The best ways to find tenants are through classified ads in the newspaper, ads on Craigslist and signs everywhere. Once you get calls you have to decide how you are going to show the property: either using a lock box or holding appointments. If the neighborhood is rough and you don’t trust the area, I would not use a lock box. However, if it’s in a good area then use a lock box and you will save yourself a lot of time.
If you decide to show the property via appointments, make sure you are doing appointments (never hold an open house because people will not show up). It doesn’t matter how you do these appointments. You can schedule every one at the same time, or spread out the appointments every 15 minutes or so. Here is where the 50% rule comes into play. No matter how many appointments you set, only about 50% of people will show up. If you schedule 30 appointments at 1:00 in the afternoon, expect only 15 people to come. This is a firm rule that I have discovered over the years and unfortunately it never fails.
That’s just the way people are. Many folks do not have the common courtesy to keep an appointment let alone call and tell you that they will not be making the appointment. This is why I would NEVER set an appointment with just one person at a time. I learned this lesson early on by getting stood up at many houses. So make sure that anytime you are setting up appointments you get at least 20 people who say they are going to come and don’t be disappointed when only 10 show up.
It’s all a numbers game. It doesn’t matter if you are buying houses or selling houses. Everyone gets frustrated that they have to go through 99 bad leads to find the one quality lead and it’s the same way with finding a tenant.