One of the most crucial aspects of managing a successful real estate investment is finding the right tenants. Let’s face it; bad tenants can be the downfall of your enterprise. Late payments, poor social behavior, criminal tendencies and property damage are among the risks you take every time you enter into a lease agreement with a new tenant. For this reason, many landlords have endeavored to find better tenants with professional tenant placement services.
It is very difficult to overrate experience when it comes to processing applications and conducting background checks. Something of an art, it’s more about reading between the lines than it is reading what’s on the lines. The act of acquiring all of the data you’ll need to consider can be a time-consuming undertaking all on its own, particularly when you’re just starting out. After all, you’ll need to develop relationships with all of the pertinent sources. Since this is all they do, a good tenant placement service already has all of those associations in place, so they get information quickly and more efficiently.
Of course, before you can even conduct a background check you’ll need to attract applicants. In this regard, an advanced property management company’s tenant placement service like Onerent’s has another decided advantage. With multiple channels of advertising already in play, your listings are placed in front of hundreds of thousands of people in a single motion. Further, these companies have the experience and expertise to know which venues are best suited to the nature of your property. As a result, your ads reach people who are more likely to be specifically interested in your offerings.
Once you have a pool of applicants, properly vetting them includes in-person interviews. Here, it can be tough to avoid becoming emotionally involved in what should be a fact-based decision process. Many a substandard tenant has talked their way into a landlord’s heart and convinced them to overlook obvious red flags. This is much less likely to occur with a tenant placement professional. After all, the integrity of their company is on the line. Further, many of the best tenant placement services will take financial responsibility for the individuals they place on your property. For them, it’s a calculated business decision; their emotions are checked at the door. Like the old-time TV detective Joe Friday, they’re interested in “just the facts.”
Then, there’s the lease agreement. It is absolutely amazing how the most powerful instrument of protection a landlord has is so often looked upon as a boilerplate document. A solid lease agreement protects you against all manner of mayhem a malicious tenant could rain down upon you. Because the legal aspects of a lease agreement can be somewhat confusing, it is advantageous to have a more thoroughly experienced organization on your side to ensure all of your vulnerabilities are defended.
To do this properly, one must have working experience with all of the housing codes and statutes in your area. If you have time to keep up with all of this on an ongoing basis, more power to you. However, most landlords have so many other concerns, they tend to just rely upon the same lease agreement over and over again—even as the regulatory environment changes annually.
Clearly, it is easier to find better tenants with professional tenant placement. Outsourcing this function provides another layer of protection for your assets, saves you time and frees you to concentrate on managing other important aspects of your real estate portfolio.
