What Happens Before Your Rental Tour?

You got the job! And now you are relocating. You’ve been approved for your rental tour and have a trip scheduled to visit your new city. You’ve had lots of leg work to get to this point: interviews, offer letters, relocation packages to review, travel plans and more! You know what you had to go through, but let’s stop for a second and think about what your rental expert has to do to prepare a successful rental tour to find you the perfect new home or apartment.

Once your tour date is determined things go into motion for your assigned rental expert. First they’ve secured the date on their calendar. If it’s still a few weeks away they will connect with you by telephone to further discuss what your needs are. Perhaps they’ll set you up on an email drip of options available in the area so that you can begin to review properties and get more familiar with what the market offers. Then as the day of your tour approaches they are checking with others in the market they know as a possible source that might have a lead on a rental—other agents, brokers, property managers, etc.

They comb the MLS listings, a collection of private databases used by real estate brokers who agree to share their listing agreements with one another to locate ready, willing and able renters and buyers for properties more quickly than they could on their own. This is probably the easiest step of the search though, because everything is there in one place. Let’s say that you have multiple pets, two dogs, one of which is a Pit Bull Terrier. The search now has to move in a new direction, first locating properties that will accept pets…period—and further complicated by a restricted breed in many areas across the United States. The rental expert has to dig further to find options that will consider pets. And you should also include a pet resume! That might include looking at options on Craigslist, Zillow or some other website that lists rentals. And that can add yet another layer of calls because if options are found they need to be investigated to confirm school districts if applicable, proximity to work and to confirm available times to visit the property. All of this requires additional leg work to assemble the itinerary of qualified options for your rental tour.

And sometimes on top of pets, maybe there are credit concerns that add yet another dimension to the search. But because of their expertise in the market your rental expert knows who will consider well trained pets and who will attempt to understand credit concerns. It’s only after you’ve reviewed the final list of options sent to you 24-48 hours prior that the itinerary can be set. Lastly, the rental expert has to call and set the appointments while mapping out travel time between stops.

I think you can begin to appreciate the time that is involved before you even arrive at your meeting point the day of the tour. There’s a lot of thought and pre-work that goes into planning your rental tour. It’s not just the time that you are physically with the agent. So take care in discussing all details with your rental expert in advance so they can come fully prepared for a successful outcome on tour day!