Table of Contents
The relationship between a tenant and a landlord is a professional and important one. Like every relationship, it’s best to get to know the other party before committing to them. In this case, before signing that lease and checks for your new apartment or condominium. After all, this relationship will define and shape your living conditions that you’ll be dutifully paying for months or years to come.
To get to know your landlord, here are some tips:
Harness the power of the internet
The internet is a powerful tool and everything that’s put on it remains there forever. Search your landlord’s name or the property management company of the property to see if there’s any bad review or news attached to their name. This will help you make your decision on whether or not to rent with them.
You could also lurk around property sites and look for reviews regarding the property, the area, and the landlord. The customer behavior of leaving reviews remains to be on the rise in all industries. You can get an almost unfiltered review from these sites.
Talk to older tenants
Face-to-face is still better than online when it comes to certain things. Nobody knows how the landlord is better than their own tenants. If you could, sit down and talk to the former tenant of your new place. Ask them about their relationship with the landlord. Is it friendly or strictly professional? How do they handle complaints and repairs? These are the things that can’t be found in your contract so it’s best to milk this source as much as possible.
Take time to sit with them with a note filled with your questions and a pen. Don’t forget to thank them for their time!
Get friendly with your neighbors
Another primary source, your neighbors can also provide you with insight on how your landlord is. When touring around the units, try and separate from your landlord to talk to your possible future neighbors. Ask them how long they’ve been staying in the area and if they’ve renewed their leases. Renewing leases signify satisfaction for the tenant.
If there are no available neighbors, you could try joining online forums or groups of the neighborhood and ask about their community.
Research the history of the property
It’s not enough to have reviews and local information from people since there’s always a chance of bias to coat their words depending on their relationship with the landlord. To keep an objective stance, do your own research on the history of the property.
You could do this by going to the local library, doing a deep dive into the internet or even bringing paperwork to have government office double-check the property. You have to make sure that your landlord owns the property legally and completely, that it’s not up for foreclosure.
Scams, unfortunately, do happen in real estate. Sometimes crooks trick people into giving their security deposits for properties that they don’t own and then disappearing into thin air.
Lastly, talk to your landlord
Being direct brings forth faster results. If not faster, then additional information to help you come to a well-researched decision. While landlords don’t get too personal when it comes to their information, as a possible tenant, you have the right to ask questions regarding the property and his or her management of it.
Ask for their time and get a feel of how they handle things. Gauge their tenant feedback by asking how long the longest and shortest tenant stay were. If they tend to leave after a short period of time, then that could be a red flag. You could also ask who does their maintenance and repairs, and research on the company itself.
Lastly, you could ask them how the neighborhood is. If any of these contradicts what you got from the former tenant and neighbors, then you have a decision to weigh – think critically and analyze the information you’ve gathered.
Doing a background check on your landlord feels like detective’s work but very important work nonetheless. It’s best to uncover the possible red flags in the relationship before investing three months of rent on a place that you might end up moving out from after a month. Just follow these steps and you’ll be well
Sources: Zillow
Read our previous journal for more features.
