All Forum Posts by: Arvand Sabetian

Seasonality always comes into play! Some areas are seeing declines while others are holding steady. I always remind myself that nothing can be as bad as the rent decline in 2020-2021 in major cities such as SF..

Depending on your insurance policy and insurer, you should be able to add a property manager to your policy. You will see that many property managers request this for liability coverage.

To put into perspective--we charge $1,250 for tenant placement. This includes handling inbound leads, communication with the prospective tenants, tenant screening/background checks, application processing, lease generation.

Many PMs will charge 50% of your first month's rent or 100% of first month's rent for tenant placement. Some have higher flat fees. It just depends on the PM you're considering.

A PM will also handling coordination with vendors. Whether that's for routine maintenance or emergency repairs. It takes a lot of time for PMs to build relationships with trusted and licensed vendors in their network.

All of this requires time and has overhead costs associated to it (employees). If you don't think any sort of fee is reasonable then continuing managing your unit may be in your best interest.

Are you also keeping up to date with legislative changes in your area. Notable changes in 2024 for Virginia:

- Amendments made to the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act relating to restrictions on fees charged to tenants.

- Enhanced Tenant Rights and Responsibilities Statement. Landlords are required to provide prospective tenants with updated Statement of Tenant Rights and Responsibilities.

- New legislative reforms for the eviction process--notice periods and protections tenants have.

Hope this helps put some things into perspective.

This can complicate things unless you're willing to add another electrical line as @Adam Bartomeo stated. It's something that'll be a one-time cost and set you up for the future.

Unless you get tenants to agree to split utility and water bills separately (50/50), this can get messy, there's not many options. What if one tenant is late or doesn't pay their amount? You've now become a mediator between them.

I assume you prefer not to have the utilities and water accounts under your name. If you decide to go this route, you could inform the tenants that they will be responsible for a separate monthly utilities charge in addition to their rent. The utility and water bills would be calculated each month (by you) and evenly split between them. This of course, would need to be defined in their lease agreements and would also require more work collecting those payments. Again, what if one of them is late or doesn't pay?

This is somewhat subjective to you. Of course, it's always smart to keep funds aside for unforeseen or emergency related costs.

Others who have already responded have provided some great opinions. 

Renting by room can be tricky and is why a lot of PMs try avoiding it. When there's tenants already occupying the property, there's often times different leases that were signed among the tenants.

Additionally, renting by room usually sees higher tenant turnover which in turn causes more work for the PM.

Other challenges to consider:
- Disputes/conflicts among tenants (different personalities if a tenant doesn't know the others prior)
- Occupancy limits
- Splitting utilities (what if someone uses more water?)
- Insurance policies (some may not cover rent by room)
- Friction among tenants regarding common spaces

Stripe is reputable. Unfortunately, there's been reports of user accounts being closed without any reason. But I believe that if you're not violating any terms, not in a restricted industry or involved with anything deemed risky by Stripe then you're probably safe.

It appears their move to Stripe is for accelerated payment processing, which is interesting since they acquired eRentPayment and Payment Report.

On surface level it might be they're adding Stripe as an option on top of their existing infrastructure.

There's always pros and cons when debating rent control. I think it's pretty clear it disincentivizes new construction or encourages landlords to find ways around it.

However, I do believe we could do better in areas for encouraging new construction with zoning reform and other tax incentives.

This list looks great! Covering most of the routine maintenance items here.

 I'd also add landscaping with lawn care. Most tenants will neglect the landscaping and we usually recommend low maintenance landscaping to owners.

- Lighting fixtures
- Smoke alarms / carbon monoxide detectors
- Window and door repairs
- Water heater maintenance

It's common and as others have stated it will depend on the property manager. Review your agreement so you have an understanding. If there's nothing stated, call them and have a converastion.

Some PMs will collect rent and transfer to you while others will have the rent sent to you directly and charge their fees separately.

Definitely reach out to your insurance provider. Home insurance would cover anything on premise, but as @Jonathan Bock stated, it's usually for significant damage.

This might be something you would tackle on your own, but worth to have a conversation with your provider first to see what they have to say.