by Matt Kastner It’s 5:30pm and you just got home from work. Your iPhone alerts you to an email you just received from a perspective tenant. It just wait until the morning can’t it? Not if you want to rent your unit to a good tenant ASAP.
If you have been renting apartments for long you know ow annoying it can be trying to get back to all the email and phone inquiries. I do it for a living and even I have to fight the itch to put it off. Its tough, but that doesn’t mean you can afford to sit on your hands. Vacancies are up right now and ever minute counts. Obviously the more time that passes, the more likely that tenant will find a unit somewhere else. But there is another reason to get back quickly: It’s your first impression.
All landlords screen their tenants to some degree (if you are smart you do a full screening), but most of them fail to realize that good tenants screen landlords as well. A quick response makes them think you are on the ball, but if it takes two days to get back they might be a little more skeptical. In their mind, that might mean that it will take two days to get a response to that broken furnace.
Obviously this is presumptuous, but perception is reality when all you know of someone is the first impression. People like good service and all tenants (good and bad) want to feel like their prospective landlord will take care of them if something happens with the property.
You don’t necessarily have to run off to a showing at the drop of a hat, but when you get back to a prospect quickly it lets them know that you are attentive. Tenants with good credit and income know they are every landlords dream. Just keep in mind while you are searching for this dream tenant that these people are in demand. You need to try to impress them. And gettign back to them quickly is a good start.