All Forum Posts by: Dan Marl

Dan, like someone already mentioned, that is a good deal considering you are going to have a co-signer that is currently renting from you and you like them. I assume we are talking about a Hispanic family and the new tenants don't have paperwork. The culture where I am from is the same as the Hispanic culture and FAMILY is number 1 for us. They are not going to leave the sister to go on the streets homeless or put her into a stressful situation. I would do this deal all day with collecting at least 2 months of security deposit in case things go south.

So you have a ready tenant with a family that you already have a positive relationship with and want to deny them in hopes that you find another family as good as this one?  Just does not make sense to me.  One must realize in Texas with a SS# or not, you will almost never collect a judgment in Texas if this go south.  No lost rent along with your past great tenant involved.  I would do this deal all day long 

The best option is to require "verifiable income" of 3x the rent. If they get paid under the table, how do you verify their income? Even people that get paid in cash should be reporting it to the IRS and paying their taxes. If they don't abide by that law, I don't want to rent to them because they may not respect my lease or rules.

I would also caution you that your rental may be under market rates. There's usually a reason family/friends chomp at the bit to rent a place when they hear it's opening. Maybe you need to evaluate your market, increase your rent rates, and open it up to the rest of the world.

Step 1 is to stop the termite infestation. With dry wood termites, tenting is a common remedy. Some companies have thermal imaging equipment that can locate the nests in the walls. So localized treatment is a possibility. This termite issue needs to be dealt with ASAP.

As far as repairing the damage, once the termites are stopped, that can take place any time. Termites will often target baseboard trim, window trim, etc. because those woods are apparently more delectable to them... There may or may not be structural damage. If there is, it could be widespread or may be limited to just a few boards. Worry about that later, for now, stop the damage.

There is basically two parts to this problem, remediation and restoration. Remediation stops the damage from continuing and restoration restores the property back to pre-damage condition. The proper way to fix any problem is doing both. @Will Barnard gave a couple good tips for inexpensive repair. Even what appears to be cosmetic problems should be corrected to prevent intrusion from water or pests.

 This is not accurate. A full tent fumigation WILL kill everything in the structure. As to fixing the facia, that is easy, don’t hire the termite company for that, most job that out and mark it up a lot. Bondo patch and paint or cut out and replace will not cost you much at all. Then paint over the patch or new wood.