What’s taking so long?!
At Van Binsbergen & Associates, Inc., there are five occupancy specialists; Brenda L., Brenda K., Darcie, Joan, and myself (Robyn). The question, “what’s taking so long?!” is fired at us quite frequently. On occasion it makes us cringe because we’ve been struggling to get the needed paperwork and references. Most often, quite honestly, we roll our eyes.
There are many landlords who show you the unit, take your cash and you’re a new tenant within hours. There are many landlords who do only a cursory check, take your cash and you’re a new tenant within a day. We understand you may have had such a landlord in the past, and we also know you might have such a landlord in the future. Van Binsbergen and Associates, Inc. is not such a landlord.
Please don’t misunderstand, we’ll work to get you into your new home as quickly as feasible but we follow a whole different system than most. No matter what type of property, every individual looking for a home under our management is required to complete an application. We run a background and credit check on every adult applicant. This is the most basic of steps and it protects our tenants and our properties.
If it is a market rate property with no fuss funding. After landlord and personal reference checks, you’re pretty much good to go. Please keep in mind, we have no control over when or if your references return our calls. It is up to you to give them warning.
Market rate properties with minimal fuss funding, we’ll do all of the above with some simple income or asset verification. Again, we really have no control over how long this takes. We can call and badger until we’re blue but if companies don’t want to cooperate with our requests, it takes longer and more work is required of you.
If you’re applying for any government subsidized housing, HUD, RD, or Tax Credit, it’s going to take longer. With everything from eligibility to rent based on income, maybe child care expenses or medical expenses, more verifications are required, and suddenly you’re waiting on more people. Again, we make the calls to keep things moving forward but there is no magic involved when trying to get the needed paperwork.
I recently had one individual who held their application for three weeks, turned it in on a Tuesday and needed the place by Friday. This has happened time and again to all of the people in our office. Although this is completely obvious, it bears repeating, the first step to getting an apartment, is you. If I don’t have an application, I can’t complete even one task to get you into your new place. This is one time the cloying cliché, help me to help you, is startlingly apt!
