Landlord and Property Managers must changed with the Times

This economy has been tough on the real estate market to say the least. And many real estate companies have had to change the way they do business, especially when it comes time to finding new clients.


What about the rental management industry? We would think the rental market would be doing well, since so many homeowners are now being forced to become tenants, that the landlords or property management companies phone would be ringing off the hook. New would-be tenants would be flocking to their offices looking for a place to live. Maybe some are getting extra business, but the climate and type of clients are quite different from the pre-economic woes.


In todays environment the prospective tenant has more options than ever could be imagined. The inventory of available rental properties is enormous, lease with option to buy are becoming the norm as well as the desperate landlord that has no choice but to reduced his rental rate to unrealistic levels so as to bring some type of income in or face foreclosure.

Today rental market is a tenants dream scenerio and a landlords nightmare that unfortunately has few winners.

Even though rental rates are at record lows, tenants are still finding it difficult to qualify for a lease for the following reasons:

1- Many new tenants are previous homeowners that have poor credit due to a recent foreclosure which makes it difficult to qualify


2- Many new tenants recently lost a job and can not show steady employment


3- Many new tenants are looking for short term leases due to unstable jobs


4- Many new tenants household incomes have been cut in half making it impossible to qualify

5- Many new tenants can not come up with the required security deposit or other monies to

secure a property

For the Landlord or property manager many new challenges have become apparent:


1- You are competing amongst not only the current pool of rental properties, but now all the homeowners who can not sell so will rent their property instead.


2- It's very difficult to find a qualified tenant and if you do chances are you better give them a offer they can't refuse, cause the next landlord will.


3- You may have to loosen the reigns when it comes time to your screening


4- You may have to loosen the reigns when it comes time to asking for full security deposits upfront

5- You may have to change your per policy and start accepting pets if you didn't before

If you have a property management company helping you to secure a tenant, they should be doing things different. They can not wait in the office for the phone to ring anymore. They must be more aggressive in they advertising, showing properties even if this means after hours, move-in incentives, freebies...you get the picture.

Times are tough and this means making tough decisions. There no winners, but hopefully by making some changes we'll be the one that are still standing after its all said and done.


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