All Forum Posts by: Jordan L.

What do you offer your tenants if their heat goes out? I’m replacIng a furnace in one of my units, and my tenants, who just moved in last month, have asked me to place them in a hotel until the work is done. While I’m not looking at doing so, I absolutely don’t want them stuck without heat, so I’ve purchased them 4 good space heaters which should sufficiently warm the home until my HVAC guy can get the install done. My tenants are wanting the problem remedied as soon as possible, but the replacement may not be done for a week and a half or two weeks. If they ask, should I agree to any additional concessions? I’d love to hear from more experienced landlords. I want to do the right thing and keep a good relationship with my tenants, but all within reason of course.

Hi all, I’m curious how soon after approving an applicant and taking a security deposit you require the tenant to start paying rent? My most recent project sat vacant for 5 weeks after my PM approved an applicant who was unable to move in right away. The minimum time they allow for move-in after taking a security deposit is 2 weeks, which is already a long enough vacancy for me. Where do you guys draw the line and what should I tell my PM to ensure this doesn’t happen again?

I certainly wouldn’t want to rent to a lawyer! (no offense to anyone!) I did sell a used car to a lawyer once. I just about $hit my pants because he told me what he did for a living as we signed the paperwork. Thankfully that one worked out.

What Frank Adams is saying falls right along in line with my thought processes on this. My properties are all in A and B class neighborhoods, and I try to keep them as neat as a pin. I’m thinking folks that are going to end up renting from me are going to be somewhat more conscientious than the average tenant. Or at least I hope so! I was a tenant through college and actually requested a two year lease from my landlord, as I knew I wasn’t going to be moving and I wanted to lock in my rental rate for as long as I could. This being said, if I were to have encountered a situation in which I had to move, I would have made my best effort to work something out with my landlord. Does everyone cross their t’s and dot their i’s? No way, but I do my very best to rent to good people. Thomas, what kinds of neighborhoods do you focus on, out of curiosity? I also wonder whether this is a regional thing.

High insurance premiums, weather, termites, sinkholes... This is from a buy-and-hold landlord’s perspective: IMO no market is perfect. In my first target market, my home state of SC, high NOO property taxes kill an unfortunate amount of deals. I own my primary residence in CA and got lucky purchasing it in 2009 when there were foreclosures everywhere. Buying something here now I wouldn’t come remotely close to the 1% rule. I’m also marginally terrified of how tenant-friendly this state is. I’m now investing in NC and I’m having difficulty finding deals that are worthwhile in my target neighborhoods, though I understand things are really tightening up in most areas of the country.

As a follow-up, I did manage to get the property leased for a two-year period. It sat for several weeks and I did have to lower the list price once, but it’s no longer vacant! Moving forward I am going to try this strategy again with a property I am closing on today.

I’m a long distance buy-and-hold investor, and although my property managers do routine inspections, I’m interested to hear how often others perform more thorough inspections on their long-term rentals. As an example— I just did a renovation on a 1950s home with significant structural repairs. Upon doing this, I realized I’d like to keep a much closer eye out for any developing problems in my crawls & attics. What do you all do? Do you have a home inspector or trusted contractor go out every 5-10 years to thoroughly reassess your property?

Not the Mona Lisa... lol. Thanks for the replies everyone. I’m going to call several painting companies tomorrow (thanks Yelp)— I’ll have them come cut a piece out of the closet or somewhere inconspicuous so I can paint match. I didn’t realize paint matching was so exact. I did get another quote for a full repaint that was $400 less than what my PM gave me. I do want to do the touch up as my target tenant is a class A or at the minimum, a class B tenant. I just can’t imagine a full repaint every year to be a practical solution for anyone’s cash flow— good deal or not. This being said I can see how it could happen. Going to try out a two year lease on this property to see how it goes over.

Thanks for the replies! I’ve lost three tenants because they purchased homes, one moved for work, and another moved out of state. I’m feeling like it’s just luck of the draw thus far. I almost wonder if my properties are in too good of areas, because people can afford to rent can afford to purchase their own homes. The properties are in South Carolina and North Carolina. I just live in California. I think I’m going to experiment with only offering a two year lease on the home that is currently vacant. I could then re-sign for one year at a time if they would like.

Hi all, I’m just curious to find out how you all handle paint scuffs and paint damage during a tenant turnover. The reason I’m asking: I have a home in North Carolina that was freshly painted before the last tenant moved in. The tenants moved out after one year, and though there are no holes in the walls or anything terrible like that, the paint is in pretty rough shape and at a minimum would need most rooms touched up. My property manager (a large and reputable company—found them on BP) told me that paint is one of the items that I just need to plan to remedy at each turnover and nothing can be taken out of the tenants’ deposit to put towards repainting. To exacerbate my dilemma, the color of the home’s interior is no longer available, and I have been told that I should just paint the entire home based on the idea that just painting a few rooms is moot due to labor expense. The home rents for $1000/mo and a new paint job is going to cost me $1800. If I have to do this at each one your turnover, the numbers will never make sense. I’m considering switching over to two-year leases because of turnover costs, but it just seems to me that something should have come out of the tenants’ deposit for this, even a prorated amount. I’m looking forward to some more experienced opinions. Also, a side note, I live in California and will not be able to fly to North Carolina to oversee any of this. I really, really would love to self-manage but I’m too far away. Thank you! Jordan