What has long been the province of Realtors and For-SaleBy-Owners can also be effective for landlords—the open house. But don’t look to Realtors as an example; most of them don’t do a very good job of it. They just run a classified ad, plop a few signs in front of and around the property, and wait for people to wander in.
Here’s also a secret that most Realtors don’t tell anybody, they don’t hold open houses to sell the house they are holding open, but to get buyers. Chances are the house they are holding open won’t work for the people who show up, so they will want to see properties that will actually work for them.
You can turn that around, though. You can hold an open house that will attract people who will want to rent your property. In this article we will look at the benefits of holding an open house, how to get ready for it, how to make the best impression, and how to use it as a sales tool.
Why hold one? You will prepare the property for the best showing. In a tough rental market, you don’t ever want to miss an opportunity to give the best impression. Using the open house method allows you to wow applicants. Many times you will show a property before it is ready to rent. You work on it getting it ready, but show it before it is rent-ready in hopes that you can cut short the lease-up period.
Here is the first advantage of the open house: it gives you something to shoot for, a goal to reach. You know you have to have your property ready by a specific date at a specific time. There’s no more of this “I think I’ll go over and work on the rental for a while. I’ve got somebody coming to look at it at two o’clock.” That means you got some things done and the place looks better, but it doesn’t look its best. A pending open house means you are thinking, “I’ve got to make it sparkle.” Knowing you may have several people looking at it does wonders for focusing your effort and kicking it up a notch.
Every time you show a unit you have to get “up” for it. Surprising as it may seem, each showing requires a fair amount of energy and a major depletion of your stress bank. As a professional speaker I know how much energy it takes to put on a presentation. In fact, I have heard, and have no reason not to believe, that the energy required and stress factor for a presentation compared with being in a minor automobile accident. Showing your rental property takes it out of you.
If you can put it all together into one showing for several people, you use only slightly more energy and it is likely little more stressful. Of course, if you get it rented from the open house, you will forget all about being tired and stressed out.
Gives people who may not really thought about moving a chance to look
Studies show that tenants decide to move 45 to 60 days before they make the actual plans. You can help them along. They may get a flyer or see your sign (we’ll discuss that later) and stop by—after all, they had been talking about moving. Now you’re not competing with any other landlords. If they like your unit, they might just decide moving sooner would be a great plan.
You can compare applicants
When you see applicants one at a time, you have nothing to compare them with and sometimes you find yourself thinking, “Well, I guess they look okay.” But if several sets come through during a two or three hour period, you remember what they others were like and can form a more selective opinion.
You can play applicants off against each other to apply faster
Prospective tenants all by themselves have no reason to hurry. But put them together in a unit with other prospective tenants and they may get off the dime. People buy things for one of two reasons: fear of loss or hope of gain. Eighty percent of people buy for the first. That means if you have two sets of prospective tenants in a unit at the same time and one expresses what might conceivably be construed as interest, the other prospective tenants may start to fear they will miss out on getting the unit. There’s also the power of suggestion that comes from someone else seeing the value in your property that will tweak the other prospective tenants to think harder about your property.
You don’t have to say a word to help the process along. Just answer the questions of each set of visitors and watch. If two sets kind of hang around, not wanting to miss anything, you may have two applicants right there. Then, when the two sets start looking at each other, just ask if they’d like to fill out the rental applications they already have in their hands (see the section later in this article).
It’s more efficient
What’s easier, driving over to show the property three times during the week and being stood up twice, or spending three hours having applicants come to you?
It’s less threatening to a prospective tenant
People who might not want to call about an ad and get a special showing might decide to wander through an open house. They feel as if they can be less conspicuous. And if you are friendly and nonthreatening in return, you may well end up with an outstanding applicant.
Things to do to the property
Edge the yard, sweep and hose down front, pick up trash for the entire block
Have you ever watched someone drive by a rental property (maybe yours), see the sign, slow down, stop, back up, then keep on going? Those were probably prospects. And they saw something that turned them off. Of course, it could have been something about the property over which the landlord had no control: the yard might have been too big or too small, it might have had no off-street parking, or any number of other things. But just as likely it could have been the yard looked shabby, the building needed touching up, or the block looked trashy.
An applicant’s first impression many times determines whether or not he or she will rent the unit. When I sold real estate there was a property that an investor had bought and fixed up to resell. A couple came to the front door to look at it and the wife walked in. Now this investor had done a super job of making the yard and living room shine. The wife said immediately, “I have to have this house.” Mind you, the husband was still on the front porch.
Renters make decisions the same way. In fact, many times people have decided to rent or buy before they ever walk in the door. Don’t let anything turn a bad first impression into the wrong decision.
Nothing your applicant sees should turn him or her off. So start at the corner at the opposite end of the block from your rental property and make sure that the street looks neat and tidy. Pick up every piece of trash and every loose pop and beer can and bottle. Sweep up things that can be easily swept up. Do the entire block. Don’t let your neighbors’ messiness keep your property from being rented.
With the property itself, of course, you can be even more thorough.
When you think you have it all done, here’s a trick you can use to check your work. Walk across the street from the property so you can see the entire building. Now take a picture or two with a digital camera. Look at the photographs. How does your property look through the honest lens of the camera? Here’s one more step to take. Change the photographs to black and white. With the visual influence of the color gone, all the glaring defects will jump out at you.
Do you see any? No? Good, you’re done and the property is ready for the open house. Did you spot something? Yes? Good, now you can fix it before the open house.
Brighter light bulbs, wash windows, vanilla on light bulb
Here are three tricks that some real estate agents know to make a property look and feel more inviting. Believe me, these work.
