All Forum Posts by: Gwen Fyfe

I would start by giving the benefit of the doubt, keeps everything happier and makes it easier to figure out what's going on. There are lots of situations where we'd say the guy is living there but a new couple wouldn't think of him as living there. Did they hit it off and he's constantly at her place, but they don't think of him as living there because he hasn't moved properly? Is he staying with her for "a little while" and they haven't figured out how long? Is the AC broken at his place? (The way we went straight from a foot of snow to 90 degrees, if he doesn't have AC he might be escaping over to her place.)

Start by saying that it's okay if he is living there, you just need to know about it, so she doesn't feel like you're out to get her, then talk and figure out the situation. (My usual spiel for this is "It's totally fine, I've been there too, I just need to make sure I have him on the paperwork in case there's an emergency, to protect all of us.") Once you've figured that out, you can decide if you want him on the lease. Pretty easy to keep this conversation friendly. If it goes south for some reason that's a red flag.

Although, personally, 24 hours is pretty short.

I also would not recommend that anyone judge a PM by online reviews. They are almost always from disgruntled tenants.

Out of state guys, if you're investing in Cleveland, I would recommend visiting the city and coming to some networking groups to hear what's said off the forums.

Eh, I work full time too, and personally I wouldn't judge a prospective tenant on how they phrased questions about details I do want them to know.

Questions I've ruled people out for...

-Can I bring my husband, three kids, two dogs and two cats into this two bedroom apartment with no yard?

-How do you feel about drugs?

-You're not a dyke, are you?

-Is this building within 500 feet of a school?

-Are you going to replace all the windows and appliances before I move in? New stainless steel for the appliances right?

-Can I move in right now if I give you $300 cash just for you to keep, on top of the deposit?

A lot of folks here seem really harsh to me. Maybe you have a huge pool of qualified applicants where you are, or don't remember being a renter searching for an apartment yourself?

When a lead calls me and asks information that's already in the ad, I assume they've made a list to call and not bothered to write down every single detail. I certainly used to do that myself. I remember sitting with a list of phone numbers for apartments in my budget, going through and calling to see if I could set appointments and if the person seemed nice.

Or, a lot of the time they're asking for more information or to confirm. I've had people ask "I have a cat, is that OK?" when the ad says "pet friendly", and what they really want to know is what conditions I put on pets or if their particular pet is allowed.

This is a people business.

Those are reasonable standards, but pretty strict. 600 credit score seems to be standard and I only look for 550 since I'm in a working class area. (Which is also true of some southern parts of Shaker - what area is the property?) I've never heard of someone looking for verified income for 5 years. How would you be asking them to prove that exactly?

And most PM companies want to use their own leases.

So you've got high standards which will be  pain in the butt to fill, don't want to use their lease which they know inside and out and can work with easily, and for all that work may only be with them for 6 months?

I'd say "not a good fit" too.

Trash for keys?

 I think it definitely will be someday. It's just a shame that isn't right now.

 Thank you for cracking me up in the middle of my silent office, Tom.

I mean, you're right about East Cleveland, but I just have this image of you waving your arms and shouting STAY AWAY! Too funny.

I accept payment any way my tenants want to pay me. They're paying their rent? Awesome! Check, money order, cash, ACH, google, deposit-only debit card, whatever, get that rent to me and I'm happy.

For digital payments, I have used Cozy in the past, which is great. I use it for screenings, so tenants are familiar with it when they see it, and it automatically reminds them every month. Tenant pays fee. Appeals to tenants who are tech-savvy but not comfortable just shooting over the money on Venmo or whatever.

More recently I rented to friends-of-friends who are about my age, hippie millennials like me. They asked to use Google Pay and it works great too. I don't think my older tenants would be comfortable with it but I'm happy.

That sounds like he might be a young person who just finished school and hasn't really had a financial life as an adult yet, right?

How about asking if one of their parents would co-sign?