All Forum Posts by: Alex Black

Also applied 3/31, credit pulled and no funds. So it looks like if you use Schedule E then no PPP or EIDL? 

@Andrew R. Lucas - that sounds great but the house is unfurnished. A conservative estimate, it would probably be a minimum of $10k in furniture cost to make it a somewhat attractive AirBnB.

@Rob B. - I was using Rentalutions/Avail previously when I was managing the properties. It was ok but not very user friendly.

@John Semanchuk - that's frustrating, it's definitely hard to find good help. Especially when the PM company has no skin in the game if things go wrong. I may have to return to lease only for the following year and manage as best as I can from Charleston.

@Costin I. - good advice, moving forward I will have that included in the leases and then be sure to request a copy of the leases after they have been completed. I'm not sure why you're so convinced that I'm not taking ownership. I own the properties so I'm the one who loses out if mistakes are made. A mistake was made this year and now I know what to do differently next time around. At the end of the day I'm paying them specifically to take charge and keep the property rented. Why have them at all if I'm the one the managing the properties?

@Will Gaston -  I previously did manage the properties myself but I'm now at dental school in Charleston so I'm not able to completely handle the properties myself. I'm not sure about the AirBnB route. The house is in Five points which is perfect for student rentals but not necessarily ideal for family rentals or AirBnB. Also, I would need to furnish the whole house which would likely cost more that what I would make back and then I would have to figure out storage for the furniture when I return it back to college rental. I think my best bet is to try and market it to young professionals in Cola. 

@Costin I. - It sounds to me like you are not familiar with or are unexperienced with student rentals. Expecting tenants to sign 5 months before is completely normal in a student rental. Tenants weren't found because there are no students left to rent to. College students in this area find their housing in early to mid spring semester and go home during the summer. There were no issues with the property other than it was being lived in by 5 young college guys. The PM confirmed with me in Feb that they sent them a lease to sign and then later followed up with me over the phone that that property as well as two others were leased for the upcoming school year. In her mind, they said they were going so sign a lease equaled lease signed. But the reality was the PM only talked to one out of five. If PM had spoken to all of them they would have realized that 2 were graduating and leaving.

Thanks for the feedback. I definitely agree, that I need to find a new PM for the property. They were completely unapologetic about their mistake and their handling of the entire situation just validated that they have no clue about student rentals. Even now when I google the property, the listings dont' reflect the drop in rental prices that we've agreed to so I can tell that they have no sense of urgency to get it rented out.  Schools here starts on Tuesday so I've missed out on the student rental market for the semester if not the year. My best bet is probably to try and rent it to a family or some young professionals.

I have a 5 bedroom rental property that I rent to local college kids where the lease terms generally runs from Aug. 1 to July 31. Because I'm renting to students, we start looking for tenants for the upcoming August in February of the same year. For the property in question, I asked that either the current tenants resign a new lease or we begin advertising the property. On Feb. 18, the property manager informed me in writing that the current tenants wanted to renew their lease and that they would send them the lease that day to have them resign. Fast forward to June, I get an email from one of the current tenants letting me know that they all would be moving out at the end of the lease. They also informed me that the management company never reached out to them about renewing their lease. I reached out to the management company and they informed me that since the tenants gave their intent to resign that they wouldn't ask them to sign a lease until July 1, 30 days out. They also admitted that they only talked to one of the tenants about renewing and took their word that the 4 other tenant would also renew. I have all of this in writing in the form of text messages.

After 2 months of advertising their has been no interest. Classes start this week. All of the students secured their housing a long time ago. The property will almost certainly remain vacant until next August. Does anyone have any advice for me on how I can mitigate my losses? Do I have any recourse?

I have a 5 bedroom rental property that I rent to local college kids where the lease terms generally runs from Aug. 1 to July 31. Because I'm renting to students, we start looking for tenants for the upcoming August in February of the same year. For the property in question, I asked that either the current tenants resign a new lease or we begin advertising the property. On Feb. 18, the property manager informed me in writing that the current tenants wanted to renew their lease and that they would send them the lease that day to have them resign. Fast forward to June, I get an email from one of the current tenants letting me know that they all would be moving out at the end of the lease. They also informed me that the management company never reached out to them about renewing their lease. I reached out to the management company and they informed me that since the tenants gave their intent to resign that they wouldn't ask them to sign a lease until July 1, 30 days out. They also admitted that they only talked to one of the tenants about renewing and took their word that the 4 other tenant would also renew. I have all of this in writing in the form of text messages.

 After 2 months of advertising their has been no interest. Classes start this week. All of the students secured their housing a long time ago. The property will almost certainly remain vacant until next August. Does anyone have any advice for me on how I can mitigate my losses? Do I have any recourse?

The mother seemed like someone who was used to people accomodating her antics. I made it very clear to her that she agreed to the payment system and I would not be budging. She had 3 months to address any issues. All of the tenants and cosigners are aware of the issue and that she is the reason they are being held up. I've made sure the all understand what a joint lease is and what exactly that means for them. Regardless of how they divide up the rent they all owe me the full amount for rent. They've all been made aware that they currently have no place to into on August 1st. Avail used to Rentalutions.com but it's an online management system that allows me to draft up leases, collect rent payments, post listings and communicate with the tenants. I don't know if I'll continue to use them after the duration of this lease. They made a bunch of updates to the site that have made it terrible.