Lately I’ve been expanding my business and handling some rental properties for clients. The bit of extra money adds up, and rentals are extremely important transactions for both the tenants and landlords. I feel very good about the people I’ve gotten into the rental properties and after the SIP I was able to get two nice families into homes.
I had an excellent start to 2020 with four sales in the first six weeks. I was getting listings ready for the market when the virus began to become of great concern in early March. It was about March 2nd when I turned to one of my co-workers and told her, “We are all f@cked.” She didn’t want to hear it but I knew it was going to be important to work through whatever was ahead of us, and rentals were a part of that for my business plan.
I already had a rental listing in Mill Valley which we put on the market in December at $5,000/month. The market was not bearing the price so on February 10th we lowered the price to $4,500/month and on 2/27/20 we thought we found an excellent tenant. After signing the lease he decided not to put down his deposit and we ended up cancelling it. We were back on the market entering one of the very worst times in history. Another outstanding prospect stepped up soon after the Shelter In Place and she almost signed a lease but got COVID feet. Not to be confused with my TOEVID big toe, COVID feet is the 2020 version of cold feet as it pertains to backing out due to virus concerns.
It took until 4/13/20 to get the current tenant into the home, and I didn’t even meet her and her family until the move in date. Because of the SIP order when I got the call from the tenant to see the property instead of meeting her there I gave her the lockbox code and asked her to show the property to herself. I could tell she was as relieved to not see me as I was not to see her. Nobody had been in the property is several days so we assumed it was okay. We talked about the appropriate PPE and she assured me they’d bring protection. She loved the house except for one thing. The upstairs was like a loft area had no door for privacy. This had been an objection for several prospective tenants and my client decided to put in a wall and door if the tenant would sign the lease. I contacted one of my contractors who made the improvement to the property and we got ourselves a new tenant who is a great fit for the home! The next time the house needs to be rented it will be easier because of this upgrade.
The moral of this story is to be flexible when renting your home. Don't be afraid to reduce the price and/or make a change to the house. It makes financial sense to be flexible, especially in this market.