All Forum Posts by: Kazi R.

@Colleen F.@Colleen F. I was not planning to renew her lease anyway, so I am glad she is going to be gone and I won' t have to deal with her anymore. Anyway, good luck with your tenant! I feel your pain!

@Chris K. It seems to be a better approach to start off month to month, but I want to avoid good tenants moving out on me within a few months of renting a property just because that option is available to them. When I used to rent, I always stayed in the rental property during the lease period. I figure most good tenants do the same thing. I have a full time job, so time is scarce. Long term tenant is one of the most important things that I look for during the selection process and having a yearly lease in place helps ensure that to a certain extent, I guess.

@Pam R. Thanks Pam. I was bit upset about this whole thing, but it might be a better idea to let her go as most of you suggested. I will ask her to fulfill her lease obligation, but if it does not work, I may not take any further legal action - I am still in the process of deciding on that.

BTW, I usually have tenants sign a one year lease, but switch them to month to month lease if they have been late in paying rent or if I filed for dispossessory at least once during the first one year period. For good tenants, I have them renew lease for another year at the end of the lease period.

Hi Jon, Thanks for the quick response and great advice. This is a tenant who always paid rent on time, but was such a PITA that I sent a "happy clause" letter to her one time. I had discussed the plan to move out with her before; and we were in agreement that she was going to move out end of March. I know that house will need some work after she moves out, especially because she was smoking in master bedroom at one point (stopped after I found out), so I might have to spend money to get the smell out among other things. So security deposit might be needed to fix up whatever damage she is leaving behind. I have let tenants break lease before without going after them because I felt that their situation didn't leave them a choice, but I feel being taken advantage of in this situation. I don't take this business personally, but I feel I need to do everything to collect the rent if possible because she is not keeping her word and is not paying me rent after using my good reference (which I shouldn't have given) to find her next place. BTW, she said she was going to move out on Mar 8, not end of Feb. Please let me know what you think.

I have this tenant (in GA) whose lease is expiring on Mar 31 of this year, but just got a notice from her that she will be moving out at the end of Feb and asked me to accept security deposit for March rent, which I absolutely don't agree to do. This is someone whom I gave good references to help find another place. What are my legal options to collect the rent for March? Should I file for eviction once the due date for March rent has passed? I have never dealt with a situation where tenant is moving out one month before lease expiration, so any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Thank you so much Colleen. This is really helpful!

I am planning to make an offer on a quadruplex that is fully rented. I need to know what stipulations I need to include in such a document, especially stipulations regarding transfer of existing tenant lease documents and security deposit. Thanks for helping me out.

Thank you everyone for all the great analysis of this deal. I was hesitant about this property when I started this thread, but now I am pretty convinced that this could be a good deal if all the major systems are in good shape and water bill is not excessive. I have made an offer. I will let you know if it gets accepted.

BTW, thanks for all the great posts about 50% rule. My take away from this discussion summarizes what @Aaron Montague said in his post:

"The 50% rule is a great place to start, but like all "rules of thumb" it needs to be a starting point, not a final analysis."

I think assuming 50% expense is standard formula that's being used by a lot of investors when it comes to calculating cash flow, but it has not been true in my case at least when dealing with single family properties. I don't know about small multifamily properties though. I think this property is likely to cash flow lot better than $255/month. I would love to hear others' opinion about 50% expense formula though.

@Kiran K Thanks Kiran. I am thinking about putting in a stipulation for the landlord to provide me the last 3 months of water bill documentation.

Thank you everyone so much for such quick responses!

@Gary Hurst
Yes Atlanta is great place to invest in real estate. I am skeptical about water bill as well. Will be sure to verify.

@Aaron Montague
Tax - Somehow I couldn't find the tax info on county tax commissioner's website. However I doubt tax would be more than $2.5k based on taxes on other similar properties.
Sewer bill - I think water and sewer are billed together. I will check.
Trash - County takes care of the trash (included in tax).
Property management - I manage my own properties. I assume I would do the same with this one.
Thanks for helping me out with the numbers breakdown.

@Edward Burns
Good advice about heating systems. I will keep that in mind.

@Ali Boone
It's a MLS listing and will have it inspected if I decide to purchase it. This is a bit of a new area for me (not the typical area where I invest in), but my realtor tells me that it is a decent location. I haven't done my due diligence yet - will walk away if it turns out not to be a good location. Thanks.