All Forum Posts by: Dennis S.

Yep.  To the right of that green line before the curb is the space I am referring to.  That Driveway ends right under the tree and turns to grass.    It is fairly flat back around to those spaces in the back, which is why I was thinking of just bringing in some gravel and extending the driveway back to that.   Then people can pull out that way too, and nobody is blocking traffic in the driveway.

As it stands, I look at that driveway as 3 lanes.   Each lane can support 2 cars end to end without trouble, and still allow space to get out.   However, it is not wide enough that I can have cars pull in and turn sideways, especially if that far right space does turn out to be his space.

Once I get the survey completed, it will likely be followed up fairly quickly with the addition of a fence, and a curb or something like you recommended in the front to better delineate the property lines.

The joys of trying to clean up the mess the previous owner made many years ago....   (At the time, he owned both buildings, so it was nothing to him to pave it that way for his tenants)

Thank you very much for all your helpful suggestions!

If I had that entire driveway in front, it would solve all my problems, as it is 3 cars wide, with 3 Apts.

However, that lane on the far right IS I believe on the neighboring auto shop's property, so it is not so much that he is using my parking, but that he is using his own.  It just looks like mine from the ground level as it was repaved with my driveway by the previous owner, right up to the curb on the edge of his driveway, but on his property.

 Those spaces in the back I believe are partly on my property.

That was a brief thought, but the main water shutoff is right there, and don't really want people driving over it.

The simplest answer might just be talking to the neighbor and extending the driveway with some gravel to the back so they can pull out through the neighbors lot.     I don't want to have to babysit parking issues.

So I apologize for the long question but there are multiple issues here...

Issue 1) In the image below the green outline is what I believe is my property line at my Triplex, and the orange outline is the neighboring businesses L shaped lot which extends behind mine.  (We need to have a survey completed to confirm lines, but these are the generally understood lines by myself and the neighboring business)  He parks vehicles both in the spaces in the back, as well as that 3rd lane of what from the ground appears to be my driveway.     There is a curb between the two, over on his side.  

I have volunteered to let him continue using the space in the back, if I could use the driveway space for my tenants.     3 lanes of driveway for a Triplex.  But, he will not allow that use as he parks his own vehicle there.  If I do get a survey, and work with a tow company to start towing his customers vehicles that are parked there it will destroy any chance of a continuing good relationship.  (I have access to his security system as I paid him to have a couple of cameras added to his system facing my driveway and property after some prior issues with a tenant)

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to resolve that parking space issue?

Very related issue 2) One Apt's tenant (my last inherited tenant) never had a car until recently. My lease states while there is a driveway, I do not guarantee parking availability, and there is street parking available to be used where legal.    This tenant is now blocking the other tenants in because he is refusing to utilize the (admittedly difficult to find) street parking.   His justification is that the previous owner stated that the Tenants who lived there the longest got priority on parking spaces.  I explained to him that was no longer the case, but he pretty much told me he is going to continue doing it.

If there is no recourse to solve that issue by using that space that very much looks from the ground to be part of my driveway, how should I handle this?    Options I can think of are A) Tell them to handle this themselves...   But this may cause tenants to leave as they are getting very upset.   B) Paint lines for the 2 lanes I do have.  Drop rent by $25, and add a $25 fee for use of a driveway lane, and work something out with a Tow company.   C) Potentially bring in Gravel to extend the driveway forward to allow another exit through the neighboring business parking lot. or D) Deal with it now, and with new leases adopt the policy that the oldest tenants get priority, and has the option to pay a parking cost IF there is a lane available.   Again this will involve babysitting though and an arrangement with a tow company willing to work with it...

I am going to jump on the RentecDirect bandwagon.   I have looked at Buildium a few times, but it seems to me they are targeting higher volume people them myself.    I only have 3 units in a single building.

I started with Cozy.co because... well...  its free.   That worked for the first year, but with the first lease renewals that I did, I moved the automatic payments over to Rentecdirect.   While Cozy is nice and has a better interface, it simply can not do nearly what Rentec does.  So, I pay the fee for Rentec and make use of that to handle everything, including the financials.    While it is not as powerful for that as something like Quickbooks, it is good enough for me and allows good enough tracking for my CPA at tax time.

