When all Your Tenant Applicants Fail Their Screening
Where to Find More
What do you do when every applicant you bring in does not pass your tenant screening process? How do you fill a rental vacancy when you can’t seem to find a good applicant?
Try new ways to advertise your rental unit. Be creative. If you’ve always done newspaper advertising, try online ads. Craigslist.org has become the go-to place for landlords to find tenants and for tenants to find homes to rent. Perhaps your area has a community “trading post” type of website where you could also advertise your listing.
Blanket the area around your rental with fliers. Think about the best possible tenants, and put a poster or flier in the places they congregate. If your rental is near a university, post in areas where the teachers and professors hang out. If it’s near a hospital, post a notice in the employee’s lounge. Be sure to obtain permission first!
You can try coffee shops and breakfast places to post your ad, too. And many grocery stores, day care centers, and co-ops have community bulletin boards.
Don’t forget about signage. Put up a new, clean sign that can easily be seen from the sidewalk or street. Don’t be tempted to use a ratty or beat-up sign—if you don’t care enough to use a nice sign, you’ll attract tenants who don’t notice or care about such details, either. And be sure your phone number is legible.
Try hosting an open house. You can show your rental unit to a number of possible tenants at once—and if your place is not appropriate for any of them, they still might tell their friends and family about it.
Word of mouth is the best form of advertising—so don’t be shy about telling everyone you come into contact with about your vacant rental unit. Your dentist, barber, hairstylist, or the person who waits on you at the hardware store might know the perfect tenant for you.
Just because times are tough and it’s more difficult to find quality tenants does not mean they’re not out there. Be patient, increase your efforts, and keep trying—and you’ll fill every vacancy with quality tenants.