All Forum Posts by: Constantia Petrou

I had my rental property painted. The contractor asked the neighbor to move his car before he started work. The neighbor who is renting the house next door did move it across the street and two houses down from the property (about 200 ft away). At the end of the day he sent a message to his landlord being angry that spray paint went on his car. His landlord contacted me and I asked my contractor to take care of the situation. My contactor is licensed bonded and insured and he called the neighbor offering to cover the cost of exterior detailing of his car. In the meantime the neighbor got my phone number from his landlord and texted me about the spray paint on his car to which I responded that my contractor is responsible and will remedy the situation. A week later the neighbor came to me again with a bill of $1075 for detailing telling mr he doesn't know who is paying but he wants the money this week! An absurd amount. He never contacted the contractor to discuss estimates. I told the contractor who has accepted responsibility and said he will not pay such an absurd amount and that he will talk to the neighbor. I am staying out of this, my contractor accepted responsibility but the neighbor keeps bothering me. What to do? Thank you

Hello,

I own several rental properties in the SF Bay Area and I want to transition management to myself. I will be notifying the property manager soon (according to our contract guidelines) that he will no longer be managing my properties-- he does not do any property inspections and does not manage the move out process well resulting in deterioration of my properties' condition and extra expenses and headaches for me . I will also be sending a notification to tenants about change of management with new contact information and instructions on where the rent should be sent. I also want to be doing two maintenance calls to the properties per year (I did this before and ensured good upkeep of the properties). What should I look for during this transition? Any specifics I should highlight to tenant notice in addition to what I just mentioned above. Has anyone experienced this management transition and can comment on any lessons learned/ mistakes to avoid? Thank you

Hello,

My property manager notified me that tenants are requesting approval for a new pet rabbit in the house. Lease specifies that one fully trained pet will be allowed upon owner approval. Tenants are not being clear about the rabbit being trained and seem evasive, stating that the farm they will get it from says training is quick, and that the rabbit only needs to be shown litter box in cage once and that is the extent of training-- online info indicates that training is a process not a one time thing. I have asked for farm's contact info to call so I can assess the pet training situation. Property manager is not doing much to manage this situation-- even though the lease clearly states fully trained pet will be allowed upon owner approval she keeps emailing me with unclear information as to the training and being pushy to get me to approve the pet. I keep repeating pet training and documentation of that training is required. How have you managed new pets in the house (they are higher risk than incoming pets that tenants have had for a long time)? Any experience with pet rabbits? Any feedback on managing pushy property manager other than repeating pet training requirement and documentation? Many thanks

Hi everyone,

this is the first time I hired a property manager to handle renting my property. He found a qualified tenant whom I approved and sent the lease out to them for signatures on Monday morning. On Tuesday they came back with questions about neighbors' trucks parked on the street and an ADU that will be constructed next door. We did disclose ADU construction about to begin and the neighbors own 2 gardening trucks that they park in their driveway and sometimes on the street. I gave the pm information on both their questions to pass on to them. It is now Wednesday and have not heard back from them- no signed lease yet. I think they are getting cold feet. When I managed the property on my own I closed within 48 hours of offering the property. The pm does not seem to follow the same timeline on closing. He took the property off the market while we are waiting for prospects to sign so we are not generating any more options in case this falls through (when I managed I kept the ads on until close). Any feedback on how to manage lease closing with the pm and with prospects who appear to be getting cold feet would be appreciated. Thanks

Hi everyone,

I just hired a property manager to manage several of my single family homes (class A). He is very good at assessing the market, showing the properties and finding tenants quickly. He seems to not be very transparent on issues that come up though- he does not let me know the issues and the cost of repairs until the end of the month when I get a statement with deductions for repairs (I'm referring to major issues and repairs costing upward of $500). He is an honest person and quite experienced (which is why I hired him) and I want to improve our communication. Any suggestions on best communication practices you have developed with property managers would be most appreciated.

Thanks

Hello,

I own a class A single family home and my property manager has been trying for a week now to complete the screening process for a prospective tenant who applied to rent my house. My manager has not been able to reach the current landlord (property management company that handles large apartment complexes). I feel very uncomfortable getting a tenant without any references (all other criteria/ qualifications are met). My property manager is leaving it up to me to make a decision since he does not think he will be able to reach the tenant's current landlord/ manager. The tenant is in a rush to move in quickly because of a death in the family and wants to move his in-laws in with him ASAP. They say they are now all cramped in a small apartment and need to move ASAP. The tenant provided my property manager evidence of monthly rent payments for his current rental. I have also asked for a copy of his lease at his current rental to see if he is breaking that lease to come and rent my house (have not received that yet). Again, no references and the all the rush to move quickly make me very uncomfortable. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thank you

Hello,

I am in CA with a class A property that was delivered to tenants at time of move in with brand new sod put in. They are now moving out and their two dogs totally destroyed the grass. I asked them to replace the sod as part of our pre-move out process but they are arguing that it is not the dogs that destroyed it but the gophers. No gopher activity is visible in the back yard and in the grass area I have asked them to replace (there are gopher dirt mounts in the front yard but again nothing like that in the back).  What is your opinion with regards to charging replacement of the grass against their SD? Thank you

@jon Reed thank you all for your responses but these are not the types of situations I get myself into. I screen my tenants carefully and have excellent working relationships with tenants who stay for a long time. My question was simply if people had noticed an effect of covid on recruiting long term tenants not how to manage short term ones or those who break leases. Thanks

Re your comment Jon, because people will say they want a long term lease to get the lower price and then break it after 6 months. It has happened to us. We have learned our lesson from experience

Hello,

i was wondering what the community's experience has been with Zillow vs CL for finding long term tenants. Have you found one site better than the other in terms of the quality of leads? Thank you