Meeting Tenants?

[willister]

Hi All,

Do you ever meet your tenants in person? Is this advised or a good idea?

We are somewhat spooked by an old tenant once when we first purchased the property. Seemed like a nice person as well as his wife, he asked us for his our number which we at the time thought was nothing sinister.

However, a couple of times, he circumvented the agent in reporting faults and tried to deal directly with us which we weren't too comfy about.

So do you meet your tenants or do you keep communication strictly between them and the property manager and any line of communication would only come from the PM to you?

Thanks.

 

[alexlee]

We are somewhat spooked by an old tenant once when we first purchased the property. Seemed like a nice person as well as his wife, he asked us for his our number which we at the time thought was nothing sinister.

However, a couple of times, he circumvented the agent in reporting faults and tried to deal directly with us which we weren't too comfy about.

Uh, exactly why did you think your tenant wanted your number? To be fair, the tenant probably isn't being dodgy: he just thinks by calling you he'll get a faster response than from the PM. You're the one who gave him your number.

So do you meet your tenants or do you keep communication strictly between them and the property manager and any line of communication would only come from the PM to you?

There's a reason why the lease only shows the agent's contact numbers and not yours.

 

[devank]

Best to keep a distance. If I have to visit the property the I pretend that I'm a handy friend of the owner since I don't really have the handy man look.

 

[Scott No Mates]

If you do care to meet the tenant, do so only in the company of the managing agent. This can be done inconjunction with the site inspection
.

 

[willister]

If you do care to meet the tenant, do so only in the company of the managing agent. This can be done inconjunction with the site inspection
.

Just a general question, but are most MAs oblidged to do this? A bit off topic, but once we had brought our own tradie in to do a paint job, the MA's own painter was too expensive but the MA refused to accompany us to the site.

Secondly, there was a time when there was a plumbing issue - MA rang us up and told us to go visit the site ourselves to see the problem. I thought is was a bit strange considering we've hired him as a MA.

 

[twobobsworth]

Wouldn't know any of my tenants if I walked passed them in the street.

 

[depreciator]

I met one I had living in a house I sold in Annandale, Sydney.

He was a nice bloke. Emailed me if there were maintenance things he thought I would want to know about - and it was a complicated house with some issues.

When I decided to sell the house, he was disappointed, but understood.

On the day of the auction, I didn't want to be there, but didn't want to be far away either. So I walked into a coffee shop up the road.

There was the tenant doing the same thing i.e. avoiding the auction.

A neighbour was sending him texts and photos of the auction progress, so the two of us sat there together having a coffee watching proceedings on his phone.

It didn't sell, so I said he should shout coffees.

 

[Jfactory]

We run a business in the property we own. We know and see our tenants (3 commercial lease, 2 residential lease) most working days. Our property is in a small country town but I'm sure things would be very different in the city!

 

[willister]

I met one I had living in a house I sold in Annandale, Sydney.

He was a nice bloke. Emailed me if there were maintenance things he thought I would want to know about - and it was a complicated house with some issues.

When I decided to sell the house, he was disappointed, but understood.

On the day of the auction, I didn't want to be there, but didn't want to be far away either. So I walked into a coffee shop up the road.

There was the tenant doing the same thing i.e. avoiding the auction.

A neighbour was sending him texts and photos of the auction progress, so the two of us sat there together having a coffee watching proceedings on his phone.

It didn't sell, so I said he should shout coffees.

With residential, I thought it was fine - we once had a residential place once adn we did all the marketing/contracting/inspecting etc. etc. ourselves. There was not once a problem and this was in one of the most notorious subrubs in Sydney at the time.

Commercial wise, I've always felt a bit uneasy - there are more rules that govern this and that and much more complex. A lot of things can go wrong very quickly.

Of all our commercial tenants, there is not one I can trust at all.

 

[chilliblue]

Meet them by all means but do not inform them that you are the owner.

You will end up with a better relationship and have an inside on the manager.

 

[handyandy]

Invariably the tenants do find out my number, be it that I don't go out of my way to give it to them nor meet them. We don't even do regular inspection as you only get complaints.

These days my sons do all our maintenance so our numbers get around but they just blame me and direct them to the agent.

We are also renovating a block of units which is in the middle of other blocks of units we own so the tenants all know where we are.

I even had a tenant come up to me in the middle of the yard to plead their case re a rental increase I offered to give them my bank manager/ council rates account dept / waterboard account dept etc so that they could plead their case direct. This tenant has been with us for 12 years and still going strong.

I also tell them that in the first instance they are to phone the agent with any problems as that covers both of us and provides a record of the problem.

If they do happen to phone me then I simply redirect them to the agent.

What is much more annoying is where co owners in strata's or even neighbor phone me as it's always about a problem that they are incapable of handling. Case in point was a noisy tenant in a unit, with a dedicated campaign aimed at me, complaining about the tenant, phone calls late in the night etc easily screened. But still enough of a nuisance that we evicted the tenant at my convenience. The strata folk had my number via the executive committee.



