Episode 7: How To Screen Your Landlord
Calling all tenants! You need to do your homework! In this day in age, housing is so tight that usually tenants are thrilled to get ANY type of housing. BUT, as a tenant, have you ever thought about YOU screening your landlord? Remember, as a tenant you are a paying customer. It is critical that you know you are getting in a business relationship with. In this episode, I make all kinds of recommendations on how to choose your landlord; we all know the landlords are (or should be) screening you!
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Full Episode Transcription
Welcome to my life as a landlord, where we untangle all things housing and educate the curious.
If you're looking for some entertainment with some honest, awkward conversations, you've come to the
right show. I'm your host, Dr. Jennifer Salisbury. This is my life as a landlord. Welcome to it. 1s Hello.
Hello. Welcome to my life as a landlord. I'm your host, Dr. Jen. On this week's episode, we are talking
about how, and more importantly, why tenants should screen their landlords before renting. Most of the
time everybody thinks landlords should screen the tenants. But I think as tenants, you should also know
who you are working with in a landlord. Why would you want to do this? Very simple. Tenancy. And
housing in general is a business relationship. The tenant pays for a service by rent and the landlord
provides that service in the form of a space in an asset, space in a house, space in an apartment building,
space in a trailer home, something. As well as maintenance, making sure that that's a safe, quiet,
comfortable place for the tenant to live. And so there is a business relationship there it is give and take.
And as a tenant, you should know before you rent from a landlord who you're dealing with. What's this
landlord's reputation? Are they scumbags? Are they great? Do they come from a great family who've
taken great care of their tenants before? And when I say landlord, you're not sure who your landlord
might be. And I need to preface this, because I am a self managing landlord. I manage my own tenants. I
don't have a property manager, but there are lots of people who do. So in this context, it may not be the
owner of the building, it might just be the property management company. And that's who I mean is who,
as a tenant, are you going to be working with? For rent when something breaks, if there's a trouble,
call. If there's something catastrophic that happens, like your stove is on fire, something weird. How are
you going to have this business relationship with whomever is either your landlord or representing your
landlord? Now, it could be the manager or the owner of this house or the property or the building. It
could be the owner. It could be some one that is the actual owner themselves, like I am. Or it could be a
management company. But whoever is interacting with tenants is who you, as a tenant, need to know.
Who these people are. Like, how do they operate? Do they have a good reputation? And so that's what
we're going to be exploring on today's episode, is how tenants should screen their landlords in advance of
renting. Now, in the middle of this recording, I can tell you that we are in such a housing crunch that
many tenants may be thankful to have any space they can get no matter what. And I understand that. I get
it. I also encourage you that the last thing you want to do is get into a unit as a tenant and then realize
your landlord doesn't return texts, doesn't return calls, they don't help you at all and you just have
absolutely no support. And this is not going to work and it may not be a surprise why this unit that you
ended up renting is empty in the first place. So the first thing let's talk about how you're going to find out
some information, find out the reputation of whether it's the owner or someone representing the owner or
the property management company. There's three things that I'm going to talk to you about today on how
you can screen your landlord, who's ever interfacing with the tenants. And so the first thing you can do
this is really simple and it won't surprise you at all. The first thing you can do, throw the company name
on Google. If you know who the company name is, if it's a management company, it'll say Great Property
Management Inc. Or whatever the property who's ever advertising the unit. Or maybe that is on the
building itself, you never know. Or you could google the building and see if you can find out who either
owns it or the property management company that you can find out about them. But regardless you want
to find who is the tenant interaction company and go to their website. Do they have testimonials on their
website? Maybe you can also look at what comes up on say Zillowapartments.com. I want to say
Craigslist but that's not a good one. But there's other housing review companies that you can go through.
It's almost like a Yelp depending on where you are in the US. There are some other different programs in
Canada. There's a fewer less options that you can actually find some different company names. But if you
just throw the company name or the name of the building, which I'm assuming this is an apartment
building for this podcast, then you should be able to find out who's managing the building so you can at
least find out little bit more. So that's just the very simple one is just throw it in Google, throw it in a
search engine and see what comes up. 1s The second thing that you can do to properly screen your
landlord is do some more technical searches. If you're a real research person, like I am, then I go to the
secretary of state or the province, and I type in the business name, and I make sure that that company is
in good standing. I realize that's very technical, but you can also go to Better Business Bureau. That
specific. In the US. Dun and Brad Street is both Canadian and US. And I think they actually are
international. But regardless us. And Canadian reviews on Dun and Brad Street, if you want to get into
the company aspects of it. But as a tenant, you may not care if their company is in good standing. You
care if they're actually engaging with their tenants, with their paying customers. The other thing you can
do, you can go to the local chamber of commerce and talk to them about, who is this company, who is
this property management company who owns this building? The local chamber of commerce may have
a lot more local knowledge than throwing something into a search engine. That's an option as well. Now,
if you really want to get down and dirty, if you're hearing not good things about this owner or maybe
even a management company, you can search court records. You can search for judgments, and you can
see if a company has had lots of judgments or lots of evictions. You can see all kinds of things depending
on the public court records in your area. And that may not be a bad thing if your company that you're
looking at, this property management company that you're looking at. Manages, say, 500 units, and
they've had 50 judgments in the last year, which is a lot, then there may be an issue there. Why on earth
would they be in court that much? So you're kind of looking for red flags here, right? So, first one, search
the company name in Google. Second, you can get into more technical searches online. But the third one,
ask others. Ideally, if you can talk to a local tenant or someone who has just been their tenant in the same
building or with the same company. If they manage multiple properties, get some firsthand knowledge.