Welcome to the community!  This is a great place to get started!   

I would simply say for the moment, save everything you can and set it aside for when you are ready to start buying.   What I generally recommend for people who can handle it is to save up until you can afford to buy a duplex and house-hack it.  After waiting the required year, move out and move into either another Duplex, or a single family house.    Rinse-Repeat and after a few years you'll find yourself with a little bit of an income stream from those deals, provided you find the good deals when you buy!

I wish I had done that back when I started.  Oh well, once my own teenagers move out in a couple years the wife and I might be doing just that for awhile.    Its a lot easier to pay the 3.5% down payment, leaving a repair buffer, then it is to pay the 25% down payment and leave that repair buffer.    Only been able to do that once so far.

Well, I just got a little something to add.

After a ton of inquiries, and quite a few showings of an apartment, I finally managed to get it rented yesterday.

Today, I received this:

Them: You got a gram this the neighbors next door
Me: A Gram of What?  Which Neighbor?
    (Pretty sure I know where this is going .....)
Them: Next door to you.

So, I decide to look it up and find it was one of the tenants I gave a showing to about a week before.

Me: I think your texting the wrong person.  I'm the guy you were looking to rent an apartment from... which is no longer available.   Based on that question, I suspect that you would have been declined residency. LOL
Them: Um bye i found somewhere thanks if your number wasnt saved i wasnt very much intrested
Me:  Fair enough.   Have a good one.
Them: Same to you.

I have Triplex with 2 units downstairs and 1 upstairs.  This building is about 115 years old at this point, so the insulation is probably not great.  Its something I will need to address down the road.

A few days ago I got a text from the upstairs tenant that the AC unit wasn't working in her unit.  I just happened to have my contractor in one of the downstairs units working on a rehab, so I shot him a message and he went to take a look at it the next morning.    The contractor said there was a greater then 1/4 inch layer of stuff all over the AC condenser, so cleaned that all out.     He checked it out and said everything is good.

When I spoke with the tenant she said that it had started working a little bit the night before.

Last night I got a message from her.  'The air conditioner isn't quite keeping up still.  It's set at 69 and it was 72 when arriving home just now which isn't a huge difference.  The only thing is it keeps the air conditioner constantly running so I am afraid it will make my utility bill skyrocket.'

What are your suggestions?    Do I call another guy out for a second opinion?   Do I tell her that keeping the upstairs of a 115 year old house at 69 degrees on 95 degree days is of course going to cause a high utility bill?    Just need suggestions...

@Thomas S.  A couple responses to your points

I know that mistakes have been made, however I am not still making those mistakes going forward.  Resolving those issues, and the advise of people such as yourself  is the purpose of this post.   Overall, as JD Martin said, I would prefer to ride it out through his lease, but if these issues do not get taken care of by him very soon, primarily the open door/freezing pipes issue, then he can deal with my Atty and her eviction process.

I have notified him that if I find that door left open again I will consider it willful endangerment of my property and begin the process.  (The door does close securely and remain latched with no chance of blowing open.  The only other tenant that has access to that common space has his door to that area blocked with his dresser and does not ever enter it as it is full of the poor quality tenant's belongs)

1)  We will be removing the shed once this guy is out either way.    I don't want him doing any additional work to the property in any way.  If I had him remove it I suspect that he would leave a pile of garbage in the backyard, or move it into the common area...   IF he didn't manage to destroy the side of the house doing it.

2) Swingset - Initially we were thinking it didn't really hurt to have the swingset there as it could make it more appealing for families.  The Swingset is actually in decent shape.  However, thinking more, I am not sure I want that kind of liability there...  so it will likely be going away soon too.

3) Yep.  I have told him to get his stuff cleaned out, and been told, 'I will work on it.   I don't need that stuff anyway'.  Months later, there is a bit less stuff, but a lot of it is still there.    I need to get with him on this stuff again.

4) The cat is accepted in the lease.  He seems to take decent care of it, so not telling him to get rid of the cat.

5) A boat of that model is accepted in the lease, however I did not agree to a dilapidated/not licensed vehicle and trailer, so this will be dealt with soon one way or another.

