Yesterday I was showing a potential tenant a property, at the end he asked if I would be open to a 4-5 month lease.

The answer is no. I’m not open to that all. My goal is to find tenants that stay forever.

But I didn’t say that to HIM!!

I acted all wishy-washy like, “I’ll consider it. We have a penalty built into our lease if someone breaks it early”. None of that matters though because I would not consider his application.

So how do I fill in the model for this situation? I’m curious why I struggled to tell him the truth. Why I stood there with him letting him ask more questions and even felt the need to put up a super polite front when in reality he would have been fine if I would have told him what I really thought.

Initially I was trying to model the situation but as I write this I realize I need to model my response.

Unintentional…
C: He is looking for a 5 month lease
T: (????) It’s better to pretend and then let him down via text
A: I put on a smile and pretend that I would consider this all the while wishing he would stop talking so I could go have dinner with my family
R: He keeps talking. He may call me again because he thinks I’m open to his situation.

The T-line is more difficult.