All Forum Posts by: Adam Martin

How long have you owned this property and have the pipes ever froze before.  Outside of a known power outage pipes shouldn't freeze just because it's cold outside.  I'm willing to bet that during a vacancy either they or the guests turned down the heat too low or maybe left a window or door open causing the pipes to freeze.  I would talk to your renter coming from a place trying to make sure this doesn't happen again and brainstorm on what could have happened.  If it turns out that this is their fault the conversation is going to have to take a turn where it is actually you that is owed.  I am honestly somewhat surprised your tenant is taking this route as few people are willing to arbitrage and if they make this a sticking point I wouldn't renew.  If you do offer a credit however it needs to be based off of your daily rate not the rate they can charge.  Stuff happens and everything in that house has an expected lifespan so if you keep this long term you 100% are going to have another issue where they want reimbursement.  

No you should certainly not file eviction on these tenants.  When you file based on late rent or bad conditions they are going to get the opportunity to come up with the late rent or clean  up to help get rid of the bugs but I'm willing to bet if they are able to you will be in the same situation again shortly.  Many landlords on this site like m2m because either of you can terminate a lease for no reason or any reason at all, especially helpful with inherited tenants who you didn't screen and don't know.  Just send them either a 30 or 60 day notice of non renewal whatever is needed in your area and let that be that.  If they do not leave that is when you evict as holdover is not curable and you will win.  They had their chance and didn't take advantage of a landlord still offering a discount so now it's time to move on.  I honestly can't see a reason to keep them. They are not keeping up with the property, under mkt rent, pay late, and are so bad really they are getting over 1/2 off since you can't rent another unit until they clean up their act and won't.  I'm just curious on why you think there may be a redeeming chance as you asked if you should vs. how to get rid of them.  There are plenty of people who deserve quality housing and I'm not going to deprive them of that to support someone less than ideal in my property.  

I like the idea of helping people get into housing and really it is hard for a lot of single people or 1 income households to afford housing.  I don't want to come off as negative but I do have a couple questions that you are going to need to answer for yourselves though.  This is a group of people that struggle with their finances which is why you are trying to lift them up which is great but what about when that struggle affects you all. Mortgages are going to need to get paid if using leverage and even if not you will have costs you need to cover.  Do you all have a plan in place to evict or remove people who this model is not working out for.  I just feel like it is going to be a bad look for a charity helping single mothers find housing kicking those mothers and their children out when they can't pay which was somewhat foreseeable.  At the balloon period what if they can't close, are they out at that point or how long can you realistically extend.  I just see that this may be a tough situation to be put in where on one end you are providing services and opportunities for struggling individuals but on the other running a business where you will have obligations that need to be meet and juggling your image between the 2.  

I'll preface this to say that there are some people who should absolutely hire a PM however at this point in life I'm not one of them.  We all have finite amounts of time and money and it is up to each of us to determine what we have an excess of to trade one for the other.  I have 6 houses and rarely get a call.  Of the ones I do get very few of them need immediate responses but the ones that do tend to be HVAC or plumbing and are solved with another call or 2.  My biggest issue with a PM though is for me the real or perceived conflict of interest.  I understand that a PM is a low margin high volume business but I don't want to turn my assets over to someone who has a financial interest that differs from mine.  Take for instance finding a tenant, they are trying to fill several vacancies at a time and for each vacancy I am going to be charged between 1/2-1 month of rent on top of the vacancy.  Vacancy is expensive so I'm looking for longer term tenants but if they are getting paid off of it there is an incentive for churn and even when there isn't there is a lease up fee of 1/4-1/2 of a month rent for an e-signature and hopefully walkthrough if the landlord is lucky.  Now we have our tenant great, rents are coming in and we hand over 8-10% for the pm to manage and everything is great until it isn't.  If they make a mistake and select the wrong tenant and I'm on the hook for the lost income during the eviction, stuck paying a new lease fee, and if the tenant is late they get to keep the fee.  Some of them even get to keep the pet fee which makes 0 sense since the animal is no extra work for them but additional wear and tear on my property and I could argue allowing pets opens the tenant pool making it easier for them to fill.  I paid for their expertise and professional selection however am at financial risk if they are wrong and have much more at stake since they are going to have some kind of hold harmless in the management agreement.  Let's assume though that this time they picked the right long term tenant and everything is going well, go me.  Everything in our property has a useful life though and when a repair is needed most are going to upcharge the repair for their time.  Not sure what that 8-10% is for a month but this is not it.  They have preferred venders which sounds great and hopefully can be trusted but may just be down for a good kickback and while the easiest, may not be the best or cheapest.  With the repairs you typically have to approve of larger ones but for smaller ones which are relatively inexpensive for an individual they have to pay someone to do them which increases costs and with the upcharge there is little incentive to push back on nonsense charges and for many you won't get a say.  It is easier to appease the high maintenance tenant so that they stop bothering the PM on someone else's dime than set boundaries.  Some even have an in-house maintenance team which sounds nice having people always on call but that just makes greasing the wheel even easier for them.  Even if all of these aren't issues today employees and management changes so you have to stay on top of them and manage the PM to ensure you are getting the services you are paying for and not being taken advantage of so you are never truly passive.

