Teaching Landlords to Find Their Quality Tenant!

Tips for Tenant Interviews.

by Don Conrad

I am a firm believer that landlords should conduct a thorough phone interviews on perspective tenants before showing them an empty rental. Here are a few pointers to help you get the most out of your prospect interviews:

• Try to get answers to the first seven major questions in the caller interview sheet as quickly as possible. I find I get my seven major questions answered best when I intersperse three to five other minor questions to help smooth out the conversation. Your goal is to first eliminate, then investigate.
  
• As things progress, ask a lot of follow-up questions, all of which begin with why, where, what, who, when, and how. Asking these questions, especially during the investigation part of your interview, in an open-ended way can provide a wealth of information.
  
  
• Make the conversation flow. Control without being controlling.
  
  
• The chance of someone needing to be asked every question is minimal. Ask what you need for any and all areas you want answers to. Don’t waste your time asking questions that have little relevance to qualifying that particular caller.
  
  
• Follow and lead the conversation (yes, at the same time) to get the information you need.
  
  
• Converse with the caller on his or her level. Don’t use fancy vocabulary if you are dealing with someone who might not be comfortable with that. Try to mirror the way they talk. If the caller speaks rather slowly, don’t you talk a mile a minute and confuse him or her. Work to build a rapport not only through words but also through voice infliction and dialect.
  
  
• If during any of these major questions the caller gets upset or feels you’re prying or asking things that aren’t your business, apologize and end the conversation. (Unless you did get off track and crossed a line; then you apologize immediately.) You don’t want to spend time on a caller who develops an attitude and feels you haven’t a right to learn about people who want to rent your dwelling.
  
  
• Remember, your major goal is to get a highly qualified prospect to your rental. (For more on renting your properties, go to my articles page at http://www.findthatqualitytenant.com).

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If you would like further infomation on this topic, please purchase my book"How to Find That Quality Tenant". Ask your locale bookstore or see my website at: www.findthatqualitytenant.com

I am not a lawyer, therefore, if you have any legal concerns with anything in this article, please contact the appropriate legal counsel.

The above article may be reproduced without my permission under the following conditions: author name, website, and contact information must accompany article and be prominently displayed, and the article must be reproduced in it's entirety.

Thank You. Don Conrad

Copyright 2006 Blue Collar Publishers
www.findthatqualitytenant.com
e-mail: donconrad@findthatqualitytenant.com
phone: 1-888-452-0765