The Good
- Well known site
- Free and easy
- Likely to receive lots of responses almost immediately
- One of the best places to find prospective tenants
The Bad
- Lots of unqualified candidates will inquire
- Lots of no-shows
The Ugly
- Potential scammers
- Utter lack of respect
- Your faith in humanity will be tested
Know what you will and will not accept from your prospective tenants, and be explicit about it in your ad posting – smoking, pets, max number of tenants, etc.
Pre-screen, Pre-screen, Pre-screen. I cannot stress this enough. I wasted so much time and effort cleaning and prepping my house, driving home from work early to meet someone, sitting around for hours on a weekend…only to have that person not show up. First thing every prospective tenant wants to do is setup a time to come and see your place. Do not waste your time showing your house to someone who doesn’t even meet your minimum requirements up front. It’s amazing how many people will not fully read your ad or will not disqualify themselves based on your ad requirements that they know they don’t meet. Do not setup a showing until you’ve had a chance to pre-screen each potential candidate. This step will save you a lot of time and headaches.
If a potential tenant has met all your initial requirements and they’ve seen your house and are still interested, make them fill out an application/screening/background check. This will cost them money but only someone who is truly serious will even bother continuing with this step. Think of it as an additional screening step.
Final Thoughts
It took me just a little longer finding a tenant because I really wanted to rent my house furnished, but ultimately I was able to successfully find a tenant on Craigslist. There are a lot of great and qualified people out there. But learn from a few of my mistakes and do your due diligence and it will minimize your time wasted and maximize your results. Good luck!