You have an income property and it’s vacant. Your old tenant left or you’re a brand new landlord or you just bought the property, regardless of the scenario you have empty space to fill. It’s not renting!
You’ve checked off the following five six point handy dandy checklist..
The property is super clean
The price is competitive
The ads are good (they have the right phone numbers and photos are nice)
Renovated to a decent standard
It’s the beginning of the month
You’ve been answering calls & emails and following up
The property still isn’t renting. Perhaps the people are of an unacceptable standard or nice potential tenants have come and they haven’t applied.
Desperation is the enemy of the landlord. Fear of loss of income or fear that the property will never rent if you don’t accept the unqualified applicant will work against you.
It is difficult to turn down an application when it’s the only one you have. It’s hard to make sense of the rental market at times. For instance, earlier this year there was a pretty severe lull in the rental market as first time buyers rushed in before the 5% down was required. The rental market is still picking up.
For those of you who recall the movie Field of Dreams, in a sense we have to “Build it and they will come.” Once we’ve done our homework we still have to wait. Waiting is hard! It’s frustrating and discouraging for a property to sit vacant for no reason. You can’t just give the property away. Lowering the price doesn’t mean better tenants either.
This is where a situation I call the Zen of Renting must take over. You’ve done all you can. The ads are up and the waiting starts. You can’t lower your standards. You can’t force the situation.
You must wait for the tenant to appear.
I deal with this situation myself regularly. I wish I had a list of perfect tenants but I don’t. No one else does either. Even though renting is the the bread and butter of my business there are no miracles.
This is when the landlord is most vulnerable. After waiting for a while impatience gets the better of us. With an impending mortgage payment we are more likely to allow a questionable tenant in the door. “How bad can it be?” we ask ourselves. It can be very bad and believe me it isn’t worth it.
So keep the faith! Give up an extra month of mortgage payment instead of letting a questionable tenant in. The right tenant will come! Remember if it seems too good to be true it probably is!
Happy renting!
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