Landlord Nixes Security Deposits, Opts for Good Tenant Bonus

Advanced Realty Team, Inc., a Dunedin, Florida real estate brokerage firm, says it will be doing away with security deposits. Instead, the company is introducing a new concept called the Good Tenant Bonus.

Typically tenants are called on to pay the first months rent in advance and provide a similar amount for a security deposit as well as paying the rent for the last month prior to moving in.

The basic concept is a good one, but we feel is out of date in the current economic slump and we also think that todays renters are really a different mix of people, said George Beardsley, President-Broker of Advanced.

Cash is hard to come by today and many of todays renters are people who were home owners a few years ago and suffered a foreclosure in many cases because of predatory banking practices, not because of bad planning or intemperate spending on their part, he said.

“These are good people looking for a rental where they will be treated fairly and our new program, I believe, does that,” Beardsley said.

Instead of first, last and security, Advanced will be asking tenants to make an initial payment of what amounts to first and last and it is termed the rent for the first month, the firm stated.

That means for a home that would rent for $1,000 the move in is $2,000, rather than $3,000. The normal rent is due on the appropriate day of each succeeding month including the 12th month of a year-long lease.

The Good Tenant Bonus is awarded following twelve months if the home is returned in the same or better condition as when it was rented, the firm said.

In addition, in order to earn the bonus, the tenant must make at last ten of the 12 monthly payments on time, the firm stated.

For the tenant it is less money to get into the home and for the landlord it does provide protection against damage as well as an additional incentive to make payments on time.

Advanced is a small boutique real estate brokerage firm specializing in buying houses fast and in the current market Advanced even has program for buying homes that are over financed, under water and even in some cases they will buy houses in foreclosure and over financed.

The housing market collapse shifted much of Advanced’s operations to buying house for the purpose of renting.

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