What is the best way to track rental leads?

A simple sheet with one row per inquiry, a status and a next follow-up date is enough for most small landlords. Review it daily.

How many statuses do I need?

Six cover the whole path: new, replied, booked, toured, applied and decided. More statuses usually make the sheet harder to keep current.

How long should I follow up with a lead?

One or two follow-ups over a week is usual. After that, mark the lead decided with the reason "no response" and free your time.

Track Rental Leads: A Simple Status System

To track rental leads, keep one row per inquiry with a name, contact, the unit, where they found you, a status and a next follow-up date. Six statuses are enough: new, replied, booked, toured, applied and decided. Review the sheet once a day, and every lead with a past-due follow-up date gets a message that day.

Why a lead goes cold

Most vacancies do not fail for lack of interest. They stall because an inquiry sits unanswered, a promised callback is forgotten, or a renter who toured never hears back. Each of those is a tracking problem, not a marketing problem.

A lead sheet gives each person one line and one next action. You do not need a customer system. A spreadsheet works for one to a dozen vacancies.

The columns that matter

Keep the sheet small. Every extra column is one more thing you will not fill in.

Column	What goes in it
Date	The day the inquiry arrived
Name and contact	Name, email, phone if given
Unit	Which vacancy they asked about
Source	Where they found you (see the source post below)
Status	One of the six statuses
Next follow-up	A date, never blank for an open lead
Notes	One line, facts only

Fill in the source the same way each time. A separate link for each site you post on tells you where inquiries come from without asking, and troubleshooting a listing with no inquiries helps when a source goes quiet.

Six statuses, one meaning each

New: the inquiry arrived and you have not replied. Aim to clear this status within hours; see fast reply templates.
Replied: you answered and are waiting for them to book or apply.
Booked: a tour has a date and time.
Toured: they saw the unit. Follow up the same day, as in fast reply templates.
Applied: an application is in. Move to the application process.
Decided: the lead ended, with a reason such as leased, withdrew, no response or not qualified under your written criteria.

A lead can only move forward or end. If a lead has been "replied" for a week with no answer, set the next follow-up, send one nudge, and mark it decided with the reason "no response" if nothing comes back.

The daily five-minute routine

Sort by next follow-up date and work the rows dated today or earlier.
Clear every row in "new". Nothing should wait overnight if you can help it.
For each row, do the next action and set a new date. If the lead ends, mark it decided.
Count the open leads per unit. If a unit has fewer than a few active leads a week, change the listing, not the sheet. See reducing days vacant.

Example a made-up owner gets 18 inquiries for a unit in two weeks. 14 get replies, 6 book, 4 show up, 2 apply and 1 signs. Seeing the counts at each status shows where the drop is. Here it is the step from replied to booked: 14 replies produced only 6 bookings, so the owner tries a booking link and shorter reply messages.

Keep the notes fair

Your notes can be read later by a regulator or a court. Write facts about the inquiry, such as "asked about pets" or "wants a move-in on the 1st", and leave out guesses about the person. Never record or sort leads by race, religion, family, disability, age or similar traits, and do not note how someone sounds. Treat each lead the same way: the same replies, the same slots, the same criteria. See 42 U.S.C. 3604.

How DoorKeeping fits

DoorKeeping already holds the parts of this that come from your own records: showing requests from your listing page, and rental applications with where each one stands. Ask Claude or ChatGPT, connected to DoorKeeping, to list your listings with the showing requests waiting and your applications by status. It lists facts and never ranks or recommends an applicant.

A note on the law

This is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. 3604 (Cornell LII), read Oct 30, 2026

Questions

What is the best way to track rental leads?: A simple sheet with one row per inquiry, a status and a next follow-up date is enough for most small landlords. Review it daily.
How many statuses do I need?: Six cover the whole path: new, replied, booked, toured, applied and decided. More statuses usually make the sheet harder to keep current.
How long should I follow up with a lead?: One or two follow-ups over a week is usual. After that, mark the lead decided with the reason "no response" and free your time.