All Forum Posts by: Colleen F.

@ George Paiva I know we don't have to accept section 8 here but I never thought it would be discrimination if I didn't. In RI you have to have a lead cert and inspection for section 8 which we don't have. I was getting the lead cert anyway which is what most landlords don't want to do (although they are supposed to in all pre-78 housing). For me not accepting section 8 is more about the government then the potential tenant. How can CT tell you that you must take assistance and if they do how do you manage not to? Assistance can change any time. Another issue here is that it is starting to look like you can't exclude someone for growing medical marijuana in RI as they are disabled even though federal law is not consistent with that.

If you have a smoker on whom you can smell smoke now it will follow them. If you meet someone who says I am a smoker and you normally can't smell smoke on them then it is unlikely they smoke enough outside to stink up the inside of your house. I don't say it you will never smell it but for this person it seems like you could walk past them and say smoker. Probably not good if you want a non-smoking roommate.

Thanks, @ Steve L I had not thoroughly looked at the section 8 when I met this couple as it had not come up before. Reading the section 8 qualifying information to qualify for section 8 she won't qualify income wise for this house without it. The income page of the application wasn't sent and I don't know if that was my fault when copying or hers. I will just reject the section 8. If they want to prove they can afford without section 8 she can fill out the rest. They had a 7 year rental history at one location but their current rent is less then half this house so I don't think they really know they can afford without section 8.

@ Jeff Bridges I like dogs but I really don't want one in this rental unless I have to and then I will be picky . I was silent on pets in my ad but I had planned to consider them down the road if it didn't rent. Dog size isn't the biggest issue for us, it is really about disposition and barking and barking.. I was just concerned about this person coming back that we rejected their (tiny ) dog and now we are allowing dogs. They are local looking to relocate to a house locally so they will see the ad again. I guess we can set a policy without sharing in the ad. It would probably be best to reject on income now and not to address the dog.

This is not unexpected due to the cost of Sandy and preceding floods. There is also re-mapping going on and in NJ they had been rolling it out to people along with the flood buyouts and insurance settlements. Flood insurance is influenced by how far the living level is above the base flood elevation level and where the mechanicals are. You need to know what your Base flood elevation is and if they have remapped you and changed your zone. This is what is impacting a lot of people. There are also some building types that help you to qualify for better premiums since I believe they have changed recommendations on construction in flood zones. Investments and vacation homes are being hit the hardest in the premium area though. They just don't want to cover them.

I have a property for rent now that is new to us and difficult to judge timeframe to rental. We had a good initial candidate who made a deposit and for personal reasons back out. At the same time another candidate saw the place and took and emailed me an application but they were looking for section 8 and a dog, both of which we don't take. Anyway they want the place even if we don't take section 8. I have to get back to them.

If I reject them due to the dog and we change our criteria to allow pets down the road if it is not renting do we need to go back to these candidates to reject them again for money reasons? (it is my understanding that section 8 you are subsidized because you can't afford market rent and since the place is market rent they would not qualify income wise to rent without it. I am just wondering what to say, we are not in the city so if I change criteria they will run across our ad again. I am getting a fair number of inquires on do you take pets but not much other traffic at the moment.

My sister had a tenant like this. It was a case of a good tenant gone bad. Married , gambling, lost job, started passing bad checks. (kite-ing ). The police encouraged her to file a complaint as they were pursuing the tenant for fraud and the rent checks were the only ones large enough to elevate his case in the legal system. He was doing it all over town and her bad rent checks pushed it to another level. It is probably worth it to look into the possibilities. She was in Flemington, I don't know if the Edison cops would be as interested, it is a much bigger town.

You can get PMs to do less (or sometimes they do anyway) but chances are the percentage of rent they take isn't going to be less. There are many tips here on how to decrease your burden from tenant showings and the pros and cons of property managers. We do use one as we are required as out of state landlords. The showing is the biggest assistance I get from them especially in houses that require lots of showings to get a tenant. I prefer they use my lease but most companies use their lease and collect the rent for you. The biggest complaint I have is the lag in getting the rent from the PM. It is always 10 days or more and I have tried to make that shorter a couple of ways but it is an issue that you should not tolerate. The PM will handle emergency repairs but bill them to you. My PM is not authorized to do large repairs without my approval but it hasn't come up so far. The big stuff the tenants come to us.

Interesting story. I would caution on the issue of a useless flood insurance requirement that you shouldn't assume just because you can't see a body of water that you are not in a flood zone or it will never flood. You would never know in the area that I grew up that you were on a flood plain. It wasn't at the beach and the creek was half a mile away but it flooded many times growing up and it got worse and worse over the years until the foundation went in Sandy. We hope to close the book on this house this year but I have learned more about flood insurance then I ever wanted to know.

Kudo's to you for getting the premium reduced. I always find insurance rates a mystery but questioning them really paid off in this case!

For an unoccupied unit I would say yes you should ask for unhindered access to show. If the units are the same or very similar could you just show the unoccupied one? If you get a really good candidate that you are likely to rent the other unit to then show the actual unit with notice to the seller. Of course if they are significantly different that doesn't work. If the seller won't let you show his unit until sale are you going to walk away? You want to present something that is livable upfront to him since you want him to accept it. However, if you need it rented the day you buy it you did not figure enough cushion for this purchase.

Do you require them to carry renters insurance? This may address the situation. I am looking into this myself at this point.

Also does your insurance actually exclude breeds that are normally service dogs?