Free Open House Sign-In Sheet
Are you interested in filling a vacancy in one of your rental properties as quickly as possible?
If so, it’s a good idea to consider setting up an open house for it. An open house will allow you to build some buzz around your property by showing it off to a bunch of prospective tenants at once. It won’t be long at all before you’re fielding applications for it.
It’s also a good idea to put out an open house sign-in sheet while your open house is going on. It’ll give you the opportunity to collect people’s names, phone numbers, and email addresses, either when they arrive at your open house or when they’re on their way out.
There are a whole host of benefits that come along with making an open house sign-in sheet a priority. Check out some of the biggest benefits of doing it below.
Makes You Look More Professional to Prospective Tenants
As a landlord, you know how important it is to screen tenants before renting a property to them. Tenant screening gives you a chance to make sure you’re renting your property to the right person.
But you should also be aware of the fact that many prospective tenants are going to be “screening” you in a way when they show up to one of your open houses. They’re going to check to see if you’re the kind of person that they want for a landlord.
You can impress people by talking to them and showing them that you’re a good person. But you can also make yourself look a whole lot more professional when you put out an open house sign-in sheet.
Your sign-in sheet will let people know that you’re serious about your business and that you try to stay as organized as you possibly can. They’ll appreciate these things and feel more comfortable with the idea of you being their landlord after seeing the way you conduct yourself at your open house.
Shows You How Many Prospective Tenants Attended Your Open House
Not everyone who attends your open house is going to take the time to sign your sign-in sheet. There are some people who don’t like the idea of giving out their personal information to a landlord and others who will manage to miss your sign-in sheet when they show up.
But even though everyone isn’t going to fill out your sign-in sheet, it’ll still give you a rough idea of how many prospective tenants attended your open house. This will let you know whether or not it was a success.
If you find that there weren’t enough prospective tenants in attendance at your open house, it’ll illustrate that you need to step up your rental marketing efforts. It’s the only way you’re going to fill rental vacancies.
Here are some ways you can go about marketing your rentals more effectively:
- List your rental properties on the right rental listing sites
- Consider using Craigslist to advertise your available rentals
- See how rental advertising could benefit you
Whatever you do, don’t simply ignore the low attendance at an open house. Try to figure out why more people didn’t come out to see your rental property so that you can improve the attendance numbers at your open houses moving forward.
Helps You Gauge How Serious People Were About Your Rental Property
As we mentioned earlier, you can ask people to sign your open house sign-in sheet either when they first arrive or when they’re on their way out. There are many landlords who choose to go with the latter option, and it’s not hard to see why.
For starters, catching people on the way out with your sign-in sheet will help you avoid bombarding them and making them feel uncomfortable when they first show up. They’ll feel a lot more at ease when you ask them to provide their contact information on your sign-in sheet when they’re leaving.
But maybe more importantly, you’ll be able to get a better feel for whether or not someone liked your rental property when they sign your sign-in sheet at the end. If they’re more than happy to hand over their contact information to you, you’ll know that they’re really interested in what your rental has to offer.
Catching people at the end will also give you a chance to chat with people for a few minutes about what they liked and didn’t like about your rental. You can get a good sense for how they feel about your rental when you speak with them before they take off.
Allows You to Generate a Mailing List For Future Rental Vacancies
You’re obviously not going to be able to rent your rental property out to everyone who shows interest in it by putting their name down on your open house sign-in sheet.
But you don’t have to let all those phone numbers and email addresses go to waste! The email addresses, in particular, will come in handy if you have a mailing list put together.
You can add the email addresses to your mailing list and send out information about other rental vacancies that you have in the future. This will help you to rent out other properties you own quickly and make future open houses more successful.
You do want to be careful about not sending out too many emails related to your rentals. You run the risk of upsetting those who trusted you with their contact information.
But as long as you’re cautious about how often you send out emails to those on your mailing list, doing it can pay off for you in a big way. You can hit your target audience–people interested in renting properties in your area–over and over again in the coming years.
Protects You in the Event Damage Is Done During Your Open House
It doesn’t happen very often. But every now and then, damage is done to a property during an open house.
If you see damage following an open house, you’re going to want to try and get to the bottom of it. Your open house sign-in sheet will provide you with the names and numbers of some people who might be able to help you figure out what happened.
If nothing else, the fact that you have a sign-in sheet in the first place might deter people from intentionally doing damage to your property. They won’t risk it when they know that you’ll be able to investigate what happened by speaking with others in attendance at your open house.
Gives You a Chance to Solicit Feedback From Open House Attendees
When you rent out properties for a living, it’s important for you to seek feedback from your tenants and others that you work with all the time. You want to know that you’re providing the best possible service to those who come to you for rental properties.
You can obtain some valuable feedback from those who attend your open houses when you put out an open house sign-in sheet. Even if those people aren’t interested in renting a property from you at this time, they can provide you with valuable information with regards to the way you’re running your open houses.
When you first touch base with someone who filled out your sign-in sheet during an open house, ask them if they enjoyed walking through your property. See if there was anything that you could have done to make the experience better for them.
You might be surprised by what some people have to say. They could provide you with some advice on hosting open houses that will help you market your properties better moving forward.
Keeps You Organized When You’re Managing Multiple Properties
If you only rent out one property right now, you probably don’t have too tough of a time keep things organized. But if you have lots of different properties, your open house sign-in sheets will allow you to stay more organized and find information pertaining to each individual property.
If someone emails you about a property and doesn’t identify which one they’re talking about, you won’t have to respond and ask about it. You can consult your various sign-in sheets to see who the person is and which open house they attended.
Start Using an Open House Sign-In Sheet Now
Do you have an open house for one of your rental properties scheduled to take place soon?
Before you show up for it, make sure you have an open house sign-in sheet tucked under your arm. It’ll help you gather the names, phone numbers, and email addresses for those in attendance so that you can put them to good use later.
From the moment you start using a sign-in sheet at open houses, you’ll reap the rewards of doing it. It won’t be long at all before you’re renting out your properties more quickly than ever before.
