Questions from a soon to be new landlord

[Tarcizio Goncalves]

Hi everyone,

I am getting ready to close on my first owner occupied 2 family. This will be my first time dealing with tenants. I was wondering if people can help me out.

Because the tenants on the second floor have a lease until 9/30/17, I will inherit them. I will be moving in at the beginning of August. According to the current owners, they are good tenants and always pay their rent on time. Because the seller doesn’t live in the property, they allowed a few things that I am not a fan of. So far, they are allowing the tenants to:

• Park a crashed vehicle on the driveway for an undetermined amount of time
• Allowed the tenants to add their own washer and dryer in the basement for their use (1 washer and dryer per apartment). My goal is to add coin operated machines so that I can get some help with the water bill.
• The current owners split the basement in half and allowed each apartment to use their section in the basement as storage. There are a lot of stuff in storage from both units down there. One half will be emptied since one unit will be vacant at the time of closing
• I’m sure I will find more while I am living there but this is what I observed so far.

I’ve heard more than once on the podcasts if a person wants to be a successful landlord, he/she needs to be an a-hole. Is there truth to this statement? That is not me and I cannot see myself being this type of person.

If these tenants turn out to be great tenants, I would love to renew their lease in September, by giving them another 1 year lease. They are a young family with an infant and a toddler. If I keep them for another year, I can save with the turnover costs. I would love to hear from you all on what that first conversation should be. I probably can’t ask them to change what I mentioned above until they renew the lease with me correct? What things should I say? I will definitely tell them that this is a family home so drugs, loud parties, drunk people, bla bla bla will not be tolerated. Anything else I should mention?

One more additional question, I’ve heard on one of the podcasts someone mentioning a book that gives landlords a bunch of systems to put in place to have fewer calls, fewer times doing maintenance, etc. Would anyone happen to know what book this is?

Thank you all for all the help in the past few months.