Dealing with viewings can involve a great deal of time but if you follow the tips below then hopefully the process won’t be too arduous.
Around two-thirds of all enquires will arrive within the first 48 hours of a property being advertised as many potential tenants will have alerts set up to advise them of properties coming onto the market. It’s worth ensuring that you have time available to deal with these enquires and not have other work scheduled in during this time. It’s particularly important to have this this time available as most tenants want to view/rent a property as soon as possible.
It may be worth using an alternative phone number (to your own personal one) in the advert where people can leave a message and you can review and respond to the enquires all in one go. There are also call answering services that can field the calls and advise you of the ones you need to call back. These methods also remove the need of making your phone number available to everyone.
- No matter how clear your advert is you will still get people contacting you asking questions that have no relevance to what is stated in the advert.
- To try to avoid this it’s best to contact the responders as soon as possible and ask the same set of questions to everyone so you don’t forget anything.
The questions can be along the lines to those below:
- When do they want to move? Does this date fit in with dates that the property is available? Also be cautious if a prospective tenant who wants to move immediately – there may be something more that you are not being told.
- Where are they living now and why do they want to move? If you get complaints about their current landlord and other moans along these lines, then you should be wary of these people.
- Does the prospective tenant meet the set-out requirements in the advert? It’s not easy to ask questions along the lines of do you have a job or have references, but these questions need to be asked. Sometimes it will only be disclosed after a viewing that a tenant is actually on benefits as they think you will be committed to them as this point.
- Is the property going to be suitable for them? Have they read the advert correctly and understood the requirements relating to the rent/number of rooms available etc.
- After dealing with a few tenants in this way you should get a feel for the best way of asking questions and dealing with the responses you get. With experience you should develop a feel for the “right person” to rent to. Anyone you don’t feel is right can be turned away.
- You should offer applicants some specific time slots for viewings. If an applicant can’t make any of these then so be it. Arranging specific time slots means that you can organise your time more efficiently and save haphazard meetings that are not beneficial to anyone.
- If there are sitting tenants, then it should be borne in mind that they need to given at least 24 hours’ notice of any viewing and it is a good idea to agree block viewing times so everyone is aware of what is going on and access is not refused to potential tenants.
- It is also a good idea to offer both evening and weekend time slots as not everyone is available during the working day.
- As discussed above you must give 24 hours’ notice of any viewings to a sitting tenant. If they refuse you must abide by their decision. If you are not on good terms with a tenant and they refuse all approaches, then there is no choice but to wait until they move out to conduct viewings.
- On the day of any viewing it’s probably worth contacting the attendees to confirm that they are still coming to save any waisted journeys. The property should be in as good a condition as possible, if its summer then the windows can be opened to freshen everything up and some flowers can be added to the rooms for good measure.
When viewers arrive be prepared to answer questions on the property, specifically:
- Any noteworthy features such as any extra storage space.
- Where the nearest shops/bus stops/stations are.
- The cost of council tax and energy bills.
- The parking situation
- It’s also a legal requirement to have the EPC available at the property so ensure a copy is available if it’s asked for.
- It’s also worth questioning the applicant a bit more closely along the line of how long they have been employed, where they currently live and why they are moving?
- If you don’t receive an expression of interest from someone who seems keen, later that day then it’s worth following up with them the next day. Be wary of anyone who seems too keen offering money there and then for example.
- You don’t have to accept an offer if you don’t have a good feeling about the person making the offer. Just tell them you have accepted an offer from someone else.
If someone has made a lower offer than you asked for then you can:
- Insist on the full amount if you are confident of getting it.
- Meet halfway.
- Find something else to negotiate on such as more furniture.
- Accept the lower amount.
- Once you are happy with an offer detail what will happen next and advise the renter what is expected of them:
- Confirm their expectation of the move in date.
- Confirm that they are happy to sign the tenancy agreement for the required length of time.
- Detail what was discussed regarding a holding deposit, how they can receive some or all of it back and where they should pay it to.
- Detail what remaining deposit will need to be paid before they move in.
- Run through the documentation needed as part of the referencing process.
- All the above should be put in writing so there is no confusion regarding what is expected from both parties in the future.
