2BR, Hdwd, Call For Pet Policy

Let's say you are a landlord and one of your apartments is empty or is about to be empty. Most likely, you want to find a new tenant to fill that apartment and send you rent checks every month. So you take the logical step of placing an ad somewhere-- the local paper, craigslist, a sign in the front yard of your property.

That's where I come in.

I need a place to live. I'm looking for a certain minimum size at a certain maximum rent in a certain area of the city. So I see your ad and it fits within my established criteria, so I call your number. You, however, are a busy person, and I get your voicemail. That's no big deal, I certainly don't sit by my phone all day either, not even when I'm expecting a really important phone call. So I leave a short message indicating my interest in your property and including my name and phone number. I am articulate and to the point.

SO WHY WON'T YOU RETURN MY CALLS??

Seriously, what is the deal with landlords who place ads and then don't bother to return calls about the apartment they are obstensibly trying to rent? I could understand not returning my calls if the messages I left were liberally sprinkled with random curse words, or included a request to lower the rent by half, or involve sporadic primal screams. If you've already rented the apartment, and you don't want to get any more calls, then take the sign out of the window. Temporarily change your outgoing message to say something like "You have reached 555-1234. If you are calling about the apartment, I'm sorry, but it is already rented. Good luck in your search. If you are calling for any other reason, please leave a message after the beep." Delete your post on craigslist.

I suppose I should think of it as a screening mechanism: if you're too lazy to return a phone call when the potential to make money is directly connected to returning that call, then you're probably not going to be terribly responsive when the heat doesn't come on in December or the guy across the hall blasts "Dancing Queen" on repeat at 3 a.m. So really, I suppose you're doing me a favor by failing to have the common courtesy to return a phone call on what amounts to a business matter.