What is Property Management…Part 2 of…..?

This post will focus on personalities and why a PM needs to recognize the importance of this.

This is in no way to suggest that they need to know how to read minds. What I hope that you will take from this post, is that if you know how to ask the right questions, it will help you identify potential problem tenants, that a background check might not show.

As all of you know by now, I am huge believer of exit polling, the information I learn from that, is 2nd to none. The results literally speak for themselves. What I have never explained is how I came about exit polling, and more importantly, how did I come up with the questions to ask.

The questions were compiled by an expert marketing analysis individual. I was introduced to him by my sister, and he worked for one of the most successful marketing companies in the states. I did not hire the company itself, I hired him individually. I will say, it was NOT cheap! We sat down over a 2 week period, and he created these questions from the information I was trying to retrieve. I simply did not want “YES” or “NO” answers. What came out of those meetings, was approx. 35 questions to use during the walk through phase of the property showing. I only use 13 of them now, and I rotate them through as I need to.

What also came out of those meetings was 10 questions that are asked at time of interview, to help me understand this tenant, as quickly as possible. I don’t have the luxury of spending weeks with this tenant to learn the traits, I have to make a decision on a 30 minute interview (give or take). This of course, is assuming the background checks came back really well.

Why is this important or even relevant? Let me explain.

If your renting a single family home, the personality traits are not as important as an apartment complex or even a duplex.
If they are wanting a house, they simply have to get along with themselves and their immediate others. There should be consideration given over the street they are on, as if the tenants become a problem with the immediate neighborhood, then you will get calls made to the city with complaints, and have to answer those questions. When I am interviewing a tenant for a SFR, I am more concerned with how they act around me. How do they respond to my questions? Are they looking me in the eye? Do they seemed bored? Do they keep looking at their watch or phone? Do they answer their phone?

If any of you know police officer interviewing tactics, these are some of the very same traits they look for, to help them determine who this person is.

If any of these signs constantly come up during the interview, I get a real nervous feeling, that they are not going to be truthful with me, and really make me reconsider renting to them. I’ll admit a lot of this is pretty obvious, but where it gets to be challenging is when you are renting multi-units, as you are now trying to match multiple personalities in the same building. If you lose sight of that fact, you will have a building full of problems, not just 1 problem.

When you have a MF building, your PM should be very aware of the personalities they are placing, and do it in away that does not discriminate against anyone. It is a very fine line, but it is very important to the success of that building. If you have a mixture of personalities, and one of those tenants become loud, or have pets, it will eventually turn into a problem for all tenants. Then what do you do? It is not an easy thing to fix, once the problem presents itself. This is why I use these 10 questions to determine if I even want to rent to them based on their personality, this way I don’t end up with this scenario.

There is no 100% bulletproof way to avoid a bad tenant, as they will slip through the cracks, but a committed PM will recognize this as a potential problem, and will know how to avoid it. They will conduct interviews of all tenants, once they get through the background portion of the application.

My company has 5 levels that every applicant must pass on, there is no majority here, it’s all 5 or you fail, simple as that.

1. Pre-Screening (Income Ratio, CASE Net search)
2. Application (yes, I have rejected applicants for not completing the application itself)
3. Employment Verification
4. Background Checks (Credit, Criminal, Sex Offender…etc)
5. Interview & Inspection

This step is very important in keeping the peace, it makes a PM’s life so much easier, and keeps you with an income producing property.

Stay Tuned For Part 3!

John