All Forum Posts by: Russell John Walsh

It stands to reason that my polite insistence that the applicant review the listing to make sure all adults and pets will meet the minimum requirements before making an appointment has something to do with this trend. That's a good thing, of course.

I am wondering if the way I am offering the open houses in the listing can't be tweaked to make sure it does not discourage demand from people who could qualify. 

It's tempting to ignore any first contact  Zillow messages that don't have some level of the person positively initiating qualifying above and beyond a minimum request for a tour. The best applicants seem to always do this. 

Chad, I guess for a lot of people it's like me going to the online fishing tackle stores and filling the carts up the closing the site and never going back!

I had a sense that what you are saying comes into play, Dena. Drunk Real Estate is the perfect phrase for it. 

This is the second time I have used Zillow to list my property. The last time Was 18 months ago.

After a day, or so, of responses from verifiably real people, with a balance of male and female applicants, I get a steady stream of almost all females who ask for a tour but never respond to my answer, which works perfectly well for the first half a dozen responses. Also, unlike early respondents, they rarely offer an application, or any other financial information, just the request for a tour.  The same pattern emerged the last time I used Zillow. I did get a good tenant, and I probably will this time, but It seems like a waste of time to keep responding to these, and honestly, I am just wondering what this is about. 

This is how I am responding. Like I said in the first day, or so,  it sets up a good opening conversation with prospective tenants. 

Thank you for your interest in our rental home, Please review the listing to make sure all adults applying would meet the criteria and that pets would also. If you have any questions please let us know.
Then, if you would like to make an appointment, there will be an open house by appointment Sunday 1/9/2021.
For everyone's sake, we are going by strict appointment, approximately 1/2 hour. Would you please let me know if you are available between 1:00 and 4:00 PM on Sunday 1/9/2021 so that we can schedule an appointment? Thank you

That's what makes sense, Russell, thank you. 

Is this a thing? I have a person wanting to verify income with last year's tax returns I am assuming 2020 filed in 2021. They also said they could show me proof with Quickbooks?  Can someone say if that's normal, and how I would go about qualifying a person off of that?  

Thank you, 

Russell

I only have one unit and have come to count on Zillow. I won't touch Craigslist. There are enough time wasters on Zillow, but it's a better platform for setting conditions. Craigslist seems just too good for finding people casing houses, of course, there are good ones, but I feel Zillow gives me a jump on separating them with less exposure to flat-out bad guys. Never tried Facebook and I don't see a need to branch out. 

Thank you, is that pretty standard at 45? I really will have to stick to common practices here. I can't imagine one can service this debt and pay a normal rent on the income I mentioned. 

So, I need to ask this applicant how much it cost her per month to pay this debt?  Kind of crappy that the screening didn't show monthly payments, or even state exactly what the installment obligations are. 

Hello,

Applicant has 75K professional income and Installment debt over nearly 400K. I am assuming this is mostly Student loans and possibly a car. I wish there was more info on the Credit report. Revolving  debt of only 8k , no assets. Very high credit score, everything else super clean. 

No payment info. I understand that student loans could have deferment, or soft terms, but I haven't breached the topic with the applicant and want to get feedback from here first, if possible. 

Is it red flag for and A property SFH with no problem getting tenants.

Skip troweled texture  is very easy to make repairs on. No spray equipment like with some others. Orange peel is outdated in my area , and so is knock down, but I guess that doesn't matter in low end units. I wouldn't do smooth walls on any rental or even  my own house, which is has the skip troweled texture. 

I read into this proposed bill. Looks like it would be something like an  "Illegal taking". I agree it shouldn't pass.   Anyway it looks like some kind of guideline for  "balancing hardships" in a disputed eviction. 10 properties or more owned,  and it would have to be proved that the landlord didn't need the money. Other items in the proposed bill  made it a lot less scary to me. It was part of a bill that included foreclosure issues. Probably get cleaned out of the ridiculous stuff.