MTR lease with a corporation

Medium-Term Rentals
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MTR lease with a corporation

Nick ZupecPro Member
Investor · Saint Joseph, MI · Member since 2022 · 31 posts · 44 votes

Hi MTR community,

We regularly work with local companies to find MTR tenants, but up until now the tenant has always signed the lease, received a per diem, and paid us directly. This is the first time that the corporation wants to sign with us directly. This particular time will be a 6 month lease with a single tenant over that time. What do you do differently in this situation? Specifically:

1. Do you still use an application? This is a large established corporation so I'm not concerned, and most of my application questions wouldn't make sense. However, I'm big on systems and processes so it makes me uncomfortable to change things up and not do an application!

2. How do you confirm that the person at the corporation is authorized to sign a lease on the company's behalf? Do they usually provide an authorization form? I don't want to sound like this is my first time doing this when I ask.

3. Do you still background check the tenant? The credit check is likely pointless if the corporation is paying the rent, but it is an apartment building so I feel like everyone in the building should have gone through the background check.

4. Who actually signs the lease? My initial thought was that the tenant would sign the lease with the corporation signing a lease guarantor agreement. If the agent of the corporation signs the lease, do you have the actual tenant as an additional party on the lease?

Anything else that you do differently that I'm missing? Thanks so much for thoughts on any of these items!

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Drew SygitBusiness Member
Property Manager · Royal Oak, MI · Member since 2012 · 12k+ posts · 9k+ votes
1y

@Nick Zupec didn't see your previous post.

1) May need abbreviated application for corporate billing address, signer info

2) You do need something! 
- What happens if you have to sue the company?

3) Why? The company assumes 100% of the actions for any & all occupants - if your lease is written well.

4) Company would sign the lease.

We really LIKE it when tenant/guest attorneys review our lease!
- We look at as free legal advice to make our lease better:)

[email protected]248-209-6824
Logical Property Management4.9450 Reviews
WebsiteView Page
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  • Nick ZupecPro Member
    OP
    Investor · Saint Joseph, MI · Member since 2022 · 31 posts · 44 votes
    1y

    Since this post didn't get any replies, I'm going to reply with what I ended up doing incase it helps anyone else later. I'm not saying this is the only way or even the right way since I've never done this before, but it seemed to work out ok (so far).

    1. I did not use an application. We went straight to the lease.

    2. The person signing the lease provided me with a "Resolution of Corporate Authority". It was a notarized document listing the people authorized to sign on behalf of the company.

    3. I did still background check the tenant, but I did not do a credit check.

    4. The corporation did sign the lease. The tenant moves in next week and I will be doing a unit walkthrough and orientation with him where I will go through the key parts of the lease since he didn't sign it.

    A couple other things that are different from typical MTR stays:

    - They are not using my property management software (RentRedi) to pay rent. They had me fill out a Vendor Information Form with my ACH information. I am sending rent invoices and they are directly depositing the rent from their checking account to mine.

    - They had their corporate counsel review the lease and request a few changes. If you have an attorney, I highly recommend having them review any proposed changes and communicate directly back to the corporate attorney if they have any concerns. They only requested a couple changes and one of them we pushed back on and found a middle ground.

    - I communicated with a lot of different people throughout the process. The office administrator did the initial due diligence, the corporate counsel reviewed the lease, the accounts payable coordinator setup the accounts and sent the security deposit, one of the VPs signed the lease, and only after all of that occurred did I get the name and contact information of the tenant.

    - Now I am in their system as a Vendor/Subcontractor. I am going to do everything that I can to make the stay go as smooth as possible so that they continue to use me in the future for other employees doing projects in our area. 

    3Reply
    • Eric Mensah
      Member since 2025 · 3 posts · 0 votes
      10mo
      Quote from @Nick Zupec:

      Since this post didn't get any replies, I'm going to reply with what I ended up doing incase it helps anyone else later. I'm not saying this is the only way or even the right way since I've never done this before, but it seemed to work out ok (so far).

      1. I did not use an application. We went straight to the lease.

      2. The person signing the lease provided me with a "Resolution of Corporate Authority". It was a notarized document listing the people authorized to sign on behalf of the company.

      3. I did still background check the tenant, but I did not do a credit check.

      4. The corporation did sign the lease. The tenant moves in next week and I will be doing a unit walkthrough and orientation with him where I will go through the key parts of the lease since he didn't sign it.

      A couple other things that are different from typical MTR stays:

      - They are not using my property management software (RentRedi) to pay rent. They had me fill out a Vendor Information Form with my ACH information. I am sending rent invoices and they are directly depositing the rent from their checking account to mine.

      - They had their corporate counsel review the lease and request a few changes. If you have an attorney, I highly recommend having them review any proposed changes and communicate directly back to the corporate attorney if they have any concerns. They only requested a couple changes and one of them we pushed back on and found a middle ground.

