Adding tenants on facebook!

[Charlie Moore]

Tenants add me on FB

- do I accept?

Why or why not?

Thanks again guys

[Kyle J.]

I don't have Facebook but if I did I wouldn't do it.  Why would you want your tenants to see all your personal info, family, vacation photos, etc?  No good can come from it.  

[Dennis M.]

Geez no way ! Look You should be professional and have a separate account . One for business and a private one for friends and family . It’s okay to be friendly with tenants .. however it’s not okay to actually be friends .  

[Ned J.]

Hell no...... I don't want them within my personal life in any way shape or form. If you want to use FB for your business, then have a separate account for that and allow tenants to be "friends" on that page..... but NO WAY on my personal account.

[Charlie Moore]

@Dennis M.

Wow! This is a hard pill to swallow but so true

[Nick C.]

This is the most emphatic NO I've ever given here on BP. Every piece of advice on this website is debatable, but I can't imagine anyone would advise this would be a good idea. 

[Charlie Moore]

@Nick C.

So true. Every piece of advice seems to be very debatable on this damn forum lol

Except for this one!!!

[Sylvia B.]

I have applicants try to friend me on Facebook. No way! I do have a few former tenants on my friend list, but not current ones. Well, except for the ones who were friends before they were tenants. (Yes, I know, don't rent to friends or family, but it works for us.)

[Account Closed]

That’s a big heck no.  I don’t even tell my tenants my last name.  I’m Eric C to them and in correspondence.  Heck I have friends that I don’t want them to see my vacation pictures let alone a tenant. 

[Charlie Moore]

@Eric C.

What do you do when they ask for ya last name?

[David Stumpf]

Originally posted by @Charlie Moore:

@Eric C.

What do you do when they ask for ya last name?

 "I will no longer be Homer J. Simpson.  From this day forward I will known as Homer Jay Simpson"

[Matt M.]

@Charlie Moore

In the past (I’m no longer on fb), when I’ve gotten requests from tenants, I would text them and explain that I keep business and personal life separate. They understand and there’s no hard feelings. But it’s a big NO.

[Account Closed]

Originally posted by @Charlie Moore:

@Eric C.

What do you do when they ask for ya last name?

Never happened.  I run a business and use a business name.  Even if someone asked me I’d ignore it deflect it or just flat out refuse.  

[Account Closed]

Originally posted by @David Stumpf:

Originally posted by @Charlie Moore:

@Eric C.

What do you do when they ask for ya last name?

 "I will no longer be Homer J. Simpson.  From this day forward I will known as Homer Jay Simpson"

Lol

[Anthony Wick]

@Charlie Moore

Negative. Unless your Facebook page is a page strictly for your business. Do not be friends with tenants. Rule 1.

[Charlie Moore]

@Eric C.

Fool. You need your last name to take them to court

[Shiva Bhaskar]

This is why owning through an LLC is nice. I'd love to see the tenant add 4125 Secret Landlord LLC, or some similar name, on Facebook.

[Nick Giulioni]

I wouldn’t. There needs to be a line between you and tenants.

[Account Closed]

Originally posted by @Charlie Moore:

@Eric C.

Fool. You need your last name to take them to court

Not when I have a business LLC. My name does not go on court documents at all. EVER.

There’s a million things in life you learn as you go on.  Me being insanely private is one of them.  

[Ryan Sajdera]

Please, don't add your tenants on facebook. This is a terrible idea. Especially if things go south.

[Heather Schmidtknecht]

@Charlie Moore, I would not. However, I do like looking up prospective tenants on Facebook — many of their pages give you a good idea about how they conduct themselves.

[Matt McConkey]

@Charlie Moore I had a tenant message me on FB asking if was the one who owned XXXX property (we have property management in place.)

I didn't respond, nor do I plan on doing it.

As others have mentioned, no good can come of it.

[Account Closed]

@Charlie Moore I would not. My 1 friend who is a landlord accepted a tenants friend request and through this he found out the tenant got a new puppy (lease states no pets at all) so sucked for her and worked out for him hahaha.

[Charlie Moore]

@Heather Schmidtknecht

Isn’t that discriminatory

[Caleb Heimsoth]

@Charlie Moore pretty much every time you lost asking one of these types of questions...just do the opposite. You’ll do so much better.

Want to add tenants on FB? Don’t do it.

Don’t want to pay that 2000 dollar water bill? Sorry, you have to pay it.

Hire an employee who flirts with your tenants? Don’t do it!

Bonus scenario: Rent to a person with multiple evictions, low credit? Don’t do it!

You get the idea

[Amy Beth]

@Charlie Moore. You need to keep a professional relationship with your tenants. Do not even think about adding them on Facebook. There is not any upside to doing it. Plus if something goes wrong such as they think you have not made a repair fast enough or they decide to stop paying the rent, they could message your family and friends to complain about you.

I would not only not accept the request, I would make sure that all of your posts are set to be for friends only and that your about section is friends only too (not for public) and I would block them. Then I would either text or email them to let them know that you noticed their friend request but that you have a policy to not friend your tenants because you want to keep the relationship professional.