In this month’s edition, we have a riveting property management fairy tale! Once upon a time in a nice, far-off place called “Charlotte, NC”, a nice landlord put a nice, vacant rental house on the market. Now the market was not too hot, not too cold, but just right…
The next day, a nice rental application was submitted for
it. And the day after that, another nice
rental application was submitted. The
nice landlord dutifully ran the applications and found that both applicants looked
to be fully qualified:
Tenant #1:
802 credit score
Criminal record: 3 traffic
tickets in last 3 years
Employed: CEO of X,
SpaceX, & Tesla, Inc.
$221.4B net worth
Homeowner: no recent
personal landlord history
No pets
Move-in date: 35
days from today
Length of lease
desired: 2 years
Tenant #2:
William (“Bill”) Gates III
814 credit score
Criminal record: None
Employed: CEO of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
$127.3B net worth
Homeowner: no recent personal landlord history
Pets: 1 cat (10 pounds) & 1 border collie (60 pounds)-
aware of non-refundable pet fees
Move-in date: immediate upon acceptance
Length of lease desired: 1 year
The nice landlord has
a very nice problem! Two well-heeled
applicants want his rental property.
They have 800+ credit scores, no criminal background issues, plenty of
income, and no landlord issues. That is
great!
But outside of the nice fairy tale, is it really great? How would a regular landlord pick a winner
and a loser? He may have to be not so
nice?
The Musk application has many positive aspects with it
having no pets and wanting to lock into the property longer with a 2-year lease
request. But there is a 35-day wait for
occupancy (each vacant day costs money!) and there is a criminal record (frequent
speeding tickets can signal risky behavior).
On the other hand, Gates wants to move in right away
(cha-ching!) and has a higher credit score than Musk. But he does have a lower net worth and who
knows the damage the 2 pets could do to the house especially if he leaves after
the initial lease ends.
So under normal circumstances and with no one else involved,
both tenants would easily be approved for the property. But there is only one home. And they probably don’t want to share
it. So what to do?
It’s a tough one and it happens every so often. Unfortunately, the non-approved person usually
gets upset. But a decision has to be
made.
I don’t think there is perfect methodology for this. Some landlords use tactics such as:
- First application in gets
first dibs on the house: I like this one due to its simplicity and it
seems to have the “get in line” logic that most adults can appreciate. Its major flaw is that a property
manager really needs to pick the best available applicant for the owner client,
regardless of who was first. If a marginal
candidate applied first and then Bill Gates submitted an application,
should I be married to the marginal candidate? I don’t think so.
- Make the applicants give
their “highest & best” offer: The rent is listed at $2K/month. “How much rent are you willing to pay if
we let you have the house- $2,500/month?
Will you sign a 3-year lease?
Move-in right away?” We’ve
done this on occasion and it’s a lot of effort and most people don’t want
to play (I’m not sure I would either).
Due to the bad feelings it creates, I largely tend to shy away from
doing this.
- Have some sort of points
system based on all quantifiable application information. Add up the points and whoever has the
highest score wins the house. This does
not take into account any non-quantifiable information (or “soft skills”
for lack of a better term) which tend to matter a lot with tenant
relations.
Trying to make a choice between great tenants can be a good problem
to have if handled properly (in and out of fantasyland). But I think I’d go with Musk application on
this one. It’s very nice!
Happy Landlording!
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