We were approached by someone claiming to be from CRS Temporary Housing saying they are looking for temporary housing for a family insured by Nationwide Insurance while their house is repaired after a fire. They say Nationwide will be covering their rent deposit and fees and have offered about 30% more rent than we were asking if we give them a 6 month lease that then goes to month-to-month.
Has anyone had experience with this kind of temporary housing rental? Will Nationwide cover the rent if the tenant doesn't pay? If they sign a 6 month lease, will they leave after a month and leave us without the rent for the remainder of the lease? What pitfalls do we need to look out for?
We have one rental property, had one tenant for 17 years and are now looking for our second tenant and so are essentially new to the tenant identification/screening process.
Rental Property Investor · Member since 2020 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
6y
The tenant is most likely not going to be paying you it will be nationwide so the rent is basically guaranteed. These people frequently have problems finding housing for their clients and from hearing other stories their first offer is usually negotiable. I would still want to run a background check for criminal and then request an additional 45%. This puts the rental over at the end of February but the repair may go over schedule and you are getting more than enough extra per month to cover a bit of vacancy. I would personally take it but not for less than 40% over to compensate me for my extra turnover time.
Rental Property Investor · Houston, TX · Member since 2019 · 141 posts · 48 votes
1y
I just came across this post 5ys after .But I thought I will post my experience as I have worked with CRS on the above mentioned situation .I had my house for rent for 2000$ and CRS approached me with the same situation. They had someone whos house burned down and wanted temporary housing for 4 months and month to month after that .They said it is an insurance claim(Youngsters in Mid 20's) , and I can vet the tenants just like I vet normal renters and decide after that .The contract will be directly with the tenants but the rent will be coming from CRS .Crs was offering me 2X the listed rent which was tempting .I signed up with them, Rents came in as they mentioned ,They ended up staying on the property for 8 months .CRS would deposit the rent every month on the 1st .CRS will send you W9 form to fill out as they will report all the rent payments to IRS for tax purposes. At the end of the lease it was a pleasant expericene.The tenants did not damage the property visually ,so I returned the entire security deposit .The night mare started 1.5 yrs after the CRS tenants vacated . Right after the contract with CRS ended I got a long term lease signed for 3 yrs (Husb wife and toddler) Fast foward 1.5 yrs from the contract ended with CRS, signs of waterbacking up here are there started .At first it was backing up in the sinks ,then it started bubbling in commodes when commodes are flushed .We would do a plunger and it took care of it .One day the entire standing shower and tub shower backed up with poop.Now it was serious so we did a professional sewer scope and found feminine products clogging up the main sewer line .It was an expensive 11k repair .Had to dig up the main line in back yard and cut out a section as homedepot professional grade snake was not able to clear the line .Once the section of sewer line was cut it was found as tampon clog.The tampons were identified by the plumbing company to be 1 +yrs old .I contacted CRS about this and they denied and refused to make a damage payment .I had to eat it up. Basically any profit i made was washed down the line and incurred 4k loss on top of that .