All of that was just a long-winded way of answering your question with the answer that some people have trust issues and don't trust someone else to care about them or their assets as much as they do.  This isn't to say all PM's are bad or that anyone can self manage.  Just as there are some PM's you should avoid as a PM you are probably aware that not every client is a good one and I feel I would be too high maintenance and have unrealistic expectations.  Thank you all for reading my rant and for those of you good PM's out there thank you for what you do for those of us who can't.  

I came in ready to say that burst pipes happen and unless you have proof the tenant did something to cause this that is on you however it seems like they admitted it.  Luckily this is a fairly inexpensive repair but one I'd let them know they are responsible for.  Mistakes happen and I wouldn't be too hard on him for it but would set up a payment plan spreading it over the rest of the lease.  You said you think he is out at the end anyway so it's not like you have a great long term tenant you are afraid to loose.  If they don't pay I'd then take it out of the deposit at the end but don't tell them that as if he knows he isn't getting it back may not pay the last month or leave the place less than optional knowing the money is gone anyway.  

I don't know if there is anything CA specific but my leases have in them that unless otherwise noted in writing that the lease automatically continues M2M unless written communication including text is documented.  That said I don't think this is something you are going to win in court if you sue for them and is more time than it is worth.  You didn't mention damages to deduct from the rent so hopefully they left the house in good situation.  I'd send them a letter stating that their deposit has been forfeited due to non notice and let them know they owe the other month but I wouldn't fight for the extra one.  Luckily rents are up and you can reset to mkt rent which I'm assuming is more than you would have been able to increase to with rent control if that affects you.  Sometimes in this business just because you are right doesn't mean it is worth proving it in court as it is more trouble than it is worth with little likelihood of success.  

I'm sure there are several local organizations to help however you have no additional powers than this prospective tenant and get no privileged information just because you are a property owner.  I'm with @Nathan Gesner on this one outside of the fact I don't accept section 8 and wouldn't accept rental assistance if I knew about it.  A prospective tenant with no funds to move in and not enough motivation to find money themselves is not someone I'd be trying to rent to.  

I love my f150 and see it as the only vehicle I’ll buy going forward.  I can carry all my tools and there is nothing within reason I can buy at Home Depot I can’t get home.  I self manage so it’s nice to be able to haul everything and I just can’t see doing that with a car.  If I get into a wreck and one person lives it will most likely be me.  Outside of parking in small spaces or having a tight turn radius there is nothing a car can do a truck can’t.  The size and turn radius have me parking in the back of a parking lot so it helps me get my steps in.  The only drawback is it has a huge tank and filling 35 gallons from empty can be soul crushing but it is a huge tank so I don’t do it often and make the most of my Kroger fuel points

I asked my agent about this previously when I turned my first home into a rental and you have to have a landlords policy to be covered.  In my experience it actually cost less than a homeowners policy which originally surprised me but makes sense when she explained it.  A homeowners policy covers the dwelling and your stuff but for a landlords policy you have a much smaller coverage for personal property, I stick with 5k for kitchen appliances.  The tenants stuff isn't covered by your policy, that is what the renters insurance is for so there is a lot less risk for your insurer which makes it cheaper.  Lets say the house catches fire they are going to fix it and as a bonus you usually get lost rent if it is included in the policy but they don't have to pay the tens of thousands to replace your belongings that were burnt or smoke damaged like clothes, electronics, or personal items.  Your best bet is to just call your insurer for a quote and they will tell you what you need.  I'd also recommend calling a few because quotes can vary but make sure you are comparing apples to apples on coverage.  

Sounds like fraud to me and not something I’d get involved with.  If she gets caught I’m not sure what the repercussions could be but I wouldn’t put myself in the position to find out.  All it takes is a breakup and him to report her and you could be in a world of hurt.