The Things People Do. (Continued from previous.)

...Continued from previous.

One family came back three times.  Loved the house.  Loved the neighborhood.  Couldn’t commit.  A couple of shady characters.  A few looky loos from the neighborhood.  All in all, pretty positive.

My favorite one was the young couple who just found out they were pregnant and wanted to move out of their apartment.

I asked when their lease was up?  “Not for another 9 months, but don’t worry.  I have a friend that can write a letter to get us out of it.”

What did they do for work? “I am self employed.  I work with my brother and we took over my dad’s business. “  Can you verify your income.  “Well… I am self employed.”

 

They decided they wanted to apply for the house and insisted that this was the house for them.  They submitted the application and all of the paperwork.  The income verification documents looked like it was printed out from an excel worksheet.  No way to verify where the numbers came from.  No bank statements.  No tax documents.  Just a bunch of pages with numbers on it.  Plus, they printed out one page twice and forgot another

I looked up and found the owner of the house they say they rented before moving into the apartment.  The county records show that it was owned by his brother, who by chance was also listed as being his direct supervisor, and his personal reference.  So I called the brother and asked if he worked for him, yes, he is a great guy, hard worker etc.  I asked him if he owned the home at the applicants previous address.  Pause, yes, he owned the home.  I asked him if he knew the name of the person the applicant listed as his landlord, Pause, no never heard of him.  He asked why.  I told him that the applicant listed that person as his previous landlord, but you owned the home and thought that was odd, him being his brother and all.  Long pause, "he's a great guy."

So then I call his current residents.  They say yes, the couple rents and apartment in their building.  The couple seemed ok, but, there lease doesn’t run out any time soon.  I told them what he told me about the letter.  They say “OH Really….  I don’t think so.  We will talk to them next time they come in.  Do us a favor and don’t call them back till tomorrow.”

So the next day I call the applicant back back (sent a certified letter that afternoon) and tell him we can’t rent to the them.  “Umm….  Why?”  No verifiable income.  Currently in a Lease. “OK.”  Click.

Seriously, did they not think that I would follow up or that I was asking these things on the application just for fun?  The whole point of the process is the weed out people who are not going to pay, cannot pay, or would destroy the property.  And if your going to lie to me right from the get go, how can I trust you with my home, my huge investment. 

Well. Here's the thing...

The house is listed for rent and this is really my favorite part of this whole process. It’s fun to see the reactions of folks of what they like and don’t like.  It’s also fun to hear their stories.  Some of them have some great life experiences.  Some of them…  well, you just have to laugh.

I love it when they come through the house and look around and then say, “well, here’s the thing…”

Our Lease Application lists right up front ALL of the requirements to lease the home.  Most people say that they love the house, where is the application.  I point out all of the requirements and hand it to them.  If they don’t qualify, the usually just take it home and don’t come back.

 

Some of the look it over and say the “Well… here’s the thing”.

One woman says, "Well... here's the thing...".  Would I be willing to take government assistance.  No, I pointed out on the requirements that we do not accept any government assistance programs.  She kept saying, “but it’s guaranteed money” and, “you would get your rent every month with no problem”.  I finally had to tell her, “no, we are not accepting any government assistance programs.  If you have a program that pays you directly, that is between you and them.  But the government sure has heck didn’t help us to purchase this home, so we sure as heck are not going to accept any assistance in keeping it.”  We laughed and then she looked at me, realized I was serious, and left never to return.

Another family came in, filled out the applications, and paid for the background check.  Did their backgrounds and my investigation and they passed.  So I called them up to say congratulations.  "Well, here's the thing...:  They changed their mind and wanted to live in an apartment instead so there wouldn't be any yard work.  They asked for their background check funds to be returned, but since I had already paid for their background, told them it was not possible.  They understood.

One family came in with three adults, mom, dad and grandma.  When I told them that every adult over the age of 18 must have a background check, they were shocked.  “All of us!  But Grandma is from another county and doesn’t have a background."  They were horrified when I told them that regardless of their citizenship status that every adult over the age of 18 must must must have a background check to verify that there is no criminal history.  I had to finally explain to them that the school bus stop is right in front of the house and I will be darned if I have some criminal or child molester living in my home.  All three said "Oh..." at the same time when they finally got it.  They never came back.

