Dear Diary.....
I thought I would take a little time to share my recent experience I had with our local property management companies. Having a background in property management prepared me a little, but it did not prepare me for how all the local companies conduct business. I am frustrated, worn out and need to vent so here it goes....
PM Company #1 -Rules:
> You find a house either on their website or some form of advertisement that you think you would like to rent.
> The house is not available, so they request that you submit application and application fees prior to viewing the home so you can be “pre-approved”. So you waste 30, 40 , 50 bucks for them to run their tenant screening (credit, criminal, references, etc..). Your approved, great!!
> You now have to wait to view the home. After the walk-thru you find out this is not the place you want. Now you have to back to step #1. You have just lost your applications fees, because if you do not go back to the same property management within 30 days, you have to pay the fees again and some will have you pay the fees again anyways because it is their Policy!
PM Company #2-Rules
>Same as Company #1 EXCEPT if approved you pay Security Deposit to Hold, if the unit is not ready to view, to bad so sad for you! You don’t like the unit, well you just lost your Security Deposit too!
PM Company #3- Rules
>Accept applications without fees to hold your place in line for a unit until you are able to view. This is the option I prefer because I refuse, REFUSE, to pay someone money to process my application without seeing a unit first. I have no desire to have every property management company in our town pull my credit. And I don’t care what people say..... pictures are not enough! I have to physically go into a unit and really feel like it is the right one for me. It is not like buying a house where you can have a pre-approval and then shop with any broker/realtor.
PM Company #4-Rules
> Worse business practice ever, in my opinion of course. Property management company has an open house, and you bid, yep that is right, just like an auction with those little paddles w/ numbers! The person with the highest monthly rent bid gets the house! No Joke! And that is legal? Yikes!!
>Needless to say if you don’t don’t want to play the game you end up losing out on being first in line and maybe missing out on the house of your dreams! What should one do?
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Kathryn is a member of Rentec Direct who provides property management software and tenant screening services. Want to Learn More? Click Here
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