Renting Property Sight Unseen

Renting Sight Unseen To Tenants

We got an application in today from a tenant who indicated that they haven’t seen the property. They don’t live locally, it’s difficult for them to see the property and they just want to take it based on the photos and the videos that we have online. And I can understand that. However, we have a policy against it and you might want to as well.

It’s not uncommon and we see it all the time. So we will allow if only a few of the roommates have seen the unit, but a roommate or two haven’t seen the unit, we will accept those applicants. We’ve had disappointment in those environments.

We’ve had one or two roommates get very disappointed. I think you see the videos online and they’re made to look nice and you see the photos, and we take a lot of photos of a property and we try to represent the property accurately.

We really don’t want excessive traffic going in and out of these properties. We do however want to show you the property that it is. And even as a real estate agent, I always did want to show you that this is the property you’re getting. But on the flip side of that, these new tend to be nicer photos. We’re taking lots of photos of a property, especially with digital cameras, and we’re basically throwing out.

I always go in take a photo in all four corners, standing up, kneeling down, I’ll go up on stairwells, and go everywhere just to get a good photo of something. Therefore, the properties are represented slightly better than it is in person. It’s understandable if somebody is disappointed.

So even if this property would be a good property for that person, had they had seen it, even though they’re coming into it, thinking of it as their property and thinking that the property they’re getting is the one that’s in the photos and the video, and they’re just kind of seeing little things that are going to upset them, they’re kind of going into this relationship in a bad way. We’ve always had problems doing historically in the past, so we have a policy against renting units site and scene.

I understand it’s tough and having to wait to be vacant a little bit more time till you get another applicant, but you really don’t want to have an unhappy tenant in your unit. There are a lot of complaints, they’re just miserable the whole time, and they feel cheated in some way, so our policy is, that tenants must see the property or at least indicate that they have seen the property.

My name is Joe White answering your real estate questions to the best I can. Good luck!!!

Author:

Joe White

Joe White is a Philadelphia Property Manager and Real Estate Broker. He is the owner of Grow Property Management and has been involved in the management, sales and purchases of Philadelphia area rental investment properties since 2008. He is an author and works as a real estate investment consultant and construction manager.

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