All Forum Posts by: Dana Dunford

@Yvette M. -- Did you send notification of updates to your rental agreement (an addendum) to notify the tenants that going forward ... rent must be addressed to you? Once you have this, the tenant is considered late (and must pay late fee, per your lease agreement) if they make out the check to the property manager, rather than you.  She may reconsider who she is sending those checks to ... if there are further implications (late fees, 3 day notices to pay rent or quit, etc.).

What a horrible mess ... sorry to hear that.

@Penny Clark - Great question. You may not find this information as helpful as you hoped, but here is my observations from using home warranty companies:

1. I haven't found one that people are overly thrilled with, with the exception being Super in Washington DC.
2. It is the lowest scored category on Angie's List. Most people are not happy with their home warranty provider, regardless of who it is. 
3. AHS has been the best that I've used out of 3 different nationwide providers, but I know what you mean about not being 100% satisfied. I am also not 100% satisfied with their service.

I hope that is somewhat helpful.

@Yvette M. - I have the tenants sign off on the move in inspection. Also, provide utility contact info in advance, so they can get it set up before move in. 

@Justin S.

1. Expected move-in date
2. Do you have income-to-rent of 3-to-1? (will vary by property)
3. Is your credit score above 650? (will vary by property)
4. Do you have any pets?

Hope that helps! These are the questions that are requested when they automatically book a showing.

@David Lowe -- 

The 2% rule is just a guideline, but more important for you ... check how profitable you are (cash flow) + any expected appreciation (be conservative here) and compare that against the S&P 500 / other investment classes. (Note: cash flow vs. long term investments can make the numbers a bit tricky to compare apples to apples.) However, it will provide a guideline as to whether you've made a good investment.

Note: some properties look great on paper but require a lot of management, especially the lower class properties. It can be very tricky if you have to deal with evictions and poor property managers in these areas. While your returns may look good on paper, you've spent more time on them (which is valuable) than what they are worth.

@Nicole Jones -- You definitely need what you mentioned. You also want to make sure that the leases are State-specific and verified by a lawyer (with the proper terms). There are a lot of incorrect Rental Agreements on the world wide web. In addition, you'll want automatic notifications of lease renewals and automatic late fees.

@James Bynum -- Some quick pointers:

• Background check / credit: The respondents are correct about background check vs. credit. You just need a full name to perform the background check. For the credit check, you will need their social security number. If you can't do a credit check on them, then you may want to consider a co-signer for them.
• Showings: I hope that you're hosting Saturday open houses, versus one-off showings.
• Landlord references: You may also want to contact their past landlords for verification that they paid on-time every time. (You'll want to verify that the person on the other line is indeed the landlord ... let me know if you want my process to help determine this).
• Managing inquiries and applications: Before the showing, you may want to tell them that you have a 3-to-1 or whatever it is income-to-rent ratio to avoid unqualified prospects from showing up in the first place. This will give you a better idea of demand.

I hope this information helps.

Hi Hark - I would just use RocketLawyer's Lease Renewal for your State.

haha -- benefit of Miami

@Carlos Rovira - I think you just answered your own question on renewing the lease. One more thing ... you may not want to consider month-by-month if you do not renew the lease. It may turn into a winter eviction ... when there is be less demand. I'm not 100% certain how trends work in FL, but that may be a disadvantage. Good luck!