All Forum Posts by: Daniel Miller

Yes, fortunately no money had changed hands yet, and no contract signed. I sent them a curt but courteous "application denied" letter, and have just re-listed the house.

And you can be sure that with the next people I talk with, I will be more conscious of the issues that we have been discussing here!!!

Thank you all for the quick responses! That's what I've been feeling too. They had other requests that were making me nervous, such as wanting to repaint rooms and change draperies. Even the auto-pay offer, sort of felt like enhanced bait to keep me biting (they could set that up on their own without discussing it with me).

I'm going to just let this one go, and get some more experience interviewing people!

Well, I just got a message from them that they want me to get the house tested for lead and asbestos, and they need those tests before they will give a deposit. Is this reasonable?? They *do* have a 10-month-old boy, but this just seems "out of the blue". I haven't seen any discussions here about lead or asbestos testing; have I just missed them?

Well, they *do* have a 10-month-old boy... However, now they're starting to throw other requirements in, but I think I'll start a new thread for that...

Okay, I appreciate all the advice here. After reading so many threads here, I thought I had everything down pat, but I missed alot...

> Once some of you mentioned it, I realized the error of not asking right up front, when they were going to move in; it would have been very reasonable to say "I don't really wish to let it sit empty for a month". Now that we've already agreed on so much, I'm uncomfortable trying to push them to move in earlier. Certainly, I don't want to re-activate the ad and start interviewing people again.

Actually, in the future, I'll put a target move-in date in the ad. They actually told me up front that their existing lease was until end of November, but it didn't mean anything to me!!

> If I had said right up front, "you can move in early, but you'll have to pay for the time, nobody would have thought twice about it. Now that I've already said "sounds good to me, you won't be getting in anybody's way", I'm not comfortable backing out. I *will* learn from experience, however.

(Wow, I can actually SEE K. Marie Poe rolling her eyes at that comment!!)

> On the checks issue, I admit I don't understand the issue... I'll have a month for the checks to clear before I give them the keys; the Lease Agreement specifies that if they bounce a check they will pay $25 plus all bank fees, and all payments after that will be cash.

(Besides, these are the tenants who want to set up auto-pay, as noted in my other posting today).

Thanks again for all the expert inputs that people have shared.

Yes, they already got the utility addresses from me, and are going to get the utilities switched to their names two weeks before Dec. 1st.

We will be going over the move-in checklist this weekend, when they give me the checks.

The people renting my place would like to set up auto-payment... that seems like something that would be advantageous for me. Is there any reason I should not do this?? I have a separate account that I've set up for this property, I could give them that number... is that a bad risk?

Please permit me to re-state my question:
I would like to know if there are any hazards or "traps" that I need to be aware of in letting a tenant move in early?

I'm checking with my insurance agent to see if they will have a problem with it. I will be ensuring that I have cash for first-month and deposit, long before I hand them the keys (in fact, they already know they will not see the keys until those checks have cleared). I know I could have grabbed some more cash for that extra week or ten days, and probably I should have... but that is not what I'm asking...

Thank you all again for your assistance and advice!

Jon: the reason I'm accepting checks for the initial payments, is because they are paying six weeks before the lease starts!! I will definitely know whether the checks have cleared before. Otherwise, I would not have done so; I've read enough here to know about that.

K. Marie Poe: Heh!! You stuck the pin on the tail of why I'm considering letting them move in early... when we bought our house, 16 years ago, they in fact let us move in 10 days early, with no charge... they were moving out anyway, so the house was empty, but it made a big difference to us because we didn't have to move in on 4th of July!! we were very grateful!!

The other reason we are willing to consider this is that the house has been sitting empty since February, and earning nothing... I really should have gotten off my butt and gotten this process started months ago, but was rather overwhelmed with dealing with dad. I'm actually happy to finally get somebody back in the house, and the neighbors won't have to call me anymore, telling me that someone is poking around the house.

I guess I *should* have just charged for the early entry when I could have... I'm so used to the house sitting abandoned that I'm still getting used to someone moving in. However, I *did* tell them that they could move in early without paying, I don't really want to back out now.

Yes, we're signing the Lease Agreement and handing over first-month and deposit this weekend, and they want to start moving in mid-November. The checks will have cleared by then (and I know they have *plenty* of cash in their checking account for this).

I was also thinking that I could add into the Lease Agreement that tenant will start moving in two weeks before start of lease, and Landlord is waiving payment for that period... would such an amendment have any relevance to anything??