PropertyManagementMaven: November 2009

One of the GREAT joys of living in Virginia's PREMIER Hunt Country is the annual Blessing of the Hounds held each Thanksgiving morning at Grace Episcopal Church on Gordonsville Rd.

The Keswick Hunt Club hounds are brought to the church and the members of the hunt club come with mounts for the blessing and then start the hunt season across the road at the Kinloch estate.

The first Keswick Blessing of the Hounds service was held in 1929 and the ceremony began centuries ago in France in honor of St. Hubert, the patron saint of hunters.

Grace Church was originally constructed in 1745 and after burning, it was rebuilt and consecrated in 1896. In addition to being historic, the church has played a role in several movies, including the 1998 movie HUSH staring local area Academy Award winning actress Jessica Lange.

PRO applicant? What is that? They are applicants who want to become your tenants and they have perfected methods of gaining the keys to your property without paying rent.

They usually come on the weekend and need to rent a home right away. They come in clean cars, usually with 2 adults and one or more children......AND they have a story.

             * Their current landlord is selling the home they rent

             * Their current home has MOLD*REPAIRS*FIRE and they need to move ASAP

             * They just came into town and their JOB starts MONDAY

             * They just came into town and they need to get their KIDS in school MONDAY

She is frazzled and he is not prepared. The children are quiet....they have no references, past/current landlord information (although now they are usually in FORECLOSURE) and they ONLY have CASH because they packed their checkbook.

The SCAM may involve signing a lease and giving a portion of their CASH to their new landlord; however, their PRIMARY OBJECTIVE is to obtain the keys to the property. They may ask the landlord to keep the utilities on for a week or so while they get their accounts set up which will set the landlord up for a charge of "retaliatory eviction" if the utilities are terminated during the eviction process.

The landlord will feel GOOD for a few hours that they have gotten their home leased and ASSISTED a family new to the area; however, once they get the keys, the cooperation, smiles and communication stops.

Since the landlord did not come prepared with application paperwork or have the resources to check their credit on the weekend, the landlord would have handed the keys and possession of their most valuable asset to PRO tenants......and whatever cash was provided to get the keys will be the LAST money the landlord will see for several months.

There are some variations....

I've had a single woman in a beat-up SUV with a canoe on the top try to rent a $2,000/mo property in an exclusive country club area. She kept saying her "trust attorney" handled everything and that she would be returning to her beach home for her children and that I should call her attorney on Monday. She did not get the keys.

I've had the well-dressed family call me on a Friday and want to rent a home on Saturday and when I presented them with the application paperwork and offered to meet them later after I ran their credit report, they left the blank applications on the front porch as they walk to their car.

Fortunately for me, many PROs no longer contact professional property managers. They know we have procedures and resources to check their credit. They do; however, continue to contact private landlords who post on Craigslist or who put ads in newspapers.

I rarely get phone calls at 8A....since my office phone rings through to my cel phone, it went off with REO's "Evil Woman" at o'dark 30 this morning.....I got the message that the caller left a voicemail and I returned the call.

A guy is separating from his wife and needs a rental property ASAP and saw my Craigslist posting...when he gives me his morning agenda, I tell him I'll meet him in an hour.

We he shows up, he indicates he will need to buy a home in a year to keep his tax deductions and that he and his soon-to-be ex will be selling their current home.  When I question where they live and how large is it, he tells me and I tell him to keep his current home as an investment property.

He indicates they also own some land and I advise him to put the land on the market or give it to his wife as the value of the land is the approx equity in the house and the house * which is less than 5 years old * is in an EXCELLENT rental area, is large and is close to a new Lowe's (#48), Target (#42), Walmart AND it is in an area with relatively low real estate tax rate.

When he tells me what his mortgage payment is, I advise him that I can get him rent almost equal to that amount.  If he keeps the house, when his oldest child is 18, the house will pay for their college!!

I gave him more than a rental application * I give him a way to not to have to re-locate his family from their home, that keeping the property gives him his tax benefits and allows him to rent a place for himself and be mobile for his job and opportunities AND he gets to keep his tax write offs.  He and his wife just need to sell the land.

I'm glad I could give him solutions as obviously the situation is hard enough on a family when the parents divorce....sometimes it just takes taking the long view.....he really appreciated my suggestions.

I recently attended a free seminar at our local association outlining the e-Pro course and designation. I can't remember seeing a property manager with the designation; however, never one to turn down extra letters after my name * CPM * GRI * and seeing the need to "buy some vowels", I went to the seminar and really enjoyed the information and signed up for the course.

Some fellow agent/attendees at the seminar asked me WHY I would want to blog?  At first, I thought it was because I don't sell or list real estate for sale.  Then I realized they posed the question because I was a LOWLY property manager so WHY would I want to blog or use social media?

As the seminar when on, I found that not only was I one of the few who actually has a blog... www.propertymanagementmaven.com ....I was the only one who had a blog who actually BLOGS frequently, has their blog on their website, and who promotes their blog.

When I got back to my office, I checked with our agent information in our MLS and association roster and found that there was no space or blank to put in agents' blogs.....2 slots for fax numbers * home and office * however, no space for agents to put in their blog address.

I wrote our association and requested that they install that space/blank so that agents, when they are updating their information, might consider creating and using a blog!