Shampoo & Booze 30: What If My Property Gets Trashed??!!!

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Our friend, Caty, has a beautiful rental in Seattle. Her design and care make it look like the home is  straight out of a magazine. As a smart single mom, she timed the property market right, worked extremely hard and bought this rental house to make extra income.

We know Caty from our other life as Scavengers (listen to our other interview with her here) where we all find cool items in the wild and sell them online for great profit. Check out her store!

So it was a huge surprise when she messaged us several months ago about experiencing the nightmare we all hope will never happen. Some teenagers sneakily rented her house, threw a huge party and trashed the place. A couple hundred drinking kids ruined the carpets and furniture, angered the neighbors and set in motion weeks of expensive cleaning and renovation.

Caty told us the entire story of how these kids were able to get around the rules and rent her house. We hear about her dealings with the police, the parents, the property management company. The good news is that she was quick enough to minimize the damage, figure out who was responsible for paying the bills and got her house back on the market as quick as possible.

Running any kind of business that deals with the public has risks. There's no guarantee life will be problem free. All we can do is have a plan in place for when a problem arises. Caty shares with us what she will do differently from now on and gave some advice for what to look out for.

See her beautiful house (all cleaned up) below, wow!











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2 comments:

  1. This is why identity check is always advisable.

    You can put it in your house rules.

    Once you meet your guest ask to see a valid id with photo.

    It will take only a minute and will prevent something like this to happen. I always do id checks.

    I love this podcast.
    You are doing a great job.

    JJ Bande
    rentals@scq-property.com

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    1. i think the issue here is that there was a 3rd party totally in charge of the booking and check-in. if Catie were communicating and checking these people in personally, it probably would not have happened, as she would have clearly seen they were teenagers..

      as for ID check, i would find it incredibly awkward to ask for someone's ID as they arrived at our house. "welcome! can you i please see all of your drivers licenses?" and i've never had anyone ask that of me when renting an airbnb either.

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