What You Need to Know about Showing Rental Property
How much work is it to show your rental property to prospective tenants? If you’re a new do-it-yourself landlord in Middle Tennessee, you’ve probably already done so much to get your rental home ready to find a tenant (researched Tennessee laws, researched the market rent, made the home ready to rent, and marketed the home to prospective tenants). You might think simply showing rental property to interested rental applicants will be one of the quickest and easiest parts of the job.
However, showing a rental property can actually be one of the most time consuming and frustrating aspects for landlords. You can expect to have lots of “no shows” for people who make an appointment and then never arrive for their scheduled showing. You can also count on many people being very late to an appointment. Plus, you will spend a significant amount of time for discussion on the phone, emailing/texting, and driving to/from the property.
These are just some of the reasons so many property management companies in Middle Tennessee are now offering “self showings” in which prospective tenants let themselves into a house unsupervised with a key code.
But at Real Property Management Rental Solutions, we never allow people to let themselves into the home to look at on their own. We put the security of rental investments at a top priority. We also believe prospective tenants need in-person contact to help answer questions and decide if the home is the right fit for them. Plus, we get valuable feedback from showing rental property! Individual, attentive services is a hallmark of good property management through all aspects of the rental process — and that includes showing homes.
A few things to keep in mind for a do-it-yourself landlord to schedule time and expenses for tax purposes are (per showing)…
- Time spent on phone for initial discussion
- Drive to property, show tenant inside and outside, all features
- Car mileage and gas
- In general, each showing requires an average of 1.5 hours, $11 of wear & tear on car, and $2.50 in gas
Another landlord mistake is showing rental property once and taking the first applicant with money in hand. However, it takes on average 7 to 15 showings to find a quality and qualified applicant. Based on the above numbers per showing, performing 7 to 15 showings will burn approximately 10-20 hours of your time, $80-$230 for wear and tear on your car, and $17 to $37 in gas.
At Real Property Management Rental Solutions we can take care of this headache and much more — it’s what we do! Give us a call today to learn more about our highly recommended company and our top-notch property management services: 615-900-4067.
We are pledged to the letter and spirit of U.S. policy for the achievement of equal housing opportunity throughout the Nation. See Equal Housing Opportunity Statement for more information.