Hello people,
Just curious as to how people would handle this situation.
Say an agent finds you a tenant. An arrangement has been made for you to sign the lease and hand over the keys at the agent’s office. You show up, and naturally judging a book by its cover
, you decide that the tenant is not exactly what you were looking for. On the spot you decide that you don’t want to sign the contract, but how do you handle this awkward situation?One solution I’ve thought of is to get in touch with the potential tenant and meet before signing the lease. But sometimes this is difficult given busy schedules, travel etc. Or you can talk over the phone, but phone conversations can be deceiving. So, what to do?
Would love to hear ideas and opinions.
Mk.
Is the tenant qualified in all other ways other than what they look like?
You have to be very careful of descrimination laws!!!
Xenia Ioannou-Mena
Property Manager
Cash Flow Solution specialist
E: [email protected]
M. 0412 437 582Hi M_K
Let the PM handle the matter. Provided you have instructed the PM on your preferences with tenant selection, then let them do their job.
Better not to meet the tenant. Once you have signed the Managing Agency agreement with the PM, then they will sign the lease on your behalf.
cheers
thecrestthecrest | Tony Neale - Statewide Motel Brokers
http://www.statewidemotelbrokers.com.au
Email Me | Phone Meselling motels in NSW
Hmm….ok, so if a tenant is qualified on paper but rocks up to meet you and he/she is unpresentable and maybe a little rude, you are not allowed to refuse?
I mean I know that people may call it judgemental, but when I meet someone, it only takes me a few minutes to make up my mind about whether they will keep my place clean, pay on time, not damage anything, etc. I may be wrong sometimes but I’m usually right, from experience.
Mk.
I have a manging agent who always provides me references from past landlords and work history of prospective tennants. He interviews them and provides me feedback from which I make a choice. I never personally meet my tennants, that’s the managing agent’s job.
Dale
Mk what did you go through with the agent about screening tenants for your property?
The agent that I have got has instructions of what I want in a tenant eg employed, references from last rental property, agent has made sure that the tenant has not defaulted etc etc
Agent then will consult me on who he thinks is suitable and why, from this information given I then decide who I want to live in my property. I do not meet the tenant ever that’s what I pay an agent to do!
What’s your reason for meeting the tenant, I think your treading on dangerous grounds if your judging a book by it’s cover.
Good luck
Jenny1
I meet the tenant because I manage my own properties – I’m still a student so that $15 a week per property adds up.
Well from the responses I’m getting I guess then yes I shouldn’t really worry too much. If the tenant is qualified on paper, then that should be it.
Thanks all for your insights!
The agent’s fee is a legal tax deduction and it is worth every cent in not only tenant selection but the time he would save you (if you get a good agent that is) with all the run around you would have to do if he needs to go to tribunal on your behalf.
Your choice at the end of the day.
Good luck
Jenny1
frankly MK I take written references with a grain of salt. Anyone can write a reference. THey are only part of what makes up the ‘whole picture’. You can get a ‘feel’ for a person in just five minutes. The most ideal way to screen the potential tennant is to act the handyman, changing lightbulbs, fixing the smoke alarms. Then you simply have a casual friendly convo, no need to reveal that youre the owner.
THe only problem I have found in my relying on ‘gut instinct’ is that sometimes I get a genuinely nice person who has trouble paying the rent as apposed to an asshole having trouble paying the rent. On one occassion when a nice person fell behind in rent, he gave me one of his beautiful aboriginal painting.
Just recently I have had to give a couple notice because they have continually fell behind in rent. I have promised them a glowing reference if they leave the place neat and tidy and on time. So whats my refence going to be worth?
For what it is worth, I feel if you are using the agent just to find you someone, you might be better off doing it yourself. We have always managed our IPs ourselves but on numerous occasions over the years, we have given local agents the chance to earn an easy week’s rent for finding us someone. First “someone” put into our IP turned out to be a prostitute who had been in prison for stabbing someone – yeah – thanks a lot to that agent..
I feel that for them it is easy money with no ongoing management, therefore, why not put anyone in – after all, any ongoing problems will be my problem, not the agents.
I have gone on gut feeling with few problems. Certainly, there have been problem tenants over the years, but you get that with an agent as well, so I’d rather have the money in my pocket.
On one occasion a local agent found us a tenant, but we still had to fill in the lease and other forms. So basically, they took a week’s rent just for giving our phone number to someone who walked in their door – pretty easy money.
What I usually find is that I don’t even hear back from local agents. I understand totally that they want to find tenants for the properties they will be managing and they will only hand us a tenant if they haven’t a property under their management that suits the tenant. I totally understand this and don’t bother anymore even approaching agents.
Unless you live too far away, why not make up an application form so you can vet each prospective tenant and give it a go yourself. As you do more and more, you will become confident. If it doesn’t suit you, then of course, go with an agent, but it isn’t difficult.
Something we have tried before (and which failed dismally in the past) was having an open house. When we have tried it in years past, we have sat at the house like stale bottles of beer, waiting for someone – anyone – to turn up. If there are lots of houses available, we often get no calls from the Saturday ad, but they come dribbling in Sunday and through the week. However, a month ago, we had an open house and it was like market day. We rented it on the spot. It all depends on how tight the rental market is.
Wylie.
Hi MK,
I let my Property Manager handle my properties when I first buy them. He does a stringent test including a police check, past tenancy Aust. check & a couple of reference checks. So far I’ve been most impressed – maybe lucky but we’ve not had a tennant leave any of our properties over the past 3 years.
Laughing Max[exhappy]Laughing Max
, you decide that the tenant is not exactly what you were looking for. On the spot you decide that you don’t want to sign the contract, but how do you handle this awkward situation?
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