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AGENTS! Stop Telling Me Your Rental Prospect Would be GREAT Tenants!

By
Property Manager with Gibson Management Group, Ltd.

Unless your prospects have rented from you for 5 years, never had a complaint AND paid their rent on time....you probably can not make the statement that your rental prospects would be GREAT TENANTS!

A few months ago, I received a phone call from a local real estate agent who thought that the couple that his friend referred to him to find them a rental would be the PERFECT tenants for a country property I manage....he never MET them; he only KNEW of them from his friend; he did not know why they were having to MOVE; AND he did not know that I had already passed on them....HE HAD NEVER TALKED TO THEM...he had only HEARD about them.

....so when he tried to get me to show them the house I had available...I told him to have them call me directly.  He wanted to stay involved in the process so I called them and told them to stop him from calling me.

 

Unbenownst to him....I KNEW the backstory on WHY this prospects were having to move.....they departed their rental home for the Christmas holidays, turned off the heat for TWO WEEKS, and the plumbing burst...so when they came home....their house was flooded, there was mold everywhere and their California landlord was having to deal with the issue long distance.

Had I been a DIY landlord and relied on this agent's assertion that these prospects were GREAT TENANTS and they proved to be less than TENANT 10s, I suspect liability would fall back on the agent AND HIS BROKER. 

Posted by

Wallace S. Gibson is a Certified Property Manager with over 50 years of property management experience and expertise.  She maintains a specialized property management business in Central Virginia serving Albemarle, Greene, Fluvanna and Louisa counties  

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Comments(6)

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Kathy Streib
Cypress, TX
Retired Home Stager/Redesign

Hi Wallace- it would be nice if we could rent/refer because someone knows someone but nope, not going to work. 

Apr 20, 2014 10:59 AM
Wallace S. Gibson, CPM
Gibson Management Group, Ltd. - Charlottesville, VA
LandlordWhisperer

I ONLY want GREAT TENANTS for my owners' properties...when rental prospects BAD MOUTH their current landlord or provide evidence of their STUPIDITY in turning off the heat in freezing weather, then I am not going to deal with them.

I did NOT tell the agent who called me why they were needing a new rental home...that is not my job and I do not discuss rental prospects with agents anyway...however, when he KNEW I had already rejected them as potential renters, he should have STOPPED and thought that maybe I KNEW something that he did NOT.

 

Apr 20, 2014 09:34 PM
Wallace S. Gibson, CPM
Gibson Management Group, Ltd. - Charlottesville, VA
LandlordWhisperer

I understand agents want to be helpful with friends and referrals; however, getting some background information on the prospect would be in their best interest

Apr 20, 2014 11:54 PM
Roy Kelley
Retired - Gaithersburg, MD

This is a great story to share. Every agent should be very careful with comments when referring prospects.

Apr 21, 2014 12:19 AM
Gene Riemenschneider
Home Point Real Estate - Brentwood, CA
Turning Houses into Homes

You are right to do your own research.  Not sure if they were in CA, but I would have had no clue about having to leave the heat on.  It is not an issue around here.

Apr 21, 2014 03:18 AM
Wallace S. Gibson, CPM
Gibson Management Group, Ltd. - Charlottesville, VA
LandlordWhisperer

BIG issue is many areas of CA - like Tahoe and mountain areas....turning the heat off at Christmas for 2 weeks was STUPID

Apr 21, 2014 03:27 AM