To Be Continued...

So much for the realtor.

We thought hiring a realtor that was also a property manager would be a good idea.  We thought so anyways.

One day during the rehab, the realtor stopped by and I asked him for the property management contract as we had not seen it yet.  His wife emailed the contract a couple of days later.  After fourteen pages of legal jargon, it needed to be changed.

Apparently, this is a standard contract that is used across the state with a bunch of fill in the blanks.  Much of it has nothing to do with us, and there were several things we did not like at all.

Some of those things where: we had to pay them for every little piece of office supplies they used.  We also had to pay for all mileage, even if someone was driving from the office on the other side of the state.  The contract also stated that we had to give him $500 a month extra for anything related to the property, no questions asked.

Found the original document online, downloaded it, and rewrote it.  All of the mumbo jumbo that was irrelevant to our home was removed, printed it out, signed and initialed all of the pages, and sent it back to him for his signatures.  And then heard nothing.

Many days go by and still not a word.  So I called him up and told him the contract needed to be in place before I left town.  After a long pause, he says “About that contract.  I looked over the changes and really don’t see them as being all that major.  All of our out of state owners use the same contract and we have never had a problem.  Plus, since this is a state wide standard contract, it is illegal to make any changes to it and has to remain the way it is.”

Illegal….  Oh really.  (Remember, this is the same guy whose maintenance man tried to sell us stolen paint.)  Told him I would call him back after checking with my attorney.  Long pause…. “um…. ok”.

Called my attorney and he just laughed.  He said that no, it was not illegal to change any contract, that is why it is called contract negations.  Plus, if this guy is trying to tell me that, fire him now.

Called the realtor back, told him that on the advice of our attorney, we would not be using the original contract.  If he could not accept the changes, we understood and would find someone else.

Needless to say, he was upset and tried everything he could think of to get me to sign that contract.  At the end of the conversation he angrily said, “Fine, you want to be long distance landlords, you just go ahead.  You will never find anyone to work for you.  Have a nice life.”  Then he hung up.

When I got back to my computer, I sent him and his wife a nice email and wished them the best in their future endeavors.  Now to look for a property manager.

Listing and posting the Sign. (Continued from Previous)

... Continued.

Once you have all of this together, it’s time to list the house.  My favorite site for qualified tenants is Zillow. Other sites such as Rent.com and Rentals.com do add more exposure and we have had good results with both of them. Trulia, Hotpads, and Postlets are good also, but they pull data from Zillow, so don't waist the money.  Craig’s List may add more exposure, but the prospective tenants usually never seem to qualify.

Let’s start with the description. Put as much information into the description as you can.  Talk about the neighborhood, schools, rooms, updates, features, and amedities.   Give as much information as possible.  Most sites limit the amount of room you have so if there is space, put in your tenant requirements.

If there is a place for a virtual tour or virtual walkthrough, put it in.  Upload every photo you can.  If there are more photos than can be uploaded to a particular site, put in a link to where the prospective tenant can view the rest.   Put in a link where they can download an application.

Some sites will not allow external links so make sure to put in an email address where they can send a note asking to see the rest of the photos, video, or the application. The more information, the better. Also, don’t forget to include the phone number where they can contact you.

If at all possible, put up a sign in the front yard so that when people are driving by, the can easily identify the home.

There are only three things that you need to put on a sign.   For Rent (or Sale if it’s being sold).  A phone number printed in big bold text.  And a large QR Code so that a prospective tenant can use their smart phone to look up more information if they are not ready to call you on the phone.  That’s it.

The biggest mistake that people make when putting up as sign is placing too much information or writing the text so small it’s hard to read from a distance.  If you can't read it from three houses away, it's too small.

