All Forum Posts by: David Jay

I’ve always done 1 year than month to month afterwards. Sometimes the tenant wants to renew the lease for their stability and I’m fine with that. I have a few student rentals and on those I always time the lease for June and make them sign another year if they plan to stay. That’s worked fine for me. 

Who are you negotiating with, the tenant or the property manager. I wouldn’t negotiate with either. You offered a reasonable increase and continued below market rent. If you are right about the market it’s not like the tenant can simply relocate to something cheaper that will compare with your current rental. If the current tenants can’t afford to keep up with the market you may not want them long term. Personally, I do keep my reliable tenants a bit below market, but if markets $1800 they might be at $1650 at best. I wouldn’t fear a turnover if it will get you to market and moving forward you do yearly rent increases. 

I'd recommend Shoenberger and Shoenberger.  George Shoenberger the owner is very responsive to his clients.  They do an all around great job.  He's been managing multiple properties for me for over ten years.

Wow. I’ve never interviewed a contractor without a set project in mind. Rather I’ve gotten a bid on the project and the”interview” and the bid are one and the same. 

So if I’m understanding this correctly you live next door to a house that looks terrible. It’s inhabited by a bunch of drug addicts. So I’m thinking one of two things is happening. 
There are a bunch of deadbeats living off the son. They drink and smoke weed and come and go at odd hours in junker cars. Hey I wouldn’t want to live next door to them either. But I get that the cops have bigger fish to fry and I doubt a lawsuit will solve it. 
Or there are true criminals with weapons dealing meth and fentanyl with cars pulling up day and night to buy drugs. Have to believe even in California the cops would shut that sh.t down. 
if it’s truly criminal activity you need the police. You just need to keep pushing up the chain of command. If it’s more a nuisance consult a lawyer. They can probably provide better advice then a random forum post. 

You may just consider hiring a professional property manager. They can handle the eviction, new lease etc.....When I was starting out I learned a lot from my property manager. A good one adds value. 

What kind of property is it. My attitude is that I want the type of property and tenants that have their own washer and dryer. I’d do the improvement. A property with washer dryer hookups is always worth more then one without. I’d make sure the rent reflects it. 

If it’s an old house with wood windows you could also have issues with lead paint. Also there are some old row houses considered historic that can be fussy about replacements. I’m not in your area but have done replacement windows multiple times. I use a glass company that custom measures each window and retrofits. Vinyl, low e a whole house is in and out in a day. Minimal trim work needed and included. Usually about 6 weeks from measure to install. But my last job was pre COVID so who knows now. I was paying about 500 a window all in pre COVID but I’d imagine along with timeline the pricing is higher too. 

It seems like at least half of the inquiries I get have ESA. That’s one reason why as my properties turn over I’m moving away from self management and handing them over to my property manager. A good property manager knows how to follow the law and still skirt around the thorny issues. For my part I want to provide safe, clean and modern properties that are well maintained, and just want tenants that take care of them and pay rent timely. No BS, no drama and no viscous breeds or nuisance pets.   

Wow. It sounds like you are living in the property so this could be as much a roommate as a tenant. I’d totally trust my gut on this, and I’ve found trusting your gut, is pretty important in all facets of real estate (and life for that matter).