All Forum Posts by: Adam Martin

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.  

The best answer is what does your lease say.  You cannot charge for the remainder of the lease because you have a duty to minimize your losses and they are only responsible for lost rent in most places if the lease is absent any other penalties.  I got a copy of my friends lease from a major rental company and they state that you can break the lease at any time however 60 days notice is required as well as forfeiture of the deposit and a penalty of 2 months rent I adopted this.  I doubt I'd ever get this absent someone moving for work whose company was paying for it but it gives me a starting point for negotiation.  What I would let them know is that they have 2 options.  First, they can be responsible for the lease until you are able to find a new renter to take their place however long that may be.  If they want something more guaranteed give them a second option for a lease break fee of at least 1 months rent.  Either way though I'd want this person out as they seem to be a pain and there are plenty of good renters out there to waste time on a turd in the punch bowl.  

That fine seems pretty unreasonable however I would have to guess it is written into the bylaws you signed when you purchased the property. Out of curiosity have you ever resided here or was this just purchased as an investment. I feel like you are going to have a hard time saying you both concurrently occupy the property yet don't live there, that doesn't seem to make sense. Sure your lease may say you can but I would think the reasonable person would look at do you actually and it does not sound like you are actually sharing the space. I'd sell and pay the fine, you state you would be willing to hold it if they dropped the fine but what are you going to do with the place if you can't rent it and don't live there. There is a risk trying to be creative with the rules and it sounds like in this case you got caught and hopefully learned an expensive, yet important lesson. I just don't see the reason an HOA would want to drop the fine because it sounds like easy money and my focus would be a sincere apology for misunderstanding the rules and seeing if they may be able to work out a deduction.

 I like this idea and never would have thought about that.  My idea was for 300 you can easily buy a used washer on marketplace to use as a filler until you can get yours repaired.  When it gets replaced just sell the one you bought, and you should be able to get what you paid if not close but certainly wouldn't be out 300.  

With that said though I know that you did everything you could but at the end of the day you are providing a service and people pay you for it.  I agree with the tenants that a month is too long and you should have made other arrangements or will need to compensate them.  The fact it was under warranty changes things but generally speaking I don't repair anything for appliances.  The repair companies are always booked too far out and by the time I pay them for their time and parts I'm 50% into the price of a new one anyway that lowes will usually deliver in a couple days.  

I have gone through ALE before and it went well.  You are going to sign the lease with the tenants who will be responsible for the deposit.  They are going to give you a couple additional sentences to put into your lease stating that they will pay directly and can be the ones extending but what they wanted seemed to make sense so I had no issues amending it.  They will pay you directly and you are going to authorize this in the wording they send you and will be mailing you a check, there is no direct deposit option but it really is no big deal.  I did have a check get lost in the mail, my USPS tracker said it was coming but then they lost it.  No big deal they overnighted a new one.  I can't see them paying in advance but it doesn't hurt to ask.  They wanted a 3 month lease but I said I wouldn't go less than 6 and they agreed.  The tenant moved out after 5 since the house was done but they paid the full time.  

At least here it is pretty much expected that they are supplied and the few homes that don't seem to stay on the market forever.  That said if an applicant starts the relationship off confrontational things aren't going to get better.  I just would not reply and keep looking.  Really though refrigerators and stoves last a long time and when you amortize it out per month of useful life is a small amount compared to the discount I'm assuming you have to lower rent to account for the tenant supplying their own appliances.  Assuming you get 10 years out of the set and spend 2k which is on the high end they are costing you $16.66/month.  Do you think you would get more than that by offering them?  

 We don't always give you what you want but we give you what you need.  

Even if not stated directly in the lease it is provided it was there for the tenant to use.  Unless you specifically state that you are not responsible for maintaining it you are responsible to maintain it.  There is no way to list everything you will maintain so the default is if something is there when they move in you intent to maintain it unless stated otherwise.  If you don't want to moving forward buy a cheap used one that works and when these tenants move out sell what is there and don't worry about it moving forward.  

 Generally speaking they do not qualify for whatever reason and believe if they waive money in your face you'll take it and overlook obvious red flags.  It is not always a red flag but 9/10 times it is.  There are landlords out there who will see the money and take it for quick cash thinking their risk is lowered since rent is already paid not realizing they are just kicking a problem down the road.