All Forum Posts by: Heath M.

I learned the hard way about not raising rents each year.  I use to hold flat for 3 years, not anymore!  My lease has a clause that explains the yearly rent increases (eat least 3%, rounded to the nearest $5 mark - it even has an example of the math in it).

And I would never tie fixing issues that should have been reported to a lease signing.  I'd let them know that they need to submit a maintenance ticket and it'll get reviewed and usually fixed.  My lease states I have 48 hours to make a reasonable effort to coordinate repairs, that doesn't mean it'll get fixed that soon.

Lastly, since you already offered I'd stick with the new lease terms but that would change next year and it might be upped by 10% to make up for this year.

I use Facebook market place to find potential tenants.

I use apartment(dot)com for screening the tenants, I also post it on their platform but for my area facebook marketplace brings me the most traffic.

Of course looking at the profiles of the tire kickers is always a hoot...lol

I typically wait until they leave before I even post it as available for rent.  That way I can go in to clean, repaint and do any needed repairs.  Then I'll get updated pics and post.  I usually lose a month between tenants and at most two (when I had more repairs).  I've had a couple stellar tenants that had the place so clean that I didn't do anything and a couple that found me renters to take their place that handled the walk through.  I've been lucky in that respect.  We've also rehabbed all but 1 unit and that one is about to come open so we have a good idea on what each will need between tenants (we are small and hands on).

On the flip side, my lease does stipulate that we can show it during the last 30 days I just never do.  And I know some will say I'm leaving money on the table not having a "quick turn" but I've also increased rent after each tenant except on very rare occasions.
 

I do a lot of QA documents for my W2 job and we require a line out for a change and ink in the changes, then it has to be initialed by the person making the change.  My signoff is last so my date and signature has to be later than the initialed changes.  My signature means I agree to it.  

In the case of a lease, all parties need to initial the change (everyone that signed the lease).  There's no way I'd just initial a change without the tenant initialing it as well, I don't think that would stand up in court if it went that far.  

But I have lined through a change and only initialed it on the same day as lease signing.  And that change benefited the tenant (waived pet fee).  They didn't initial it but there's no way I'd win a case if I was trying to collect it since my initials are on it saying I waived it.  A judge would laugh me out of the court room on that one...

I wouldn't have a problem with it unless you just don't want to continue driving over there to collect it.  You could ask for a money order but a fee is associated with them getting one.  If they want to pay in cash and you give them a receipt then continue on.

I have several that pay via money order, my only issue is I have to make multiple trips to that property (it's a 4plex) to get money orders because they never seem to pay the same day.  I'd rather do that then risk them losing it if I requested them to wait a couple of days but I'd prefer them using the payment portal.  Whenever those tenants leave I will replace with them with ones that use the online payment portal.  

Luckily mine are within 20min of my house so it's basically a non issue and they pay.  As long as they pay I'll take it in whatever form they want to do it in...lol

In Chattanooga that doesn't seem to be the case.  I've raised my rents and the apartment buildings popping up are still charging way more.  

innago is what I'm running in parallel right now.  I loved Cozy but the transition has sucked...

I've been running Innago and Apartments in parallel for the last month.  I am learning the layout of Innago and I like it.  I have placed a tenant with each software and I feel Apartments is more robust in the background check and credit reporting than Innago.  At least the report that I had access to after they paid the fee was better.  That could have been because of the tenant not having as much credit, etc but Innago didn't seem as thorough in the information that I was supplied with.  In everything else I like Innago better, well except for the $2 per tenant fee for ACH transfer.  I liked that Cozy just held my funds for 7-10 days instead.  Innago said that they could transition that fee to me but I haven't pulled that string yet, I probably will just roll it into the rent amount soon.

Apartments will not let me manually add a tenant unless they have an e-mail address.  I have had to use a dummy e-mail address for tenants where Innago would let me add them without an e-mail address (shows unverified).  But that was my way of tracking tenants in both systems to see which way I wanted to start converting.  If you just put a dummy email address in then you can add them in Apartments and be good to go.

I'm about to place another tenant in about a month so I'm going to see if I can get them to apply with Apartments to get the better report and then set their account up in Innago so I have the best of both.

On my HELOC they did a drive by appraisal (regions bank and my personal residence). The last 2 appraisals I've done for investment property they went inside, measured everything to verify size and took a ton of pics. I'd say you are in for a full blown appraisal and not a drive by.

@Dave Spooner Rachel on your team has been great on the web chat feature. She was able to help me, I believe my issue is browser related so I'll work on it more when I get home.  

I believe I will be able to run your version to test out the features I need for the next month or two.  The expenses are a little different when I upload but I really like that I am able to edit the application to fit my needs.  I'll reach out if I have more questions but so far I'm liking it.  It'll be worth me eating the $2 fee per electronic payment.