11/01/2023
Things to ask a Potential Tenant
As a landlord, figuring out what a tenant is REALLY like is difficult. Here are things to ask a potential tenant to try to get at their true character, without being extremely obvious.
If you are a landlord, go take a look and offer up that sort of information.
As a landlord, if you do not know the answers to some of them, find out. You could be missing key information that’s keeping you from maximizing your profits.
Your tenants might be moving out because it is unbearably hot and some roof ventilation could do wonders for reducing your tenant turnover.
1 – Where are you coming from?
This is a more subtle way to ask “why are you leaving your last place?” The answer to the second question is your goal with this line of conversation. Conversation is an important note. In order to get the answer to the question you are really asking (why are you leaving your last place), you need to be having a back and forth conversation.
Moving for size, location, from a new town or to have a pet are all good answers. Other answers that are fine to hear are they wanted to live in a safer neighbourhood, they had loud neighbours with whom they shared a wall.
Things you don’t want to hear?
“We didn’t get along with our neighbours” has the potential to be a bad response because your new tenants could be the ones causing the discord.
Another potential warning sign is a response of “our landlord was terrible.” Now, this one can legitimately go two ways. There are some really awful landlords out there. If this is what you hear, you absolutely need to have a lengthy discussion with their previous landlord, to try to determine if these potential tenants are extremely time-consuming and picky, or if the last landlord was terrible. You also need to find out the perspective of the potential tenant and make a judgement call based on the two versions that you hear.
2 – What is the most important thing that you’re looking for in a new place?
This question is to open up the door for a sales pitch for your unit! It is also an opportunity to say “this might not be a great fit for you then” and thus avoid future tenant turnover, complaints and a bad rap amongst your tenant and their friends, and potential future tenants. If they say access to transit is most important to them, you can talk about being a block away so that it’s not too loud, but very accessible. If you know more about the schedule or how busy that part of the transit route is, then jump on in with this information.
3 – What is a deal breaker for you when it comes to a new rental?
Just like the previous question, this one again lets you determine if you will be turning over tenants a lot faster than you need to because your unit – or you – just isn’t a good fit.
4 – How long are you looking to live in this area?
This is pretty straight forward. The lower your tenant turnover, the less likely you are to have costly periods of vacancy, and the less of your own time (or your property manager’s time) you need to devote to looking for tenants, screening tenants, filling in paperwork, showing the unit and potentially disrupting your existing tenants who are moving out.
There are obviously lots of other questions that you ought to be asking potential tenants as a landlord, but these few will help you get a better tenant situation that is more profitable and long lasting.
🤙BrainBox Consult for your real Estate 🏡 transactions
