Tire kickers everywhere

I own a car dealership.

75% of the people are perfectly fine.
15% are self-adulating marones who think that they can be abusive to complete strangers.

The other 10% are the reason why God created catapults.
Then there are the 2 percenters. These are the people who are NEVER happy with ANYTHING, EVER. Nothing you can do for them will EVER make them happy. I have always gone out of my way to help people who are reasonable but you can never win with them. I ran them off at the earliest opportunity.
 
Last edited:
That was what I was trying to say, but the aggressive nature of his b*tchn’ & moaning had me a little riled up. I mean, if you don’t like it just leave. I had a few tenants do this. No offense taken it just isn’t right for you. If you need to mention anything, come with a solution instead of rude comments.

Heck, I’d be fine if he just told me the discrepancies instead of trying to build it into some alpha male narrative.
I think it was your entire approach to just doing an open house and not screening them in advance. Sounds like he was just trying to work you so you would give him the listing.

As for the people who complain too much, I make a mental note to not rent to them but most of the time they don't even bother to put in an application hence all the complaining. People who complain too much aren't a protected class so it's perfectly fine to discriminate against them.
 
i bet he was just trying to scare you into letting him list it for you and then have the work done by freinds and he gets a cut. its like listing a house fsbo. you gonna get a lot of help to sell calls .

when it comes to aggressive people its best to keep your cool. once they know they have you riled up , the turn up the heat. its kinda like this board sometimes . LOL
 
Realtor here, been doing rentals for over 15 years. I screen them all the time, I don't hand out random times. Usually I meet each one individually. Usually I like to scheduled at least 2-3 to come in the same time frame with a 15-20 minute gap between them as most people take 10-15 minutes to look at a rental and then they may be 5-10 minutes early or late. Usually if you schedule 3, chances are one might flake out. If you do one at a time, one time in 3 you'll be waiting for someone who doesn't show up. That's why I like to group several at time, at least one or two of them will show up.

I don't know about NY, but in MA, same thing, no requirement to have the place painted although I've run into a lot of people who seem to think that it needs to be done. It's not in the state sanitary code which controls what is legal and not legal. You could have wood paneling so they're not going to make you paint that.

I do basic screen questions, like the 1st one is when are you looking to move in. You wouldn't believe how you might advertise something for next month and you get people looking for a few months from then or need it right away. Then I try to figure out how many people they have and what they do for work. Or you do a basic phone screening. Some basics are getting rid of people who have pets or smoke. I also screen by getting rid of people who don't have the full funds, typically at least 2-3 months worth of rent up front and I don't take deposits, just the full amount and a signed lease at the same time so no one can back out and you have to start from scratch again. I make everyone fill out an application and then I run a credit check afterwards.


You only look at the bad, not the good. Real estate prices have gone up 2-3x over the last 10 years here. Didn't get hit with anyone citing the moratoriums, but I've evicted at least a dozen tenants over the years. Just part of the business. I still make money even at 85-90% of the properties rented and I've been more like 100% the last few years. Yes, you lose anywhere from 5-8k each time you do an eviction but that's not every month maybe one every year or two if you have enough units.

I’ve had a pretty stable tenant base for the past 3 years so it’s been a while since I’ve listed properties to the public. What I used to do is schedule within 15 minute increments, but lately I’ve been getting a lot of no shows. I’m talking 60% no show rate. So I end up sitting around all day. what I’m doing now is basically doing an open house for anybody who is interested. The exact address isn’t on the listing, they have to message me and get it. This helps rid a lot of no shows, as I can tell they never intended to come when they hit me with the “I’ll be there” yet have no clue where it is.

Where do you list your rentals if you don’t mind me asking?
 
I’ve had a pretty stable tenant base for the past 3 years so it’s been a while since I’ve listed properties to the public. What I used to do is schedule within 15 minute increments, but lately I’ve been getting a lot of no shows. I’m talking 60% no show rate. So I end up sitting around all day. what I’m doing now is basically doing an open house for anybody who is interested. The exact address isn’t on the listing, they have to message me and get it. This helps rid a lot of no shows, as I can tell they never intended to come when they hit me with the “I’ll be there” yet have no clue where it is.

