Ever had a tenant you've never met?

Question

I'm curious to know if anyone else has ever had a tenant they've never met (or their PM has never met, if applicable). I have one; a younger girl who didn't have the credit to rent, but her father did and co-signed and paid for everything. They were from out of town and just happened to drive by my place while looking at other units. I was able to verify background checks and license info, and they have done everything right so far, but I have never actually met the tenant. They had to move in a day I had to be out of town, so I left the keys for them. Someone else saw the tenant, and it was the person in the DL, but I never have.

Anyway, I'm curious to know if anyone else has experienced this? I had someone tell me this is not uncommon with students (she is student age) but it feels odd to me. I am not in the habit of just going and knocking on my renter's doors to say "Hello", but almost feel an urge to in this case.

Michael Boyer · Answer

Can't say I ever had a complete mystery tenant (I have had an unauthorized occupant or two that I turned into a tenant, like the move in boyfriend/girlfriend). But I am pretty hands on.

Speaking of which, you want to know what your tenant looks like for all sorts of reasons, from simply knowing if you have an unauthorized person there to safety.

Maybe look at your onboarding and paperwork process some to give you a chance to touch base with all your tenants, or personally, right now I would come up with something as a reason to stop by, be it an extra copy of the lease (which you wanted to make sure she got), a welcome gift card, or a tenant welcome/reminder letter, a copy of policies and  rules or something..

Make dropping this off a pretense to seeing who it is, and, well, may as well meet them while you are there (just dropping in may spell creepy) but legit landlord documents--all good there. Even make sure you have the contacts and can even let them know you will come by... Best of luck and interesting scenario...

Christopher Brainard · Answer

No.

I find that I get my best information about a tenant when I just talk with them informally. Credit and Background checks are essential, but they can't show you the type of personality a person has and caution you to any potential hiccups you may experience. I recently had someone come into the office looking to rent, but clearly was high as a kite. If I didn't meet that person and his background check was OK, I could have mistakenly rented to him and that's not the type of problems I want to have in my unit.

-Christopher

Michaela G. · Answer

I am in another state and a friend shows my properties to prospective tenants, so, I haven't met most of them.

Especially with younger people - I look for their FB profile, which tells me a lot and helps me make my decision.

I remember this sister wanting to help her little brother find his first own place. First time she looked at it. 2nd time she brought her brother, but she did all the talking. I found his FB profile, which showed him with his homies and guns and other stuff and, well, I didn't rent to him. ;-)

Brock Adams · Answer

Hey Mike,

Sounds like it work out great for you.  Hope they turn out to be good tenants and represent our wonderful state as well.  I have had a similar experiences in the past however most out of town tenants today will spend more time vetting the properties since some prospective tenants have been burned and some landlords too.  Good communication is the key and plenty of transparency throughout the process.

Mike H. · Answer

I'm pretty sure that if you're using a PM but saying you never met a tenant is not the same thing. What a bunch of cheaters. :-)

But actually I have rented a house to someone sight unseen before.

It was during this past spring/summer. I bought a really nice house (3/2,5, 1900 sq ft, built in 2002) and the rehab was already done when I bought it (by homepath) other than the roof leak that came up and the damage from it  - which is how I was able to get it. But the thing looked great in the pics.

Had someone that was being transferred for their job from south carolina or somewhere. They called. Set up a showing for their manager to come take a look and take video and pics. They sent me the application via email. They paid  the hold deposit via my online payment service.

Then a week before they were supposed to move in, they sent the rest of the sec deposit plus the first month's rent and we emailed the lease back and forth to get it signed.

The reason we did that was because I was going to be on vacation during the week they were moving up. So I needed to collect the money and get the lease signed before I would let them move in.

I stuck a lockbox on the house and gave them the code. Oddly enough, I was in nashvilled at cmafest when I got a text from her that she forgot the code. Had two moving trucks waiting for me to respond.  Luckily I was paying enough attention to get back to them in a reasonable amount of time or they would have been there awhile.

So there was the one example of a tenant that I rented to having never met. They pay like clockwork and the house is getting pretty good rent so that was definitely a win for me.

Ndy Onyido · Answer

Well, I have never met any of m tenants and I have no plans of meeting them.

I am an out of state investor and even when I do visit the location, am not interested in seeing any of them: my PM handles all that and gives me an awesome service....

Bill Florence · Answer

Hello JD

Well yes and a lot. It can also happen when purchasing properties with renters in place but I have had college students have their parents co-sign the leases too. In those instances I perform due diligence on everyone since multiple parties are involved and possibly remote. I perform preliminary background checks including social media searches on all new prospective tenants and lease signees'. Also personally speaking, I would never arrive unannounced to check on a tenant. However I would sure make a call or arrange a meeting, especially if it looked like the lease terms were being violated.

Best

Joe Ellis · Answer

@Michaela G. That is a great idea checking possible tenant's facebook profiles!

JD Martin · Answer

OK, so this doesn't make me feel as crazy now :)

Justin B. · Answer

I personally have never met a single tenant and I've had 15-20 of them.  I use PM's for my properties so I'm assuming they've met them :)

Ever had a tenant you've never met?

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