All Forum Posts by: Cathy B.

What Kevin has suggested will probably work.  If you don't want to do that they do make various nosings out of rubber, metal and even wood replacement nosings (make sure you get a hard dense wood).  It just depends on the look you want, but you'd want to do all of them, in that case.  There are also carpet tread sections that wrap around the nosing.

For the condo mapping plan, its likely part of your closing documents . . . if you can't locate it, consider reaching out to the title company that prepared your file for the sale.  The ones that I've seen are in plan only, so I don't know if they go into detail on the vertical separation part . . . its possible that its in the wording and not a diagram like the condo plan part.

Contact a local cat rescue group.  They may be able to trap or teach you how to trap the cats.  They may also have resources to fix and re-home them or point you in the right direction, etc.  This would take it off your hands but you, as a landlord, should secure all openings to this crawlspace so rats, possums, raccoons, etc. don't move in instead.  Hopefully the crawlspace will air out, if not maybe a plastic vapor barrier over the soil will help.

Good luck!

Already mentioned is Facebook groups where people looking to rent post what they are looking for.  Another option is Craigslist  - housing wanted.  The drawback to that is people looking for houses get lumped in with people looking for rooms, etc.  As pointed out by John above, you still need to screen them.

I know you feel like you ruled out the washing machine, but I've had an issue where water from the washing machine traveled behind the washer, through a chase space, then into an adjacent closet in my basement.  Essentially the floor was slightly sloped and the water followed.  Water came out of a clogged drain pipe behind the washer so this went unnoticed for awhile.

You could run the washer and see if more water shows up and/or check the levelness of the slab just to be  sure.

For the brick/ sidewalk connection, yes talk to a Contractor.  That area needs addressing, but it will be tricky to know if that is the issue, or if it comes from groundwater/waterproofing below.

Congrats on saving so much so early and thinking about your future already! 

For 150K I'm not sure what you'll be able to find, but my guess is not much.  Consider if you would be willing to have roommates and how many . . . this might enable you to pursue something more expensive while saving for your next one.

Danuel,
I think there are Youtube videos you can find of flooring repairs where people putty in the scratches and cracks, then go over with paint to match the grain on LVT floors.  I have no idea how durable it is.
Its hard to tell on your window photos if its a continuous part that is broken or one that is missing.  Maybe reach out to the manufacturer and see if they have a replacement or recommendation.  If its continuous . . is it possible to grind down the whole thing, then attach a separate part in its place?  Is this a bedroom window and therefore critical for egress?

Quartz countertops are what renters want in the west coast market for sure, I don't know about Colorado specifically.  Laminate is never used on new rental projects here.

It sounds like you already have a solution to your tile problem that won't cost a lot, so I'd consider going forward with that as well.

If the swamp cooler still works fine, keep it as long as it makes sense and save up for when you need to replace the system.  Tenants often don't think too hard about those things when leasing.

I'm curios why there are no pictures of the kitchen or bathroom vanity in the Zillow listing?  If they are nice, they should be added in so people can imagine how they would use them.

Kevin,

I use Zillow and I've never had any issues with the rental payment portion of the site.  Only thing I wish that had was a way for me issue a payment back to the tenant.  Currently its one way (only they can pay you)

Like you, I am now skeptical of the application/background check on there and will likely use something else next time.  Maybe I got lucky in the past?

Zillow has their own lease, but also allows you to upload your own lease and put in digital signatures where you need them.  I normally print out the zillow lease to make sure I'm not missing anything . . .they try, at least, to update their lease for my area, but I've read where this may not always be the case.  I use a state compliant lease, with a couple of add-on, unit specific policies and make sure I include all of the same attachments as the Zillow one, like the lead disclosure, City required depreciation table, etc.  You are in California so no any lease will do.  Make sure you have one that complies with all of your local laws.

Overall, Zillow has been fine.  They have some useful tools that can help with comparables for pricing your rental.  It also looks like they are adding a maintenance portion to their site, but I have yet to investigate that.