Help! I’ve never rented a place before!

HOW TO RENT ONE OF OUR PLACES IN ISLA VISTA

If you’ve never rented an apartment or house before it can be a little scary! When you rent from us we will do our best to make it understandable and hopefully an enjoyable process.  You or your parents are welcome to contact us with any questions.
We are a small property management company and do NOT manage thousands of units.  We only have a small number of nice units in Isla Vista.
The first step is to find a unit that you like.

The traditional way, going back decades, has been to go knock on the door and ask the current resident if it would be convenient to see the place, or if you could schedule a time to come back.  You should only do this during daylight hours.  If no one is home you could leave a note for them to call or text you.  Sometimes you may see a note on the door, that says to contact

the property manager for info on scheduling an appointment.If you have trouble connecting with the tenant the next step would be to contact me to step in and arrange a showing.  It may seem odd to some people that the property manager doesn’t do all of the showings, but it just doesn’t really work well in Isla Vista doing it that way.

Here is the information to rent one of our apartments:

1. Give us a ‘heads-up’ that you are interested.  Ask any questions you may have.  If you’d like to see a copy of the lease ask to be emailed one.
2. Each person in your group must fill out a rental application.  There is no charge to submit an application for our Isla Vista units. We can often give you preliminary approval (or not) by just receiving this info. The best way to send us this info is to print out the application, fill it in by hand, take a good photo with your phone, and then email it.
3. If approved, each individual will supply a signed “Third Party Guarantee of Lease Obligation” Form (you’ll find it in the lease packet) and a copy of guarantor’s driver’s license. This can be scanned-to-email, or sent as a good photo of the form. Same with the photo i.d. (or they can, alternatively, have form notarized).
4. Once we have all the above, we can meet to sign a lease. Usually we will meet you at the property and sign the lease there. We require SECURITY DEPOSIT (as outlined in the payment schedule on the lease) when signing the lease. Separate checks from tenants are accepted for this initial payment. We also accept payment through Venmo or your tenant portal.  We can not hold apartments; and appointments are often scheduled within 24 hours.  Sometimes you can sign a “Reservation Agreement” for us to hold the unit for longer for you (to make sure we don’t rent it to someone else).
5. Leases are for around 350 days. Each lease varies slightly due to varying start and end dates.
6. All the names of all the tenants will appear on one lease and must be signed by all lessees.
7. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact assistant property manager JENNA at: office@sbrealty.com or call/text her between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. at (805) 403-5514. Thank you!