Essential for an Open for Inspection

Greetings friends,

Hope you all had a great weekend.

I went to a few open for inspections and I was absolutely mortified at the standard or lack there of a standard going on in the open for inspections sector (rentals to be clear).

I went to several where the PM was late - didn't acknowledge the audience of people who had been waiting and then didn't even put out information for us to check out. One even chased me down asking if I had registered, leaving 12 potential tenants in her wake.

The questions I put forward is, what do you all think is essential at an open for inspection and do you think the old school method of anyone being welcome to view a property is the way to go for opens?

This whole registering thing just seems quite extreme but i'd be interested to know and be open to all your thoughts and opinions.

Thanking you all in advance and hope you all have a great week.

 

The registering thing, whilst primarily should be security driven eg. if an incident occurred the PM could refer a list of viewers to Police to follow up as leads etc, however in practice it's more for marketing purposes - a lot of people don't like that. It is the Lessor/Agents discretion whether to allow people through without registering/showing ID, but it's also the prospective clients choice whether to proceed or not too.

The doesn't allow open homes for tenant properties, namely the Lessor/Agent is required to give an entry notice and show one prospective party through per time, and viewings have to allow reasonable time between them so as to not encroach too much on the Tenants peaceful enjoyment, in practice this could be only once a week, which becomes very impractical for trying to re-let a property if you had Tenants who exercised their rights fully and/or simply refused entry.

As for what to have at opens, application form, brochure summarising the listing, business cards, sign board, flag, flip boards, etc. It really depends on the market and the property, when you've got high demand and people are lining up then little effort is required, but when there's no one at the door, the Lessor/Agent should be going to town trying to get people through the door and use every available option in their marketing tool box.

 

I am sure most of the PM's on here could write a book on this topic but I will try and keep it to a few salient points!

As a BARE minimum:
- on time
- well presented and engaged
- be able to point out key features, price, and availability
- application forms or details on how to apply (1Form etc)

Importantly the inspection should be much more than just opening a front door. It is a sales appointment. I have found most PM's either don't understand this and/or are not good or comfortable with that aspect. That is not intended as a criticism as they are different skills, but it does mean your agency should be able to tell you what training they provide on this to PM's or have a dedicated leasing function/staff.

Registering (and the platforms used for this) are designed to provide benefits to all parties - owners, agents, and tenants. From an investors perspective if your agency is not using Inspect Real Estate or something similar I would seriously question their leasing process and effectiveness. As mentioned above security is one part but the information is used for a whole range of functions: follow up, tenant database matching, campaign stats and monitoring, application tracking, staff resource planning, the list goes on and on!

If you are registered (and accepting being on time should be a given but unforeseen things can occur) the agent can easily provide an update with a few button clicks that they will be late to keep you in the loop. You can also get notified if there is a price change or a change to the availability date.

Whilst I understand some people may not like it in my experience that is rare and the benefits to doing it are many.

- Luke

 

attitude and people skills is what’s needed at opens. (Aside from application forms, pen / paper or iPad, business cards)

Driving from house to house to house- if something disasterous occurs and you have to take an alternate route, it’s the attitude and people skills that can save the open. In flooded markets, when prospective tenants look at 10+ houses- it can be the friendly agent they remember.

Having a fresh out of school leasing agent earning some coin on the weekend by taking names, opening a door and spending the next 14 mins on their phone- nothing worse. If tenants like the house itself, they will still likely apply, but you miss out on the personal assessment of the application which is very important.

 

I guess it depends on the market. I've attended a few rental opens on behalf of my daughter. Often the Agent is understandably late, opens the door and checks registrations as hordes of people enter the property. The open is for 15 minutes, but so many people are packed into a small unit its difficult to move, and invariably the open runs over (making the agent late to next open).

Its deplorable...The only words the agent speaks are "are you registered?". No supervision of what people do once inside. No engagement on departure. But I guess that's an outcome of a tight rental market.

 

Depends.

If is not a dead market, then you treat everyone with contempt.

That is my experience anyway.

 

Lol. Just had a call from an agent that hosted an open we attended this morning. Apparently it was the wrong unit. We can view the advertised unit this afternoon.

I wonder if they will advise the tenant that had 30+ folk wander through their unit for no reason?

 

It's been very common practice to have attendee details for a long time now for a number of reasons. You need details for viewing updates, follow up, security and reporting to the Landlord. Another reason for me is making sure I know which people have been through so I can stop annoying them with emails and messages about viewing times.

If I could ask- what sort of information would you like to see laid out at the inspection? I personally don't leave any information out for people, aside from a rental list and applications. I'd love to know if people would appreciate anything else.

Being late is sometimes unavoidable, one or twice a month for me depending on traffic and rude latecomers to prior viewings. I keep a list of prospective attendees on my phone to give any updates (see above reasons for registering) if I need to.

On a quick side note too- for years I've found people not terribly interested in chatting to me if I approach them. I generally stand towards the entrance and wait for questions, unless the house is tenanted, in which case we need to keep an eye on the tenants belongings. As a prospective tenant, how do you feel about the agent approaching you for a chat while you're looking around?

 

Tom- a balance between polite attentiveness and creepy stalking agent. Some get it right, others...

 

I talk, a lot. I like to engage, it's baffling what people will tell you!

I don't have a whole lot of information out either, particularly on Saturday I already have my phone, open board, applications, cards, tape measure and laser pointer... all in heels - I just don't have enough arms to carry more stuff.

I hate being late. But sometimes it is unavoidable, we book these inspections days or weeks in advance and sometimes there could be an accident that you couldn't possibly predict between opens. The agent should always try to leave a minimum of 10 minutes plus drive time between opens (at absolute minimum), this gives a small buffer and also leaves enough time to shut up and open the next one. As an agent that covers a larger area, I also need to account for the time of day and whether I'm crossing through the city - for this it might mean I leave an hour for a typical half hour drive.

I also do 15 minute opens, I used to do 30 minutes but found too many people showed up right when I was closing up and it would make me late to the next, instead I do 15 minutes advertised and allow additional time for latecomers or busy inspection.

The whole registering thing, for me, it's to update people so no one wastes their time if a property is leased last minute and also to update people if something has occurred and I am running late. I always publicly advertise the inspections as well so anyone can rock up, and that's cool - but don't crack it if the open was removed at lunch time and you didn't know because you didn't register or check prior to leaving to view said property.

My pet hates are when the agent stands at the door, doesn't unlock all external doors, doesn't turn on lights, open blinds, garage etc. It takes 5 minutes to open up properly to present a property - it's not hard.

Be on time, well presented and be prepared to make conversation - for goodness sake, crack a smile even.