All Forum Posts by: Jacob G.

I do an additional 1/2  month security deposit as it can be used for any issues and all animals (pet or ESA) must be seen by a certified animal trainer to ensure they are not a threat to  people or property. If prospects ask questions on the policy I let them know my first tenant moved the sweetest dog [Pitbull] in that ended up attacking the neighbor and her dog when they were unloading groceries.The neighbor asked I ensure this never happens again.

The animal trainer evaluates the dog and gives recommendations to the owner and let's me know what they think. I've found doing this results in a better tenant, but can take a bit longer to rent the property when it goes vacant.

Additionally, put age restrictions on pets (not on ESAs). For ESAs state you verify details with the healthcare professional per HUDs recommendation (their recommendations state the provider must have a relationship and not be one of the pay $$$ and get a certificate websites).

Also check with your insurance on disallowed breeds. When a prospect contacts you with one of those breeds, forward your carrier's details and let them know you look forward to moving along with the process once the insurance provider sends documentation the prospect's dog is allowed.

Quote from @Danielle Thomas:

What would you recommend for a process? I did a credit check, criminal background check, got pay stubs, required income 3x rent, and got employer confirmation and prior landlord reference (but I never got in touch with the prior landlord successfully)

In my experience:

- Always talk to landlords, especially former landlords. When you call their references, state the applicant listed them as a reference. Ask what the reference's name is, how the reference knows them, and then ask open-ended questions to verify application details (how much is rent, how many people are living there, how much do they earn, what are their smoking habits, address, work performance, etc.). Call the business phone number and ask to speak with the person rather than calling the number the applicant listed.

- Minimum credit score of 650.

- Rental History: screen for tenants who have a track record of owning or leasing property. We require 3 consecutive years minimum, but allow a 1.5-month gap if the prospect is relocating at least 50 miles.

- Screen for evictions, and serious felonies, and search the court systems. I've had people interested in my property who were evicted many times in a neighboring state, a few had convictions for assault. A quick search can save many headaches.
- Require an in-person visit to the property or a virtual call. While they are touring, inquire about what businesses they plan on running out of the property. My most memorable responses were the prospect was going to open a daycare, while my second favorite was an AirBnb.

- Leave adequate time to screen people and talk to references. I've encountered a fair number of people who needed to move in immediately and wanted to expedite the process. That can be a huge red flag. I tell everyone it can take up to a week to process an application depending on when the reports come in and when I'm able to connect with references.

Most importantly, stick to your criteria and never make exceptions. You will encounter people down on their luck who don't meet your criteria and beg to move in.

I've found the best way to show my property to prospects is to have them prescreen themselves using a smart form.

You can set a smart form up to ask basic questions: do you earn at least $nnnn / month and have paystubs/invoices to support it? How often do you smoke? How many times have you been evicted? If they answer in a manner that disqualifies them it lets them know and closes the conversation with a note that if they would still like to see the place, they need to go back through the form and answer in a specific manner.

Doing this has significantly cut down on bad apples and I don't have people getting pissed at me for telling them they don't make enough money or we don't accept people with evictions. I've also found the majority of people that book showings at the end seem like higher quality tenants. I use oncehub for this. 

Thank you everyone for the support and input. I did fix all the "issues" and it only cost me a few hundred dollars and the better part of a Sunday afternoon to do the work.

As for the shingles, I removed one of the existing shingles, took it to the big box store, and went through every shingle offering they had. I found one that was as close as possible color-wise and selected shingles from the bundle that most closely matched the surrounding area.
The bonus/silver lining is my toddler now thinks I "like to work on roofs for fun."

Thank you for the responses, everyone. This is my second time going through the inspection process with Des Moines. The first time a few years ago was a better experience and objective while this inspection seemed more subjective. 

Based on your experiences with the appeal process and retaliation afterward, I'll just fix them and move on with renting it. I'm sure just fixing the issues will be a more rewarding experience than trying the appeal process and then needing to do the changes anyway. The property has appreciated and rent has gone up, so in the long run, it's better to stay the course.

Once again, thank you for your valuable input and experience. This is definitely what makes Bigger Pockets a great community.

This post is more to organize my thoughts and collect feedback on the direction others might take. Here goes some background information.

