualities. As much fun as in-person showings were, as we took on more units I simply ran out of time and had to come up with another way to do it.

So the top three qualities have changed a bit, but here's what I see in applicants who become my best tenants:

1) They follow the instructions on my ad/voicemail and fill out the pre-screening form online.

2) They welcome me when I conduct the 2 minute in-home inspection AND the inspection goes well.

Laura that is my experience exactly. Some return the app and required documents in 4 or 5 hours. You only get one chance to make a good first impression,

My applicants who want the house don't take the application away. They sit in the driveway to fill it out, or lean on the kitchen counter to fill it out. It's in my hands before they leave.