      - I communicated with a lot of different people throughout the process. The office administrator did the initial due diligence, the corporate counsel reviewed the lease, the accounts payable coordinator setup the accounts and sent the security deposit, one of the VPs signed the lease, and only after all of that occurred did I get the name and contact information of the tenant.

      - Now I am in their system as a Vendor/Subcontractor. I am going to do everything that I can to make the stay go as smooth as possible so that they continue to use me in the future for other employees doing projects in our area. 

      This was helpful. Any update on this ? 
      0Reply
  • Miguel Del MazoPro Member
    Northeast Georgia · Member since 2023 · 140 posts · 170 votes
    1y

    Sorry to miss this when it was first posted.

    This type of lease is, by far, my favorite. Business to business is generally the highest paying avatar for us while also being the most professional. Yes, there are more steps to go through (often including sending in a W-9 tax form), but those steps are usually pretty straightforward.

    Additionally, most of the folks tasked with finding the housing for the company's VIPs are really appreciative of being treated well by a good property manager, so you can stand above the crowd by simply responding quickly and respectfully. After a good experience with you, who do you think they'll call next time?

    The stays at your property are mid-term, but for repeat business, you want to cultivate long-term relationships.

    It sounds like you are well on your way to doing that. Way to go.

    1Reply
  • Drew SygitBusiness Member
    Property Manager · Royal Oak, MI · Member since 2012 · 12k+ posts · 9k+ votes
    1y

    @Nick Zupec didn't see your previous post.

    1) May need abbreviated application for corporate billing address, signer info

    2) You do need something! 
    - What happens if you have to sue the company?

    3) Why? The company assumes 100% of the actions for any & all occupants - if your lease is written well.

    4) Company would sign the lease.

    We really LIKE it when tenant/guest attorneys review our lease!
    - We look at as free legal advice to make our lease better:)

    [email protected]248-209-6824
    Logical Property Management4.9450 Reviews
    WebsiteView Page
    3Reply
  • Priti Ag
    Member since 2024 · 13 posts · 4 votes
    1y

    Hello Nick, 

    I am starting to explore the MTR space, and would like to position my property in the Bay Area to large tech companies. Can you please help me understand the following:

    1. You said in your original post you targeted local companies but a large corporation reached out to you directly to sign a lease. Were these local companies property management companies that work with large corporations? How did the corporation end up reaching out to you directly?

    2. What is the profile of this tenant for 6 months that the corporation is placing in your rental? Are they an executive, an employee on 6-month business travel, etc.? Is your rental furnished or unfurnished? I am assuming you got a better monthly rate with this direct deal?

    Thanks,
    Priti

    0Reply
  • Nick ZupecPro Member
    OP
    Investor · Saint Joseph, MI · Member since 2022 · 31 posts · 44 votes
    1y

    Thanks everyone for the comments and tips, very helpful!

    @Priti Ag, this particular company is an infrastructure company that is headquartered a few hours from our town so it is not a company that I targeted previously. The tenant is a civil/construction engineer. They had the engineer look through the usual listing platforms (we use Zillow, apartments.com, Furnished Finder, and Airbnb) and let them know which properties they were most interested in. Then the office manager of that company outreached to me directly through that platform (in this case apartments.com). The unit is furnished and stocked and parking and all utilities are included. I got the same rate that I would get on any direct booking since they could see the listed price online. This is still preferable to platforms like Airbnb where there may be more fees depending on how much of the fees you pass through to the tenant via your pricing.

    We manage our own properties so when we reached out to local companies, it was to the companies directly (not property management companies). With larger companies, it can be hard to get to the right person. When we end up getting a traveling worker from one of those companies, we always ask them who their contact is. Then at the end of the stay, we reach out to that contact directly and let them know that we had a great experience with their employee and that we would love to either work with them directly or be a preferred housing provider for them in the future. Good luck!

    1Reply
  • Gregory SchwartzBusiness Member
    Rental Property Investor · College Station, TX · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    1y

    Great post! Thanks for sharing @Nick Zupec. We've been in the MTR space for about a year and have yet to expand beyond Airbnb to fill our units. This motivates me to start talking to corporate tenants! 

    [email protected]443-812-0357
    Schwartz Realty Group5116 Reviews
    WebsiteView Page
    1Reply
  • Nick ZupecPro Member
    OP
    Investor · Saint Joseph, MI · Member since 2022 · 31 posts · 44 votes
    1y
    Quote from @Gregory Schwartz:

    Great post! Thanks for sharing @Nick Zupec. We've been in the MTR space for about a year and have yet to expand beyond Airbnb to fill our units. This motivates me to start talking to corporate tenants! 

    Thanks @Gregory Schwartz. That's awesome, glad to hear it! Let me know if I can help at all and good luck.

    0Reply
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