 Good evening and welcome to it. This is the private property podcast and I'm your brand new host, Sibs Matiella, here to talk about all things property. Today on the show we're gonna be talking about how to secure your rent through vetting procedures. We're speaking to a lovely man by the name of Waldo Marcus, who's the head of marketing and sales at TNP Credit Bureau. But before we get into that, let me tell you something, all roads lead to the property show. This year, we're back. In real life and virtual, with content generated in our Metaverse Studio. We've designed the exhibition space to replicate the world's most popular property game and added in activities for the whole family, including an indoor park and play area. The game board is divided into four journeys, namely first time home buyers Boulevard, Investment Avenue, Sellers Street and Renters Road. Visit thepropertyshow.co.za for more information and to get your tickets today. The property show 2022, 27th to the 28th of August at the Santon Convention Center. No matter where you are on your property journey, we've gathered the experts. You heard it here first, all roads lead to the property show. It is happening at the Santon Convention Center on the 27th and the 28th of August, proudly brought to you by privateproperty.co.za. You can join us digitally from anywhere in the world. Right now, in life, we are securing the bag and if we can't secure that bond, we are going to secure the rent, Annie. So we're going to talk to Waldo Marcus, who's the head of marketing and sales at TNP Credit Bureau about how to secure your rent through vetting procedures. Waldo, thank you so much for joining us. How are you? Sir, thank you very much for having me and welcome to the show. Looking forward to seeing you on air more often. Thank you so much. I'm looking forward to seeing you on air. Listen, Waldo, tell me, can you give me a brief overview of what you do over there at TNP and just your journey at the company? So TNP Credit Bureau has been going for 22 years. I joined the organization about 18 months ago, where I specifically focused on commercial property as we service both the commercial and the residential rental market. And thereafter, I joined as head of marketing and sales of this brilliant organization to continue its growth. What role do you guys play in the property market? I am a layman when it comes to property rights. So you're like, yeah, we do this stuff and this department and that one. And I'm like, what is it that you guys do? What do you mean? So TNP's key focus as a credit bureau is to collect data on how you pay your rental every month. And that is for both commercial and residential property. But specifically around residential property is about like you pay your credit cards and how you pay your insurance and your bond that is usually collected by credit bureaus. And should you then be interested in placing a tenant, you then will come to us. And we provide you with insights on how the tenant performed historically. We do more than that. We also create an ecosystem for residential property owners, whereby they can promote their property, ensure that they have all the necessary documentation like leases and application and inspection forms. We provide those as well as a series of other compliance tools to ensure that you as a property owner engages with your tenants with all the necessary legislative, regulated documentation to ensure a great relationship. Waldo, when it comes to vetting in the property market and rentals specifically, I mean, we've run into a number of problems and issues as the years have gone by. I'm not looking at you Cape Town, but I am. What I do want to ask you is that obviously there is a vetting procedure, right? What are the different steps in which one can follow when it comes to vetting tenants? And what would it take to pass that vetting procedure? So we take various, we pull from eight different databases and those databases ensure that, A, the person that has applied to move into a property is the person that they say they are. We have seen in the past and people have actually signed lease agreements and the person that's moved in is not the one that signed the agreement. So identity fraud is quite big. So we traditionally encourage people to start vetting by making sure that the individual that they're signing the lease with is a true person has not stolen the identity. Then of course you want to look at the affordability and can this person afford to move into a property? Yes, they provide you with potentially bank statements, but it's not coming from a third party. So we provide various tools that allows you to then say, all right, this tenant can afford moving into my property? Yes, in the past, they've paid their rent a long time. They've paid their cell phone account on time. Should they have car repayments? They've paid these. So it gives you a holistic view of what this individual can afford and should they move into your property? What is the probability of them paying their rent to ensure that you as a landlord or a property investor can then of course also make sure that you can make your payments towards banks, bonds, levies, et cetera. So it's quite a holistic view that we take on an individual. We've seen that during COVID a lot of people have fallen behind on some of their payments and therefore we provide you with a five year view on this individual. So