How do I show my rental right now amid coronavirus?

Question

How do I show my rental right now amid coronavirus? I have current tenants. In my lease I say two months before the end of a lease I check in to see if they want to re-sign for a year or let me advertise/show the place. Given the current situation, I don't know what I should do if they don't want to renew. First and foremost, I personally don't want to show the property and would need to hire someone to do so.

Dion DePaoli · Answer

Just as an add on to this, Illinois just revoked any type of showing on investment properties with tenants. The Zoom meeting is not a bad idea but would think that has it's issues with the tenants complying. Perhaps look into have a professional do a virtual walk through. That way you can give the tenants time to tiddy up and you only send one individual to the unit to which the tenants could go out for a walk or drive, etc to avoid contact.

I suspect, more states will start looking at the same type of protocol as Illinois with tenant occupied property so stay in tune with your local rules.

Brie Schmidt · Answer

@Zee D. this was just announced yesterday in Illinois

Illinois DCEO Says Open Houses are Not Allowed

Today, the Illinois Dept of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) has added language pertaining to real estate as an essential service to the official DCEO guidance on Essential Businesses and Operations FAQs.

Are real estate open houses and showings permitted? According to DCEO, it depends.

• Open houses are not permitted.
• Showings of occupied rental properties are not permitted.
• Showings of vacant or owner-occupied units are permitted if necessary and scheduled in advance (virtual showings are preferred) but limited to no more than 4 people.

Zee D. · Answer

Thank you everyone for your input. From the different boards I posted to, I've put together the following plan:

First ask if they would like to sign a new lease. If there is hesitation, tell them I totally understand and can do a two month only extension for now if they are interested in moving but not right now. If they want to move at the end of their lease, I'll ask them if we can host zoom visits to keep everyone safe. I'll still need someone to do the checkout and if the tenants want to be present, to stand back 6 feet. I can schedule the checkout for a few days after they leave so that coronavirus on surfaces is no longer an issue. Then, if needed, send in a cleaning crew before allowing new people to move in.

Jamie Bateman · Answer

Agree with @Andrew Powers. Your current tenants may very well want to stay put. Seems you may be stressing over a non-issue.

Andrew Powers · Answer

Ask them if they want to renew... seems like the logical next step. If they dont want to renew, look at Zillow. People are doing virtual showings on their houses. If your tenants dont feel comfortable having you in there take pics or video, have them do it and give them a few bucks I'm return. If they dont want to do that, use old pics from when you rented it out to the current tentant. If dont have old pics, provide something on else of value that a potential tenant would want to see or understand when looking at a house.

Joe Martella · Answer

The tenants may baulk at you showing their property and in this situation I wouldn’t blame them. If you are concerned showing the property yourself, how can you expect tenants to allow strangers who may or may not have this virus? I would imagine that the tenants don’t make the property available.

I just listed a rental property. The market right now is very slow. No one is going anywhere and I would imagine that prospective tenants don’t want to go into other people’s homes that may expose them.

Perhaps you just extend the lease a couple months until this quiets down. This will move the tenants decision point unless they love your property and don’t want to move.

How do I show my rental right now amid coronavirus?

How do I show my rental right now amid coronavirus?

Most Popular Reply

6 Replies