Whenever you’re negotiating a lease, as a landlord you’re trying to get the most amount of money you can out of the tenant, and as a tenant you’re trying to pay the least amount of money possible for the property. In the end, as in any successful lease negotiation, both parties will arrive at an agreement that will be somewhere between both of their wildest dreams.
But as a landlord, what are your most important considerations? You ideally want to get as much rent as you can for the property you’ll be renting, but you’ll also want to make sure that the tenant is someone you can really rely on to pay the rent. So you’ll want to obtain financial information on your prospective tenant, which may involve getting a credit report and/or a financial statement on them. But there’s one thing you can do that may be even more important than this—and that is speaking to their previous landlords.
Getting all the information on their financial history is definitely a solid idea, but you’ll really want to talk to the people who have already been their landlord–because this is the same kind of relationship that you, too will be entering into with them. With this in mind, people tend to exhibit the same kind of behavior they’ve exhibited in the past, whenever they’re entering into similar relationships in the future. So talking to both their current and previous landlords can give you some solid insight into what you can expect from them.
But make sure you go beyond just talking to their current landlord, because if this one landlord is sick and tired of having this tenant in their property, they may not want to tell you about the bad experiences they’ve had with the tenant, because they’ll want the tenant to just vacate their property and move into yours. So if you can, talk to their current landlord, and talk to one or two of their previous landlords, too.
Now on the other side of the coin, as a tenant, in addition to negotiating the terms of your lease, you’ll definitely want to be certain that your landlord is someone who will abide by the lease terms, too. So before signing the lease, it may be wise for you to talk with some of the landlord’s other tenants also. With this in mind, if you’ll be moving into a multi-tenant building, this can be very easy to do. Just walk over to some of the other units, tell the tenants there that you’re considering moving into the building, and ask them if they’re happy with how their landlord is treating them. Ask them if their landlord has been doing a good job of maintaining the property, and responding to their calls whenever something needs to be fixed. Because some landlords really love collecting their rent every month, but they’re not nearly as excited about fixing and maintaining the property.
So whether you’re a landlord or a tenant, there are some steps you can take to ensure that the next principal you’ll be signing a lease with will be someone you’ll actually want to be in business with.
Do your homework and talk to the people who have already been doing business with them. Because everything may seem great within their outer presentation to you, but the truth is really in what others have to say about their own experience in working with them.