Virginia REALTORS^® has conducted surveys of members for the past five weeks, asking members if and how the COVID-19 outbreak has impacted their business, primarily focused on home buyer and seller behavior. For this week’s survey, we contacted Virginia REALTORS^® members who are property managers and landlords in order to find out how COVID-19 is impacting them. We received responses from 146 respondents. Results from our members were compared to findings from the National Association of REALTORS^®‘ recent member survey which included questions about property management.

Highlights from the April 17-18, 2020 survey include:

• As of the middle of the month, more than a third of respondents (35.3%) said that they had a tenant or tenants failing to pay April rent. Nearly half of property managers that responded (46.0%) said they had a tenant failing to pay rent, compared to 31.8% of landlords of individual properties.
• More than half of respondents (54.1%) said that tenants were asking to delay rent payments, and that they were working with them. By comparison, according to NAR’s survey, only 41% of property managers nationally said they had tenants asking to delay rent and that they will be accommodating them knowing the circumstances.
• Only one in five Virginia property managers and landlords responding to our survey (19.9%) said they had tenants asking to delay paying rent and that it would be difficult to accommodate them. Nationally, according to the NAR survey, 16% of property managers find themselves in this situation.
• Other challenges faced by Virginia property managers and landlords include trouble showing units to prospective tenants (41.8%) and challenges keeping up with maintenance, repairs and/or landscaping (29.5%). Other issues mentioned included tenants overstaying leases, tenants wanting to end lease early, and tenants thinking there was a government mandate that they did not have to pay rent.
• In our last survey of Virginia REALTORS^® members, we found that many REALTORS^® that had applied for Small Business Administration (SBA) loans had faced challenges applying. Among the property managers and landlords responding to the April 17-18 survey, 36.3% said they had difficulties applying for COVID-19 financial assistance or loans.

A note about this survey: This survey was sent to 4,292 Virginia REALTORS^® members that have been involved in property management education or events through the Virginia REALTORS^®. Given the small sample size, the statistics in this survey have a margin of error of +/- 8%.

Virginia REALTORS^® will continue to monitor the economic and housing market impacts of COVID-19 in Virginia. Information about financial assistance available to individuals and businesses impacted by COVID-19 is available on the Virginia REALTORS^® website. Each Thursday afternoon at 4:00 p.m., we will host a Facebook Live on the impact of COVID-19 on the economy and the housing market. For more information, please contact Lisa Sturtevant at lsturtevant@virginiarealtors.org.