Where do you list your rentals if you don’t mind me asking?
i have never done a open house on a rental. that invites to many people just looking. when they contact me, i usually tell them to drive by the house and see if its right for them and call back if really interested. then we make a time to meet. if you are not there withing 15 mins past the agreed time, i am leaving also, i charge for applications so that takes a lot of the BS folks out .
 
but lately I’ve been getting a lot of no shows. I’m talking 60% no show rate.
Based on the rental market, I'd guess that they have multiple visits lined up and they took the 1st viable option (rental) they found. Not defending them but I can see something like this happening.
 
i bet he was just trying to scare you into letting him list it for you and then have the work done by freinds and he gets a cut. its like listing a house fsbo. you gonna get a lot of help to sell calls .

when it comes to aggressive people its best to keep your cool. once they know they have you riled up , the turn up the heat. its kinda like this board sometimes . LOL

The first thing that came to mind was sub letting. I’ve had tenants do this before and I don’t really have issues with it as long as they can find good tenants and pay their dues on time. I know my rent is below market rate. This guy will sign the lease at $1600 then sub lease at 2k+. He builds $400+/mo in passive income.

Either that or he was with the local authority that operates section 8/PA. In which I never scheduled a housing inspection so he can gladly gtfo. I’m typically a very calm person and rarely get hot headed. I don’t even remember the last time I snapped on someone until today.
 
I’ve had a pretty stable tenant base for the past 3 years so it’s been a while since I’ve listed properties to the public. What I used to do is schedule within 15 minute increments, but lately I’ve been getting a lot of no shows. I’m talking 60% no show rate. So I end up sitting around all day. what I’m doing now is basically doing an open house for anybody who is interested. The exact address isn’t on the listing, they have to message me and get it. This helps rid a lot of no shows, as I can tell they never intended to come when they hit me with the “I’ll be there” yet have no clue where it is.

Where do you list your rentals if you don’t mind me asking?
I used to use several sites but lately I'm just using Zillow, I get plenty of leads from that so that I don't need to list it anywhere else. There's a few other sites like TurboTenant that will cross post to several other sites and of course there's the old Craigslist but I've stopped using Craigslist because too many people use it for scams so if people mention craigslist, I know they're hooked on some scam and not something I posted there. There's also sites like Avil.co I was going to use that for ACH transactions but have been able to get by with Paypal for now if people want to do electronic payments.

Your no show rate is too high, typically 25-33% is what I end up with and if it starts to get out of whack for me, I try to confirm a showing that day a few hours before the showing. People tend to ghost you if they don't show up for the showing and you try to reschedule by calling them after they do a no show. That's why I also like to do a phone screening to make sure it's worth their while to see. Some people I just discourage or not set up an appointment on the phone when they either try to talk about reducing my broker fee or try to do something like less than a 1 year lease.
 
I don't know what you mean by this, overall the rents have gone up, I haven't fully kept up with rent increases which is probably why I've been at 100% the last few years, didn't want to do it during a pandemic but I just raised them a little and everyone is still staying. Landlording has always been a numbers game. It's a business just like any other business. You can still make money even in a tenant friendly state and I'm in one of the friendliest and also one with one of the highest rents.

It’s hard to be able to provide affordable quality housing when tenants build up this idea that all LLs are slum lords. I know people who only own one to two doors that are selling off because tenants were refusing to pay rent knowing they wouldn’t get evicted. Is every tenant bad? No. I’ve had a lot of good tenants over the years but I see the smaller LLs getting wrecked with tenants abusing their rights. They leave then someone else comes in, jacks the price up, let’s the place fall into disrepair, then people start complaining about not being able to get a decent place.
 
