5 Steps to Rent out your Property Part 3

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Step 4: Showing your space

The most efficient way to show your space is to have an open house. Pick a time to show the space for a two hour period one evening or during the weekend. Then have a back up time. When a tenant calls about seeing the unit, tell them that you will have a showing for all interested tenants at time slot one, and if it's still available, there will be a second showing at the second selected time.

Prepare for the showing by having the unit as clean and fresh smelling as possible. Be dressed in business casual attire with tenant application forms on hand when you greet the prospective tenants.

You could show your unit to one tenant at a time. This is a great way to get to know the applicant a bit more, but it is very time consuming and inefficient, especially if you don't live nearby. An open house environment creates an air of demand which helps get applications completed much quicker. When a prospective tenant sees the other interested parties, if they want your unit, they will act quickly to try and get it. Encourage the prospective tenants to complete the application before they leave. Then you will have the application in hand and can make notes on the application about who they were and what your initial impressions of them were. Alternatively, ask them to drop off the application the next day (especially if you've already received other applications - you can tell them you plan to make your decision in the next few days).

Step 5: I choo choo choose you! Choose your new tenant.

Review the Application: Look for gaps where a place of residence is not indicated, or look for conflicting information. If you liked them but there are gaps or issues with their application, ask them about it. If you start to hear things like "well my previous landlord didn't like me because of....", or "there is a credit agency after me because of..." then it's not a great start. Some reasons make complete sense, others are just elaborate stories. If you can't be sure what the case is, keep looking. Or you could end up with a tenant that pulls a knife on another tenant like we did!
Run a Credit Check: Once you've found one or two that you like and that has a good application, run a credit check. This is a critical piece. Many veteran landlords say they just trust their gut. Well, I trust my gut, and then verify it!
Reference Checks: Call the reference and ask them simple questions like "how long have you known the applicant?", "What's your relationship with them?", and "Would you rent to them?". This is also a good gut check, but keep in mind that a current landlord might be anxious to get rid of the tenant so they might not tell you the truth.
Final Gut Check: So they have decent credit, nothing came up on their application that makes you uncomfortable, and the references had nothing negative to say. What's your gut telling you? Do you get a good feeling about them? Do they seem honest? Do you think they will be too messy? Or too picky? If you are happy with the gut check then you are ready to choose your new tenant.

For more on selecting your tenants - check out our tenant screening checklist.

WAIT! What if there is a tie? What if you can't choose between two tenants? I go back to the prospective tenants with some additional questions to break the tie:

How long do you plan to stay?
What will you be doing for the next couple of years: work, school? what type of work or school?
What do you like about my place versus others that you have looked at?
Why are they moving out of their current place of residence?
Will you sign a one year lease?
Do you like to have people over on a regular basis?

After hearing the answers to these questions, you'll usually find yourself leaning towards one tenant. Once you've selected your new tenant, have them complete rental agreement and collect the first months rent. Depending on what province your unit is in, you will also collect a security deposit or last months rent at this time.

Once you have a signed agreement with rent cheques in the bank, you will need to let your other prospective tenants know that the unit is rented. If a prospective tenant asks why they didn't get it never tell them it was because of age, race, gender, or because they have or don't have children. No matter what your reason was for choosing one tenant over another, you cannot be discriminating about the choice. It's probably safest to say " the other tenant had a very strong application".

Published July 2008

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