All Forum Posts by: Vijaianand Thirunageswaram

I use TenantCloud and they send auto invoices when the rent is due few days before the date. The app has very cool features for Landlords, Owners and Tenants. 

That's not how it works. It goes toward the repair as tenant contribution if not owners account. We work to make the tenant stays for long to reduce turn over rate.  

I started this thread to get some insight from others who goes through having multiple properties and how effectively are they managing this kinda of issues and effectively reducing the cost of owners as well. So please don't try to take it on me or my process. We are sharing and learning together.

This actually triggers question, how long you all been landlord and how many properties you all own? Nothing negative. I have talked some landlords and managers, they do some sort of similar things to limit tenants calling landlords every week for smaller things. When you have 10 properties and you get a call for each and every small things the whole week, you will understand the pain of property management. That's what being shared to me and I go through this at times too. That's why we put this service call fee to avoid them calling. I have tenants who never have problem paying it. 

agree! two different mindset. How many properties do you have btw? I want to hear from other landlords and property managers how they think about this issue. 

Patrick, I am investors who owns properties myself and Realtor also manages property. In Texas things are different. Many Realtors who writes contracts put clause to cover the incidentals and one of the option is putting copay which avoid people calling for smaller things. We do inspection every 6 months and things won't be missed and if it does, we will catch on the inspection.  Copay works very well if the tenant understand the logic that's it not apartment and it;'s house and consider to maintain properly. 

Howdy,

I just want to share and through out question to other landlords and property managers on how you dealing with this situation. As an Investor myself and property manager, we like to make our rentals perform well without much turn overs. Too much turn overs will affect the numbers and screw it up. So we like to take care of tenants as much as possible and at the same time we need to draw the line so we don't get calls for just changing bulbs. I usually put copay $75 or something which applies for any repairs request from tenant. This helps us both ways to control calls for smaller things and also tenant hope to take care of smaller issues. It also controls cost from our end.

At the same time, if you look at the tenant aspect. Some tenants who are moving from apartment wants everything included in the rent. I had a tenant argue with me that I am paying $1500 and now I have to pay another $75 to get my a/c or plubming issue fixed. Why? It's your house and I am already paying rent. Why should I pay more for every repair? This question raised after two months of moving in. I had to explain to her that it's part of agreement you signed. You should have raised this concern when you signed with your agent. This is not the time. We do it for reason and I explained the reason. Still she is not convinced. From her end, she is thinking about apartment all inclusive and it should be same way with any rental. That's her mindset.

Being said both the sides, I know I been working out and making them understand to kept going but at times it hard. What's you all doing at these situations and handling it smoother? I don't want to be rough and tough but same time contract needs to be followed in way that tenant stays for long. 

Here is the link for Texas property code for Rentals in case you are wondering. 

http://texaspropertycode.org/

@Michele Broderick SDIRA I assume Self Directed IRA. Anyway, lots can go either way. Most residential lots or Residential sale which cannot be used for Mixed use like strip center or warehouse. Whereas Commericial lots can be used for mixed use. If you are planning on putting warehouse to store things, you might be looking for commercial lots. Residential lots have restriction from city and HOA. Hope this help. PM if you need help.

@Joe A. As @Jason Bott mentioned home insurnace and rental insurance are totally different. Let me share my 2 cents from the experience. Many new landlords don't even know the basics needed as Texas property owners. There are special requirements for rentals as per Texas property code for your properties like Deadlock bolt locks on front doors  etc.,  As per insurance, you don't need certain coverages which will reduce your premium. You don't have go through reputed companies like state farm or farmers. There are companies like Homeowners of America, Universal, UPC they are AAA rated and provide cheap replacement policies. I can send you the agency whom I work to get these policies for my rents and my client rentals. PM if you need it. @Tony Castronovo already might have sent you contact too.

@Dot Cheng Is the property in Sugar land or close by? Even though it's not HOA, it might with city limit. You need to check with the planning department to see what's the zone and restriction. Most likely they will allow you do it if its Residential zone. If so, just get quote from few contractors who takes care of everything from pulling permit and plan and construction. Hope this helps!