It’s hard to be able to provide affordable quality housing when tenants build up this idea that all LLs are slum lords. I know people who only own one to two doors that are selling off because tenants were refusing to pay rent knowing they wouldn’t get evicted. Is every tenant bad? No. I’ve had a lot of good tenants over the years but I see the smaller LLs getting wrecked with tenants abusing their rights. They leave then someone else comes in, jacks the price up, let’s the place fall into disrepair, then people start complaining about not being able to get a decent place.
It's not really an issue with landlords. NIBY means that it's pretty hard to build new units so the demand keeps going up, but the supply isn't so of course the rents will go up when there's more demand than supply. Back in 2008/2009 when the economy was bad, I had to drop my rents to get the place rented, but not that much. Pretty much everything I've listed I've gotten rented this year, even had a bidding war where I had 5 applications on one unit and one person offered to pay a bit extra a month and they ended up getting it.
 
IME a trebuchet is more effective.
The trebuchet is the superior siege weapon.

FWIW the rental market where I am is absolutely out of control expensive. Rooms in houses start at $1,500/mo. Apartments are usually in the $2-4K range. There is a house caddy corner behind mine that is smaller than mine which was just listed for $1.4million.
 
I used to use several sites but lately I'm just using Zillow, I get plenty of leads from that so that I don't need to list it anywhere else. There's a few other sites like TurboTenant that will cross post to several other sites and of course there's the old Craigslist but I've stopped using Craigslist because too many people use it for scams so if people mention craigslist, I know they're hooked on some scam and not something I posted there. There's also sites like Avil.co I was going to use that for ACH transactions but have been able to get by with Paypal for now if people want to do electronic payments.

Your no show rate is too high, typically 25-33% is what I end up with and if it starts to get out of whack for me, I try to confirm a showing that day a few hours before the showing. People tend to ghost you if they don't show up for the showing and you try to reschedule by calling them after they do a no show. That's why I also like to do a phone screening to make sure it's worth their while to see. Some people I just discourage or not set up an appointment on the phone when they either try to talk about reducing my broker fee or try to do something like less than a 1 year lease.

Nice. I’ve been thinking about moving over to Zillow and utilizing their tenant screening tool. I used to use CL and another private local housing classified. I get a lot of scammers on CL but never failed to find a solid tenant after sorting through it all. My last property was on Facebook marketplace and I found a very good tenant so I figure I use it again for this house. But not anymore.

I get a ton of interest on FB so I’ll group everybody into an “open house” in 2 days. So for example, this current property I listed this past Tuesday. I set everybody up for Thursday noon. If they can’t make it, I set up on Saturday noon. It’s not really an open house but rather I just schedule everybody to come at one time. Of course I’ll get more interest in between so we’re talking 1-2 days max before someone can come view. I even get people contacting in the AM day of and I’ll tell them to come check it out at 12 and fill out an application if interested. But it’ll be those very people that no show lol.
 
Last edited:
Then there are the 2 percenters. These are the people who are NEVER happy with ANYTHING, EVER. Nothing you can do for them will EVER make them happy. I have always gone out of my way to help people who are reasonable but you can never win with them. I ran them off at the earliest opportunity.

Back when I was selling cars I sold a gentleman a 8 year old Range Rover at wholesale because it wasn’t perfect. Very solid driver, good tires, good brakes, did all the diagnostics to make sure EAS and all off road systems were operating correct. My boss didn’t want to send it to auction so he insisted we retail the vehicle as-is. But in NY, it’s not really as-is. Buyers have *some* recourse if the car completely bricks. And this guy ram with it. The JLR 5.0 has the infamous direct injection tick. The dude must have been high or something, because he kept insisting it jumped timing. They even took it to the LR dealer and they just hit him with a timing chain tensioner job upwards of $6k without actually diagnosing it correctly. Long story short, we good willed the timing tensioners in hopes the guy would be happy. He wasn’t. After we showed him the old tensioners that came out he started going off about the control arms being shot, the EAS being bouncy, the Bluetooth lagging. None of this was an issue for the 8 months leading up to the tensioner job. He was a good portion to the reason I left car sales. He would call me late at night, months later, complaining about something new that he didn’t like. I even offered to buy the car back but he refused.
 
Why not take an application then dustbin it and ghost the guy? Why do you feel an obligation to answer yes or no to his face?
 
A significant portion of the general public are crazy, on personality altering drugs - legal or otherwise, or need to be on personality altering drugs.

