All Forum Posts by: S. Perry

Yes, I have asked that he not have any contact with potential renters. When we first got wind that something was going on it was from him. He made it seem as if renters were approaching HIM and he was a bit bothered by it so I said just tell them to deal with the PM company. He was lying to us about how the contact was started and even went so far as to say that these potential renters were accusing him of illegal dumping of hazardous material into our pond that is on the property (among other things). The lies are endless from him to us about the renters and to them about the property and us. I will be having another conversation with him today due to my earlier conversation with the PM company. They are now saying that we may have to consider lowering the rent to get someone in that won't care about the neighbors lie/issues. I am trying to keep this business but it sure is hard not to get personal.

Need some advice on how to deal with a neighbor to my SFH rental. It is currently on the market with a PM for its first tenant. A neighbor is telling potential tenants lies about the property. This info is being told to the PM who is telling me. I have asked the neighbor to not have any contact with people looking at the property but it isn't working.

The property was vacant for nearly 2 years before we bought it over 3 years ago. I think the neighbor enjoyed not having any neighbors! He is lying about things that are off putting to renters and we have had no apps in a month on a home that should have rented in a matter of days.

How can I get him to keep his mouth shut or to undo damage that he has already done? The things he is saying would keep most people from renting! At this point he is messing with our livelihood. I would rather not go to war with this guy but will do what I have to do.

Finally ready to hire a PM company. Met with one last year briefly when house wasn't quite ready to rent. He thought otherwise and said it was "rent ready" as far as he could tell and if any issues were to arise his in-house maintenance people could easily handle any task.....of course they could to the tune of a 10% up-charge on services. I explained that we were trying to avoid as many additional expenses as we could at start up since we had been sitting on the property for 2 years without any income from it (our company utilizes a portion of the property aside from the home). We took our time with repairs and now are ready to get the process underway. I felt slightly pushed with continued contact from him but that ceased earlier this year.

First PM (met with previously) didn't specifically rub me the wrong way nor did he dazzle me with brilliance. I did like the price he wanted to rent the home for and that may have clouded my judgement. The only concern I had initially was that when I asked about how often inspections were done he said that in his experience it was best to NOT do them so renters didn't get a chance to complain about numerous minor issues.

His company charges a $150 set up fee, entire amount of first months rent and 7% of rent collected going forward. There is of course the 10% up-charge fee for maintenance and he requires free access without approval to issues up to $500. These charges seem to be within normal ranges for my area. I have found 2 negative reviews online concerning their practices. They are not listed on Angie's List nor with the BBB in my area.

Located another company this week via Angie's List (A rating) and with BBB A+ rating. Multiple positive reviews online. I don't put too much stock in good or bad reviews. I have not met yet with this company but did obtain some info from the owner today. Was not able to reach anyone by phone at the office for multiple days in a row (red flag?) but my e-mail inquiry was returned.

They do not charge a set up fee. They charge 1/2 of first months rent or a minimum of $650. 10% a month going forward of rents collected for the first year. If you opt to continue the relationship in the 2nd year the commission drops down to 8%. There is no up-charge for maintenance fees and only a $200 reserve is required (anything above would require approval from owner). Inspections done often (at least quarterly if I remember correctly). They are set up to handle approx. 40 SFH rentals/condos at any one time and don't service any multi-units. They don't represent "investor-only types" and the majority of their rentals were once owner occupied. Seemed more down to earth?

Will be meeting 2nd PM next week. At this point the only thing I can find that would be a turn off would be a low rent number. I know what they say about too good to be true so I am not putting all my eggs in one basket just yet. Any advice?

The building receives its water supply from lines running from the home. Previous owner lived at the home and operated his business from the building hence no need for them to have separate meters.
Water runs from the street to the home and from the back of the home to the building.
Home and building are on separate septic tanks so no sewer bill to worry about.

In the process of getting a SFH ready for rent. Property sits on over 2 acres, with a portion of it zoned commercial and 2 buildings on it that we will maintain use of. Separate drives to the home and buildings. Unless you were told that it was all one property you would not know.

We have split the electric service (one for home and another for a building) and are waiting until the spring thaw to have the gas separated as well (can't get the gas company out in the winter for a non-occupied structure unless we were to foot the bill. Waiting allows them to cover the costs).

Tenants will put electric and gas in their names and be responsible for those utilities.

Our water service is like so many where the bill remains with the home and not the actual resident. One of the buildings has access to water running the lines from the home however we have it shut off and have never used it due to misc. plumbing issues which will run in the $2000 range to have repaired.

Here is what we have come up with and wanted to get opinions. We could spend the 2 grand to solve the current plumbing issues in the building which we will occupy. We would then also have to pay the water company to run lines directly from the street to the building to the tune of approx. another 5 grand. (could be higher).

Desired scenario would be that we keep the current water bill in our name and put in the lease that anything above $60 will have to be paid by the tenant. In 2.5 years we have never paid more than the minimum bill to have service (our usage is very low). At our current bill of $10.35/month this gives the tenant nearly $50 a month cushion. Per the water company a typical home with our sq. footage and a family of 4 will use on average 7000 gallons a month to the tune of $41.70/month. Does this seem fair?

