Finding and selecting the most suitable tenant for your property in the most efficient and effective manner is of paramount importance to achieving maximum returns on your investment. It comprises of appropriate marketing and effective screening. The search for new tenants typically starts in advance of the property becoming vacant. Depending on market conditions, a suitable new tenant may likely have already been found by the time your property is vacated.
In the case of an existing resident, the renewal of a fixed term lease is generally at the discretion of the landlord. Prior to the expiration of a fixed term tenancy, we will provide our recommendations regarding current market conditions, resident history, capital improvement strategy, compared to your overall portfolio strategy.
- Listing the property on our website, Multiple Listing Services (GA and FMLS), and numerous 3rd party providers including:
- Tulia
- Zillow
- Tenant Turner
- Apartments.com
- Lovely
- hotpads
- Checking our database of current prospective tenants
- Sign Placement: A “for lease” sign will be displayed at your property, except where prohibited or by owner’s discretion
Tenant Screening is the other critically important part of this process. After initial review of prospective tenant’s application for suitability, we use TransUnion to run background checks which includes checking for previous evictions, judgments, repossessions and/or foreclosures, credit reports, sex offender registry, criminal records, and most wanted/ terrorist list. We also verify employment and income, passport/ visa checks for overseas visitors, calling past rental references and identification verification.
Our hands on approach and process also allows us to cumulate “soft” data through our interaction with the prospective resident during the showing, and application process. Engagement with the prospective tenant on multiple interactions prior to a lease being signed offers us the chance to establish a customer service relationship of excellence which helps with retention, but also create an environment where we can begin to gauge how a resident will treat a property impacting your long-term returns.
Unless you request we handle this decision, we would contact you to review the results of the background check and you will have the final decision on the acceptance of a prospective tenant.
At the time keys are given to the new tenant, an agent meets them at the property todo a written Property Condition Report detailing the property condition at move in.
Upon the tenant vacating your property, we inspect and document the property condition. Within the time prescribed by law, we provide the tenant with a billing statement or deposit refund based on the records made when the tenant took possession. If a billing statement goes out and the tenant fails to remit their balance we will pursue based on your direction with an outside collection agency, which typically work on a “percentage of collected” basis.