Really not much you can do about it, other than realize its there issue and move on with your day.
 
Most of the people we see at our little car lot are fine people, but there are some that stroke my fur backwards. It’s just myself and my friend, and neither one of us put up with any nonsense.
We have a lot of people asking for cheap cars, which is rare these days, but if we have a few, we show them. Now, we make sure that it’s mechanically sound and it will get you from point A to point B just fine, but it may also be a little ugly, outdated when it comes to the latest tech, etc…, but it is otherwise a cheap, mechanically sound car. Some of these people that don’t have two nickels to rub together start criticizing everything about it, at that point, we immediately tell them where the “new” car lots are located and thank them for stopping in.
Another situation is that we can have something priced very well and some people will start telling us what Kelly Blue Book says. We ask them to pull up any example of a comparable vehicle to ours that‘s priced as well or better and guess what?, they can’t.
We can show them what blackbook says, showing wholesale and retail pricing along with market reports of similar vehicles for sale in the area and they’ll still say that it’s too high. They go back to the “Well Kelly Blue Book says this” argument. It’s at that point, We tell them to go to the Kelly Blue Book store and buy one.
We price our stuff to sell because we don’t sell financing like the big car lots. We have been successful by selling at a price that makes us a decent profit while giving the customer a great price that is within clean wholesale-average retail pricing and moving on. We’re not out to make maximum profit, we move a lot of cars for two guys and that works for us and our customers.
I’m a pretty laid back guy and can talk to or get along with just about anyone, but I will not take any crap from anyone either. Thankfully, most people are good natured and easy to deal with.
Life is too short to let aggravating people bring you down. At some point you tell them to pound sand, move on and forget about it. 😉🍻
 
Nice. I’ve been thinking about moving over to Zillow and utilizing their tenant screening tool. I used to use CL and another private local housing classified. I get a lot of scammers on CL but never failed to find a solid tenant after sorting through it all. My last property was on Facebook marketplace and I found a very good tenant so I figure I use it again for this house. But not anymore.

I get a ton of interest on FB so I’ll group everybody into an “open house” in 2 days. So for example, this current property I listed this past Tuesday. I set everybody up for Thursday noon. If they can’t make it, I set up on Saturday noon. It’s not really an open house but rather I just schedule everybody to come at one time. Of course I’ll get more interest in between so we’re talking 1-2 days max before someone can come view. I even get people contacting in the AM day of and I’ll tell them to come check it out at 12 and fill out an application if interested. But it’ll be those very people that no show lol.
I don't use Zillow's tenant screening tools. I turn on letting them apply online but it's very strange, had several people apply and they never even saw the unit and I never heard back from them after contacting them. They must send out the application to many landlords. I did hear from a couple so I'm going to say 80% of the time when they apply online through Zillow, I get nothing. Half the people who ask don't end up replying. I use an application I get from the local real estate board and I run my own credit checks, costs me $23.95 to run all 3 bureaus. Used to be $10-$12 10+ years ago.

I always space out the appointments, I guess if you're getting that many no shows, I'd probably do one every 10 minutes. That's so I have an idea of who is coming and I know who is who, otherwise if everyone shows up at the same time, you'd lose track of who was good and who was not.

Why not take an application then dustbin it and ghost the guy? Why do you feel an obligation to answer yes or no to his face?
I think he said the guy was a realtor and the guy was probably just trying to get the listing. I've never done that myself so maybe the guy was a rookie who was just starting. I'm usually polite when getting rid of someone, I just tell them I have another appointment and need to get going.
 
Why not take an application then dustbin it and ghost the guy? Why do you feel an obligation to answer yes or no to his face?

He never applied. To be honest don’t even remember messaging someone like him. I think he was asked to come look for someone else who had contacted me. Never filled application. Just decided to bs and leave. Typically I deal with these type of people over Facebook messenger, where they act rude but I’ve never had someone actually come in person.
 
You should have given the jerk one verbal warning that he was trespassing and had the count of ten to leave and then pepper sprayed him on the count of nine.
 
Back
Top