Everybody loves March Madness. Even property managers! Chances are the only repair calls will go to the cable television companies if their television screens start to flicker.
But now the hard part starts; trying to predict who will win
each game of the NCAA tournament. Picking
a perfect bracket is tough; no one did it last year after millions of
entries. The odds are seriously stacked
against getting them all right. And,
inexplicably, it’s even tougher if you’re a serious college basketball fan! The men’s college basketball fanatics, who
watch all the games year round and know that Duke should absolutely kill
Mercer, wind up picking the wrong team to win.
Meanwhile, the clueless non-fans who turn on Mercer Street
To make good picks, fans rely on statistics and past
performance versus other opponents. And
then they look at other, intangible signs.
Are their players healthy? Are
they experienced or are the teams filled with unproven freshmen who might wilt
in the big game? How did they do against
big teams during the year? How about
fast teams that like to run? How well
are they playing now?
Much like fans, property managers
are tasked to pick the best tenants when they get many applications for the
same rental property. Some, like Kentucky
But what about if Kentucky
That’s a judgment call.
Kentucky
The other prospective tenants aren’t as polished (lower
credit scores and income), but have dual incomes in disparate industries. Would they be better bets? How does a property manager know who to give
the approval to?
There is no right answer.
Much like picking a bracket, some of it comes down to raw data and past
landlord performance. But some of it
comes down to the experience of selecting tenants for many years. I wish I had it down to a perfect science and
could put it in a training manual (that I could sell for millions of
dollars…). But no matter how good a
property manager is, no one can get them right all the time. As my 3rd grade teacher said
emphatically, “that’s why pencils have erasers!”
So, what to do? The
right answer is closer to reviewing the raw data thoroughly and then looking
for other signs. Do they have a pattern
of paying people on time? Did their past
landlords have good things to say? Do
they make enough money to afford the property with some excess funds still
available if their car breaks down or they face unemployment? Have they recently attempted to hurt anyone
seriously (I’m half-kidding on this one)?
As for other signs… how did they sound on the phone? Did they get the application materials back
to us in a timely manner? Are they
pleasant to talk to? Were they
forthcoming and truthful with everything asked in their application? Did they return our calls in a timely
fashion? Were they evasive in any way? There’s a certain feel involved.
The other signs are tough to quantify. But that is when picking good tenants turns
from a science into an art form. And
that’s when the experienced know in their gut that Lehigh has a chance to take
down Duke, even though they are a huge underdog. And that North Carolina
Picking tenants and the NCAA brackets isn’t as easy as
picking all the favorites. Experience
counts.
Good luck with both and enjoy the tournament!
Brett Furniss is the President & Owner of BDF Realty (Charlotte Residential
Property Management), the trusted real estate advisor for Charlotte
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