Tenant Screening - Level of Involvement after Hiring a Property Manager

[Nir]

Hi,

For those who hired a PM to manage their property, what is your level of involvement when deciding whether or not to accept
a potential tenant who viewed your apartment and applied?

Does the property manager do everything for you OR do you still want to see the tenant’s credit report?
Do you call the previous landlord or just let the PM do that and check the tenant history for you?

THANKS.

 

[housingrental]

Most owners either do nothing and leave it to PM or ask for manager recommendations and info before giving approval of acceptance.

If you feel the need for a more involved role you should do this - but you might want to figure out if your life can be made easier if you:
Clarify what your expectations with PM
Ask for data from PM (on past landlord contact as above, or X) to review
Find a PM you have more confidence in

 

[invst4profit]

It should boil down to the level of trust you have in another individual to make decisions regarding your investment.
Some PMs care and some don`t regarding the screening of tenants.


What do you know about your PMs business management practices ?

 

[creditinfocanada]

In the cases of the Property Managers we screen for they are upfront to their clients about who they use to help them, if anything its a selling tool.

Be a little leary when dealing with P.M.`s not to say that there arent good ones out there but the screening aspect is the ball that gets everything going so make sure they have someone who has been in the industry for awhile, or use or out source your applicants to a company with experience in dealing with credit and references.

Chris Bradnam
Credit Info Canada

 

[Berubeland]

I think you should have a copy of every lease and application and ID for every tenant.

What if it doesn`t work out with your PM? You need duplicates.

Let me explain how property management works. Usually we are paid using a percentage of the rent. The less we go and mess with a property the more money we make per hour.

In fact we count on that just to break even. I manage houses here in Toronto and for one of them I get $96 per month. To put that in perspective a tank of gas is $70. So for the money I make I can`t be going over there all the time. Don`t get me wrong, I`m a damn good property manager and I do what I have to for my owners but holy crow I`m not an indentured servant either.

So you may eventually have to change PM`s like the last manager of the house didn`t rent it for over 8 months.

Eventually you`ll be glad you have duplicates of everything.

 

[Thomas Beyer]

QUOTE (investmart @ May 29 2010, 04:53 PM) Does the property manager do everything for you ?
yes

you monitor their performance and may give direction or opinion re rent level, marketing, upgrades or pet policies .. And you inspect property annually or quarterly if you live close.

 

[PropertySolution]

Ultimately, I believe each owner has to assess their own situation and the PM should not take offense or be surprised if the owner requests to be consulted. Not to mention that the PM should supply the owner with copies of the Lease, Move-in/out inspection, any addendum and the application.

 

[CarlaJohnson]

Good question.

For us, we prefer to be as hands-off as much as possible, but a close investor friend of ours is very involved in managing with his manager. He enjoys it. It depends on what kind of person you are and how you like your business to run. One isn`t better than the other. It`s a matter of knowing what kind of business person you are and when you are new to the business it takes a while to figure that out. Our friend hired his PM specifically because their styles compliment each other, as did we.

TIP! Make sure you see the invoice of any contracted workers - handymen, plumbers, electricians, etc. There are lots of tales of PM`s telling the investor the paint job cost $900 when it actually cost $700.

The best to you!

 

[Nir]

Thank You Everyone for the GREAT feedback!
Carla, "Make sure you see the invoice.." - an excellent tip/reminder for everyone.

Regards,
Neil

 

[VerticalProperties]

Good Advice Carla,

We are located in Winnipeg so the properties we manage are fairly easy to get to; Gas to and from isnt an issue typically...... We have that type of conversation up front so we know what expectations our clients have as far as how involved they want to be..... It is our job to protect and grow our clients investments and the foundation of that is managing the the tenant/landlord relationship properly..... Personally i think our clients should have duplicates and be updated to justify why we choose who we choose for tenancy; we do have many that do want a hands off approach from us however.

As Carla said it is a style issue for sure, but there is nothing worse than having a bad experience with a PM company b/c you blindly trusted that they have your best interest at heart only to find out all they were interested in was to collect your rent and take a management fee....

My advice is be involved as much as you can until the pm can prove to you that they are doing as much as possible to protect your investment, then take a hands off approach if you feel comfortable

Hope that helps

Cheers

Jake