more cities
The new way to meet renters
You’d think this crazy fast real estate market would be every landlord’s dream. Well, personally, I found the flood of emails for our suite overwhelming and it was a lot of work to sort through and keep track of applicants. I was savvy and created a process that will work for most landlords; here are my tips:
- Ask questions in your ad, this cuts down on one email at least
- Plan to do your showings in 10 minute intervals over a couple/few hours
- Make sure you’re showing your rental with someone else for safety and organization
- Print out applications and have them ready to go
- Create some canned responses so you can copy and paste your replies. I had two; one was the decline message (much like screening resumes in my day job, I’d put applicants in the “no pile” for a variety of reasons: grammatical errors, not reading my ad properly and asking questions I had already answered in the ad etc.). I had another reply with more questions and I let the applicant know that they were a fit and I’d provide them with a viewing time and address
- Once I provided a viewing time and address, I also gave my mobile number so anyone could let me know if their plans had to change quickly
- I was using my Hotmail account, (yes, I realize I’m giving away my age here) and Hotmail is terrible for organizing emails, so in my replies, I’d type the applicant’s name in the subject line – this way I could see who I had already corresponded with at a glance in my sent folder
In my last post I said that renters should act quickly; but so too should landlords. We made our decision that evening, and I sent out an email to all the shortlisted candidates to let them know we didn’t select them. Don’t leave people hanging, that’s bad karma.
Although I found a great tenant and the rental process was quite smooth, I’d do things a little differently next time. Instead of having applicants come to me, I will browse rentals wanted ads on my local Used.ca site (UsedVictoria.com). It’s kinda like online dating: people are posting some great ads introducing themselves and their situations/requirements. Some renters have pets which can make it harder to find a place. Personally, I LOVE renters with pets: pet owners are typically caring people (at least all the ones that I’ve known), and they might become long-term renters because it is hard to find a great place that allows pets. You can also ask them to pay an additional pet deposit, along with their damage deposit (note: in BC this may not exceed half a month’s rent).
We’ve seen some great wanted ads on our sites:
1,100 · WANTED: Family of 3 looking for a rental home
$1,200 · WANTED: Young family in desperate need for a clean home that we can afford
Professional Family Seeking House to Rent
Share your rental wanted ads with your friends and Used.ca on social media and we will help you spread the word to our followers.
Have questions or suggestions? Comment below; we’re here to help you find your next place.
Lisa
Is there any way to enforce people deleting their ads after they have rented out there home? There are so many of us in desperate need of finding a place, and after I have sent messages, I receive no replies, but the ad remains up.
Time is limited for me to find a home for my kids and I, and I do have a “wanted” ad up already.
Lacey
Hi Lisa,
Ugh, that’s annoying. Unfortunately, there isn’t really a way of us knowing whether they have indeed rented their place.
We do, however, contact landlords (or sellers) and request that they mark their ads as rented/sold if we suspect that is the case.
I wish more people would take the time to email everyone back, but I can understand when you receive 100 emails, that’s it’s tough to write back the ones you’re not interested in. That’s why I created a canned response, I didn’t want to leave anyone hanging.
Please feel free to share your wanted ad with us….you can send it to us at promos@used.ca. We’ll share it on social and see if we can help spark more interest.
Dawn
If only there was a way to flag ads after they’ve been taken down. We’ve been unfortunate enough to find 2 places through UsedVic that turned out to be, for lack of a more polite term, “scams”. One has been at it for decades and is very well known in the immediate area, the other was well known (and feared) by the neighbours. Not being locals, we didn’t know any of the neighbours but couldn’t go back to warn any future victims through the site we’d found the listing on. Doesn’t help that there’s no “rate my landlord” type site out here either.
Perhaps UsedVic would consider keeping rental ads in memory longer than other ad types so that they can be referred back to and flagged later? Maybe after the victim is out and in a safer place and wants to warn others?
Lacey
Hi Dawn,
Thanks for your comments and feedback. If you ever feel that something isn’t right with an ad or seller/landlord, please let us know by emailing us at feedbacks@used.ca (or use the “report this ad” button).
We do have ways of digging into old ads on the backend so we can often help and investigate.
Ratings are a feature that we’ll be sure to include in future releases.