All Forum Posts by: Roy Nash

@Steve Vaughan agreed.  I have tightened my screening criteria as well and since I cant raise rent I am not offering leases either.   I have turned down tenants wanting to renew leases.    I did let one tenant out of a lease and was able to raise rent $250.   Inslee definitely opened my eyes.  My tightened criteria will remain even after the pandemic subsides.

Here in Spokane, Washington the Multi Family Market is blistering hot.   Inslee's order has not stopped anyone from making offers.  With that said, I am also trying to buy and have an offer out currently.  However I am also asking that the seller verify the Rental Amounts, when they were last raised, AND VERY IMPORTANT, If Tenants are current and record of rental payments by date and amount for 2020.    Due to the Governor's order you may be stuck with these tenants for quite some time yet!  I believe he will extend the order for probably a few more months near the end of Dec 2020, and then again after that in 2021.  My plans include no Rental Raises until at least Mid 2021.   Not sure if that helps you, but the moratorium will not last forever and you will eventually be able to raise rents and be able to evict non performing tenants probably by mid 2021 in my projection.  Also note that the Order does allow Evictions with 60 day notice in the event of a sale.   I personally don't want to be a party to an eviction of people that have been impacted through no fault of their own ,  so I have not considered that option for my offers.  However it is a potential if you see a property and want the chance to pick your own tenants or be able to raise rents to Market rates before the order expires.

@Nicky Reader.  I do almost exactly the same procedure.  If they tell the truth up front rarely do I need to take their money for screening and then turn them down.   It can slow you down though if you end up not accepting the one you thought you were going to approve!

@Catherine Emert.  I like your number 2.   When I was in high school over 40 years ago, we had a career speaker who said you can't achieve your goals is you don't set any goals!   That was probably the best piece of advice I have ever received and I still say that to myself everytime I get complacent.  Its amazing how many of these goals I actually accomplish when I actually set them!   Of course realistic but stretch goals are the best not some pie in the sky goal.   Thanks

I just had another opening and used Zillow and Facebook Market Place again.    I would say I got about 10X more response on Facebook Market Place and ultimately picked the tenant from these prospects.   It does seem like you get a lot of tire kickers that ask if its available then don't respond further when you respond and invite them to ask questions or ask them to provide a phone number for a conversation but honestly I had the same issue with the Zillow applicants.    One Bigger Pocket person commenting earlier they finally just scheduled and open house.  I did this as well and this apparently pressured the ones I had on the hook and I actually was able to rent it before the open house.    I did have the Facebook Tenant   apply through the Zillow App process which I like.   I think however this is my last free Zillow Ad as they will start charging in my area however I was not really impressed with the low number of responses on Zillow for whatever reason.  Facebook Marketplace could and should improve their interface as it is somewhat chaotic.  However with all that said, in the future I will once again use both Zillow (despite the fee) and Facebook Market Place.     

Last opening I used Facebook and Zillow.  Both platforms delivered more prospects than I could even answer.   The one I chose came from Zillow on day 1.    What I did like about Facebook is being able to look at their Facebook Profile to see what type of background I might be dealing with.  What I liked about Zillow was the built in application /screening feature.  Many people were sending me prescreens before I even asked for them.   It would have cost me $10 to rent the place.   Nothing really and well worth it.  I will list with FB and Zillow again next time.

Thanks all for all the great info and tips!    @kevin McGuire Yes I do like that about FB.   I did go into the backgrounds of the most promising candidates...  @Kyle J.  Yes I did have receive applications checked.  But I did not know they could apply for 30 days.  That makes me feel better! @Christopher Reader yes I have heard about the watermark idea but have not done it and thanks for the tips on that

Thanks all for all the great info and tips!    @kevin McGuire Yes I do like that about FB.   I did go into the backgrounds of the most promising candidates...  @Kyle J.  Yes I did have receive applications checked.  But I did not know they could apply for 30 days.  That makes me feel better! @Christopher Reader yes I have heard about the watermark idea but have not done it and thanks for the tips on that

Hi All.   Some really great comments.   I really do like Zillow.   It was nice to get some unsolicited Applications and screenings.  However even though I liked it, and actually the person i rented to was an unsolicited applicant, next time I am actually going to request that they NOT submit the application unless I specifically ask them to.   I hate to ask people to spend their $29 when I could tell by a simple text they are not qualified.   I had at least 5 or 6 people do that and I just dont think it is right for them to spend their money unless I seriously thought they were good.     This is the 2nd time I have successfully used Zillow and will stick with them but I have been hearing reports of Zillow charging in certain markets.  I have been a little leary about getting addicted to Zillow but I have to admit it was extremely convenient and took a lot of the screening work out of the process.

@Lee Ripma.  I put a property up 3 days ago at what I thought was an aggressive price.  Unbelievable FB response.  Lots did not respond when I sent something but still with so may even if just 10% were good I had way too many decent candidates to even consider just from FB.  Ultimately I did rent in to one off Zillow.  The interface was just so much smoother and easier to use.   I have had rentals since 2003 and this is the first time I screened almost exclusively with texts and emails.  only had 3 phone calls after texts.  So much better.  I was actually screening people just to offer a showing.  showed it once and it rented but texted a lot of great candidates.    With the response I received I obviously was low on price and I thought I was aggressive.  I look at Zillow and Trulia adds every single day for at least the last 2 years and monitor craigslist about 1 week and use Rentometer.  I thought I knew the market!