House Hack: Advertise stating owner will be living next door?

Question

I am close to advertising my rental unit through Zillow. I plan to have tenants pay for the app fee and screen through Zillow as well.

Should I note that the owners will be living next door? I’m trying to think if I were in the tenant’s shoes and would not want them to waste their app fee if they are interested in living next door to their landlord?

I was originally going to inform the most qualified candidate after the fact, but I’m trying to be considerate of potential applicants. Any thoughts?

Chase Busick · Answer

@Brian S. congrats!🎈🎉

This is definitely a situation that will be best handled on however you want to do it & what you are most comfortable with. But I’ll explain more below.

For leasing I have done apartments.com, then marketed it via their website (synchs to other websites, they pay for screening/application fees which is good for 30ish days so they can apply to others on website if you don’t go with them, their payments are reported to credit bureaus) then used Facebook marketplace & usually get a lot of attraction. Have also used the MLS & furnishedfinder.com (for furnished more places). Have friends & coworkers that use Zillow, appfolio, buidium, tenantcloud, etc.

Now if you are doing the leasing & property management & are the point of contact, are going to be doing the showings, and they meet you, they’ll most likely know or figure out you’re the owner. I wouldn’t mention it in the description, I’d just inform them in person if they apply.

Another option would be to hire someone to lease the home &/or manage that way you can remain more on the DL & just act as another tenant if you’re more worried about privacy & asset protection. Also depending on if you want to manage based on your job. More of a hands off option that way they don’t know you depending on area & class of future prospective tenants.

Overall either option is good, if you do it, be responsive, communicable, a good person & keep good records of everything. You’ll definitely learn a lot through the process!

Drew Sygit · Answer

@Brian S.

You are assuming that every tenant will be an "angel" and a joy to deal with.

What about these possible scenarios:

1) Applicants start knocking on your door, confronting you about their application. What will they do if you deny their application or accept anothers?

2) Tenant pays rent late, but then doesn't want to pay the late fee. Decides to knock on your door to "discuss" with you.

3) Tenant loses their job, so can't pay rent, forcing you to start eviction. How comfortable are you going to be living next door to them during this process?

Many on this site will post that they recommend be transparent and disclosing you are the landlord to a tenant.

We believe they are mistaken because they've never had an angry tenant bring ther biker gang over to their personal residence to confront the landlord's family (wife & children) about an ongoing eviction.

The potential negative consequences of a tenant knowing you are their landlord, so they can find you, are too great in our opinion - and far exceed any potential positives.

Conn G. · Answer

You're always going to get mixed opinions on this subject. The tenant can easily see that your personal name is on the tax records. Just be honest and upfront if they do ask.

Dean V. · Answer

Hey Brian!  Great to hear you're doing your due diligence and going through some good tenant screening, that's so important and makes a huge difference in getting the right tenants and avoiding issues down the road, so kudos!For me personally, I've always taken the "honesty is the best policy"...policy for all of my househacks, and have been super up-front that I am the owner and will be living in the same home/unit next door (depending on how your househack is set up).  I find that it not only sets expectations so that no one is surprised/disappointed/angry if they end up finding out later (which they likely will), and it also saves you the hassle and wasted time of weeding out anyone who has an issue with this (probably a good thing, if they're good tenants they most likely won't care if the owner/landlord is living there too, as long as you're cool ;-) haha).

I do know that some folks try to distance themselves and not let their roommates/tenants know that they're the landlord or owner, even so far as having someone else act as property manager for them.  I totally get this, as it can be a fine line and some tenants may end up bugging you constantly asking to fix things or whatever if they know you're the owner and you're right there and accessible.  For that reason I think it's very important to have good systems and boundaries in place right from the get-go in order to mitigate this if they do know (or find out) that you're the owner.Cheers,Dean

House Hack: Advertise stating owner will be living next door?

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