Jun 30
We do all the normal screening stuff such as CCAP, proof of income, proof of current address, requiring a government issued picture ID – without an ID they can give you any name and all of your screening will fail, etc.
When it looks like a tenant is acceptable on paper, then we break out our super tool: A home visit to their listed current address without an appointment. (If you set an appointment they will be at mom’s house to meet you)
We reject close to one in four with this final step. They don’t live there, a couple of times the address they gave was a vacant lot, they have a pit bull larger than my manager, all the screens are pushed out from the inside, the yard and house is less clean and orderly than the local dump, there is no furniture, just a flop house for druggies, etc.
Your application needs to let the applicants know in advance you will be doing this. Our language in bold at the end of the authorization to pull credit and talk to prior landlords is:
” I understand that Affordable Rental Associates, LLC will verify my current residence in person”
Jun 20
Since yesterday’s post on Milwaukee rent stats I’ve spoken to a number of people, both landlords and tenant advocates, who felt rents had significantly increased in Milwaukee over the past couple of years.
I took a look at this using Rent-O-Meter’s rent analytic tool. (I highly recommend this tool for accurately setting residential rents) In moderately priced neighborhoods both on the Southside and Northwest, their data is showing that for two bedroom units rents have actually dropped quite a bit from 2016. Three bedroom unit rents remain stable.
Not sure what to attribute this to. There has been a softening of occupancy levels over the past year or so, which nearly always causes price corrections. No money/low money mortgages are reappearing. That temporarily drives up vacancies, but as we saw in 2008, that bubble pops.
Rent-o-Meter data NW Milwaukee
Jun 17
5-Day Notice, Act 143 Omnibus Bill, ATCP 134, Collections, Evictions, Fair Housing, HUD, Leases & Rental Agreements, Maintenance & Repairs, Resources, Security Deposit, Support Animals, Tenant Responsibilities, Tenant Screening, WI L/T law
I had seen this years ago and then forgot about it until I ran into it this morning while searching for something.
A real wealth of info, of course much of it slanted towards tenants rights. Some of it is outdated, such as the eviction notice grid does not contain 5 Day Breach for Month to Month.
We should work to get eviction prevention (very different than eviction defense) as part of this, as well as more tenant responsibility focused pieces.
Eviction prevention is providing the resources and tools necessary for tenants to succeed. When tenants fail, landlords suffer or fail.
http://wilawlibrary.gov/topics/landlord.php
