Have you ever rented a place sight unseen?

[ElscottHavoc]

I'm asking this as a landlord, not a tenant.

I'm assuming there might be some military guys who have been relocated, but anyone is free to input.

I've got numerous local applications for a rental property I have listed, but this time I have a couple very promising out of state tenants who are highly qualified on paper, one of which passed my screenings with flying colors, but both will not actually see the property except for maps and pictures until move in date.

One individual works for a contracting company that moves him from location to location as necessary on 2 year contracts and he actually would prefer signing a 2 year lease.

The other is an individual in the military who claims his wife is pregnant and is being relocated here to Central IA. Its a bit of a drive to Camp Dodge - about an hour from the house, but I'm presenting (from pictures and phone) the best property to raise a baby in their budget. I haven't verified the story completely on him, but assuming he checks out fine on a thorough screening I'd love to help him out and know I'm providing quality.

The question I have is, besides what they request via email or phone conversations, what can I do as a Landlord to both protect myself, how should long distance lease signings been handled, and if you were the Tenant, what would you appreciate me to do as a Landlord to make the process as smooth as possible?

In the past, I've always thrown out out of state tenants because they had sketchy apps to begin with, but these two are promising.

Cliffs: have out of state tenants wanting to lease sight unseen. How to progress? Any scams I should be aware of?

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[Coiled03]

Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems as though as long as your lease is well written, and covers you, it shouldn't really matter where a person moves from.

Other than than, if you think you've done your due dilligence, trust that that's good enough, and can't find any reason to toss them, I'd say it's worth the risk.

 

[HEMIHUNTER]

If the guy that works for the contractor gets a per diem kinda deal where his company send you a check every month I'd go with that.
Maybe the company would be responsible for any minor damages on move out as well

 

[thomas91169]

I moved into our place here in SD sight unseen. Asked the management company to send me more detailed pics and did my research on the area (streetview helps immensly). Our rent amount is insanely cheap for the area so I thought it was a scam/bullshittery or ghetto, but I got super lucky apparently and landed myself in probably one of the best locations I could ask for in terms of proximity to everything.

 

[65fastback2+2]

Just make sure you have the "As-Is" clause in your lease for them to sign that way anything they want changed or repaired becomes their problem.

 

[SonicDTR]

I rented an apartment sight unseen, but asked the hiring manager to go check it out for me. He thought it was decent, so I sent the money and moved in a week later, then started my new job the week after.