All Forum Posts by: Annette Schneider

I found your thread searching for cosigner advice. We were trying to stick with in state but now I realize that Philadelphia is a long way from Pittsburgh. We have someone interested (hasn't seen or applied for the place yet) with a Cleveland based cosigner which would be workable since partner has to drive to that area for work regularly. 

As far as your situation, I assume you went with a different tenant or worked things out. I would only accept a tenant who didn't meet income qualifications if they were in school, residency program or skilled labor apprentice that will eventually be able to pay fully on their own. If they just want to live beyond their means, I'd turn that down.  

Regarding the snow situation, if you have the time and ability to clear the snow yourself do it yourself. It gives you an opportunity to check the property (dangerous icicles, iced over sidewalk and other winter issues). Ditto on the yard - you can check for critter issues when you stop by to mow the yard. We've only had luck getting underemployed or laid off tenants to handle snow shoveling and lawn mowing: helps them pay rent and other bills. With side by side duplexes, its easier to divvy up the yard and make each half responsible for their yard. Up/down duplexes not as easy to make that a go. It doesn't hurt to offer up rent credits of a fixed amount for lawn mowing or driveway clearing - some folks are more motivated than others. Its hard to find kids to shovel, let alone convince an adult to do so for pick up money. If nobody nibbles and you don't have the time to keep up with snow and mowing duties then hire someone to do the work for you, slowly up the rent to cover the costs and if somebody objects - dangle the credit for yard work option. 

Since the lease is expired though and it appears they've moved out, have someone put a notice to enter on the front door for the next day. On the next day, someone needs to go in inspect the place.  If they've left the keys and moved most if not all items out, I'd assume they've moved out. By law, the property is yours and you only need to evict them if it appears they still live there. If it appears that they didn't move but haven't been home in a long time, I would attempt to find out if they're in the hospital, jail or deceased. Sometimes emergency contact will know if they moved or not and also those emergency contacts can get more information from the hospitals in some cases. If you can't find them and they left all or most of their belongings, then proceed with eviction. I had to evict my first tenants and it was pretty straight forward to evict for nonpayment.  I'd have to research the exact steps again but before proceeding, find out if they moved or not. 

In general, communities with good schools have higher real estate appreciation and have higher rental demand. Good families flee from troubled school districts making it harder to find good tenants or sell for top dollar. There are exceptions for areas near higher education, downtown or nightlife steps away type of preferred community.  

Getting security deposits from existing tenants had not been a problem for us.  There was no hesitation even though we did ask several long term tenants for a higher deposit with us. 

@Julie Doran We have the tenants original lease also. In that lease it specifically mentions tenant is responsible for cigarette smoke damage ours has a general damage clause. I'm curious how being the 'new owner' effect if we can hold tenant responsible for damage prior to the sale. Most of the damage does appear to be after the sale, so that's our focus. 

I am curious about the costs aspect. We got an estimate of around $11K in damages for an apartment occupied by a heavy smoker. Around $7500 was for damages done to a small kitchen put in a few years ago (water damages to lower cabinets and uppers coated with a film from smoking mixed with grease from cooking).   

The $3500 remainder in remediation is for: 

1. Cleanings of walls, ceilings, windows, window frames, registers/vents, installed microwave with exhaust fan and light fixtures.  

2. Treating and then sealing walls and ceiling.  

3. Replacing all trim 

4. Sealing wall around vents 

4. Replacing the newer light fixtures and window blinds. 

5. Sealing smoke smell within wood shelving for three clothes closets, linen closet and storage closet. Linen and storage closet had custom shelving. 

6. We will be replacing the three ceiling fans - I assume the cost to replace all the fan blades would be about the same as just remove and replace the whole fixture since we are not doing this work ourselves. 

7. Replacing all outlet covers and switch plates for areas previously upgraded/repaired. 

This was an in-place tenant that stayed on with us for several years. We are not charging for damages items that are normal wear and tear items such as paint, carpet and very old window blinds. We are not charging for damages done to very old light fixtures and fans since we would have replaced them despite the smoke damages. 

Does $3500 seem like an appropriate cost for this? It seems about right to me, but curious how the Judge will react to this amount. 

Vent cleaning was not included in the estimate, we will be using another provider for that. 

Along with the recommendations for cleaning and sealing. We use an ozone generator. Yes, you have to use it with caution. While in the cleaning process, run it at night or when nobody is working in the room/apartment. We had reno'd an apartment to make it nonsmoking and first tenants decided to smoke in it. Luckily, they did not smoke in the entire place.  We are just starting the fun of renovating after a smoker decided to start smoking in the apartment heavily. Yes, it was supposed to be nonsmoking.   

I have a summary page on front with address to mail rent to, our contact information, address of rental unit, lease start date, lease end date, rent due date, rent amount with on-time discount , rent amount without on-time discount and deposit amount.  A copy is given to them at lease signing and a copy is emailed prior to lease signing. Two days after lease signing, one new tenant called me frantically because she can't remember the address and can't find it in the lease anywhere. I've had tenants call up and say, the rent will be late because they don't know what address to mail it to. I just had a tenant notify me that they will be moving out on a date after their lease ends. They didn't ask, for an extension 'they knew' that's when their lease was up because they moved in that day of the month. I guess I need to lower my expectations and dumb things down even more. I always thought it was odd that some people don't read contracts or leases but I didn't realize that most people are that way. How do people keep up their credit if they don't read contracts? I'm still tempted to hide an Easter egg or write a no brown M&M clause within the lease with a reward rather than a punishment so I know who actually read the lease. Maybe I'll do that with the digital copy only. 

Yeah, been there done that yet they still don't seem to remember what they signed. I guess its selective memory issues. 

@Roger Hefner  I tell fellow Veteran friends to look into becoming a landlord to supplement their income. Most of my veteran friends are receptive to the idea - they don't scare easy. My friends that share my chronic health conditions won't consider becoming a landlord, I can understand not having the funding but the ones that are still working should seriously look into it. Most chronic health conditions will only get worse - if they invest in their own income properties while they can still work - they can help secure a better future when they can no longer work full time. That disability income from insurance only lasts so long and SSDI is hard to get and little money to live on.