All Forum Posts by: Alex Smith

@Elias Camhi summed it up pretty well. Just recently dealt with a non-functioning HVAC and the homeowner had a home warranty. The homeowner had authorized the tenant through the HW to submit maintenance requests. The tenant tried to submit a request and the HW told the tenant that the homeowner had to submit the request, pay a deductible, AND provide the vendor to fix the issue. 

I would generally advise against HW.

You may want to ask an attorney to be sure in your area, I'm not a lawyer or familiar with the regulations in your area.

The terms in most places that I can think of can be whatever you and the tenant agree to. A lease doesn't necessarily have to be 12 months. It can be longer or shorter if both you and the tenant(s) agree. Like Marlon said a 12-month lease is typical in most areas. 

Also like Andrew said, you can just add the new tenant onto an existing lease via an addendum. A new lease isn't required.

@Skyler Walker Gotcha. I must have misunderstood what you said - sorry. 

I know most self-managing landlords on here will just say "you did not meet our criteria," and leave it at that. As a management company, we go into slightly more detail, telling them specifically what part of the criteria they did not meet. Most people will get why they were denied and it won't be a surprise. You won't be able to please everyone, unfortunately.

The joys of landlording!

Documentation will be your best friend in this case. Document everything. There's nothing wrong with requiring requests from the tenant in writing. 

You can definitely call an attorney just to make sure you're doing everything on your end that you need to. Tenants threaten lawyers all the time to try to pressure landlords into doing what the tenant wants. It doesn't necessarily mean that they are calling a lawyer, but it doesn't mean that you should brush it off either. 

I'm not a lawyer, and you should look at speaking with one like Cameron said. 

If you don't have one already, you'll want a management agreement in place with the owner outlining your responsibilities as the owner's agent. In terms of the tenant's lease, I would recommend getting them to sign one of yours. It sounds like the existing lease is limiting in terms of what you can/can't do. I've seen some leases that new owners bring on with us and I wonder where the heck they came from.

Good luck!

It's a great idea to have scale in mind now when you're smaller as opposed to trying to figure out your process when you're larger. 

There's no sense in saying you found a renter when you really haven't. It's not honest (unless you really did find a renter) and people will pick up on it. I'm guessing these are FRBO? There's nothing wrong with keeping it simple: you did not meet our criteria. This offers the most protection for you from a Fair Housing standpoint. 

Make sure you document the condition that the unit was in when you found it. I agree with John about hiring the handyman and flooring person separately. The flooring person might be able to offer you some sort of warranty on installation.

Chris, I don't have a template I can give you, but we check/change air filters, smoke detector batteries and do a look over the overall condition of the interior and exterior of the house. 

Hope this helps.

Thanks for taking the time to write this up. Great info

See what other vacancies in the area are offering amenity-wise. You mentioned a unit not having a refrigerator. If a unit doesn't come with a refrigerator, I would be automatically out as a renter. Obviously, this varies area by area, but refrigerators, dishwashers, and stoves are basic appliance packages provided by the homeowner. If you don't have those and you find that other vacancies do then that's a good place to start.