All Forum Posts by: Dave M.

I recently signed up for an online payment service williampaid.com. They don't charge any fees on either end for bank transfers. They do charge tenant a fee if they choose to pay by credit card. I was planning to offer this as an option to my tenants. Right after I signed up I read a post on BP cautioning about the inability to reject partial payments with such services so I am planning to research if the landlord can set up a fixed payment amount as a safeguard.

Hope that helps

I agree that laundry is not an "essential service" but if a tenant claims they rented in your building because there was free on-site laundry they might try to get out of their lease. You said getting new tenants is not a problem, so unless it is an unwanted hassle to that's probably your best option.

You do away with the maintenance and upkeep of the machines, the utility expenses and if you're right about neighbors using the laundry reduce the traffic onto your property which can only be a good thing.

Just a thought. Is a custodian allowed to benefit from the transaction anyway? I thought the whole purpose of custodianship was to impartially protect the beneficiary's interest. If the custodian is a co-investor it leads to the possibility of competing interests and at the very least an allegation, by say the non-custodial parent or another family member, of impropriety.

I'm sure there are tons of applications out there for this. Does anyone have any feedback on a calendar to assist me with setting up my viewings such that I can also notify existing tenants?

I use google calendar now, then send tenants an email notifying them of showings. It gets confusing then when I send multiple emails for changes, additions, etc.

There has to be a better way, what do you suggest?

Even if you go the separate meter route that doesn't address your laundry issue. What about getting coin-op machines? You can either purchase them outright and keep the revenue or contract it out just to reduce excessive water use.

If there isn't already a discussion forum for your area, how about creating one?

Also, if there aren't any reviews of your property manager by other owners on Yelp or similar review sites you could be the first. There may be others in your situation who have yet to take the initiative.

Hope that helps!