Property Management – Van Nuys

 VAN NUYS PROPERTY MANAGEMENT

GRANADA HILLS PROPERTY MANAGEMENT

ENCINO PROPERTY MANAGEMENT

Get Great References Before Renting To A New Resident

Are you ready for a shocking statistic? The latest psychological data and anecdotal evidence is that a large percentage (some studies show it’s over 50%) of the general public in the U.S. is willing to tell lies. Sometimes people call them “white lies”, others rationalize them as “half truths”, but a lie is a lie. Depending on which organization or school of psychology I’ve contacted, I’ve learned that somewhere between 10 and 15% of the population in America are classified as sociopaths. A sociopath literally means someone who doesn’t mind causing suffering to society.

Some studies reveal that sociopaths respond to coping and dealing with others as if they didn’t have a conscience. In fact if you’re a property manager or owner you may benefit from reading Dr. Robert Hare’s book “Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us.” The book’s description includes the following, “Individuals with this personality disorder are fully aware of the consequences of their actions and know the difference between right and wrong, yet they are terrifyingly self-centered, remorseless, and unable to care about the feelings of others.

“Presenting a compelling portrait of these dangerous men and women based on 25 years of distinguished scientific research, Dr. Robert D. Hare vividly describes a world of con artists, hustlers, rapists, and other predators that charm, lie, and manipulate their way through life.” Now before you get paranoid these people are a small minority of the population. But a larger percentage are still willing to deceive, forge, and fabricate stories to get their needs met.

That’s why property managers need to do background checks and carefully screen the people they’re going to make residents in the buildings that they manage. You almost can’t be too careful. In a fascinating blog post about whether taking the word of prior landlords and property managers is enough to qualify someone as a resident, some of our readers sounded forth their voices of experience.

Conventional wisdom is to inquire with prospective tenants’ current or prior landlords, but are these folks always reliable sources of information? That answer to that question can prevent much suffering. A blog forum participant named Matt wrote the following: “Well yes most times and if you can go back additional landlords the info can even be better. The farther back landlords have actually done a final walk thru unlike a current landlord that friends out their tenant is moving because of a request.

“Current landlord may just want to get rid of a bad tenant so it can be tough. Hopefully you’re dealing with a decent person. Past landlords are usually straight forward.” A CPM named K. David responded by saying, “Worth nothing in my opinion. We do not do residency verification and rely on other independent verifications of credit, income and criminal history.”

K. David was, I believe saying that the past landlord’s opinion is worth little. I think he meant “we do residency verification and relay on other independent verifications of credit, income and criminal history”. Which speaks to the point: you must be thoroughly careful when screening potential residents! Don’t cut corners and verify all information.

Matt responded to K. David’s post by writing, “…that’s interesting do you have many evictions. We just denied someone who hadn’t hit the court registry however the landlord was in the process of recording the eviction the following day. “With that said everything checks out at 100% great when based on credit, income and criminal. I would have been dealing with a good tenant gone bad.

“I have never had to evict a tenant I have placed, and I believe it’s the extra steps we take that help keep our record.” Then it was K. David’s turn reply. “Of course not” was his answer to the question, “Do you have many evictions?” “Our collections are less than 1%. Despite our lack of prior LL [landlord] verification, it is still very difficult to rent from us.”

K. David went on to opine, “We would rather deny an applicant and maintain another 30 days vacancy than rent to whomever and lose 90 days + rent plus L&T fees on the back-end. Note we are a big fan of the proprietary scoring models used by the large screening firms serving our industry.” You get the picture just from that dialogue. The “large screening firms serving our industry” have a big investment in being very careful to avoid litigation and liability.

Consider them as regular participants in qualifying prospects as reliable, honest enough, credible members of your rental community. Cross every “T” and dot every “I”, and verify completely!

by Marc Courtenay

Since 1946 the Carnahan name has had a reputation for honest and ethical Real Estate Property Management services in the San Fernando Valley, Santa Clarita Valley, Burbank/Glendale, Los Angeles, Westside and Conejo Valley areas.

The reason for our success is helping owners like you when they need it. Below is a partial list of property management services we provide to help you protect your real estate investment.

• Tenant placement
• Tenant screening (including: credit check, landlord and employment verification, social security trace report, California eviction check and criminal check)
• Regular property inspections
• Accounting and landlord bill payment
• Monthly financial reporting
• Maintenance service and supervision (we use only proven independent vendors)
• Collections
• Evictions
• We supply all the necessary forms to meet California’s Landlord/Tenant laws
• 24 hour emergency phone service
• Advertising to the broadest tenant base possible

Call or e-mail us today for more information. We’re ready to get started!

• Carnahan Property Management services Woodland Hills,West Hills, Calabasas, Canoga Park, Tarzana, Reseda, Topanga, Encino, Northridge, Van Nuys,North Hills,Chatsworth, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, North Hollywood, West Hollywood, San Fernando Valley, Granada Hills, Mission Hills, Simi Valley, West Lake Village, Agoura,Toluca Lake, Valley Village, Burbank. Call us at (818) 884-1500 and check if we can service your area.