Medford Rental – Sight Unseen
This will be a relatively short post, but I just wanted to share something with you that happened to a Property Owner in Medford recently. This property owner has been managing their property themselves, and recently their old Tenants decided to move out. When they came up to the house, they realized that the old Tenants had not taken care of the landscaping and just the overall appearance of the house like they would like.
They listed the property for rent on Craigslist. In fact, I was considering living in this house myself, it was a very nice house, and still may. However when I called on the property a month ago, the Owner would not give me the address because he didn’t want people to disturb the Tenants, which I can understand.
So in effect, the advertisements were being placed, but no one can go see the property..not even drive by it. So long story short, I am in communications with the gentlemen, who was a very nice man by the way. He and I had talked back and forth regarding the terms, etc. Then one day, about 3.5 weeks ago he called and said that the property had been taken. I couldn’t understand how since he wasn’t allowing anyone to actually see the property until May 8th. Well, he said, he had received a rent deposit and first months rent from a lady that said she would take the property “sight unseen”. First off, I don’t know anyone who would do that. Maybe someone very desperate and pushed for time, but certainly not me.
So the property was now off the market, so to speak….until yesterday. The gentlemen called me and said that the lady that had rented the property from him showed up and was ready to move in…however she said it would not be acceptable for the Owner to perform routine checks on the property from time to time. He basically wanted to stop in every 3 or 4 months or so and just make sure the property is looking good inside and out. Nothing wrong with that at all. However this lady would have none of it.
Ultimately he made the right choice in not renting to her. However he could have avoided a lot of vacancy time and ultimately lost money, by doing things a little different:
– First off…do not rent to someone sight unseen. There are plenty of excellent people in rental pool. You do not need to do this. There are so many intangibles that you get from meeting a prospective Tenant face to face that you will not get over a phone. For example, how neat is their car? How about their presence, demeanor? Do they second guess the property condition? Do they look for ways to put down your medford rental or are they respectful? The “gut” feeling that you get from them during that initial meeting will tell you a lot. There may be exceptions to this rule, and some Landlords may have been able to get away with it, but they are the exception and not the rule.
– He waited until he could be present at the property to show it. There was 1 entire month that went by where he could have been actively showing it. If you are not going to hire a medford property management company, then consider talking to the Tenants and offer them something in return for them maintaining the property nice and showing it for you. (of course depending on good of a Tenant they are) Now he is at the vacant property, and in his specific case he stopped advertising when he accepted that Lady, so he now has no Tenant leads and he needs to start over in advertising. Now he will likely need to wait another 2-4 weeks for a different Tenant to be able to move in.
– All in all, he could have saved a lot of money. In this case (and not be putting a shameless plug here on purpose….wink wink), he could have saved $3,750 by spending $250 with a property manager who could have shown his house for him a month ago and had highly qualified (not sight unseen btw) Tenant ready for move in with days of the old Tenant moving out. That is what it is all about, right? Minimizing vacancy time in between extremely highly qualified Tenants.
I hope that my short story helps someone from making a landlording mistake! And if you think we can be of service to you, please call Asurent Property Management Medford Today at 541 816-4140.