6) His lease did not mention electric heaters.  New leases going forward all will.  However the lease he signed refers to a 'community rules' document that did not exist yet as of the time he signed.  I am working to move a bunch of the maintainence rules and such into a Community Rules document and will include that.  I believe I simply have to give him 30 days notice to any changes in the Community Rules.   I will check on that...

7) Treatment is underway.  He is having it done at his cost through 'a guy he knows'.   I have seen signs of treatment, and a greatly reduced number of them in there.  I informed him If not gone at my next inspection for them which will be in a couple weeks, I will be having an exterminator company come deal with them, at his cost.

8) He has been paying in advance for MOST of his rent.  Its just the few bucks left that he gets the late charges for every month at this point. He is not free-loading by any stretch on the rent by any stretch, but my having to give special attention to his rent due to late fees every month is getting very old...  That said, him paying extra for the late fees is not terrible at this point as that small amount actually does make a difference in the properties finances.

@Dennis M. The guy has definitely had a ton of bad training.  Oh I have no doubts this property will turn around.  Just need to get past the current issues.

@Nathan Gesner The property was in need of some serious maintenance and cleanup when I got it, which is part of why the upstairs unit has been empty so long.  Its been a bit of a base location for stuff while getting the property cleaned up, as well as renovating that apartment itself.   There currently is only the 1 low quality tenant.  The other guy is all good.   Struggles a bit financially and rent increases may be a problem for him in the future, but he has never been late that I have seen.   The rates on this place are not bad at all for the area.   The bad tenant has a discount monthly for handling.  

@JD Martin To your first and second points, I didn't realize all of this when he got that lease.  Admittedly my mistake, I did not properly screen the existing tenants like I would new ones before I signed them to a new lease.  

I was distracted in dealing with the 8-15 violent people in the large apt who were destroying the property and causing neighbors to reconsider living there. Every wall and door had holes.  So at the time this problem tenant was a minor issue in the grand scheme, and I knew dealing with upstairs was going to take awhile and I needed a bit of income so the property could at least pay for itself.   

In hindsight, I should have re-signed him to my version of the month-to-month lease.

To your third point, I don't go pick up the checks.  This was a one-off situation. He was going to pay to overnight it on Saturday morning.  I told him that I would be there Tuesday and he could just give it to me instead and that I would forgive the late fee as if overnighted I would have had it on-time.   Cozy is the preferred method of rent collection, but this tenant refuses to set it up due to a fear of a past identity theft issue.  I have the option of mailing a personal check in the lease provided its received by the end of the grace period.  One bad personal check and they have to mail cashiers checks if they still can not use Cozy.

To your Fourth point, he had been handling building maintenance for years anyway with the previous guy.  I told him that I would no longer allow that, but he could handle lawn and snow.   The reason being, until I got these initial issues resolved and someone in the upstairs apt, the building is actually costing me every month.  I gave him a $50 credit per month to handle the lawn and snow provided it was done well and I never need to give him a reminder.  Its in the lease that addendum is cancelled in the event a reminder is needed.    It was going to cost me a good deal more to have a company do it...   But, I probably should have went that way anyway.  

I had his deposit transferred over from the previous landlord, but there was no move-in inspection or any documentation except the prior 1 page 'lease'.  So, with the new lease we got the move-in inspection done and had him sign a document regarding how the security deposit would be handled, so we are all good there.

I fully acknowledge that I am making some mistakes, but I am learning as I go on this.

I will likely try and ride it out a little while unless there is some new large issue or he keeps leaving that door open. At least until the large apt. is rented as I really can't have 2 of the apartments empty at this point.

@Andrew B. In the future I will likely have inherited tenants sign a new month-to-month lease, and transition it to a term lease later.  I prefer to keep tenants on a term lease when possible with the stipulation that it will renew as month-to-month with a higher rent at the end. 

I already have an attorney I am working with for any eviction proceedings that need to go through.  Once I decide that it is the time to do it, I am going to give her a call and let her take it from there.  MO is very landlord friendly, and a notice to quit is actually not required, however for me at least having an Atty handle that deal is.