All Forum Posts by: Adam Martin

Dude...  These people got emergency custody of family members and they are doing the best they can to keep the family together.  I have no idea what these kids went through but for emergency custody life has probably not been great.  Sure this is not the ideal situation under today's circumstances but is certainly doable.  Think of how many kids older generations used to have and the size of the average house and they are probably living large by those standards.  I'm not sure if you would have a leg to stand on to evict or demand the kids to leave but even if it is would you really be ok being that guy.  Generally speaking I'm by the book and follow the lease and law to the letter but in certain situations just because you potentially can do something doesn't mean you should.  

Anytime you are debating if something should come of the deposit or not you need to ask yourself what can I prove the tenant did to break this.  Sometimes there may even be abuse but if you can't prove it you are going to have a hard time if there is a dispute.  I understand it worked when you lived there but pretty much everything has a useful life and while it worked then everything in the house will fail and need to be replaced at some point, that is where reserves come in.  A dishwasher is too cheap to repair and I'd just buy a new one. 

Not all money is good money.  After they have paid rent for this month I'd let them know that it seems like we are not aligned on our expectations which is unfortunate.  If they truly feel that you are an awful person and choose not to stay that is fine however as long as they are out by the end of the month you are willing to let them break the lease.  This happy clause allows them to seek greener pastures and since you aren't renewing anyway you are just pushing vacancy a few months up.  They are free to stay if they like but if so we need to stay professional and it needs to be clear this is a 1 time offer.  Out of curiosity though why did you choose to have flooring installed while the house was occupied.  It was good enough when they moved in and while it was only 1 day of install it is pretty disruptive replacing flooring and having to move things around especially since it seemed they were not willing participants from the start.

Well that is certainly unpleasant and escalated quickly but I really don’t see this as something you can evict over.  I would just ignore it and move on with your day.  I’m sure he is in a lot of stress and he lashed out.  This is however not a tenant that is going to get any leniency from me at all so if he is late I’d file for eviction the first chance I had.  He must have missed the whole you catch more flies with honey if he were looking for sympathy from you.

we were posting at the same time so this is an edit but I would assume you were the intended recipient but go with he was just having a bad day.  He realized he made a mistake and just let it go.  

In Ky we must mail it with best practice being certified mail as well as include a letter itemizing any deductions within 30 days moving out.  There have been a couple instances where I skipped these steps and just sent it back through Zelle but I had a great relation with the tenants and they were getting their full deposit back so the risk was minimal.  We also agreed to it through text and I had them text me their link so I was sure it was going to the right place so I had some sort of documentation.

Keep in mind I don't own any storage units so take this for what it is.  If I were at 70% occupancy and the goal was 90% I'm not sure I'd be in a hurry to tempt loosing paying clients.  I'd first try to get to my 90% goal renting vacancies at market rents and paying attention to what rents the easiest.  I'd start there raising rents on the sizes that are easiest to rent and work my way down until I'm at occupancy for the right rate.  

It does get easier and you get better at reading people.  You see guilt over not giving her a chance, I see it differently.  You caught an applicant in best case an incomplete truth, worst case she lied to you.  There should be a reason for all qualification criteria, it was important to you with a clear head and time on your side and it should stay front of mind especially when you are in a hurry to fill a vacancy.  I often find a lot of the applicants I click with best and feel will be great tenants are not everything they appear to be.  I always try to find a rational to rent to them and feel good but at the end I am brought back to why my criteria was selected.  I need to give my family the best chance of success.  We have a lot of money and a lot more debt riding on my decisions and I can't let them down.  

All the tenant screening tool is a redirect to rentprep.com.  You can just go there directly.  I use them and really like their screening.  

I feel like what has worked best for me is having standards and sticking to them.  It is a tough time to find tenants but it is also harder in some areas to evict especially in winter.  You created standards that were important to you and did so for a reason stick to it.  If you choose to select this applicant this persons qualifications should be what you set the bar at going forward as if it was acceptable now it must be in the future as well.  I don’t accept co-signers or guarantors nor do I take larger deposits.  Pre paid rent is just kicking a can down the road if there are problems and really doesn’t give much security.  You are not going to remember the couple extra weeks vacancy a year from now but picking the wrong tenant can creat an experience you will never forget.  

 I try to remember to uncheck it however often I forget, I would prefer you to have to elect to receive notifications vs. having to opt out.  There are some topics I may elect to receive them however in general that creates a lot of noise in my inbox.  Made sure this one was unchecked though.