We had an owner that had a large, lovely, home. The problem was, they had the house stuffed full of their possessions. The "office" was piled literally to the ceiling with paper. The dining room, which normally seated eight, was occupied by a huge table and set for sixteen. The master bedroom was completely filled with furniture. Each and every nook and cranny of that house was filled.
Every prospective tenant we took through there couldn't get passed the owner's "stuff." "I don't understand," said the exasperated owner, "don't they know I can have all this stuff out of here in a couple of days with a moving company?"
"No, they don't," I replied. "Tenants aren't like buyers. They don't always have the ability to envision how a space could be. Besides, they don't really believe you could be out of here in a couple of days."
With that feedback the owner began to diligently and methodically extract their personalities from the home. Ultimately, within 1-week of the owner vacating the premises, the house was leased.
The owner in the foregoing story was definitely a "packrat." A close cousin to the packrat is the "furniture dealer." The furniture dealer works like this, "I'm going to go ahead and leave that armoire/hutch/dining table/whatever. It's really pretty/really expensive/really heavy/whatever and I'm certain the tenant is going to want it."
Then I say, "That's great Mr. Smith. But the next tenant probably has a dining room table. Maybe we can just move it now so that it won't be an issue later?"
"No," says Mr. Smith, "anybody would love that table. It's an antique."
"Well, okay Mr. Smith," I begrudgingly acquiesce. "But you'll move it if the tenant doesn't want it, right?"
"Oh, sure I will," responds Mr. Smith.
Fast forward to a scene of me and the tenant at move-in day calling Mr. Smith and asking him when he can get his table out of there. "I don't have any place to put that thing," says Mr. Smith. "Maybe the tenant wants to buy it?"
Property managers aren't furniture dealers. No one wants your crappy dining room table. Get that thing out of there so I can get that house of yours rented. I'm not Craigslist, and this isn't Let's Make a Deal.
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Scott Taylor is the principal property manager and co-owner of SCV Leasing in Santa Clarita, California. SCV Leasing serves Valencia, Stevenson Ranch, Newhall, Santa Clarita, Saugus, Canyon Country, Fair Oaks Ranch, Castaic, Sand Canyon, and Westridge with homes for rent, condos for rent, and property management services.
His experience as a rental property owner and as a property manager makes him the best choice for managing your rental. SCV Leasing's unsurpassed marketing plan puts renters in properties fast. Mr. Taylor can be reached at scott@scvleasing.com.
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