All Forum Posts by: Dan Gustavson

Quote from @Michele Fischer:

You have two options - add him as an authorized occupant or add him to the lease.  Adding his to the lease makes him equally responsible and gives you another person to pursue if money is owed, while you have one less person to deal with as an authorized occupant.

Regardless, I always designate one person as the primary tenant.  I usually choose the strongest applicant and have this clause in my paperwork:

In the event that Tenants decide they no longer want to live together, ___________ will be considered the primary Tenant to make decisions about modifying or terminating tenancy. Deposits will not be returned (full or partial) until all tenants move out.

We talk about it when we sign papers so everyone is clear.  Good luck regardless

Thank you for the response, Michele! Much appreciated!

Quote from @Nathan Gesner:

Quote from @Dan Gustavson:

I recommend you set a policy and stick to it.

The best thing to do is screen everyone, approve them, and add them to the same lease. This makes everyone jointly and severally liable for all terms and conditions. If she doesn't trust him to be on the lease, then that should be a strong indication that she shouldn't be shacking up with him.

Thanks Nathan - Will be adding him to the lease, but will also take Randall's advice and add that to an addendum stating: "Both parties agree to remove the boyfriend (insert BF name) from the lease if issues arise and all other lease terms remain in place." Does that sound like a good plan to you? I always like other opinions. 

Thank you, Sir.. Dan.

Quote from @Randall Alan:

@Dan Gustavson

I would tell him that we will put him on the lease, and if for any reason he doesn't work out, you can amend the lease.  Just a couple of sentences on a piece of paper that you both sign that says "Both parties agree to remove the boyfriend from the lease and all other lease terms remain in place."  Same thing when the new boyfriend moves in.

The bad case scenario is if there is a big fight and he says he's not leaving, but she does leave and then he isn't on the lease.  Then you have someone living in your unit you don't have on a lease.  We have inherited properties like that and it seldom ends well.   We have a clause in our lease that says that anyone residing in the unit longer than a month has to be on the lease, or there is a $200/month fee.  It is basically an effort to prevent the tenant from subletting the unit without consequence or permission.  I've never had to use it, but I like that it is there.

All the best!

Randy

 I like that Idea and proposed that to my tenant. Thanks Randy, appreciate the quick response!

-Dan

Hey everyone - It's been a while since I've posted, glad to be back on here. I have a great tenant that is wanting to sign another year long lease, this will be her 4th year in this property and she's be awesome. Her daughter, that was over 18 and on all of the previous leases, is moving out and now the Tenant is asking if a new "Guy Friend" can move in. I said I would have to do a screening on him and he would need to be on the lease (this chatting was a couple weeks back). I'm working on the lease now and she asked if we could do the screening on him but not add him to the lease "in case it doesn't work out". I told her I had to have him on some sort of lease, possibly a month-to-month of his own and her on a year, but would get back to her... hence why I'm here now. How would you handle this? And how would I do the financial part of the lease? I'm not sure if they are splitting it down the middle or if she would be fully responsible since she is wanting a year lease. I did ask if she would be able to make the payments herself if it didn't work out, waiting to hear back.

 How would you guys handle this? I know enough to never let anyone over 18 to live at the property without a screening and lease, this is just kind of an odd one for me this year. 

Thanks All!!

Any insight on southern utah?

@Ryan - I had the same experience when we looked at townhouses in Washington in the STR master communities. Base pricing was between $600-825k and there were no deposits or holding, instead they did a bidding process to the person that paid the highest amount and she said the average was $30-60k over asking to have a competitive offer. Ridiculous! They also had a couple of PMs to choose from bit tou did have to use theirs and it was at 30%. I don't see how anyone would cashflow on something like that without a huge down payment. We gave up on the STR market there, for now. We may look at SFR though just haven't done much research on SFR zoning much down there.

@Nicholas Charles - Cottonwood Heights doesn't allow STR's. I know people still do it all the time, more saying be careful as I know they are very strict in that area. Good luck!

@Bryce Boyer would you mind sharing what community you found this twin home in?

@Lorenzo Dudley - Great news that it passed, im in Herriman where they don't allow ADUs for the most part. Going to convert my basement into a rental.

@Bradley Halvorson - I'm just over the point from you in Herriman looking to do the same. I'm almost done with a deployment and am planning on flying out to Ohio once I get home to do some on-ground research. There are a couple of people that have posted on this thread that I need to get back to once I'm stabilized. Good luck to you!