First, wash the windows. As a test, wash the windows in your own house in just one room. Notice how much brighter and inviting everything looks? It is important to do it in just one room, because then you can compare with the room with the unwashed windows.
Brighter light bulbs provide even more light. Take out those 60-watt bulbs and put in 100s. The difference will be dramatic.
Finally, the vanilla on a light bulb smells like something baking in the oven. Or put vanilla on the burner of an electric range and turn it on. This one is almost unfair. What smells more like home that cookies in the oven? If your applicants look at more than one property, which one will they remember most? Yours, that bright, cheery place with the cookies baking.
Make the unit shine
You know what to do. You’ve got them inside; they are impressed by how bright and cheery it is; it smells like grandma’s house. Now eliminate anything that could turn them off. Polish and wax everything. Touch up the paint. A couple more hours of work could mean that you get this place rented.
How to promote the open house
Weekends are always a good time, since people are out and about anyway. But also think about holding one during evening rush hour. People are on their way home from work and if they have to pass your property or the street that it is on, that probably means their home is farther away. That would mean that if they lived in your property, it would be closer to work. You’ve seen the signs on apartment complexes, haven’t you: the ones that say “If you lived here you’d be home by now?” You might not even need to do the other marketing, just use the signs and wait for someone to wander in. All you have to lose is a couple of hours of your time.
Ad in the paper
This is the old standby. The newspaper is where people look for rental ads. So put it there. You might even put the ad in twice: once as a plain ad for the unit, and another time advertising the open house.
Directional signs
Real estate agents use easel signs to show people where their open houses are, you can do the same thing. Just make sure that the sign states that it is a rental that you are holding open, not a property for sale.
You will need at least five signs in a normal situation. One sign goes at each end of the block, one sign at the corner of the nearest main street and one sign at the corner of another main street that connects with the main street nearest your property. You can get by with fewer, but the coverage is nowhere near as good.
Flyers to neighborhood
Make up a flyer advertising the open house and the unit for rent. If you’re handy with a computer and have a laser or inkjet printer you can make a pretty nice looking flyer. If possible, use a picture of the unit. Use your digital camera or get it scanned at Kinko’s or a similar company so you can insert it into a file on your computer. The more professional looking the flyer, the better the impression prospective applicants get of you. A professional appearance encourages good tenants and discourages bad ones. As silly as it sounds, make sure the following items are on your flyer: your name and phone number the day, date and time of the open house the address of the property
You’d be surprised how many flyers go out without some or all of that information on them.
Get at least 100 copied on colored paper at a copy shop and put them out to the neighborhood door to door. Yellow or blue are the best colors.
Tell people when they call about the ad or sign
The phone rings and you have an ad call. Along with the rest of what you tell the applicant, talk about the open house.
If this is one who sounds like somebody you don’t want to get away, make him or her feel special. Say, “We’re going to be holding an open house this weekend, but I can let you see it sooner.” Imagine the impression you would make on prospective tenants by being willing to go out of your way to accommodate them and showing the unit ahead of everyone else.
Things to do for guests
Smile
You’ll have to do that a lot. It can be hard for people who are not used to meeting the public and your forced smile may seem unnatural—but it isn’t. All people see is the smile. They might be just as nervous as the landlord when they come into the open house. You job is to make everyone feel comfortable.
One way to fool yourself into feeling good about everyone who walks in is to think to yourself, “Here comes the ideal tenant.” Renting to the ideal tenant would certainly make you smile.
Greet everyone
Just as important as smiling is saying hello. That lets your potential applicants know they are welcome. People who feel welcome are more likely to want to do business.
Think about your own experiences. When you go into a store, do you feel more comfortable and more inclined to do business where the clerk or proprietor smiles and says hello? Most people do.
Ask people’s names and use them
People love to hear the sound of their own names more than just about anything else. So when you greet people as they come into the open house, say something like, “Hi, I’m Chris, the owner of the property. What’s your name?” Chances are she will tell you her first name, maybe even her last name. Also, be sure to get the spouse’s and children’s first names, too. You don’t need their last name yet. All you’re doing is being polite and making them feel welcome, not getting a rental application from them.
Now try to remember their names. I have no suggestions for you to help with that, since I can forget someone’s name five seconds after they’ve told me. Using a person’s name helps you remember it, though.
Offer coffee and/or pop and cookies
Have it available and make sure you offer it. Don’t expect everyone to take some. The idea is that you are being a good host or hostess. It also sets you head and shoulders above other landlords. An additional benefit is that if someone takes a cup of hot coffee, they’re likely to stick around longer to look at their new home.
Hand everyone a fact sheet, rental app and rental standards
Before you start the open house, make up a packet that contains all of these materials. Put the property information on top. Include in it room sizes, amenities, yard size, garage size, maybe a floor plan, schools, nearby businesses, and anything else you can think of. This fact sheet is different and more detailed than the open house flyer, which lists mostly benefits, and not so many features and amenities. Attaching the rental application is important, too. That way you know they have one. If you want, you can fill in the landlord’s name and phone number on it so they have one more way to reach you. Finally, include the rental policies and standards, including the reason you have them printed at the top.
What if nobody shows up?
It does happen. And it is disappointing. Here you have gone to all that work to get the unit ready to show and it all seems to have gone for naught. But it is not for nothing.
Think of it this way: you do have the unit in prime condition for showing and you have made an impression on lots of people from the marketing. There’s something almost magic about activity in that it generates more activity. The fact that you are actively marketing the property to rent for some reason stirs the pot and gets more people interested.
If you live in a slow rental market an open house could be a non-threatening and effective way to get people to look at your prime rental property. Just make sure you follow the instructions, they work. Your job is to get your property rented, an effective open house is one more tool to do that.
