In this series of articles on how to rent houses fast for more money we began by observing that most landlords were blindsided by the housing collapse because they had failed to see the way the wind was blowing and make course corrections.

Not to worry. The customer may have well been aware of the changes in the way everything is marketed, but the customer is wrong about something else. And always has been.

Realtors have long had the saying, “Buyers are Liars.” What this means is that whatever the prospective buyer tells the real estate agent what they want will not be what they wind up buying after spending three days riding around in the agent’s car.

This is also true when they call you on your rental ads. They do not know what they want, but they think they do and will ask you questions to determine if they can eliminate your house and go on to eliminate the next one on their list.

Your house that you need to rent fast for more money could be perfect for what they really need, but they have not realized that at this time. When you receive the call from the prospective tenant it is imperative that you break the pattern of them asking you questions.

It is essential that you find out what they really want and need and determine if there is a way that the existing house will fill those needs. You may have another house that they did not know about that will be perfect. You---and they---will not know about that perfect match if they are allowed to simply disqualify the house they called on.

Switching roles may not be easy. Many of them think you—the landlord—are sneaky and do not want to trust you. Some will be impossible to work with, but fortunately most of the people who call from your ads have good intentions if you will only allow—maybe help-- those good intentions to come out.

In our eBook “911 for Landlords: Help is On the Way,” we outline a tactic gleaned from some psychological research which we call “Confusion to Consistence” which will frequently allow us to reverse roles with the prospect and allow us to ask the questions.

If we get to ask the questions we may discover that they really need a two bedroom home with an office and not really a three bedroom or we may find that a house that had seemed too far away is really conveniently located because we know more about local traffic flow than a newcomer to the area and are able to show them how it could work.

“Confusion” may also allow us to establish a higher level of rapport with the prospective tenant allowing a greater in-depth understanding of housing needs. This higher level of rapport is, of course, one of the things they were afraid of and feel that an unscrupulous sales person would use that to take advantage of them.

Our role is to never take advantage and if we do not have a house that is perfect for them wehelp them find something that is. Of course we will want to get a name and email and phone number so we can inform them of future openings we have—or, knowing that at some time in the future they will be back in the house market and we want them to remember us as knowledgeable, trustworthy, and looking out for their needs.

Having a base of people on our email list that know we will be the best landlord they ever had will be a tremendous plus for keeping the pipeline full so we can rent houses faster for more money tomorrow as well as today.