www.RD-House.com 206-728-6063 Seattle,WA
https://plus.google.com/b/115909886396243063430/+RDHouseRealEstatePropertyManagementSeattle/posts
Link up to our circles googlePlus
If you’ve never heard of Jessica Carde, consider yourself lucky. She’s the now-infamous “nightmare tenant” who was the subject of a Seattle Times article last fall, who, although apparently near penniless, preyed on homeowners by finding high-end homes for lease, giving the owners a heart wrenching story about her circumstances to convince them to rent to her, then moving in and then never paying rent. Even when faced with eviction attempts she contorted the process as far as possible and in many cases threw up retaliatory and criminal accusations against the owners. For 15 years she did this to one owner after another- some of whom lost their homes to foreclosure or went bankrupt as a result.
This is obviously an extremely rare and extreme abuse of the system, but I think it raises a broader point about operating rental property. How did owners vet or approve her as a tenant? How much did they rely on just personal impressions? Couldn’t a simple credit, background or reference check have raised flags for them? It’s likely they were in a bind, believed it was an opportunity, and believed her stories. I’m not blaming the victims here, don’t get me wrong- she was cunning and knew how to target the vulnerable. It’s the best part of our human nature to believe the believable and give the benefit of the doubt whenever we can.
But as a rental property owner, you need to create objective rules for operating your property, and the story of Ms Carde got me thinking about examples where owners created problems for themselves by not doing so. Like the property owner who delayed action against a tenant who was 60 days past due on rents, because “he’s a nice guy, just going through tough times”, or the owner who rented to a tenant who didn’t qualify because “she seems ok, she’s probably just starting out and needs some help”. These are human responses- empathy is generally a good character trait. But here’s the rub- it’s a fine line when the situation is a business matter. And property that you own and for which you have significant financial obligations is a business matter. Look at it from another perspective- if you operated, say, a gym, and a certain segment of your members were late paying their dues, you’d probably have a process to enforce with them. A payment reminder, followed by a warning letter, followed by suspension of access until payment was brought current. Because as a business, you know you can’t keep the lights on and the doors open if customers don’t pay for the services they consume. There’s a big personal element that’s essential to being successful, but at the end of the day, business is business. You have to view owning and renting property the same way.
That’s why as property managers, we develop and enforce standard business practices- like screening all applicants before approving one and offering a lease; setting firm payment due dates and strict late payment consequences and – in rare cases- eviction policies. In our business, these have to be clear, enforced consistently, and not diluted with emotion or apprehension. Doing this sets the right boundaries and expectations for everyone- tenants and landlords. Once these standards are established, personal aspects of the relationship can flourish. For example, we make it a point for everyone in the office to know our tenants by first name, and we send them birthday cards. Believe me, it’s much more gratifying to send birthday wishes than late letters.
RD House is a Seattle property management company that specializes in residential homes and small apartment buildings in the Seattle metro area, with fees starting at 5%. We work smarter to be a team you can trust to manage all the aspects of your real estate property management the right way, and our mission is simply to provide better results with residential, multifamily, and association property management. We call it Simply Better Property Management!
Comments(0)