Landlord Shmandlord

When a potential tenant calls, there are several things I do to avoid wasting time. When they first call, they expect the landlord to lead the conversation. I usually start by describing the important details about the property. Make sure you include:

• Location
• Number of bedrooms
• Monthly price, and what’s included. Water, sewer, heat/oil?
• Required amount when they sign the lease. Security deposit? First/last month’s rent?
• Parking situation: Is there a garage? Offstreet parking?
• Date it will be available
• Are pets allowed?
• Requirements: credit check, background check, verifiable job?

The point of the description is to make sure the tenant knows what you’re offering. Very often something in the list will turn them away and this is the end.

Next, they usually either have some additional questions about the property, which you should answer, or they’ll ask to see the place. Before setting up a time to show it, there are a few questions you should ask:

1. Who will be moving in?Make sure that the apartment is an appropriate size for the number of potential tenants.
2. Do you have any pets? What type?Maybe you allow pets, but you don’t allow elephants.
3. When are you looking to move in? What type of lease are you looking for?This is good because often people are not planning to move for longer than you’re willing to wait? Also, the other day this question saved me because a guy wanted to see the place, but it turned out that he was only looking for a three month lease, which I was not interested in.
4. Do you have good credit? Do you have a job? What do you do?These things are important. Are you going to verify that they really have the job?

Now if they made it this far, it’s time to show the property. If you make the appointment a few days out, it is good to call them the morning of to make sure they are still interested (and that they remember).

At the showing, if they are interested and I like them, I usually have them fill out an application and give an application fee. Optionally, you can offer to apply the application fee to the first month’s rent if they’re accepted. The fee pays for the credit and background checks (which are now a mandatory part of the process). Also, the application fee commits them until you sign the actual lease.

Obviously the renovations were not finished in time to rent the unit out by October 1st, but they will be done soon. When I know the final price tag I will find the old tenants and bring them to court. Of course, the first problem is finding where they are. I have their rental application, which has SS numbers, drivers licenses, and contact numbers. Also, a check just arrived for them from County Special Services. I obviously haven’t opened it, but just received the OK from my lawyer to contact them to see if it was accidentally sent it to the wrong address, and if so, what was the correct address?

I’ve wanted to wait until I have all the renovation figures required before I go after them, because once I find them things are going to unfold rather quickly, and I want to be able to take them to court right away.