The QR Code is a fabulous tool. It cuts down on neighborhood peepers that only want to look for the sake of looking, completely wasting your time.  And since so many people have smart phones now days the phone call of folks calling just to ask how much the rent is greatly reduced.  QR Codes can be generated for free. Just do a Google search for Free QR Code Generator.

Make sure the QR Code large enough that a phone can read it from the car so people feel more comfortable using it but not so large it takes over. I usually use an image that is 4 inches by 4 inches.

A Very Important Side Note.  Write down everywhere you posted the information about the home. After it is rented, everything needs to be removed from every site. Crooks use the internet just as much as the good guys do. So for the safety and security of your tenants, it’s not hard to hit that delete button and remove all photos, videos, and floor plans.

Now to spend time answering phone calls, responding to emails, and showing the house.

Virtual Tours and Virtual Walkthrough (Continued from Previous)

... Continued.

Virtual Tours are another great way to show off the house.  And you don’t need anything super fancy other than your camera, a tripod, and the standard video editing software on your computer.

In each room, put your camera on the tripod.  Then, while recording video and being slow, steady and smooth in your motions, turn your camera 360 degrees.  This will give the impression of standing in the middle of the room and looking around.

Then, put together a 5-10 minute video as if you where giving someone a tour of the home.  Videos longer than 5-10 minutes take too long to download and won’t keep a prospective tenant occupied.

Don’t put any speech in the video as sometimes the spoken word can be mis-heard or misinterpreted.  Instead, put plain simple easy to read text at the bottom of the image or clip.  Also some nice happy music playing in the background at low volume makes these videos easier to watch.  Choose something upbeat, but NOT repetitive or elevator music or super current like the latest pop song.  Something that will appeal to as many demographics as possible.

YouTube tends to be the best site to use to show off the video. It's easy to upload and the site will automatically adjust the video to whatever device (such as computers, cell phones, tablets) the prospective tenant is using.

A Virtual Walkthrough is also a great tool.   It allows the prospective tenant or prospective buyer look at each room online at their own speed as if they where at the home doing their own walkthrough.  They can zoom in and out to see each detail and then move to the next room when they are ready.

The drawback of a Walkthough over a Tour is this.  One, you need a special (and costly) one-shot 360 camera lens and software that can do 360 degree still images to create it.  The cheaper 360 video images tend to be jumpy and annoying to the end user.  Plus, many end users don’t realize that it is a 360 video and just watch it as a regular video.  And two, is that some clientele may have trouble figuring out how to navigate through the rooms.

Having said all this, a Virtual Walkthrough really is a terrific addition to the tour.  The best system I have found to create a walkthrough this is the 0-360 system.

If you are advertising a lot of homes, the price may be worth it.  If only one or two, it may be better to stick with the standard photos and tour.

To Be Continued...

Taking Advertising Photos (Continued from Previous)

... Continued.

There is no such thing as too many photos.  Take at least two of each room.  Take one photo from each diagonal corner so that they can see the room in its entirety.   

When taking the photos, be very careful to take a photo of the room, not the furniture.  This is a common mistake and it drives me nuts when I see people doing it.  You’re advertising the room, not the furniture.  If the furniture comes with the house, take a separate photo of each furniture piece separate from the room photos.

For example, in a bedroom where the bed dominates the room, take a photo of the room itself putting the bed off center of the photo so that the prospective tenant sees the floor or ceiling fan.  You may need to put the camera on a tripod and raise it over your head to do this.  If more photos are required, so be it.  It's not like you have to pay to get them developed.

Also, try to take photos with any window coverings open.  This will allow prospective tenants to see the view outside each window to they can make a decision if this is acceptable to them before even making an appointment.  And if there is a curtain over the bath tub or shower, open it.  That way they can see inside the wash area and they know you’re not trying to hide anything.  While you’re at it, take a photo of inside the shower or tub to show how clean it is and hopefully they will keep it that way.

Make sure the photos are current.  Nobody likes to see photos of something taken years ago.  They want to move in now, not then.  If there is still a tenant living in the home and you absolutely have to use photos taken years ago, make sure the viewer knows that these are old photos and that new photos will be taken as soon as the home is ready to show.

To Be Continued...