All Forum Posts by: Michele Fischer

Hi Jose.

My properties are currently with PM's, but all of our properties are D class so I might be able to provide some insight.

With D class, a lot of people don't have credit or even bank accounts, and anything on-line that they can't easily do on their phone isn't going to work.  We still ran credit, to check for evictions and to see address history.  We would pay for the screening.  It is a minor expense to get more completed applications to choose from.

Is it just you?

My husband and I would divide and conquer.  He would chase leads, show the units, and try to get completed applications turned in.  Ours were not electronic, they would fill them out at the property if they were interested, or drop them by later.  Not everyone was and that is normal.  We tried to do the showings open house style, "I'll be there 10-noon today and 2-4pm tomorrow, stop by."

Once we got a completed application, it would go to me and I would process them in order as fast as I can.  Once we offer the unit to someone we let all other applicants know it is rented, even the ones that didn't qualify.

Using checklists and staying organized is key to staying on top of things and not having any discrimination issues.  Find a centralized place to keep track of information you know about interested parties and can make sure you are moving them forward through the process.

Good luck!

It is so difficult to police and enforce guests, I would focus on the increased water bill.  If you can concretly tie increased usage to that unit, I would give a notice that rent is increasing due to excessive use. You can offer to lower it if it goes back down.  

Water is a headscratcher for me.  Units with washer and dryer have less water usage than those without.  Units with more people have less water usage than smaller groups.  It all exploded since Covid.  Since they don't all go up, we do a maintenance inspeciton to ensure there is not a leak or running toilet then we increase rent to compensate.

You are getting good advice.

I would say that we evaluate market rent each year but if the increase would be less than $50/month we skip that year.

And we raise rent to the midpoint between current rent and market rent.  This leaves some increase on the table, but also makes it more likely that tenants won't leave over the rent increase.  As they look around, if they do, they will not find a better price and it is easier to stay.

We also make sure we are consistent across tenants each year.  We can't treat good tenants differently or raise some and not others.  We document what we did each cycle and why we did or didn't consistently apply our logic.

And, of course, as much as turnover is a pain, it is a great opportunity to bump up to market rate.

Different landlords have different philosophies, but this is ours.

Agree with others, including that the wider slat blinds hold up a little better.  Get them as cheap as you can, plan to replace them every few years.  If you don't provide them you will have blankets hung in the windows, guaranteed.

Is this a new tenant?

You are getting good input.

Does your lease designate how they need to pay?  If so, you may be stuck.  If not, agree they need to pay you with a different more verifiable method or you start the eviction process.

I have had so many tenants with no bank accounts.  It is a pain but not insurmountable.  But electronic options don't normally work in those cases.  Our preferred method was to have them deposit the money in our bank account, we gave them deposit slips.  The downside there is that they could pay partial rent and you would be stuck.  Going to the property is also a great way to keep tabs on the condition of the property.

Sounds like you have the book smarts, which is important to make sure you can turn a profit.  I would encourage you to focus just as much on street smarts - what does and doesn't work in your local market, who can you call about that toilet, how will you answer the question about four pit bulls, etc.  The world needs more compentant PM's, go get 'em!

You are probably overthinking this.  Tell tenant A that you need a window of time to inspect the apartment with only the furniture he is leaving (with the unit in move out ready condition).  You need to do an inspection to itemize his security deposit, and the less crap there the easier to see the true condition.  Once that is complete, allow them to work things out as long as you get the keys to rekey if you will (and I would) near/at the end of the month.  If tenant B (wink wink) isn't living there you don't have to worry about the overlapping money.  Try to get tenant B to sign the lease before he gets the keys from tenant A, and try to do another quick inspection before tenant B officially moves in, which becomes the move in condition report.  There is some risk there could be issues those last two weeks, but I would just treat him as a guest of tenant A since it isn't very long.  Congrats on being a landlord worthy of referrals, that is great regardless of your pricing.

As far as the safety issue, get that out of your head and vocabularity.  It is discrimatory.  She saw the stairs, she knows her capabilities, let her decide if she wants to deal with them.  You could let her know that you are too small to make reasonable accomodation if the stairs become an issue, but probably not worth it.

As far as rent to income ratio, this is something you should set before you start taking applications, then stick to your standards.  We deal in low income properties, so our criteria is that rent cannot be more than 50% of income, but if the income source is non-taxable we increase it to 59%.  But our sweet spot is 28%-31%, this is where tenants have the most stability.

Make your expectations clear and simple.

Two clauses I really like after having issues with couples breaking up or singles disappearing:

In the event that Tenants decide they no longer want to live together, ___________ will be considered the primary Tenant to make decisions about modifying or terminating tenancy. Deposits will not be returned (full or partial) until all tenants move out.

In the event of abandonment, arrest or death, the following person has the authority to decide when to terminate tenancy and how to store/distribute my belongings:

Name: ____________________________________________________

Address: ____________________________________________________

Phone #: ____________________________________________________

You are getting good advice.

I use a PM now, but when we were self managing we used the application our screening company provided with an additional page of additional questions I wanted to ask to support my screening point system.

I ask more about address history, I want to know how familiar they are with our neighborhood and how long they stay on average.  I also used to ask more about criminal history, before that became protected.