All Forum Posts by: Andy S.

@Christopher Berra

Thanks for the recommendation. Are you saying I reach out to Ayelet for an advice?

Also can fellow landlords advise what dog breeds to reject?

I understand in NJ, landlord is not collect to charge pet security deposit. Moreover tenant security deposit cannot be more than 1.5 times the rent.

1. How do fellow landlords handle this situation? Charge $35/month per pet? Is $35 too little or a lot to ask for?

2. Show the $35/month as rent and not pet rent? ie just increase rent? (I understand upon learning the per is an ESA or Service Animal, one cannot charge pet rent....but these are still animals and can cause damage to the property. How does landlord protect his interest in such a scenario?

3.If a tenant with pet moves in and wishes to convert the pet to ESA or SA, is landlord allowed to deny the request? If I must increase the rent by say $35/month, do I increase the same? What reason I can give without getting in trouble with the law?

Any words of wisdom from fellow investors would be highly appreciated.

I was wondering what is the best way to conduct these? How do fellow landlords do it?

1. Do they take pics of interior at move in and have tenants sign each pic? 

Or just have a tenant sign a move in inspection docs that states everything was checked by tenant and is working fine?

2. At the time of move out, does landlord again take pics? Or just create an inspection doc with checklist and have the tenant sign it?

Taking pics of each wall, can be too many pics and a very large file/pdf to share with the tenant. 

Any advise would be appreciated.

Quote from @Ayelet Wiedermann:

@Andy S. I agree with the others, definitely list it now! The only thing I'd add is to do an 18 months lease or so, so that when the next lease is up you'll be in the warmer months.

Is it ideal to have a lease end in NJ around June? In other words, to maximize tenants seeking to rent, what are the best months to have lease end? Assuming 15-20 days it takes to prep the property for the next tenant?

My tenant is vacating the property this week and I am wondering whether to list it for rent immediately or to wait for March/April when whether may not be as cold? The reason I am asking is, should I list now, there may not be enough foot fall to view the property, not many people move during cold season? Listing after 2-3 months would also mean loss of rent, whereas listing now may mean property may be on the market for a bit longer.

What have others experienced? Appreciate any words of wisdom.

Hi All,

I run into this all the time. I have a clause in the lease that says the security deposit will be held in so and so bank with so and so address and interest rate will be xyz. Per NJ law, must I include account number in the lease? What happens is, if I include this account number, at the time of lease signng, I have to leave it blank. Once the lease is signed, I go to the bank and open a new security deposit account, and then the bank provides account number, which I then manually enter in the lease and have the tenant sign the lease again.

Any guidance on avoiding the hassel of having to sing the lease twice lease?

Regards

New Jersey law requires that security deposit be refunded to the tenant via check delivered in person or as a certified mail.

Is it ok to instead refund security deposit via say Zelle?

Is this method considered against the law? Thank you for any guidance I can get.

For my rental in New Jersey, I have set a deductible of $60 whenever I make a visit to do any kind of repairs for the tenant. For example any water leak, of the contractor charges me $250, out of that $60 tenant pays.

What do some of the landlords do in general? Do they charge any higher or lower?

I understand a very high deductible may result in Tenant not reporting small issues that may grow to become expensive repairs.

Any advise would be appreciate. Charge of $75 or 100 per service call is fair enough?

Thanks

Quote from @Theresa Harris:

Why can't you send it as a calendar entry for a meeting?  It should allow you to set it up as a recurring meeting and set the frequency (monthly, every 3 months) and end date.  Then just invite them to the meeting.  

 Thanks for the advice. I am thinking of using Calendar, however calendar invite popos up as a reminder on people's mobile, who then tend to quickly turn it off or ignore. If there was a way for this calendar notification to appear as an email in their inbox, that would be awesome.