All Forum Posts by: Michele Fischer

Some states have a lease automatically revert to a month to month agreement when the time period expires, you need to know the laws in your state.  New paperwork covers you regardless though.

You are getting good advice.

When the tenant contacted you, were they really looking for a discount or a deferral? It's important that everyone is on the same page.

Go into this assuming they will not catch up.  Get agreement from them that if they cannot get caught up in a certain time period that they need to move.  Make the agreement something you can live with and be firm.  Consider asking for partial payments that align to the paychecks that the tenants still working so that you can see progress move often to guage how things are going, and have them be less behind total.  

And watch utilities if you will be responsible to pay them after move-out, people often let utilities slide when they are strapped for cash.

You are getting good advice.  It is frustrating, but we don't really control who is in our units and it probably isn't worth trying to enforce.  If you were self managing you could be more aggressive, buth with a PM this is their issue to deal with and they don't want to.  Let them do their job.  They aren't being lazy, they know this is no win.  We have parked outside units to figure out the comings and goings from time to time, but truth is it doesn't really matter and life is easier when you don't monitor it and let it raise your blood pressure.  Having fewer people on the lease has advantages too.  Your biggest risk is probably criminal activity since they have not had any kind of background check as an unauthorized occupant.

This is a very untested area, there are not a lot of court cases to know what is and is not allowed, and nobody wants to be the first.

There are so many doctors willing to sign off on a service animal, but it does weed out some.

We have used this form with some success:

FORM TO REQUEST AN ASSISTANCE ANIMAL

We are committed to granting reasonable accommodations when necessary to afford persons with disabilities the equal opportunity to use and enjoy our rental properties.

Under the Fair Housing Act, a person with a disability is defined as a person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. Reasonable accommodation may include waiving or varying pet polices and fees to allow an Assistance Animal. An Assistance Animal is an animal that does work or performs tasks for the benefit of a person with a disability, or provides emotional support or other assistance that alleviates one or more symptom or effects of a person’s disability.

Please complete this form completely and return it to us. All information will be kept confidential, except as otherwise required by law.

Today’s Date: _______________________

Name of person with disability requesting accommodation: _____________________________

What is the species of animal? __________________________

Provide the name and physical description (size, color, weight, license) of the animal:

_______________________________________________________________________________

Does the animal perform work or do tasks because of the disability? _____________

If Yes, please provide a statement from a health or social service professional indicating that you have a disability and explaining how the animal is able to do work or perform tasks that alleviate one or more symptoms or effects of your disability.

If No, please provide a statement from a health or social service professional indicating that you have a disability and how the animal alleviates the symptoms or effects.

Please attach statement with any additional information and contract information for the professional completing the statement.

_______________________________________ _______________________

Signature of Person Making Request Date

_______________________________________ _______________________

Signature of Person with Disability Date

I would also add:

- Avoid five bedroom properties, or sizes and options that are unusual in your target neighborhood; it will be difficult to sort out market rent.

- Avoid properties that have items/areas that can't be tenant proofed.  If there is something nice they can destroy, they will.  Look for hearty and plain rather than fragile and unusual.

- Pay attention to insurance and utility rates by area/property.  They can vary a lot by city or condition, and it impacts the cash flow a lot.  It is easy to phone utility companies and ask for an estimate of monthly costs to get a feel for differences.

- Look for funtional floorplans.  If you can't imagine where furniture will go and how things will flow, prospective applicants will struggle too and the property is less rentable.

- Avoid proeprties where there are sturctural issues or unknowns found during the inspection.  Even if you get a great deal, you are buying a big headache.  Keep looking.

Agree, this is fraud and you should notify them that the contract is not enforceable and you will not be moving forward with their tenancy.  Reach out to any other applicants that were interested that may fit your standards and get it back on the market as soon as you can, move forward with someone new.  I hate it when things fall apart this late in the process, but it does happen from time to time.  Get it rented as quickly as you can to honest applicants.

I would offer them to break the lease and leave now, no reason to wait.  Don't admit any kind of blame, tell them they could be more comfortable elsehwhere and that you support that.  "This hasn't been a great fit for either of us, if you are concerned about your health I am more than willing to let you move out with no extra fees as soon as you can find a new place."

I don't think it is even about avoiding turnover.  It's about avoiding the expensive turnover costs.

We have been able to manage very short vacancies where the tenant left the unit in great or even good condition.  It used to be the outlier that there was a turnover that cost thousands of dollars, now it feels like the norm.  When we do maintenance inspections, we know right away which tenants will be costing us money or not.

Better screening, better relationships, setting expectations about what it takes to get the deposit back, better overall engagement, but it comes down to... does the population have the time, money, and skill to take good care of a unit, and do they understand the connection to the lack of affordable housing when they stop paying and stop caring.  Society doesn't see the turnover as a cost that contributes to broken housing options.

Honestly, it is what works best for you.  The deposit money should be segregated in a different account, but bank doesn't matter as long as you tell tenants where.  Otherwise, we comingle our household and rental expenses to earn more rewards and make things easier and such, and it is fine as long we we can keep the bookkeeping straight. For taxes you need to account for all of your revenues and expenses, but they don't need to be segregated.
Depends on how diligent you are and what your goals are.  We ended up with different bank accounts due to loans from different banks on the properties, and it is kinda fun to see rent coming in and building a rental emergency fund, since only the mortgage comes out of that account.  

We have had tenants moving out ask if their friends can move in.  We treat it like any normal appicant, but if they qualify they would move in.  We have had two back to back great long term tenants this way.

We have had tenants approach us about some moving out and others moving in but one staying.  If the remaining tenant qualifies on their own we just do a background check on the new person and let them choose whether they come on as an authorized occupant or a new tenant with new paperwork.  There are pros and cons for us.  If the remaining tenant does not solo qualify we look at the application of the new applicant and evaluate it with the existing tenant.  We had one tenant move in and out about 10 people over the 15 years she lived there.  We had her deal with any deposit disbursement and worked with her.  Red flag with mental health issues so we eventually parted ways, but it was a good long run that saved us turnover costs and vacancy.