it's not just a snapshot of where they are currently. You then can understand this and for four, five years, for four years they've paid their rental and other accounts very well and then during COVID they struggled, means that their intentions are good, they wanna pay. I'm so glad you mentioned that actually this sort of five year snapshot because I was gonna ask you sometimes you have a checking account and you have a savings account and then sometimes you've got a 32 day you need to take the money from the one to the other to pay the thing. So sometimes you might not pass the vetting procedure but perhaps you do still qualify. Are there any opportunities for tenants to resubmit their applications and supporting documents if they don't pass the first time round? So that sits within the hands of the landlord at the end. So when a tenant applies that the landlord or the property owner or managing agent will perform the vetting process. They will then decide if the tenant has been successful or not. What we do encourage is that when you do apply for rentals and you are aware that there has been some impact on your credit score informed the landlord about it. So when they do do the credit score that's not a massive surprise. And then of course, encourage people to pay their rental on time. It does improve your credit score. So when you do decide to move or apply for a bigger apartment or bigger home that you do have a positive credit score and then therefore you won't need to go around applying for various properties. I hear you. In terms of vetting Waldo, do you only offer this for residential properties? Because we're talking a lot about individuals paying their rent at their apartments and their flats and there. But is this only regarding residential property owners and tenants? So we service both the residential and commercial property market. Commercial in most cases is credit checks or what we refer to as a rain check on businesses as well as individuals. And these vary from a person that's renting a warehouse all the way to the listed property REITs and funds in South Africa where we collect data on for instance, how we can pay would pay all the way down to a small moment pop store. And once again, that helps them build a positive credit score within the property sector. What we started about five years ago was also to collect how people are paying their school fees, both public and private schools to improve the credit scores. And also when people are there for applying for rentals, it also then looks back and say, have, do they have kids? And if they had kids, have they paid the school fees? We know in South Africa it's a massive struggle to collect school fees. So that was one of the markets that we felt that we can make a big difference and help schools to ensure that they collect the school fees that's due to them. Wow, I had never considered that. And I'm really glad you said it because now parents will know that they're being vetted to see if their kids can go to that school or not. Okay, let's say my wildest dreams come true. I win the lottery and I'm now a prospective or a new landlord. I've just entered the property market. What is the best advice you can give me? Do your research, understand exactly where you wanna buy, try and look at some trends. We provide property reports and there's a few other companies as well. Understand what the market has done within that area. Go to resources like private property, the private property show and get as much information as possible before you're making a decision. At the end of the day is that you purchase a property, you are in for it for the long run. And then secondly, make sure that you understand what is the maintenance and repair costs potentially as well as rates and taxes and levies when you calculate your bond. Understand those costs are also increasing at a much higher rate than CPI. So when you plan, you budget for moving into New Haas. Please consider that before you make a purchase decision. I love that word budget because I think a lot of people did a lot of budgeting pre COVID and started seeing their plans regarding property and property ownership come into fruition. And then we hit this massive sort of roadblock in a lot of ways. So I'm curious as to how the current economy has affected the rental market. So we've seen during COVID that the rental market was negatively impacted. We've seen rentals de-escalate in some provinces. Some rental brackets were really badly impacted, especially the below 3,000 rent rental bracket per month. But we started seeing a recovery. And then of course the start of this year with the high inflation, fuel prices continuing to increase and expectation and the slowdown of GDP. But I think a key factor here is what we expect the rental market to do is to see an increase in demand as people are holding back on purchasing decisions and saying, all right, while there's such uncertainty within the economy, but also within the interest rates, we would rather hold back and continue renting or move into the rental markets until we feel comfortable, we find the right space. So in the medium term, we're expecting the increase in demand, escalations in the rental market will also be going up as to try and keep up with the inflation and repair and maintenance cost. So overall, we're expecting the rental markets to continue improving. What we should be cautious about is when you