Rental Property Management
Written by Wallace S. Gibson
on 12/2002 - Word Count: 777
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A property manager returned from a trip in September and found a letter on her desk from a brand new tenant accusing her of fraud and misrepresentation. He was complaining that the garage in the house he had leased "sight unseen" did not have a double car garage "big enough" for his large vehicles. Within months, the property manager was in eviction court after the tenant moved to a nearby apartment complex with no garage facilities for residents.
As more rental residents switch jobs, move across country, sell their homes earlier than expected, they will no longer have the luxury of frequent visits to an area to organize their relocation efforts. Often, they have less than a week to secure jobs, enroll children in schools and find suitable housing. Of these three tasks, the first two seem to take precedence in their schedule trip so they are renting their new residences through the eyes of surrogates, on Realtor recommendations or "sight unseen".
For the last year, between residents, I have been taking interior photos of my properties and posting then on the web. Prospects calling on upcoming rental availabilities can access these interior photos from my web site at their leisure. For my postings on large sites like YAHOO Classifieds and RentConnection, I have posted a composite of the exterior and 3 interior photos so that prospects can get a better understanding of the size and quality of the property in addition to accessing area amenities, schools and neighborhood profiles.
This summer I showed country rental properties to a prospect relocating to the area with his girlfriend for her new job. He walked through my vacant country property, cell phone in hand and guided his girlfriend to the interior property photos on the web as she sat in their home in Florida. After a 10 minute conversation, he said they wanted to rent the house.
Another pitfall is renting to prospects through surrogates, family or "their friendly Realtor". When dealing with these situations, it is best to control the information provided to the distant rental prospect - either via website listing information with photos; e-mail or fax correspondence. With this procedure, written documentation is available as to the information provided to the prospect prior to their lease signing. Keeping copies of the web listings, promotional flyers and MLS listing data in your property file will make it easier to document the information provided should this be questioned in the future.
As in the case with tenant with the "vintage cars", the ultimate outcome rested on the wording of the lease signed by the tenant whereby he agreed to take the property and there was no stipulation as to the length or size of the property's garage space.
With these situations in mind, some "caveat emptor" wording for these situations might be in order. One NARPM member has a "Sight Unseen" Addendum that the Residents sign in addition to the lease document.
The TENANTS acknowledge and agree that it is their own decision to lease the subject property without first previewing the premises. Should the TENANTS fail to take occupancy of the property, TENANTS understand that they may forfeit their security deposit and they will be held responsible for the terms of the lease and payment of the rent until the occupancy of a new tenant. It is further understood that the LEASE is not conditioned on any repairs or improvements other than what the OWNER/AGENT is required to do per said lease agreement.
Prior to utilizing such wording, it is recommended that you verify that your state statutes allow for the forfeiture of all or a portion of the tenant's deposit to cover your advertising and re-renting costs as well as your re-leasing fees.
With a little bit of advance planning on our part, we should be able to facilitate prospects' busy schedules and eliminate some of the risk involved with renting properties...."sight unseen".
Wallace S. Gibson is the owner of Landlord Tenant Services and Gibson Management Group, Ltd. in Charlottesville, VA. She has over 30 years of residential and commercial property management experience. She holds the professional designations of Certified Property Manager (CPM) from the Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM) and the Master Property Manager (MPM) designation awarded by the National Association of Residential Property Managers (NARPM). She is the past Chairperson of the Virginia Association of Realtors Property Management Advisory Council and as well as being the past director of NARPM. She is an instructor for several of NARPM's designation RMP and MPM courses. For additional information,
