All Forum Posts by: Ashley Shearer

So this is mostly in reference to us doing our own repairs, not necessarily looking to hire other people. We try to save money by occasionally doing our own work, we only have a handful of properties. For example we replaced a water heater recently. So this program is between the property mgmt company and us, mostly. 

Has anyone come across their property management company creating a "First right of refusal program" for maintenance requests? Our property managers are trying to get us to sign a new clause stating that if we want first right of refusal to do our own maintenance on our properties (and not just have them handle it automatically), that we need to respond to any maintenance request within 24 hours (telling them we want to do it or telling them they can do it), complete the work in 7 days (if we say we want to do it), and do unit turnovers in 2 weeks. 

Obviously all that is ideal and that is the timeframe we would love to get everything done in. However, if there is not an emergency or immediate need, then we will do our research on quotes or take our time figuring out how we would do it ourselves and make the time to do it. We communicate with the tenants or have the property mgmt company communicate with the tenants throughout. We've had tenants complain once or twice that something is not done fast enough but if it's not an urgent need, we just tell them to wait (Ex - an outlet not working). 

Curious if this is normal practice or in other management agreements people have signed? 

@Joe Norman @Lorraine Pennington found this post in searching for our own lock system. I see you both went opposite routes - any reviews? How are they going? 

We have newer properties with Kwikset locks and also have a few older properties that have the very thin doors with the old-style bolt locks (https://www.homedepot.com/p/Pr...) I'm curious if there might be something that would work for both? Or perhaps we just need to buy/install new doors. 
Thanks!

@Curtis Bowen - I know this was an old post but I have some questions and hoping you're still on the site. We have a tenant that committed suicide in one of our rentals. There is blood on the carpet but not a large space, about 3-4 square feet. There are also some blood marks on the wall where I guess her husband touched the door/door frame. The damaged area seems small. Are we legally allowed to clean it up ourselves and replace the carpet/flooring? Does it need to be certified or anything like that? We are in Pennsylvania. Thank you!

@Account Closed It worked! Thank you very much. Just searched the book again and realized I missed the time tracking step. Thank you again!

@Account Closed - I am just setting up quickbooks and did exactly what you said above about the Water (I pay sewer, trash and invoice my tenants). I opened the vendor and wrote a check, listed the trash and sewer separately at the bottom, put the tenant name in the customer field and put the unit in the class field. When I went to the customer center, nothing shows up under a bill they owe or an invoice for the amount. How do I find the customer invoices to print out and mail to them? 

Hello all - thanks in advance for any help! Advice needed for newbies! Tenant broke lease and moved out early, explaining the living conditions were 'uninhabitable' due to noise/fighting from tenant on other side. 

Quick & Dirty:

- April 18: Settled on duplex, inherited one tenant on each side, Tenant A (male) Tenant B (female)
- May 18: Tenant A asks to move girlfriend in, we say no, he moves girlfriend in without our knowledge anyways. 
- Oct 13, 2018: Tenant B complains of loud fighting, first complaint. We inform Tenant A to call police if it gets too bad. We warn Tenant B about noise. Find out he moved her in. Tell him to move her out or we'll end his lease. 
- Over next 2.5 weeks, we speak with police and proceed to find legal help to begin eviction proceedings properly (first time, no experience). We also receive one more complaint from Tenant B again. We inform her to call police if it gets bad (she has not called police yet).
- Oct 31: Tenant A girlfriend is harassing Tenant B with banging on her door, loud noises. Tenant B finally calls police. This is her 3rd complaint to us. 
- Nov 1: Give notice to quit to Tenant A. 
- Nov 12: Tenant B emails us that she has moved out as of Nov 3 and left the keys. We text her last week asking where rent check was, she lied and said she would send it again. No rent. 

Lease states she has to give 60 days notice to end lease. She only complained to us a few times and we feel we worked as fast as possible (and as fast as lawyers would allow) to evict. We, legally, had to give tenant 'notice to quit' and could not evict immediately, so this would have taken time regardless. 

Is this worth pursuing the unpaid rent, for at least one month? She has lived there for at least 5 years, I know there will be expenses to flip and to get a new tenant in, and her security deposit is less than a regular month's rent. I can try to do it as quickly as possible but I'd like her to pay at least this month's rent. 

Any advice appreciated!

Hey @Justin R.- how did the units as sub-classes go? Can you see reporting on them? 

@Anthony M. just started looking for a CC for myself, for the exact same reasons as you. Did you settle on a card? Any feedback?

Hello - question on this. Do you have to state somewhere (in the listing or on the application) that you don't accept smokers? I did not put that anywhere in my listings or application specifically, but my app does have a question "Does anyone who will occupy the property smoke?" and the applicant answered "yes". Can I deny them without having told them in the first place? 

I would assume not - since you can deny for all types of reasons without writing them all out, but wanted to be sure.