All Forum Posts by: Dana R.

Assuming I reimburse the tenant for only the amount it would have cost me to do the repair, what's the difference between the tenant deducting that amount from the repair vs reimbursing the tenant with a check?

Either way, I still have to pay the same amount.

Did the hose for the washing break burst?

If you get braided hoses and replace them every 5 years, then that should prevent most washing machine leaks. 

And, before I ever saw the bill, I was 500% right when I predicted their guy was going to be more expensive than mine would have been. 

Their Rooter plumber's bill for a "new garbage disposal/seals and to fix the leak installed" is more than $500. 

The tenant has the invoice from the plumber and will send me a copy. But, the tenant wants to deduct that from January's rent. 

Other than the invoice, what other documentation should I ask for? I'm really, really skeptical about a $500 bill for a problem from this.  It sounds like somebody got ripped off.

But, I feel like I should get all the documentation before I make my decision about what to do with this bill.

I have a standard lease that says a tenant can't, without prior written consent, make any repairs or alterations. And, in my lease, it states that a tenant should contact me by my phone if there are any problems.

I sent them a email, telling them not to make that repair because I already had a contract with somebody else and that my person would be cheaper than theirs. Also, I re-iterated that they need to call me and that the lease says to call me because of a situations like this when I'm not at work.

At the very least, it nipped it in the bud where they won't be making any future repairs without first contacting me. 

I have a tenant who emailed me at my work e-mail account on Christmas about a leaking garbage disposal that didn't seem to work anymore and that they had scheduled Roto Rooter to come fix it. 

Normally, I know that a leak like is the its the landlord's responsibility and the landlord has to pay to get it fixed. 

But, in this case, a part of me feels the tenant should pay for that repair because the tenant didn't come to me first or give me enough time to get it fixed before they called in Roto Rooter. 

I have my own plumbing contact that I've used for years that I would have called in to fix it. That company has always been reliable, and I'm sure would have been cheaper than Roto Router which has to pay for advertising. 

Instead, my tenant emails my work email account, dana@Xcompany, even though I've told them before not to email that account because of a situation like this. 

Instead of the the tenant calling me or emailing me at my non-work email account, the tenant emailed my work email on a day when I obviously wasn't going to be working there that day.

With their long trail of lawsuits, scams, and other landlord issues, there seems like should have been some red flags raised with a background check on the Pashanin brothers.

Did Airnb or the landlord check the landlord reference or perform a basic credit check on them at the very least before those scumbags rented out a home for more than a month  and were thereby shielded by the same protection that a month to month tenant would enjoy?

I don't understand how this Airnb thing works, or why anybody would want to use them if you're trying to rent a place long-term especially if nobody is going to do any background checks. 

You're doing it how I would do it, where I saved money on the cabinets and splurged on the countertops.

If you go the Ikea route, just be wary of going overboard and getting everything from Ikea- faucet, handles, etc...

You want to mix and match, where you're not entering an Ikea showroom. Maybe, spend a little bit more money on the nice handles  since that's something tenants are always going to be touching. 

Or, if you have enough time, go to a third party for the doors while you use Ikea frames. I think the Ikea cabinets photograph well, but I hated how their white cabinets looked in person.

For your current townhome, what's the current ventilation? Gas or electric? If you're switching from electric to gas, you might need more ventilation which is an issue with townhomes.

 I've looked into Postlets and even used it a few times, but I'm curious why you think they're amazing. 

To me, I really didn't remember anything that special about it beyond that contrasting color on both sides that made it stand out more compared to the all text ads everybody was using on Craigslist.

The Postlets style made the ad stand out, but without necessarily helping to lease the place.  I thought Postlets actually reinforced one of the biggest fundamental mistakes people make with copywriting with their format.

Has anybody ever read these two books about real estate ads:

http://www.amazon.com/Big-Book-Real-Estate-Ads/dp/...

http://www.amazon.com/001-Winning-Ads-Real-Estate/...

I'm looking for a source or book about writing better real estate ads.  But, the problem is that all the sources I've found that real estate agents use are really about marketing or advertising the agent, and not the property they're supposed to sell or rent. (I notice that a lot on Craigslist where an agent will post an incomplete ad to drive the reader to the agent, and not necessarily rent the property that was advertised.)

Right now, I think I have one good ad  but it can always be improved.

My main issue is that while I have one good ad, I'd like to be able to generate multiple good to great ads for the same property. That way, when I post something on Craigslist while its available, if the first ad doesn't reel somebody in then maybe a new ad will or the next one after that. 

It seems like a mistake to keep repeating the same ad over and over again.

 I thought bamboo was a grass, and not a hardwood. 

If that's the case, wouldn't there be some punishment or penalty if you advertised a property as having hardwood floors when its really bamboo or laminate?

Personally, I have bamboo but I hate it- it scratches really, really easily and you can't sand it like you could with hardwood to get rid of those scratches.