All Forum Posts by: Courtney Duong

Quote from @Courtney Duong:

What is the name of your book? And where can I buy it? 

Thanks.

It's in my signature.

Quote from @Matthew Steele:

The way I read your post, the husband willingly left months ago. If he no longer resides in the home, he is no longer a legal tenant. You should have documented that in writing, but even a text message from him would likely hold up in court.

You post the notice and give them the required amount of time. If they do not respond, then they do not get access, and their belongings are legally "abandoned" by them. You do not need a court hearing to move forward.

You can read my book to get more details, but you essentially have a couple options. 

1. Make them pay what is owed, then give them access to the unit to haul their stuff out. 24 hours should be sufficient. The risk is that they take only the things of value and leave the rest for you to clean up.

2. Move their stuff to storage and notify them that they have 30 days to pay you what is owed and collect their belongings. You can include moving and storage costs in the charges. The benefit is that you can take control of the rental while still allowing them to retrieve their belongings. The downside is the cost/time to move everything to storage.

3. Place their stuff at the curb and notify them they have 24 hours to get it. After 24 hours, you throw everything into a dumpster. Again, there's time and cost involved because they are unlikely to get everything.

4. Don't give them any more chances. Throw the junk in a dumpster, and keep or sell the things of value to recoup your costs.

I never want to sell anyone's belongings. However, you must have reasonable limits and hold to them.

I give a great example in my book where a tenant abandoned a 2,000-square-foot home full of nice furniture, expensive jewelry, a brand-new $2,000 rifle still in the box, etc. You'll have to read it to hear the whole story.

Quote from @Matthew Steele:

Don't fall for this trap!

He will take anything of value, leave all the trash, and not pay you a dime. You'll just add to your losses and still have the same mess to clean up.

The process for abandoned property is to give written notice to the tenant at their last known address (your rental). Let them know they have X days to remove the items. If they don't, then you can dispose of the items (sell, give away, trash, keep, etc.).

The husband is not the legal occupant, so you have no requirement to give him notice or access to what was left behind. If the items are of value, I would tell him he has to pay rent for January. I would probably waive the few days of February rent. Once you have cash in hand, you can unlock the unit for 24 hours and let him move his stuff out.

I would also consider charging an additional deposit of $500 or something, just to prevent him from leaving all the trash or stealing your refrigerator. Hand it back to him in cash as soon as you verify the unit is empty. Then change the locks and move on.

Hey @Alex Woolums, 

Welcome back to TX. What kind of investing are you looking into? 

Do you do any residential electrician work here in TX?

Chris.  In another post you said you know good handyman.  I shoot you a PM, could you please share the handyman you use for the Conroe, Woodlands, Spring, Cypress areas?

Thanks.

Quote from @Derrick Lewis:

I use TurboTenant for their other features (and tenants submit maintenance requests there), but haven't seen anything about a partnership with Lula until now.

Lula doesn't cost anything for the property manager as a subscription normally, you just pay on a per-job basis. What's the benefit of the $149 sub through TurboTenant? They talk to the tenant for you and do maintenance without you even hearing about it first?

Hi Derrick,

Hi, Lexi from TurboTenant here! I just wanted to quickly clarify what the $149/year cost for Lula includes. This plan covers 24/7/365 troubleshooting services from Lula's experts (such as guidance on resetting a circuit breaker), tenant coordination for scheduling repairs, and access to a network of vetted professionals.

Once you're subscribed to Lula, you can set aside a pre-approved amount for repairs, which can be used without needing to contact you as well. If additional funds are required or if a professional is unable to resolve the issue, Lula will reach out to you directly.

Let me know if you have any questions!

I have 6 properties which got hit by the storm in Houston. My deductibles are $6K range and all properties are 2005+ build, 2000 SF +/- double story.

Location Houston TX

This is my first time working with insurance as well as roofing company. How do I negotiate with roofers. Also how do I make sure all secondary damage such as gutters, siding, windows etc are covered and accounted in insurance claim. What would be the best strategy? Tips/advice/lessons learnt?

We are Mac-based and I did not delete the QuickBooks 2019 app, @Courtney Duong. I doubt it could read a QB 2024 file so I’m not sure it will work.

My CPA has recommended some alternatives to using classes. I’m going to try these out with Xero, in parallel with QB, until the end of the year. At that time, I’ll decide whether we will stick with Intuit.

Like QuickBooks, Xero limits you to one entity per subscription so I don’t know how much money it will save. But it looks like it could be more convenient.