All Forum Posts by: Michele Fischer

Agree.  There is nothing good that can come of it.  Better to focus your energy on getting ready to take possession and find a great tenant.  If they are a non-US citizen you probably don't have a lot of recourse to get them to pay after they move out.  If you want to spite them you could look at giving them a gift affidavit that could make them liable for more US taxes.  But realize this is part of the business and move on as best you can.  It hopefully averages out over the long haul.

Hey Ramesh.

I would never try to self manage a property three hours away if you don't have closer boots on the ground that can do some showings or run over to the place for various reasons.  I know people do it, but that isn'w where I would scrimp.

Good luck!  I feel like WA is harder and harder to operate at all, much less profitably.

Maybe the details you are looking for is a unicorn.

We have two different PM's.  One has no written contract, one has a very simple one.

Smart?  Maybe not.  But, it seems to be industry practice in my area to not nail anybody down very much.

Agree that you should offer to tenant to break the lease.  They may or may not do it, but it puts the decision on them instead of feeling stuck.  We were having issues at one of our properties and we asked the tenant what they wanted.  They asked us for a mounted security camera without monitoring.  We agreed to purchase it if they would install it where they wanted it, and we told them they had to leave it when they moved out.

I think I would consider security cameras or monitoring before moving to burgular bars, especially if the burgular bars are not common in the neighborhood.

You're getting good advice.

We have had a great run in the low income neighborhoods, but I'm not sure I would recommend it now with how landlord friendly things have gotten.  In better neighborhoods you at least have some hope of getting a tenant who wants to protect their credit; low income don't have credit to protect and don't have downgrade options to move to when their lives experience hiccups.  We used to have carrots and sticks to encourage folks to leave when they could no longer pay, but now the courts will let them stay for ages.

If you plan to househack, I think driving the neighborhoods to get a feel for them might be the most effective.  If you want to live there, others will too.

It's discrimnatory to prefer a traditional family.  Don't put that in writing.  Nontraditional tenants are the fodder of cocktail party stories.  :)

In addition to earlier questions:

How long have they lived at previous addresses?  Have they lived in the area long?

Is their income verifiable?  Stable?

Are they fussy/high maintenance?  Anything interesting on social media?

Which applicant would you consider the primary/strongest applicant?

If the criteria is 620, they don't meet the criteria.  If anyone has applied and been denied in this applicant cycle, don't change your criteria.  Be very careful about updating standards mid stream, evaluate between application cycles.

Agree with above.

The pros are that a large portion of the rent is virtually guaranteed, that you have another party to try to work out tenant issues with, and that the tenant is a little less likely to leave since their voucher limits their housing options.

The cons are the hoops to jump through to get your property inspected, it can make bookkeeping a little more complicated with a property manager, and generally lower quality tenants.

We don't actively look for or shy away from Section 8.  Keep up with maintenance inspections if you move forward.

I don't do short term rentals, but since it is fully furnished, there is more that could be damaged, so I would take that into account.  It is unlikely that you would be able to collect damages beyond the security deposit, so the security deposit lowers your risk and should be high enough to be helpful.

I have changed my view on this over time.

I think a big part of it is how it is normally handled in your rental area.  Following the majority will make life easier.

Some of our units have utilities included in rent.  This used to be our preferred way of handling it.  We knew it was always paid, we knew we would not get caught with a $800 unpaid bill that we were responsible for.  Applicants seemed to understand that it was included and there is value there.  But they don't know how much value, because units vary so much.  And there is no incentive to keep their utility costs low.  I swear some of our tenants run their faucets 24/7.  Typical US usage is 80-100 gallons/day/person but our households where WSG is still included are well over that.

Now I prefer the utilities to be in their name, so they can see and understand the cost better.  We can advertise a lower rent amount.  We pay a lower amount to PM since it is a percentage of rent collected.  We can have the utilities cc us on past due invoices and shutoff warnings.  We're getting such high move out costs that the unpaid utilities are no longer the sting they once were.

Take a deep breath, give thanks that you are out of the situation, and move on with your life.  Our move out costs have gotten more and more expensive.  It is frustrating, but it is just a cost of being a landlord.  People wonder why rent is so high and there is so little housing available.  It is unlikely that you will see any repayment, the sooner you internalize that and move on the better.  The collections claim is now viewable to other landlords when they apply for housing, and like others mention it may become important to clean up their credit, but for now you have done what you can and it is a waste of time and energy to keep spinning.