All Forum Posts by: Ashley Hernandez

Great advice thank you Rob!!

I use a form that give authorization to allow access to unit/personal property. This form basically states that in the event that the resident becomes incapacitated or dies that they will grant access to their unit and personal belongings and will hold you harmless. If you do not have this type of form already I would recommend you get one on hand for any properties with aging tenants. It helps in the event that they do pass. Everything seems to happen so quickly and most people do not have a will set up. Family members start to pressure to gain access to things some who have good intentions and others who do not. This way this gets the landlords off the hook and also can help the transition be a lot more smooth. Also I would look up the disclosure laws in your state because in California you are required to tell any applicant for that up that a death had occurred there for the next 3 years. Regarding insurance as long as there is not anything that is a safety or trip hazard that is due to your negligence then I would not be concerned. However consulting with an attorney and your insurance agent would not hurt. Just to make sure you are properly covered in the event that something did occur. I would definitely make sure the house is under an LLC.

It has been my understanding (again no lawyer here) that you can accept partial payments however you would just serve them with a 3day to pay or quit for the remaining portion.  Now once you are in the process of actually evicting them they advise you to just hold on to the checks but do not negotiate them.  

Hi Nick! I definitely understand you wanting to keep a bit of a veil over the fact that you are indeed the owner of the property. However due to you the unique living situation I believe that might not be the best route. I am currently not aware of any law that states you must disclose this information. (they could really just find it out on their own LLC or not)

I definitely HIGHLY recommend that you take some fair housing courses and really familiarize yourself with tenant/landlord laws in your area.  Owning rentals is tough enough but then throw in the fact that you will also be living with your tenants is a whole other animal!!! 

My opinion honesty is the best policy!! Plenty of homeowners rent out rooms! Good Luck!!!! Landlording is tough but good work when done right!!! 

I have an off market portfolio that I would really like to make an offer on however I am not sure exactly what I should offer for it.  Any thoughts or suggestions on how I could structure this?? (the 1 bdrm 5plex is way to low imo) owner is open to in his words "anything that makes sense".  Mind you I would like to do rent increases across the entire portfolio because he is way below the market rents in the local area. 

# of bdrms	# of bathrms	Sqft	Current Rent	High prop value	Mid prop value	Low prop value	Annual Taxes
2	1	956	$600	$140,651	$126,000	$122,200	$787.20
2	1	884	$574	$133,164	$114,200	$111,700	$738.16
3	2	2005	$1,200	$330,811	$321,000	$312,800	$2,110.96
1	1	672	$550	$114,600	$113,878	$111,500	$638.08
2	1	792	$515	$130,700	$129,840	$121,900	$772.06
1	1	$490	$160,000	$158,000	$154,782	$952.64
1	1	$490
1	1	$490
1	1	$490
1	1	$490
1	1	$550	$98,800	$98,000	$92,915	$941.58
3	1	$590	$183,939	$179,700	$166,800	$1,381.78
TOTAL	$7,029	$1,292,665	$1,240,618	$1,194,597	$8,322.46
Annualized Income	$84,348	$84,348	$84,348	$84,348
Annualized expenditure	$73,344	$70,392	$67,776
$8,322.46	$8,322.46	$8,322.46
Total Profit	$2,681.54	$5,633.54	$8,249.54

"This is one of the toughest decisions I have ever had to make as a landlord" hahaha! I wish that was one of the only tough decisions we had!!! :)  I would go with Deanna's suggestion! 

I think I'm some cases it is appropriate to mediate a bit. Vacancies turns and lost rent can be worth the 10-15 minutes it would take to try to defuse the situation. Most often people just want to be heard and they will calm down. Explaining to them both that apartment daily living noises are normal and expected however if the noise is so loud that is disturbing the quiet enjoyment of other residents then we have another issue. I have explained to both tenants at the same time if this constant back and fourth does not stop the they both will be receiving a notice of termination which will reflect on their landlord reference. Usually that is enough to get them to stop. Hope this saves you some headache.

Here in California it is the landlords responsibility to remediate any infestation issues (mice, roaches, bedbugs etc.) however you can bill the resident because you would not of brought this into their unit. I would make sure you make through documentation regarding the interaction and going forward have a bedbug addendum (look online or check with local rental associations) for new move-ins.  I would make sure that you have the unit heat treated (most effective IMO) and have the pest control company give you something in writing that they deem the unit bed bug free.  I would just post a notice of abandonment and follow applicable procedures if thats the case.  If they will not sign anything or return keys.  Sadly just getting rid of the tenant does not get rid of the bed bugs because they can hide in outlets, carpet and so on..... Good luck! 

As long as no crime was committed on your property I do not believe you would have any legal standing.  However if he were arrested behind the wheel on your property you might have more grounds.  

I would sell it! Tenants tend to be pretty hard on things such as fridges (thus the reason most SFR in CA are having tenants bring in their own) and put in one that can be inexpensively replaced.