All Forum Posts by: Jeff Bridges

We have a similar smoking policy, except we actually don't accept any smokers. Outdoor smokers are not known to be honest and can become lazy and just smoke inside anyway once accepted. So we ask if there are any outdoor smokers in pre-screening, then we explain we dont accept any smokers... smokers are not a protected class...

Check out David Stone's application criteria somewhere in this link as it have stuff you want to adopt (or copy) for yours:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/52/topics/724...

I usually qualify 3x income for combined household income. I usually deal with families applying so they are usually not likely to move out separately. For roommates, its more rare that you can find roommates that will all qualify 3x total rent on their own so its difficult to make each tenant qualify on their own, but also riskier to accept non related roomates, but if student roommates, you can ask for a cosigner to mitigate some risk. If regular adult roommates, you'll have to evaluate their rental history and weigh against other applicants who you deem most qualified.

I'll also add the free tenant screening/ online application provided by naborly (integrated into the Tellus app) is pretty good as well. You dont need to accept application fees or worry about creating cost barriers if you multiple adults are applying for a property. they offer it free and make their money by selling tenant renters insurance and earning referral fees providing targeted maintenance services from local vendors to landlords from what I understand.

Yes, and while you can cancel showings, don't necessarily deny existing applications right away. The goal is to accept an application and have them put down a holding deposit/security deposit within 24 hours. I tell my applicants the rental remains listed until I accept your application and I receive the deposit. If that first accepted applicant doesn't place a deposit quickly or perhaps later that day, you can move on to the next most qualified applicant instead of starting the entire process over again. This also puts some time pressure on the applicant to make a decision. We've had applicants change their mind and placing a deposit ensures that's not without penalty and you are compensated for potentially having to fill unit at a later time as a result.

For accounting/ book keeping, check out quicken home & business desktop software, which has a rental module to allow you to download all transactions from your bank/ credit cards, then tag transactions by property and categorize them by IRS expense category. At year-end, I can output a schedule-E form for the year from quicken and hand it to my accountant for processing. I think it looks easier to setup and use than quickbooks. For tenant screening, consider using Naborly which offers free online applications/ screening reports for landlords and applicants and has a pretty comprehensive report. I just used it for my latest rental and it had all of the info I needed to select the best qualified applicant. It removes the barrier of a app fee getting in the way of getting more applicants to apply. Alternatively, look at Tellus free smartphone app/ PM software which basically incorporates Naborly screening along with tenant maintenance/ communications and free ACH bank payments. Its a newer entrant but I just started using and it has good support and relatively easy to setup and use (and free). I've used cozy and its great but the rent deposits for the free service into landlord account were closer to 5-7 days rather than the advertised 3-5 days for tellus.

 You can get a lender to provide you with an non-owner occupant loan (investor loan) if you can put down 20% using the proceeds from your first sale and are up front with the lender on your intent with the property. The down payment and higher interest rate reflect the higher risk of an investment loan vs. your primary and there is no creative way to withhold that intent from your lender. Always be up front with your situation with your lender to stay out of trouble.

don't be like paul manafort.....

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/paul-manafort-ch...

(excerpt from article) - "Common forms of mortgage fraud include:

• Lying about income or employment
• Misstating the size or source of a down payment
• Buying a property intended to be used as a rental, but claiming it will be owner-occupied
• Not disclosing existing debt
• Artificially inflating the property’s value, especially through illegal property flipping
• Having someone with good credit act as a “straw buyer” "

I agree with @Nick Ferrari in that you need to take a look at the existing services and do some belt tightening. I think there is a psychological barrier with your HOA ownership of $1000 you may not want to cross at this time. Maybe you do this over 2 years, but I would more seriously consider over a period of time. Owners just can't do doubling of the HOA fee just like taxpayers won't vote for politicians who ask to double the tax rate in one year. You mentioned there is 20k in unpaid bills. You have problems paying your regular bills and this means its a financial emergency, not just deferred maintenance or unfunded reserve concerns. The HOA should not have the luxury of keeping all existing amenities if they can't pay immediate bills and won't increase the fee to help keep finances in order. You can consider closing the pool (put the pool cover on) and discontinue regular pool maintenance as a temporary measure (for the season or maybe even the entire year) to show how much of an emergency it is at the HOA. This could also allow you to use the extra cashflow to catch up on the 20k in unpaid bills so you are justified in closing it. Owners will see more clearly that there is a serious financial situation affecting the HOA and not just a management issue. Also, I would present more options to the HOA membership if the new fee doesnt pass. You can offer $1400 and all amenities are kept, or $995 and pool gets closed down for the year and pairing down landscaping and security so HOA can catch up on unpaid bills. Can you put all of your contracts out for bid and see if you can get better contract rates? Is your new management company doubling down on collection efforts? You need to lower your expenses or you'll never get out of the hole. I dont think just throwing more money at it is the answer. Looking at the entire situation and improving collection, expenses, contract management, pairing down makes the most sense. This way you can explain all you did to lower expenses before coming to the membership to ask for more money. This reasoning would work well on the other board members too.

 I don't disagree with you about the moldy furniture as an important factor for considering an applicant. But if a tenant with moldy furniture only currently made 2x the rent in income, then the discussion about moldy furniture being a factor should be irrelevant to your approval decision since they wouldn't qualify based on your criteria. Don't spin wheels where you don't need to...

I can tell you you are wasting your time with the pre-screening or do not do any pre-screening, or you wouldnt be wasting your time on folks who wouldnt qualify to begin with. I've narrowed down to 3 pre-screening questions I ask all potential applicants: how much do you make? When do you need to move in? are there any smokers or pets? This makes sure they will be a good fit for my property and meet the main criteria that I have. I have tons more, but sometimes you only get a few questions to ask before they might not answer all of them via email, text, FB, etc. If you had asked up front, you could tell them they are welcome to apply, but they wont likely meet the income criteria if they couldnt document or actually make the 3x the rent. This avoids you wasting time on folks who wont qualify. You dont refuse to let them apply, you just tell them up front they won't likely meet your criteria but go ahead:) This applicant is someone who is not going to meet your income criteria, and you were better off finding out much sooner and not having to think about moldy furniture before the much more obvious issue with their being qualified. You're getting distracted by unimportant aspects of the applicant.

Also fun fact: if the applicant does not answer all of the questions on your application like say forget to fill in the income disclosure or provide pay stubs, thats an incomplete application. You can't process an incomplete application nor are you obligated to. So you can just move on from that. I prefer to avoid outright denials.

here is the guide:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/2013/01/27/tena...

I've done lots of research and the floating seems fine and requires less labor/ materials. I ended up with The Shaw Matrix LVP, which is usually in stock at Lowes at around $2/Sq ft. I put the resort teak color in one of my rentals and it looks good, but it hasn't been in long enough for me to provide a report on durability. I liked it because its clicklock, not gripstrip like the basic trafficmaster alure LVP and more waterproof. You can take a look at the samples at the store and see which you like more. The main niggle is you need to level the floors or have already level subfloors or LVP wont come out as good and show the imperfections. uneven Floors are less forgiving with LVP in general. So be prepared for extra labor to level out any bad areas.