Redundant tips
Landlords and agents representing investors, you should know about this for good measure. We read a home blog that has recently given a well intentioned tip of supplying landlords with a list of your rental history. The blogger tells apartment dwellers to walk in to the leasing agent or landlord’s office and hand them a rental history “resume” as a means of “impressing” the landlord.
What we see is the potential for frustration by renters here. This is how we imagine the scene going:
- Renter chooses unit.
- Renter is given an application.
- Renter fills out application but not the rental history because they’ve already turned that in, per a blogger’s instruction.
- Landlord or leasing agent calls them back into the office for an incomplete application.
- Renter says “it’s not incomplete, I already gave you my rental history,” to which the landlord says “I appreciate that, but we require all applications to be completed in full,” to which the renter gets frustrated.
We would amend the tip for renters to avoid redundancies and to take their “rental resume” with them as a means of reference for themselves so they have the information on hand for an application. It won’t impress a landlord, there are no cookies awarded, the application will still have to be completed.
This tip may, however, hold water in states like New York or where renters are not renting with a management company, but it could actually frustrate the renter in having to redundantly complete an app.
Jamey Prezzi
May 2, 2011 at 1:12 pm
In Miami and Miami Beach redundancy is an issue because there are two parties to approve the tenant: the condo association and the owner Because of credit sharing laws/rules, condo associations are not allowed to share the credit info with the owner and vice versa, so each party has to do their own check or the owner has to rely on their condo association's discretion.
It's not always an easy process but it's what it is today.
MH for Movoto
May 10, 2011 at 1:54 pm
It's actually not a bad tip in itself – it just doesn't apply that much to a straightforward walking-in-to-a-leasing-office type situation.
If you're looking to sublet or to take a room in a larger apartment with perfect strangers for roommates (both extremely common even among the well-off in places like San Francisco) a renter's resume is essential. Not so much because the content itself will "impress" anyone, but because it makes you look organized and thoughtful to potential roommates.