Things you need to consider before renting to your friends or family members

One of the main responsibilities of a property manager is to look for right tenants for the property he takes care of. In order to find right tenants a property manager has to follow some rules and regulations. As a property manager you may like to follow all the procedures needed before renting to a tenant. But a dilemma occurs when the person to whom you are going to rent  apartment  or property is someone from your family or friends’ circle. Yes, it is always easy to rent to friends and family members. But this may turn out to be a tough call for you as well whether to rent to your friends and family members. The reasons are mentioned below.

A property manager cannot but follow all the property management guidelines. Despite the fact that you do not compromise as far as following property management guidelines are concerned, you may have to compromise if you are to rent to your near ones. Being you family members or friends you know them better. Hence, you may do whatever it needs to rent to your family and friends. Besides, the person to whom you have rented or to whom you are going to rent your property may consider you to be close and expect special treatment from you. You may not mind providing your near ones with special treatment as well. But this is not fair. In fact, a professional property manager does not treat someone specially. He has to take care of all of his tenants with same attitude or mentality.

A property manager has to take immediate action if a tenant breaks one of the rules. But this may turn out to be quite tough for you to take strict action against a tenant if the tenant is someone from your family or friends’ circle. If you are to remain professional you have to tell your near ones that they will have to follow all the rules or you will take action against them. Besides, it is your duty to tell your friends or family members up front that they will not get any special treatment from you. You cannot but treat them like any other tenant for the sake of professionalism.

To conclude, it is always a good idea to think twice before doing a thing that may turn out to be a cause of headache for you. There is nothing easier for a property manager to rent an apartment to friends or family members. But it is one of the toughest decisions as well to rent to family and friends. However, if you are a professional property manager and if you have the required skill to handle your friends and family members like any other tenant then there is not anything to get concerned about.