I take care of animals for a living (own a pet sitting company). There is NO WAY I would ever allow a tenant with a ferret to be in my rental. De-scenting is helpful until and unless it is required a 2nd time and you won't ever know this if you are not the owner and live with it. Best bet for helping curb their odor is to make sure they are de-sexed (spayed/neutered). An un-neutered male will literally groom itself with urine to attract a female. Talk about a not so pleasant smell. Just like with cats, they use a litter box but too many owners take the easy route and dump more litter material in the box verses changing it out. Different from cats is that you can't use a clumping type litter that makes clean up easier. I can walk into a house and tell you if a ferret is present. Their odor is that strong and special them.
As far as destruction goes....if they can chew on it, they will. If they are caged when alone and well supervised when they are allowed to roam *hopefully* the owner/tenant is keeping them safe by not allowing this to happen.
They are hoarders too. They steal items and hide them.
Give me 5 pit bull PUPPIES in training any day over one single ferret.

Currently in the process of getting a SFH ready to rent. This week we realized there were no land line connections in the home. The house underwent renovations prior to our purchase and neighbors have told us there was a lot of drywall work done. We know the connections are coming into the home via the basement and can only assume they are in the walls but hidden by the new drywall.
For the life of me I can't locate anything relating to whether or not a land line telephone connection is a requirement for a LL in my state (Ohio).
If this isn't a requirement and we don't correct the issue I can see it being an additional cost to the tenant should they want this service.
I've contacted a local telephone provider and the only assistance they can give me is if I were to start service with them. They would happily come to the home and run the lines for a fee in addition to the monthly service which we are not interested in starting.
I am currently waiting on a response to this from my PM but thought I would get others opinions here as well.
If this isn't a required utility we can choose to do nothing and perhaps a tenant isn't even interested in a land line. They might want one and we could cover the cost as well as making sure we approve of where the holes are made and how many, split the cost or have them foot the entire bill?

Thanks to all who have responded. The main reason we decided to use a PM is because we will be using a portion of the property ourselves and will be there on a daily basis. We thought there would be a possibility of a tenant taking advantage of that with such easy access to us. A portion of the property is zoned commercial and one of our companies rents the buildings from us. It appears as if the properties are two separate lots. If we are involved with the home rental it would be easy to know otherwise and we wanted to avoid that. We also don't have the time to manage a 3rd business.
I didn't intend to come off as as owner who didn't want to relinquish control. I am happy to give that to a PM. I was more so wanting to obtain information on how it works (using a PM). What things are set in stone, so to speak, and if the possibility is there for a bit of give and take. No intention of trying to persuade a PM to change their business model. I was unsuccessful in locating many PM companies in my area that only do property management. I am sure they are out there but my Google searches were very limited. The ones I did find had too many negative reviews for me to be comfortable with. The one I have chosen is a privately owned realty office with a handful of the staff who focus more on the PM side. We have met in person and have had a couple of phone conversation (they are wanting us to rent it already) but have not had a legitimate sit down to discuss more details than what I have already shared here.

**Tried to correct the typo in my title but was unsuccessful.

We own a SFH and will be renting it out in the near future. We have decided to utilize the services of a PM. I am far from an expert but with some research it seems that the current charges are in line with similar areas.
$150 fee to set up service, advertise and find tenant.
First months rent (they determined the monthly rent of $1400) paid to PM.
7% monthly of rent going forward.
10% up charge for maintenance/repairs and anything over $500 would require approval.
**I would like this to be lower, perhaps $100 or possibly $250.

I have a few questions about the owner-PM relationship and will be asking the chosen company these things as well but thought I might get some insight here from those who are far more educated in this matter.

How much control does the owner maintain over their property?
Do we have any say in who is chosen as a renter or does it merely come down to who has the best "passing" application? A family of 6 isn't really suited for a 2 br home but I can't count the number of inquiries I have had which are similar (total strangers ask us all the time when it will be available).

When I asked about doing yearly or even a bi-yearly walk through I was told they didn't offer this only because it had the potential to become problematic. Translated to mean the renter would have a list of wanted items done which were not needed items. This is a bit concerning to us but perhaps we are trying to be too hand's on?

We can't be the first LL's who wish to have their property maintained.....I am not trying to be overly optimistic and I know things can and will happen. I am fully prepared for worst case scenario in that area.

We are offering to provide the lawn service (about an acre and we have the equipment). We would provide snow removal when necessary, if desired, to a very large driveway - 15 cars or so, again we have the equipment.
There are other things we would like to have done annually (fireplace inspection/cleaning) - on us - and other things done more frequently (replacing furnace filters for example).

Is it even a remote possibility that we can be responsible for various items and opt out of having the PM company take the reigns in those chosen few areas hence eliminating a few maintenance fees and up charges here and there? We have no desire to make midnight runs for a backed up toilet or a clogged sink but other areas will be easily handed over and happily.

Rumor has it that *some* PM companies will nickle and dime you to death. I fully realize they are in business to make money and to be successful. I don't begrudge them for that in the least. They will provide a service that we are not willing to undertake so I know there will be some give and take. Having never done this before I just don't know what my options might be or what battle I should fight or let go.

Any insight would be much appreciated.

I've been reading the forums for a few months and have learned a lot but have also discovered I have a long way to go. We are diving into the LL market in the Central Ohio area. Thanks for having a well thought out forum with a substantial knowledge base. Looking forward to learning more.