place tenants, make sure that they can afford the rental. And we put that as an exclamation mark because you do not want people moving into your property, sign a lease agreement and they're not able to afford the rental. And it can take a long time to evict those individuals should they refuse to leave under cancellation letter. So would you say that you foresee some positive changes in the future for the rental market, Waldo? Yes, we do see in the medium term, we definitely see the rental markets improving, but will not come with its own challenges, but it will improve, we expect. All right, tell me what's in store for TPN Credit Bureau for the next five years. Well, that's a very interesting question. So as I mentioned, we've been in the commercial property and residential property market and then expanding into education and education is both private and public, but also tertiary education, where we see that there's so many schools in South Africa that it is really struggling to make ends meet. And we definitely are going to grow that database. We also have a employment verification database, the only one in South Africa, where we can say, yes, the person is employed and it's not by submission, it is based on data that we collect directly from UIF. So that would be an interesting one for us to continue building out. And then we've got a few surprising projects that's in the pipeline that we're going to go live towards the second half of this year, most probably in quarter four, that is definitely going to change the way people view affordability. So when you get a tenant to determine if they can afford your rental, it's going to be a seamless automated process for you. So there's some exciting stuff to come up, but I can't give away everything just yet. I totally get that. Waldo, this is now a personal question that I'm going to ask you. It's not on my list of the questions that I need to ask you, but I'm really interested to find out if your personal opinion is that the market is geared to favor tenants or to favor landlords. And I'm speaking now particularly to affordability, right? We've seen a lot of things happen with the economy. We've seen a lot of people not be able to afford their rent or the school fees or very many things. We've seen salaries not rising at the same rate as CPI and inflation. And a majority of people are in a position where they're between a rock and a hard place. So I understand needing to protect landlords and their investments and their properties. But I also feel as though maybe there should be some room allocated and just some grace towards what we've actually experienced financially as a society over the past two years in a bit. I think the markets and the free market system has factored in the stress on the consumer. And as I said, we've seen rentals in some property and some provinces actually de-escalate. So they've lost brand values and that is why it's because there is a lack of demand. And in some areas where there's a huge amount of supply that comes through and there's additional building construction taking place, we've also seen rentals coming down. So if you, for instance, look at what you paid for a two bedroom apartment in this instance in CBG, now what you paid for it pre-COVID, it's a lot more affordable moving closer to your office, your work, et cetera, considering the high fuel prices. So in a way, the free market system has definitely done it. From a legislative and a regulation perspective, there is various acts in place to protect the tenant. And once again, there's procedures and processes in place to ensure that both the consumer and the landlord is looked after. So I believe in South Africa from a governance perspective, we have done very well to ensure we protect the rights of the tenant. And then as well as the landlord. And that is why it's so critically important that we do vet the tenants before moving in and we do ensure that they sign the right lease agreement and that's completed. So you don't have procedural problems down the road. Thank you. I needed that answer. And I think a lot of people needed to hear that as well. That was Waldo Marcus, head of marketing and sales at TPN Credit Bureau telling us about how to secure your rent through vetting procedures. It is competition time. One of our lucky viewers is going to walk away with a 500 rand cold hot cash and a ticket to the property show happening on the 27th and the 28th of August, 2022 at the Stanton Convention Center proudly brought to you by privateproperty.co.za. I need a drum roll please, somebody, anybody. Okay, let's do it at home. Today's winner is Ponzo Ontatile. I hope I did not butcher your name. Congratulations, you have won 500 bucks. Thank you for joining me this evening. We'll see you again tomorrow. This year we're back in real life and virtual with content generated in our Metaverse studio. We've designed the exhibition space to replicate the world's most popular property game and added in activities for the whole family including an indoor park and play area. The game board is divided into four journeys namely first time home buyers boulevard, investment avenue, sellers street and renters road. Visit thepropertyshow.co.za for more information and to get your tickets today. The property show 2022, 27th to the 28th of August at the Stanton Convention Center. No matter where you are on your property journey we've gathered the experts.