Were they easy to work with? Were they responsive? Did they hear you? Did they not do anything for
months on end? There is a number of management companies that they don't respond, and it usually
comes down to one person. You try to avoid a single point failure when you've got a big company
that's trying to manage big properties, but you just want to ask some people and say, what's been your
experience dealing with these folks? And you will very likely get a mix of response is, now, I have to say
this as nicely as possible, you can ask on social media. 1s But be prepared for an array of responses. If
someone who just got evicted or just got a nasty judgment passed down, they're going to give you both
barrels on Facebook or next door or Craigslist even. Well, that won't be public. But still, the good ones,
the good tenants who are likely going to get you a good reference on this landlord, they're very likely not
going to respond. Now, 1s if you can go to the local area, go to the local area and learn about them. But
you don't want to disturb tenants, that's the other thing you got to be real careful on looking at that. You
want to ask other people, but it depends on this local area. You might actually walk around the building.
Is there little coffee shops or maybe a barber shop or a store around? I guarantee you, if you walk into
some of these places and say, look, I'm wondering to be a tenant, I'm thinking I might be a tenant over
here, I've applied. Do you know anything about this management company, about these tenants? And the
people around them will very likely say, oh yeah, the cops are there every every day, every night, it's
there's vandalism all the time, there's problems, or oh, it's great, they run contests, they have barbecues. 1s
They'll very likely be able to give you a very raw. Review of the property next door, good or bad. So
you want to check it out. So if you're going to be checking out your landlord, and I think tenants should if
you're going to do business with anybody, you need to know who you're doing business with. And
tenancy and housing is no option, no difference, then check them out. So, again, search them online.
Whether you're searching them on Google, you're searching them on more technical searches, or you're
going to walk around physically in that neighborhood, maybe run into a tenant, maybe run into a
neighboring business and talk to them about it. But if you're a tenant that is looking to rent and you want
to learn more about a landlord, you want to make sure that you were searching for complaints, that you're
looking for red flags, and just check them out as a tenant, if you're taking the time to look into your
landlord, I can really appreciate that. That tells me that you really care about where you're living when
housing is so tight. That may or may not be an option. So I understand that this is. 1s It's a bit of a tight
area, I get it. But if you're a landlord listening, ask for testimonials from your existing tenants. I'm going
to turn this around. Expect that you are going to have future tenants who are going to screen you as a
landlord. Ask for testimonials, ask permission to use their first name, not their whole name, not their unit
number, none of that. And ask if you can put on your website or post some reviews, something like that.
Now, we had a very interesting thing occur to us a couple of years ago. This was pre COVID on
Facebook. There was someone that was applying. They didn't want to apply, but they wanted to know
more information, and they ended up throwing on Facebook. On Facebook. Who is this company? They
won't return my call. They won't do this, they won't do that. Well, in fact, we were returning their call,
and it ended up being this incredible dialogue with current and former tenants and other members of the
society who've never rented from us, but vouched for our character. And as I'm reading this huge
dialogue of who we are and how we take care of our people, I was absolutely amazed. My jaw was on the
ground. I thought, this is amazing. And lesson learned, I didn't take a screenshot. I should have, but I
didn't. And I almost didn't take a screenshot because I didn't want to invade anyone's privacy.
Screenshotting stuff from Facebook. But the fact that that happens, and it can happen, that not only
should tenants check you out, but you should be prepared as a landlord for tenants to check you out. 1s
So as a call to action, if you're a tenant and you're looking for housing, pick your landlord. Look in
advance. Who are you going to be doing business with? And if you're a landlord, seek out testimonials.
Seek out knowing that people that are going to rent from you in the future. Your future customers are
going to want to know feedback. So make sure that you are asking for those testimonials. Okay? So
today's episode was all about why tenants and how tenants should screen their landlords before renting.
Give you some tips there, give you a call to action. And in our next episode, I am going to be helping you
untangle many layers of real estate development and there are lots. We'll see you then. Thanks for
listening. Thank you for joining us this week. To view the complete show notes and all the links
mentioned in today's episode, visit our website at www.mylifeasalandlord.com. If you're looking for
educational resources for getting into real estate investing, becoming a landlord, or even a better tenant,
then I have a page on my website to get you started looking for a solution to the pickle that you're in. I
have suggestions for that too. You can throw your situation on my Facebook group, My Life as a
Landlord, and let our community help you with solutions. Also, before you go, make sure you subscribe
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Thank you again for joining me, Dr. Jennifer Salisbury, in this episode of My Life as a Landlord. I'll see you next time.