Having been in Real Estate for 13 years and a Broker for 10 it never ceases to amaze me the things I continue to learn. You think you know it all and then BAM something so simple yet so effective blast into my head. It's like I had an awakening. I feel like dancing!!!!
As some of you may know, from reading my posts, TLW and I own some rental properties. Recently, I have had a couple of vacancies and had been hesitant about placing a "for rent" sign on them because of all the calls I get from unqualified renters. Because of this hesitancy, the units have been empty since November. How sad is that? I would rather make the mortgage payments than weed through all the calls. Plus the fact I just had to spend $13,000 rehabbing one of my houses after the last tenant moved out. I guess I have been suffering from landlord shock. I bought my first rental almost 30 years ago so you would think I would have a handle on this stuff.
One of the things I have been doing wrong is trying to keep my personal investments separate from my Real Estate business. When I needed to rent a unit I would do like any other unrepresented landlord and make a "for rent" sign and stick it in the yard. We also took it a step further and placed all the financial requirements on the front door. Well this didn't work. I would still get calls from people wanting to rent the place who had serious credit issues, no jobs, couldn't communicate with me or whatever. They figured they could just convince me to rent to them even though they weren't qualified.
Well, this time around, I didn't feel like making signs and preparing a financial sheet so I just stuck my companies sign in the yard with a "for rent" rider. Eureka!!! I started getting calls from qualified renters that were already expecting me to pull credit and knew they were going to be asked for 2 months rent plus a deposit. Now this is excellent!! The difference is, these folks knew they would be dealing with a Real Estate company so didn't even call if they had credit issues.
How could I have rented my own properties for so many years and not figured this out? What a difference a sign makes. My sign was prequalifying renters for me.
Does this same thing apply to "For Sale by Owner" properties, as well? I think so. Buyers that have been told they don't qualify shop FSBOs. They think they can convince as Seller to sell them their property and miraculously their credit problems will be overlooked. Unqualified Buyers and Renters do not want to deal with a REALTOR®.
So now that I have seen the light, I have a renewed enthusiasm about getting my vacancies filled. Heck I may go buy some more. What an idiot I have been. Will someone please thump me in the head?
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