My rental in Des Moines failed the rental inspection for the following reasons. 

1. We had a Derecho that blew off about 8 shingles a few years back. I found the closest match of shingle the local big box store had after the storm and patched the section that blew off. Tenants have never mentioned the shingle color being an issue and the roof is not leaking, but the inspector wants a closer color match for the replaced shingles. He said I had to find a more exact match or reshingle the roof.

2. The paint on the shed was looking a little dull/drab to him and he said its time to repaint the shed. This is more annoying than anything as once again, no prospective tenants have ever indicated it is an issue or looks bad. I can paint it or have my handyman do it. I really feel this is approaching HOA level control on a private residence by the government.

3. The rental inspector asked where the furnace was to check its condition. When I told him it was in the crawl space and started opening the door so we could go down there, he said he wasn't going down there and was failing the furnace due to the Mechanical Inspector's notes from our AC install last month. The AC inspection passed, but the Mechanical Inspector made a note that the furnace was improperly installed and clearance could be an issue. The furnace was replaced by the homeowner a few years before I bought the house and is functioning fine. One of the companies that bid the AC job quoted $1,000 to rotate it.

A little about the property:

- Purchased for $55k, renovated for $30k and a ton of sweat equity. Very conservatively, it would sell for $120k.

- Its in a B-/C+ area and rents for $900-1000/mo. Most of the tenants have been a few years into their career and want a nice place to live while they save money for a downpayment.

My goals:

- We would like to move to a southern lake home where cold/snow isn't an issue in a few years time. Des Moines requires a PM if you are not living in Polk Country or a neighboring county which would cost $200/mo and torpedo this investment.

Questions/Options:

Would you:

1. Put a new roof on (or spend more time searching for the needle in a haystack exact match shingle), pay someone to rotate the furnace, and paint the shed. Get the blessing of the city to continue renting an affordable house to one of the two qualified applicants. Collect rent until we decide to move and hope for continued appreciation (doubt it is going to happen given interest rates going up).

2. Sell the property to an owner-occupant and 1031 into a small multifamily property in the area. Ensure it makes financial sense to have a PM manage instead of self-managing.

3. Sell the property to an owner-occupant and 1031 into two county SFHs in the area.

4. Sell the house and use the money towards a down payment on a lake home in a few years (we plan on retiring to a lake home in many years but, life is too short ... why not do it sooner in life, have more time to enjoy it, raise our kids there, and set down roots)? This option scares me due to inflation eating money and not really trusting the stock market right now.

5. Try going through the appeal process. I've done this with tax assessments to no avail, it seems once our government folks make up their mind, it's made up and they aren't going to change it.

6. Anything else you would do?

I'm leaning towards option 1. I know its going to waste thousands of dollars (especially if I cannot find the shingle), but the tenants are paying the mortgage, and this is why we have reserves. Selling and buying RE has significant costs too, so options 2 and 3 might not be all that great considering our longer-term goal. What are your thoughts?

Hello BP Community,

I was at the rental a few weeks ago and was catching up with the neighbor. She mentioned that her son and his girlfriend were looking to move out of her home, but wanted to stay close to her. She has mentioned numerous times in years past that her son had moved in to help while she battled cancer, but now she wants them out.

It just so happens today I received notice my current tenant will be moving at the end of next month, so I will be looking for new tenants. Per my past screening criteria the son and girlfriend would fail the required 3 years of rental history, or home ownership, with positive verifiable references (parents do not count as a reference). It seems he and his girlfriend would pass all other requirements based on my knowledge of them. 

The neighbor's son seems like a good person based on the times I've met him. The neighbor's house is tidy and kept up (of course this wouldn't necessarily translate into her son taking care of my property).

My questions/concerns:

1. Have any of you rented to neighbor's children? How did it turn out? I can see this going both ways, he could be there for years and continue helping his mom as she ages. But, if things turn south, I could have a rental with a shared drive next to a formerly evicted neighbor.

2. His mom wants him and his girlfriend out of her house, and has for years. This is a red flag for me, but I can completely understand as the homes in the area are smaller. She has mentioned the son's girlfriend calls into work frequently and clogs the drain with her hair (my lease states clogged drains are tenant's responsibility, so I'm not worried about getting calls on that).

