All Forum Posts by: Walt Dockery

Did you read the ultimate guides to screening and to renting your house stickied at the top of this forum?  They helped me out a lot as I wondered the same types of things you do.

My understanding is no, you do not have to waste your time "going through the motions" with someone who isn't a good fit.  Pushy people are not a protected class.

You may find you get so many inquiries that it's virtually impossible to follow up with all of them.  You can't be legally obligated to follow up with every person who leaves you a voicemail.  

For me I think it's less a function of time and more a matter of how much interest is coming in through other channels.  If I had few to no calls coming in from individuals w/o agents, sure I'd consider paying an agent who brought me someone.  But again in the age of zillow/craigslist, I just don't see that happening.  Agents don't have a monopoly on information, the listing is out there for anyone with an internet connection to see.  People who are interested in renting go online and see what's out there, even if they have an agent.  People drive by or jog or walk their dogs through the neighborhoods they are interested in and see signs.  Maybe there are certain markets where the majority of potential tenants go through agents but that does not appear to be the case here, and in the area I am in clean / well-maintained rentals don't stay on the market long unless they are mispriced.  Same thing years ago when I was a tenant, I didn't use an agent, most of my friends who rent(ed) don't either.  

If you are really having a hard time finding interest I could see the point, and maybe 15-20 years ago that was the case more often.  In the age of the internet, zillow/craigslist etc I just don't feel they are needed.  In my case, I had calls coming in within minutes of posting the listing, and out of 30+ leads in two weeks only one came through a realtor.  It's hard for me to imagine from a landlord's POV the tenant's realtor adding much if any value.  If I was ever having that much trouble finding interest, I'd list it with my own realtor, and they would handle the screening/showings freeing up my time as well, but if I'm doing all that myself no way is a tenant's realtor getting a piece of the action unless I'm desperate.

I recently rented out my first rental, so take what I say with a grain of salt.  I listed it myself and did all marketing, showings, collected applications and did the screening myself etc.  I had a couple of agents call saying they represented tenants who were interested in my property.  I basically told them up front I am marketing the property myself, I have had lots of interest thus far and am not interested in any help from a realtor on my end,  I am more than happy to show the home to your client but I am not paying a realtor's commission. Of the two agents who called me, one said yes that's fine we represent the tenant (and presumably he was paying her directly), the other did not return my call which was fine by me (I got the impression from her voicemail she was fishing to get me to list the property with her).  The realtor who said she was fine with that arrangement works for a relatively well known firm in the area, she showed up with her tenant, he liked the place and actually contacted me directly for a second showing (he didn't end up renting it, he liked it but it was a bit too small for their needs).  He and his realtor both seemed to have no problem with me not paying a commission and in fact never brought it up, so again I presume he was paying her.  He was visiting from out of town to look at properties, which I assume is why he used a realtor.  

I am new at this myself, so maybe I am missing something, but my point of view is if I am marketing the property myself without the help of a realtor, and especially if I am getting a good level of interest without any help from realtors, then if a tenant feels they need a realtor to help find them a rental they can pay them.  

I would also add as I hinted before, I get the impression that some of these agents calling with "tenants" are actually fishing to get a listing with you, they may very well not have any tenants lined up who are interested in your property.

A yard sign will not call you if someone accesses the property.  With a property that's been vacant that long, who knows how long it would be before he realized it's been burglarized/vandalized etc.  

As others have said though ... why has it been vacant so long?  

I'd also add to advice to have an alarm ... if possible try to make the property not look obviously vacant.  I.e. keep the grass mowed, have some lights on timers (esp exterior lights), and generally keep it looking clean and well maintained.  

I recently rented my first rental property.  I listed on Zillow (which as mentioned also posts on trulia and hotpads, which I previously had never heard of), craigslist, posted on facebook, and stuck a "For Rent" sign in front.  I set up a google voice account and used that number for the listing.  I had what I consider pretty good interest with probably 30+ people contact me in ~2 weeks.  

I had only 1 person contact me from the craiglist ad.  Ex that one person and a handful from word of mouth, probably just over half of interest came from the zillow/trulia listing and just under half from the yard sign.  Zillow has a form people can use to email you or they can call.  The zillow listing had a lot of details and very good pictures, so the people who called from the yard sign I referred to the pictures on zillow before showing.

Surprisingly, every single person who contacted me seemed to be a legitimate potential tenant in the market to rent, more than half of whom scheduled showings (I could have paired this number down by screening over the phone, since this was my first time listing a rental I figured I might as well show as much as possible, if nothing else just to gain the experience, get feedback on the property etc.) and every person who scheduled a showing showed up and showed up on time.  This shocked me, as normally if I list something for sale on the internet (like say an old piece of furniture for sale) it seems like the ratio of scammers and weirdos to legitimate buyers is about 10 to 1, that did not appear to be the case for the rental which was a nice surprise ... I had expected to deal with a healthy number of no-shows, con artists, lowballers, window shoppers, and general weirdos, that did not appear to be the case.

Monitored alarm.  Any wireless system should be easy to move from one property to another, as others mentioned, Simplisafe is one such option.  Frontpoint is another.  A local alarm company will likely have many more options (pretty much any wireless panel can just be plugged in and set on a shelf, does not need to be built into a wall, and wireless sensors attach w/ 3m tape and are easily moved).  I have a 2gig panel at my house and my rental.

Do you have any references for that?  The Biggerpockets application asks about smoking, and smokers are not a protected class.  I am pretty sure you are incorrect that it is discriminatory (but, I'm not a lawyer) aside from maybe certain local ordinances.  

To update this, I did not end up renting to this applicant.  Upon turning in his application, issues were a lot more than lack of credit history - lack of employment, no landlord or employer references etc.

On the issue of prepayment, according to my attorney there is advantage to prepayment and certainly is no greater risk to a tenant breaking a lease than if they didn't prepay.  So this fear that he would "move in and demand money back" does not seem a rational one, at least where I am (that's not to say I'd rent to someone unqualified, but prepayment certainly does not seem to me a negative).  My attorney also had the advice that if I were to accept prepayment, make it for the last x months of the lease rather than the first, i.e. if he wants to prepay 6 months rent that's great, that applies to months 7-12 on a 12-month lease and rent would be due on the first of the month for the first 6 months as normal.  

Ended up renting to a well qualified tenant who moved in last week.  I had a lot of interest in the property, so was able to be picky w/ a few strong applications coming in after starting the thread and in the end did not bend on my application requirements.  

Was it a waste of my time?  No, not really, at least no more so than the rest of this process has been, I know a little about how prepayment works, how I would handle it if it were to come up in the future.

Would he get more "cash flow" from a mutual fund?  Dividend yield on the S&P500 is ~2%, so if he were to put that $800k equity in an S&P500 index fund (or a fund with similar dividend yield as the S&P) his income/cashflow would be $16k/yr or $1,333 a month, so I would say no.  Sure the total return might be ~10% annually over time but that's not the same as income/cashflow, and his condos generate total return beyond that cash flow from appreciation and deleveraging as well.