We Are Unable to Offer You The Property

Protecting Yourself and Your Rental Property

Benjamin Gene is the President of KPM,

and has over a decade of industry experience

Rising property values and a smaller inventory of affordable starter homes have led to a boom in the rental market. Few places can boast as strong a market as South Florida, where great rental opportunities get filled as quickly as they come up for rent.

This has led to a situation where landlords or agents get themselves into trouble with Fair Housing Practices in the way that they turn down prospective rental applicants. Today's guest post comes from Benjamin Gene, President of Keyes Property Management with a word of advice on how to do this and make sure you don't open yourself up to potential liability.

I’d like to discuss declining tenants for a rental. As some of us have seen, there are now “Professional Tenants” who will call around to speak with agents or owners of rental listings to try and trip them up on Fair Housing issues before suing them for breach of those laws.

What I would like to do today is tell you how to legally decline a prospective tenant. It’s actually very simple. Simply state, “I’m sorry. We are not able to offer you the property at this time.” No matter their response, including when they ask why, repeat the phrase again.

This way, you don’t open up any avenues to allow them to claim that you violated any Fair Housing laws. They may get frustrated at your insistence on repeating that phrase, but it will protect you or the owners from violations.

Additionally, at MyRentalScreening.com, KPM will provide owners and agents with a summary page of why a tenant has been declined. This is based on criteria that they agree to prior to filling out the application. The only reason you must put in writing why you decline a tenant is for credit reasons. You do this by providing an Adverse Action letter. At MyRentalScreening.com, we provide you with this letter. Remember, the only thing to say is, “I’m sorry. We are not able to offer you the property at this time.”

Keyes Luxury Report Gives Insights into High End Markets in South Florida

From the Sun Sentinel 

The luxury market in South Florida is unique in many ways. The defining characteristics of this rarified set of properties have led to "what luxury real estate agents are happily calling one of South Florida's best price and sales surges in recent memory."

Leading the way in bringing this information to the public eye, The Keyes Company's Luxury Market Report demonstrated a few of the reasons for this boom - when other cities might not be undergoing the same increase in sales of their own high-end listings.

Check out insights into the mind of Keyes' Vice President of Luxury, Kevin Leonard, and why this trend might continue here.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/fl-bz-south-florida-luxury-home-market-spikes-20180718-story.html#

Keyes Wellington welcomes Realty Elite agents!

Keyes increases Wellington market share with new acquisition.

The brokerage just finished a closing on the purchase of Realty Elite The Palm Beaches over in Wellington. The company founded by David Lopez back in 2007 had closed on $92 million in sales for 2016. 

The Keyes Company President/ CEO Mike Pappas (Left) and Realty Elite founder David Lopez (Right)

This deal will be adding 64 new agents to The Keyes Company, adding to the other expansions that The Keyes Company has also acquired Bluffs Real Estate of Jupiter and two local offices of Colorado-based Shorewood Real Estate. 

Benefits to this will be that Realty Elite agents will be working out of the Keyes Wellington office, removing the cost of operating two different offices. 

Read more here!

South Florida Bucks the National Retail Trend.

With the company expanding effortlessly and paired with the convenience of it, Amazon is starting to become the top choice when it comes to shopping.

The beginning of 2017 saw many business start to scale down their operations, with stores like Sears, JC Penny, and Macy's closing several of their stores. While other companies are completely shutting their doors, South Florida is still appears to be the spot for retail stores.

Areas like Bal Harbour and Wynwood keep up with heavy foot traffic that allows for these stores to remain in operation. Because of the surrounding atmosphere, shoppers that are having a good time are likely to be in a better mood to browse through the stores.

Read the rest here!