screening for tenants difficulties for PM

i once advertised on Gumtree for tenants for an IP situated in a Lower social econmic area.

The kind of people texting me were Single mothers , unemployed, couples who had been kicked out of other accomodation etc.

Some went into detail telling me their life stories in a text on how there boyfriend just got out of jail and they cannot find a house tigether etc whilst others told me they were 17yo and had 4 kids already , etc

Others were more aggressive calling me and demanding to look at the house and acusing me of being a racist when i wouldnt .
Even after i rented it out, gave it to a agent i still got threats by people who asked why they didnt get it ?

It got me thinking how very very difficult it must be for a PM to screen people .
I put myself in their shoes for 3 days and got all that , full of sob and sad stories, threats, called a racist ,etc

I mean I really really did feel sorry for one young girl who was 16 and a single nursing mother , she has single mothers pension but had no bond saved .and her parents had died.
When i decided to get a Agent she seemed a heartless PM when i told her of the girls story , she said " yeah yeah , heard it all before ! Pribaly has 3 boyfriends !
And wont pay rent hoping for a eviction notice so she can get Govt housing quucker !



How much abuse , threats etc they must get off people who have been knocked back .
How do they put up with hard luck stories? Con men etc ?
Must be stressful

 

I think private landlords would cop a lot more than PMs would. A lot of people like that wouldn't bother contacting a PM as they know background checks will be done.

Still get people who complain about not being accepted sometimes. Theres good apps and bad apps. Out of the good apps, only one can be accepted so others can be reused at other properties. The bad ones get a polite email.

 

Gumtree is probably the worst for that though. A good portion of the really bad ones don't go to PM's or they are really nice to start with.

Last week I had someone call me a homophobic b*tch because I knocked him back, despite the property still being available for lease. I don't care what you're into, so long as you're paying your rent on time and looking after the place. I was very nice and polite to him up until that point and just hung up - not worth trying to tell him otherwise.

Or the one that said they put in their condition report 6 weeks ago that the dishwasher wasn't working and why hadn't it been fixed yet? They told me not even the week before and I sent the work order the same day, not listed on the condition report anywhere.

I can keep going, I have a lot of fun and not so fun stories. Despite some rude and entitled people, I still love my job and real estate is so very inbred that you will always have someone to rant to at the end of the day. Hey, @D.T.

 

Geez, I must be bloody lucky.

Last time I rented was about 5 years ago. I didn't have a job and my rental history was more than 30 years ago.

My PM signed me up straight away!!!!

 

Property management can be a tough and stressful gig, and I have the utmost respect for those that do it well as society as a whole is more demanding and 24/7 than ever. It does depend on the area you work in, as well as the agency you work for, their systems, protocols and obviously support staff and LIC expertise and input.

It also takes a particular type of personality to be a PM particularly in a large agency, and excellent people skills. Being assertive without being aggressive, knowledgeable, up to date with legislation, impeccable time-management and organisational skills, above-average communication skills etc.

 

There's more to it than those things.

Maybe

 

Have you tried Bad Tenant Checks?

 

TC, this sounds like an example of quantity instead of quality.

 

I always told would be tenants I passed on their information to the landlord and it was him/her who made the final choice.

 

My entire career has centered around lower socioeconomic areas, and you're not wrong- we get a lot of that. That said, I definitely agree with @D.T.'s point about self-managing landlords being more prone to abuse.

You learn that most of the "disaster prone" can't be helped... you only have to try and help one of those types once to figure out that they're usually not interested in helping themselves. Sob stories are almost always an alarm bell right from the get go.

Even when it's less obvious, you develop a sixth sense for it. I can tell from the first phone call in 9 out of 10 cases whether people are going to be quality tenants, then we conduct thorough checks to make sure everything adds up.

Investing the time in getting the right people at the start pays off massively throughout the tenancy process.

There are scripts and procedures to follow that avoid abuse from declined applicants. I hope you property owners don't mind, one of my favourites is "I'm sorry but the Landlord has not accepted your application and not provided me with a reason" (deflect blame). etc. etc.

 

The realty is、most people on Gumtree are a waste of oxygen,
I had properties that struggled to generate any interest but put a ad up on gumtree and id have 30 enquiries in 24 hours
the odd enquiry were people that newly arrived in the country and didnt have a rental history, but the rest you could tell deserved to be in their position

the number of tenants who have left me in a mess deserve to be on TICA and having to resort to private renting or on gumtree,

of the 30 enquires I get, about 25 would have a sob story like you mentioned,
all seem desperate for a place, but very few of them would actually even turn up when you arrange a time.

 

When I was in uni I tried to sell an old gameboy (remember that thing?) and I got a woman trying to haggle down the price.
She told me she is a single mother with four kids, husband is dead, she has no money bluh bluh. I didn't believe her for a second but I was amazed the level of rubbish people come up with just to save 5 quid.

 

I love Squid.

Save the Squid!

 

The old gameboys are worth something now. Have a look at some of the prices eBay.

 

Gumtree !! You were asking for that.

 

Good to see someone revived this topic. At last someone is appreciating the work of a good PM!

 

Oh how true, it is not worth your time advertising on these sites