House Hacking: Be a good neighbor

                               "Wait he never paid January's rent!!!" 

My wife and I started house hacking a little over a month ago. The seller was a tired landlord who was having tenant issues. I suspected that he didn't do a thorough job screening tenants. As luck would have it, we inherited one of these tenants. Turns out he had yet to pay the previous owner for that month's rent. So what do you do facing a situation like this.... be a good neighbor.

My wife and I are extremely friendly, so we started by engaging our neighbor every time we saw him. A simple hello and a smile goes a long way. We then sent him a friendly but professional letter informing him that we were the new landlords. In passing our neighbor (tenant) told us about his issues with roaches, poor performance from his dryer, faulty light, and inoperative dishwasher. So over the next 30 days, we fixed each of these issues. 

Our position is to first and foremost provide service and value to our tenants. Then we set expectations (on-time rent with stick late fees). So last month when the rent was late we served a pay or vacate notification. We received the rent check and fees within days. And I'm happy to announce we received this month's rent on time. 

So if you're buying a house hack and will be inheriting a "problem" tenant, start by being a good neighbor. It goes a long way!