All Forum Posts by: Colleen F.

@Drew Sygit I do wonder about people who allow signing without deposit. My lease says that the lease is not valid unless the deposit and rent is paid. I just had a tenant sign the lease and give the deposit but never send the rent. The day before move in they backed out and wanted the deposit back. Lease clearly states in bold they forfeit deposit.  Unless there is money changing hands that lease is only going to cause issues for a landlord. It puts you in the position of waiting for a written cancelation from them or move in day.

@Marcus Auerbach that is if you can lump a whole city together and it is a city.     You can have areas in high value locations that don't have D class and  I am not sure there are even C class houses.   Maybe some affordable housing complexes.  your system probably applies well in really dense areas but maybe not in less dense.   

@Nathan Gesner Well good cause eviction basically makes it so to get a tenant out eviction is necessary. legislatures have moved the terminology from non-renewal to eviction. Talking about it as eviction makes it more inflammatory then non-renewal of a contract. Tenants evoke more sympathy that way.

Good cause Evictions mitigates the risk to a tenant that are inherent in renting making the contract more onesided.   I do wonder what the actual stats are on people pushed out that aren't really an issue. 

I also think these type of laws may push some properties to institutional owners who have lawyers on staff just to kick people out. Smaller operators will find it not worth it or set standards at a point that borderline tenants will find it harder and harder to find housing. It will do the opposite of what was intended.

What does it look like on a summer night?  That may give you some insight too.

@Nathan Gesner   I think the point legislators don't get is that delayed eviction, good cause evictions tie up housing with lousy tenants and  clog up the courts. This limits housing for working people who will pay their rent and maintain a clean unit without rule breaking. The kind of behavior you want to encourage in society.  And some special interest provisions are just wrong.   For example in NY the provision allowing for moving a family member does not apply if the tenant is 65 or disabled.  What if I want to move my 65 year or disabled family member next door to me? I can't because I rented to someone who is over 65. I am reading it right? 

What is good cause or unreasonable for you may not be so in my view. I had a guy who had stacks of pizza boxes and had to be told to take the trash out, that didn't rise to an eviction but it was a non-renewal because he was getting bugs. Then you have improvements, why improve if you can't raise rent?

Do they actually have a measure of unfair evictions? (or more accurately termination of tenancy). 

@Carmen Assang  the fact that MA is not landlord friendly is all the more reason to file sooner rather than later. It will take longer in MA courts. Just getting a pay or quit notice says you are serious to some tenants.  Hire a lawyer and consider a GOOD PM if you don't want to deal with tenants. A property manager could be cheaper than selling and going somewhere else but you have to run the numbers on the property you have vs what you might buy. Rents are higher in MA than many places in the country.

@Pete Tarin  you have to keep in mind that an entire town or city won't be a class c/d area, often you have neighborhoods that are better or worse.  Aside from economic indicators and schools make sure you walk the area.  In addition if you are an out of state investor keep in mind areas might not look the same as you are used to in your home state.   

@Sarah Kensinger  I think the problem of your area for first time or owner occupant buyers is that out of state buyer can provide better offer terms such as all cash, less contigencies than typical owner occupant doesn't look to have as good an offer. They also sometimes don't know local values so they overpay. Not sure how you cure that. 

Now STR in cities must put some pressure on the market because they weren't STR 20 years ago and now we need more housing.

@Amy Fortes  I am also assuming you are finding this in the legal by laws you got when you bought not an additional rules list they came up with.   To a lawyer there may be a difference.

@Li Kia   Some people are just extremely hard on property.   You can charge for remaining life of some products and repairs to locks./window frame.  Lower kitchen cabinets you can replace/repair doors. Unless this is a high end rental some slight difference in cabinet doors is probably going to be a non-issue on re-renting. what is amazing to me is you don't have broken tiles with a tile countertop. Just an observation that the lack of an overhang with the tile may have contributed to the water damage.