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.
Wallace S. Gibson, CPM * GIBSON MANAGEMENT GROUP, Ltd.
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Wallace, very good information when someone wants to rent a property on the weekend. Thanks and Happy Thanksgiving!
Michael * you are very welcome and Happy Turkey Day to you also!!
What a great reminder to take a breath and think before you hand over the keys.
Suzy * many individual or new landlords who want the $$$ don't realize what they are getting themselves into and how COSTLY these PROs can be.
Good post -- it pays to be careful -- and check out things
Unfortunately, this is also happening to agents sitting weekend open houses who think they are helping their clients!
I've seen professional tenants as well. The biggest clue is when they just look around a bit and get excited about how much they love the place. Also they just got to move-in right away.
First-time landlords who don't know any better think they are so SMART and their property is PRICED RIGHT....they don't realize until later that the move-in monies are the only $$$ they may see for months so the rental amount is immaterial to the tenants.
We call them "professional squatters" they are good at squatting.... but your deterrents scare them away!
Diane * I first dealt with them in Hawaii where they are more prevelent and harder to spot since almost everyone is from the Mainland and references were hard to check 30 years ago!!!
Yeah, we've seen these. We also get a fair number of people who have everything in a UHaul truck- have to get in quickly and all their paperwork is in the truck, etc. We recommend motels, and the more they push the more reluctant we become to rent to them.
U-Hauls are a good give away that they are not organized and that their move is not as "planned" as they would have us believe!!!