All Forum Posts by: Beth L.

@Daria B. I am speaking of my properties here in Hagerstown. They have city water, but are outside city limits, in Washington County, so maybe Baltimore County just has different rules. The tenants can get all other utilities in their name but the water must stay in the owner's name. Around here the landlords either average the water and include it in the rent or they pay the water bill and forward that charge to the tenants to be included with their next rent payment.

@Trevor Ewen we use The Columbia Bank exclusively. We had a relationship with them for many, many years before we started investing so it made sense to work with them. They have been great! We have only used their commercial lending dept which is necessary if holding in an LLC. Their commercial lending dept is located in their downtown Hagerstown branch.

@Todd Moriarty where I live you can't put the water in the tenants name. It must stay in the owners name. You could always take an average of the water bill and raise the rent to include it. In this way too, they are accountable for their rent not utilities.

Cool @Gabe C. small world!

I like to provide things like a new shower curtain liner, a starter bottle of certain cleaners you may want them to use. (i.e. I have a smooth top stove and SS appliances so I provide cleaners for those.) Maybe a nice handsoap.

In the past, I had an inexpensive picture on the mantle to make the place look nice for the showing. The tenant expressed interest in it, so I left it as the gift.

I have also given a small plant on occasion.

I always leave a greeting card. They make them for "Congrats on your new home". If I find some l like I stock up on them and leave them with the gift for each new tenant, with a personalized message written inside.

We have fireplaces in most of our rentals. We close them off and tell the tenants that they are decorative only and may burn candles there if they wish. The cost of maintaining a chimney is outrageous and you would have to deal with them needing a good place to store wood, which invites termites and carpenter ants close to the house. And the liability alone means it's wise to allow in rentals. Simple is better IMO.

@Michael Beninati we get the best results from a "For Rent" sign placed in the front yard, but most of our properties are on a main street.

In addition to CL, I started using RegisterSigns.com recently. I purchased a large RegisterSigns For Rent Text for Info sign from Lowe's (it's blue and black, instead of red and white), but you can also print a free sign from their site, or add the info to a regular sign. It allows you to give prospective tenants a short link web page for the unit, also they can text a code to a text number and get the link to view the listing. From this site you can also send your listing info to all the major sites like Zillow, Trulia and Hotpads. For a small fee, you can get reports for insight on where your leads are coming from. 

I also set up a Google voice number and set it to "Do Not Disturb" so that it automatically goes to VM. My VM message gives the specifics on this unit and allows them to leave a message if they are interested in seeing it. I then get transcripts of the messages sent directly to my email. I love this since I don't have to repeat myself over and over again and it weeds out those that are interested.

I have not had good experiences with CL. The only responses I get are people asking if I take Section 8. Most of my good leads have come from the physical sign and the major listing sites like Zillow.

I noticed that Cozy has an option for you to set up a listing and have it sent to Realtor.com. I am really interested in that as well, since it seems you can only list there if on the MLS. Worth looking into.

Wish you the best! 

Maybe they stopped by  to look at the outside and noticed someone was there and decided to knock. Kind of weird they left though. Hope you get it rented soon!

Like @Jim Adrian, I also use tenantbackgroundsearch.com. It is fast, easy to use, and provides a basic service up to a detailed service with eviction info. In Maryland, we are only allowed to request up to $25 for an application fee, so I always lose money on each application since I get the detailed report. But it is everything I need. The landlord pays for the reports by credit card and collects the fee from the tenant.

@Josef T. I didn't know about the POA for military. They didn't mention anything about this, perhaps there is none since they are not yet married. I think I would like to video chat with him, maybe to go over the lease.