How to handle out of state prospective tenants?

Question

How do you handle people calling about a rental when they live out of area? They seem to want to apply and secure a rental before they move, and won't be visiting the area to check out rentals prior to moving. I'm leery of renting to someone that neither I nor my realtor has met in person, and who hasn't seen the rental house in person. After all, I've had lots of times where someone is all excited about a rental when they call, then they see the home in person and decide they don't like it. And then how would I handle verifying their identity and all that prior to signing a lease?

What do other landlords do?

Steve Rozenberg · Answer

In Texas we do get many people from out of state that want to rent sight unseen, we do not allow them to rent unless they or someone they know or a lisc agent look at the property. Even though you may lose that prospect. Our scenario happened many times that they wanted it, secured it with deposit, only to find when the got to town it was not near where they worked or "thought" it was. Either case, whether we are right or wrong and get to keep the deposit it is added headache and time consuming just to deal with the problem.

I guess the question is can you rent the property with local people or is this the only people interested in your home? if that is the case then you may not have any other options, If so then you may want to do a virtual tour and send local neighborhood specifics and distance locations to where they are planning to work etc.. jut to take all the variables out of the equation

Account Closed · Answer

I rented to tenants sight unseen in Silicon Valley.  These tenants, for me, were techies or students moving for jobs or school.

I'd just run everything the same way.  Check everything. Verify employment by googling and calling the company HR department, etc.  If you're comfortable with normal screening, you should be fine.

Also, we only ever did month to month agreements, which minimizes your risk, too.  If things don't work out, you can just give 30 days notice.

In case you don't have it, I highly recommend this book. It also includes all the forms you'd need and contracts. I used their contract instead of the one I could have used with the apartment association. I have no affiliation.

http://store.nolo.com/products/the-california-land...