All Forum Posts by: Daniel K.

It's in Parma.  Thanks for the info everyone.

I've been using a lease I got from my RE agent, with no landlord address on it, for years.  Everything worked fine and payments are on Zillow.

I now know that providing a physical contact address is a requirement.  While I am about to provide a 3 day notice to a tenant that I communicate with regularly and whom I've worked with for 2 years, is there anything I can or should do to fix this now or does it not matter?

Columbia Gas in Ohio charged me for my tenant's last month of service by sending me an invoice with a new account number under my name to my home address.  Per my lease, tenants have to put the gas in their name as this was done.  I called them to tell them the forwarding address of my tenant, because for some odd reason they sent his last month's bill to me in my name, and so they said they would send it.  Now I am getting a bill with no payment period listed on it, threatening my credit if I don't pay this bill they said was going to be sent to the tenant.

The tenant of course swears he paid the last month and notes it isn't even his account number on the invoice.  Since I did not authorize new service in my name, can they really let this harm my credit in case they never collect from the tenant?   And if they do, how long would it take them to do it, and by how much and what recourse do I have to resolve it, in case this doesn't get resolved by then (or they say it was resolved again, but didn't like before, you know how this often goes) 

Thanks for the replies.

A tenant moving out at the end of the month wants to offer their washer and dryer for sale to the next tenant who is moving in from out of state on the 8th of the following month.

My only concern is that a lease has already been signed.  I'd like to say yes but I don't want to become liable as a broker of appliances, or for that matter, anything along those lines like furniture, etc.. What are your thoughts, am I overthinking this?

2 issues here with a clay sewer line.

1.  This is a very common problem in Parma: homes built in the 40's and 50's with downspouts and a driveway drain all running into a broken or clogged clay pipe that is flooding the basement.  Is there a way to bypass this system?  I already know that I can divert the downspouts but the driveway drain is a greater problem.  Sometimes a temporary solution would help.

2.  I am having this problem because an electrician probably pounded 2 grounding rods into the sewer pipe.  I had the property for 3 months, inspected and watched over heavy sustained rains, but only a few days ago I had water pooling near the spot in the basement.  The only thing I can think of that caused this sudden water is the grounding rods.  I can see that the driveway drain is directly in line with where the rods are (the driveway curves a bit and leaves a path of soil over the sewer pipe path).  But I cannot locate the sewer pipe at the rod in order to file a damage claim against the electrician.  I hired a plumber locate the pipes and run a camera but he said he cannot see because they are full of muddy water and he cannot locate the pipes because of water in them.  So I am pretty sure the rods hit the sewer but how can I prove it?

Thanks for the reply.  My agent was saying it's about 1-2 months here.  I closed as of July 10 so he was right and I'm glad it's going so quick here.

Have any of you had recent experiences with a property under probate?  I went under contract on a house and shortly after that they told me it was under probate because they had a will made but it wasn't properly submitted. I suspect that courts are understaffed right now because of the covid situation so I'm wondering how long this would take now in Cuyahoga County, Ohio before the probate finishes?

Now, because very few people are selling.  There was normally about 30-50 houses on market in Parma at this time of year but now there are less than a dozen.  But I'm still seeing very little off-market listings in Parma.

I've been getting cold calls to sell my homes, and just recently I got a cold call from a previous selling agent who listed a pre-foreclosure that did not appear on the MLS my agent is sharing. Now it's even showing up on Zillow but still not through my agent's listing when it should meet my criteria.. Hm. He's on vacation too so I made an offer myself.

After having bought 4 houses in the past few years with 3 buying agents, I've learned all I need to know about my market for my goals.  Agents do help but often they can know surprisingly little so it depends on how much you value yours.  And my agent is good but he seems to be on vacation when the market is slow and agents generally drag their feet for low price deals because they want more commission.  A couple deals passed me by because he'd take a couple days to write up an offer in this low inventory market. During times like these it makes sense to look both on and off market.

With all that in mind, off market properties in this area of Cleveland or Parma do tend to be either very distressed or they are pretty terrible deals.  (typically something like 20k with 40k repair cost for 3 bedrooms, in the East side?  40k of sweat and labor can bring more equity in other areas) The only properties in this category that I normally consider are the cash-offer fixer uppers because I can make my most of my money doing almost anything myself or with an extra hand or two.

Thanks for your tips.  Considering small claims court is something I hadn't thought of.  Hopefully it doesn't get to that point but I'll be better prepared if it does.