Cheers

 

[wylie]

We've always met them because we found them and self-managed. Since having three leases due the week my mother passed away, we handed it all over to an agent to find the tenant in exchange for a week's rent plus GST, and since then we have decided to do that each time.

We still have the final say on who we accept and we do meet the tenants because we take over the management immediately they sign up.

We've never had any trouble in all the years we have been landlords. We've had a few crook tenants, but mostly when we accepted a tenant against our "gut" feeling, because we needed the rent coming in quickly.

One of our tenants gave us some jam a few months ago, and when I emailed her last week to arrange signing a new lease, she offered me some more jam. She is just a nice lady.

We also never get any midnight calls about leaking taps, but I guess that is a risk anybody who self manages does take. The only late night calls we have had were when one tenant locked herself out twice (about 10pm or so), knew we had a spare key and lived a few streets away. We were happy to answer the door, hand over the spare and get it back the next day.

Having said all that, I believe it is because we are good landlords, fix things promptly and treat our tenants as we like to be treated that they are considerate of us too.

 

[willister]

We've always met them because we found them and self-managed. Since having three leases due the week my mother passed away, we handed it all over to an agent to find the tenant in exchange for a week's rent plus GST, and since then we have decided to do that each time.

We still have the final say on who we accept and we do meet the tenants because we take over the management immediately they sign up.

We've never had any trouble in all the years we have been landlords. We've had a few crook tenants, but mostly when we accepted a tenant against our "gut" feeling, because we needed the rent coming in quickly.

One of our tenants gave us some jam a few months ago, and when I emailed her last week to arrange signing a new lease, she offered me some more jam. She is just a nice lady.

We also never get any midnight calls about leaking taps, but I guess that is a risk anybody who self manages does take. The only late night calls we have had were when one tenant locked herself out twice (about 10pm or so), knew we had a spare key and lived a few streets away. We were happy to answer the door, hand over the spare and get it back the next day.

Having said all that, I believe it is because we are good landlords, fix things promptly and treat our tenants as we like to be treated that they are considerate of us too.

Residential tenants in most cases seem easier to deal with.

Retail tenants like shopfronts on the other hand are an absolute nightmare to deal with in general.

When I played the resi game, was quite easy to manage these guys though we did have a couple of bad ones.

When it comes to commercial - we had one which we thoroughly checked and cleansed - or so we had thought....was a real pain in the behind and in the end, luckily the lease ran out and she didnt renew.

 

[Scott No Mates]

Just a general question, but are most MAs oblidged to do this? A bit off topic, but once we had brought our own tradie in to do a paint job, the MA's own painter was too expensive but the MA refused to accompany us to the site.

Secondly, there was a time when there was a plumbing issue - MA rang us up and told us to go visit the site ourselves to see the problem. I thought is was a bit strange considering we've hired him as a MA.

It depends on what you've engaged the agency to do. It is in your interest to inspect. The agent doesn't need to tell the tenant who you are.

 

[John M]

I wouldn't recommend revealing yourself to the tenant - just inspect the property pretending to be a customer. Your relationship with the tenant is purely business - don't give them your number, don't befriend them.

Our office has owners who, against our recommendations, don't want to release tenants from their leases who are 4-5 months behind because they like the tenant and want to give them a chance to catch up (when realistically, everyone knows they have no hope of ever catching up).

I know my office goes above and beyond to do everything in the best interests of the owners, but many PMs will not. So definitely inspect the property yourself if possible.

Just my 2c.

Hope this helps somewhat.

 

[thatbum]

It sounds like I go against the trend but I actually go out of my way to meet my tenants in person.

I don't really understand why landlords think its a big deal to have direct contact with your tenants. In terms of being bugged by them, I just ask them to contact my agent directly for any issues, but they are welcome to CC me in if they want.

I think the main advantage of meeting your tenants is that there is at least some sort of actual personal connection there, so they are probably less likely to just trash your house etc.

 

[AlmostBob]

Just a general question, but are most MAs oblidged to do this? A bit off topic, but once we had brought our own tradie in to do a paint job, the MA's own painter was too expensive but the MA refused to accompany us to the site.

Secondly, there was a time when there was a plumbing issue - MA rang us up and told us to go visit the site ourselves to see the problem. I thought is was a bit strange considering we've hired him as a MA.

incompetence, incomplete tasks, illegality, are the average[sup]1[/sup] everyday agent. don't care as long as you keep paying the fee.
many posts about **expletive**-poor agents, less about good ones, but if you ask maybe one of those on the board, and in the area, will share their good one's contact details with you

1: the average is bad, means that half of them are worse than that, but half of them are better

 

[bump]

I also like to meet my tenants and give them my contact detailsbut not facebook. I think many forget that property is about people and relationships are very important.

 

[Scott No Mates]

I think many forget that property is about people and relationships are very important.

Bingo!!!

We expect real estate agents to have all the contacts, why don't we make our own?

 

[John M]

I think the main advantage of meeting your tenants is that there is at least some sort of actual personal connection there, so they are probably less likely to just trash your house etc.

Good point.

I also agree with you in that the tenant can have your email address but not your phone number - you are paying the PM to sort out their problems after all, they should not be calling you directly.