First 30 days - a newbie rental diary

[Rob Gleason]

Tomorrow will mark 30 days since the purchase of my first deal, a duplex with both sides rented for $500 each. 

     Day after closing - we realized that one of the occupants (a boyfriend of the renter) was not on the lease.  So, along with the 'under new management' letter, we made them both sign a copy of the current lease.  He's apparently been there for ~6months and the former owner let slide.  There's just 3 months left on the lease and the tenant reportedly pays on time every month so I'll wait and see if we need to raise the rent.

     1/6/15 - rent is LATE.  She sends partial payment of $400 with a promise to pay the balance with the late fee by 1/11.  I sent her a letter stating the rent was late and as a gesture of good faith we would accept partial payment this ONE TIME ONLY, so long as the balance was received by 1/12.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed.  I've was hoping for a reason to cut my teeth in the eviction process, but not quite so soon.

     1/8/15 (today) - I get a call from the tenant in the B unit saying her electricity is out in half the apartment and the breaker isn't working. I'm at work and can't get over there, so I call my handy man who runs out there to find out the breaker is just tripped because she has 2 space heaters going.  Is there a way for me to charge the tenant for the bogus service call?

     All in all, not too bad for the first month but it could have been better.  For those  who are about to take the plunge into their first rental property here's a pearls: start collecting forms and create some letter head BEFORE you close on the property, if possible check out the tenants complaint before you send in the fix it guy and seriously consider a management company if you don't want to deal with this stuff.  I wanted to learn about managment side of the business so I'm keeping control for now, but I could easily see that changing.