All Forum Posts by: Chris G.

@Russell Brazil only our unit is without power. 

@Wayne Brooks I figured that's the case, however if I lived in the condo would the association have any responsibility for housing until the issue is fixed or would that be a case by case basis depending on the associations policy

As per the lease I have given the option for them to break the lease if they choose to do so or give free rent until the issue is resolved. But from what you said it makes me responsible for giving them temporary housing or a credit and then it would be up to the condo association if they repay me that expense? Or is it just bad luck for the tenant since they don't have renters insurance and won't likely receive anything.

Posted something similar awhile back but here we are again. Have condo which is inside a building with 10 other units, power went out for their unit only so we sent out electrician, he found that the meter socket was overheating. This makes it a condo association issue so I contacted them and they agreed so they sent out their own electrician. Due to the buildings being old I saw told it's hard to find parts for these. Keep in mind at this point it's been 5 days tenants have been without power. Electrician orders part for ebay.... and association tells me it could "possibly" fix the issue but won't be delivered and installed for another 5-7 days, if that used part does not fix the issue they'll have to replace the whole thing for the building which would take several weeks to order and have installed.

At this point everyone is upset, us, management, tenants. I told tenants in times like these renters insurance would have covered housing and loss of food. If we had any vacant units I'd allow them to stay there but we don't. I've offered for them to break their lease if they want. Would the condo association be held responsible for providing a credit or temporary housing for these tenants? I have a feeling they would use the renters insurance argument to cover themselves. Are there any other things I could do, I feel like there's no real other options unfortunately. 

I know most companies and landlords despise renting units by the room, however we have a couple we rent by the bedroom. A couple 4/4 and 4/2, all furnished. Currently we have different male and female units since this is what we found works best and has everyone get along. Majority of the female units wouldn't feel comfortable with a guy moving in, the male units I don't think they'd care if a female moved in but I can see issues with that. These are in a popular college town so 99% of the renters are around 19-25 and are students.

We're starting to worry about the gender rights currently around the country along with the fair housing laws if we can continue to keep male and female units separate. For one in our listings we put "currently has 2-3 male tenants" or the opposite for females. If a female wants to move into a male unit or the other way around can they be declined because of that? Or can it be up to the current tenants if they're fine with living with the opposite gender? Second question is about age, like I mentioned most are 19-25 students and don't feel comfortable living with someone who is 40-50 can they be declined due to age?

I've tried finding some helpful information on this online or looked at other listings but it seems mixed with no straight answer. The only thing I found was about if tenants are sharing a common area with the landlord then the landlord can be gender specific. I saw some colleges around the area offer LGBTQ specific apartments which any gender can rent out. 

Have property that's split up into 4 units, 3 units have been rented out for awhile now bringing in close to $3k per month combined ($850+$850+1250) two are small one bedroom apartment and other is larger apartment. There is another unit which has been vacant for close to 15 years and everything inside is at least 30 years old, the unit is only about 550 sqft total. We've been mainly using it as storage, since it would pretty much need everything renovated (paint, kitchen, appliances, electrical, plumbing, windows, full bathroom, split sytem ac, etc.). I've been trying to reach out to some contractors to have them quote the job which I'm still waiting to hear back on.

Due to the location and layout of this unit it's very unique and we can likely rent it for $800 per month. Is there any formula to figure out if the repairs are worth it? Like we spend 25k on all of the repairs and rent it for $800 a month to me that seems good, but spending 60k on repairs to only get $800 a month doesn't seem that appealing. The building is completely paid off so there is no monthly cost for this unit at the moment but it's also making $0 per month how it is right now. 

Forgot if I posted about this issue I'm having previously. Have older commercial building right off major highway, upstairs is residential downstairs and outside storage area is commercial. It has gravel/ dirt drive way and parking area, probably only park around 4-5 cars max due to limited space in the front and needing to back up and turn around to leave. The driveway is sloped towards the building and has other properties on both sides and the back. Pretty much the commercial part has been rented for 3 years (motorcycle/ lawnmower shops) tenant moved out and we've been trying to get it rented out. We've been having issues since the city says any "change of use" would require a parking lot being paved. The issue with this is due to the slope I mentioned, after having a few concrete companies look at the job they have all said it needs to have an engineer make plans for water runoff which would be very difficult due to the slope and other properties on each side so all the water would pool up and possible flood the commercial building. At the moment when it rains the water just drains through the gravel and grass. The cost of having that done doesn't make sense on our end based off the rent we'd be getting/ properties value.

After having two prospects (who we thought would be same use) try filling out the commercial application (city's commercial application) and being refused by the city we're not sure what to do. They won't tell us how we've had previous tenants over the years with no parking lot and no issues and now we need one even though it wouldn't be considered "retail". The city is just looking at this from their desks they won't go out there or meet me at the property to see that you can't have a parking lot in the space available or give me a list of potential businesses or trades who can rent it how it is. So now it's pretty much impossible to rent, does the city ever make exceptions to certain properties or exempt properties from these changes? Any other advise or options to look at would be helpful. 

@John Underwood Yes they somehow accessed the inside when tenants were home and called me to complain about the home being dirty and sent me pictures. I told them they cannot be in there especially without notice. I do agree the land is a grey area since the owners do have access but I still think they should let me know ahead of time. 

Weird situation and question. Manage home that sits on a lot of acres and quite rural, tenants have security cameras up around the house. They called me yesterday and said someone was at the house and trying to get inside and looking around the property (at that time I didn't know who it was and neither did the tenants) because no one was home the tenant called the cops. Later found out it was the owner which gave no notice to me or the tenants about randomly showing up (the owner going to the property has happened numerous times even after telling them they cannot do that and need to give me or the tenants notice ahead of time, somehow they don't comprehend that). In my state it says the landlords or management have to give reasonable amount of time which they consider to be 12 hours we usually give 24. One question I have is does the "land" require notice if the owner decides they want to just show up?  The second question is can the owner just show up for no reason, it's not like they're there to fix something or inspect the property they'll just show up and start complaining how the tenants aren't keeping it exactly how they like. 

Quick question, have new construction home almost completed to be rented out 3b2b mid 300s. The only appliances I'm not sure on is washer and dryer. It seems like it's always 50/50 for me, meaning some tenants want it to include washer and dryer and others prefer to bring their own. I do get that would be something else repair and have to take care of but could likely get $50-$100 more in rent per month. Any thoughts on if it makes sense to include washer and dryer for new house in a good area? 

We do, but like the other replies mentioned it's usually a lot more work and in some cases rare for the rooms to be 100% filled year round. For example if we rent by the room in a 4b4b unit for $600 each the owner would be collecting $2400 before fees per month compared to if we rented the entire unit out to a family for $1500. However owner pays utilities with a cap for renting by the room whereas if we rented to a family they'd pay utilities. Most of the units we rent by the room also come furnished. There's pros and cons in my opinion.