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Hi all,
I own a Condo in North Jersey and my tenant is moving out unexpectedly. I am out of state at the moment and need to replace the tenant. I prefer to meet, interview and screen the potential tenants myself but since i am out of town and the current tenant is breaking her lease and moving sooner than expected, i am thinking of using a broker. It will be my first time listing my apartment with one and wondering if you have any suggestions as to what i should look out for and if anything goes wrong (for example if i decide not to use him/her for any reason during the process i.e lack of communication or if he/she keeps presenting me unqualified tenants) can i just quit the agent? Would i own him/her anything? I understand i have to sign an agreement with them but i haven't received the contract. Thank you for your advice !
I have used a realtor friend a couple of times to find tenants but usually find my own. She told me something interesting - finding tenants is not something realtors really want to do. It can be a big nuisance and often isn't worth the money. They'll often decline the job or only do it for friends or for previous/potential clients. So don't expect them to be competing for this task.
I have no experience with apartment brokers. That may be a different story.
Does your town have much of a social media scene? In Maplewood/South Orange, I would post vacancies on a couple of community Facebook pages and often found great tenants who were friends of folks from the neighborhood. But everyone is just a few degrees of separation in M/SO. Maybe not the same in a bigger town. Once you've found a prospective tenant, have the realtor/broker do the background and reference checks for you for a fee.
Also, I was in the same situation once. I was out of state for the winter. My tenant and her boyfriend broke up and she told me she would have to break the lease and move out. I offered to cut the rent in half if she would stay until I returned in the spring. She agreed and it worked out great. Yes, I lost some money, but I didn't have to worry about dealing with the transition from out of state.
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