3. You should not go into business or rent to family or friends. Should this extend to neighbor's children? 

Thanks!

@Scott M. I had read in the past that you can only use evictions that have actually went through the process and not just the filing of an eviction for denial. This person has had 5 evictions from various companies filed and all of them were dismissed.

Hello all,

I was wondering how you would handle this pre-screened person that clearly spells TROUBLE for their next landlord and neighbors. Fortunately, they were disqualified from my rental based on a criminal misdemeanor for one crime of a violent nature, along with the property not being available until the beginning of next month. The main reason I want to pose this question is to see how I can button up my rental requirements in the future. 

First red flag: they need to move by tomorrow because their “lease is up and the landlord wants to rent to someone the landlord knows.” I would hypothesize they were asked to move, or given cash for keys. The current landlord would want to get rid of them so would give a glowing recommendation. Its never good news when someone needs to move immediately, so maybe a means to protect against this scenario is to require a minimum of 7 days before the start of the lease when an application is received?

Second red flag: They have had 5 evictions filed against them over the last 10 years, each of which was dismissed. Some of the landlords filed multiple cases against them too. My understanding is you can only use convictions in your criteria, and not the mere filing as a reason to deny. My requirements stipulate no evictions in the past 10 years, and only 1 greater than 10 years ago. Perhaps in the future having a requirement stating all dismissed evictions must be accompanied by a landlord reference? Does anyone else have a similar requirement? I doubt 5 former landlords would give a recommendation of them, or respond.

Third red flag: They have had other non-real estate cases filed against them and eventually dismissed.

Fourth red flag: They have had a number of restraining orders filed against various people throughout the years.

Based on the rest of their unverified answers to the pre-screen form, they would meet the rental requirements but clearly would be a problem based on their long list of court cases. I know many people lie on the pre-screen, so I would hope they did too. My general process is pre-screen with google forms, invite candidates to an open-house showing if they meet all requirements, accept applications and verify any applicants check out (call every reference, verify every detail, and for those with animals, have a certified animal trainer assess the animal). This house is in a C or C+ neighborhood, fully renovated and competitively priced, so I do receive a few of these type of pre-screen responses, but also receive many inquiries from great candidates that don’t spell trouble.

Thanks for any input,

Jake

An update / closure on this post.

I decided to move forward with renting to this applicant as she met all my criteria (3x rent, no evictions, no criminal history, good references, decent credit, etc.). She was great for all of two weeks, and then decided to adopt a five year old high-risk pet dog and didn't notify me of such (she was going to register it as an ESA, then tell me).

Fast forward two weeks after getting the dog, I got a call from the neighbor that the tenant's dog charged her and then proceeded to attack her small dog. The tenant decided to flee when the cops / animal control were called. What then ensued was quiet the show, the tenant and neighbor attempted to make me the liaison between them until one asked for the other's number. They then decided to add me to their group text message and volley attacks at one another off and on until about 7am. I didn't respond to any of these attacks as it was a neighbor / tenant dispute at this time, and a tenant / landlord lease violation.

The tenant and I had a discussion, the dog was not permitted back on the property and her options were (1) get rid of the dog permanently and stay at the property, or (2) mutually terminate the lease and find a place that will welcome her high-risk breed. She chose to terminate the lease because the "neighbor was being mean to her." She officially turned the house back to me on 4/5.

Both dogs ended up being okay. The neighbor's dog had a $700 vet bill, and the tenant's dog was put up for adoption.

Lessons Learned:

1) I should have known about the dog sooner, preferably after it was moved in. I believe I should have texted the neighbor 2 or 3 weeks after the tenant moved in and just asked how things were going. This might have opened dialogue to let me know there was a high-risk dog there that charged the neighbor on multiple occasions. I had been to the property two times (gave 24 hour notice), but the tenant had always removed the dog prior to my arrival and hid all the dog's stuff.

2) Call the authorities to get the "official" story. I talked with the Animal Control Officer and he said neither the tenant or the neighbor's stories matched, so he elected to have each dog quarantined in their owner's home for 10 days. The tenant opted to turn the dog over to the ARL because I told her the pet was not allowed back on the property. The officer also confirmed the dog looked like a pitbull.

3) Know when it might be in your best interest to let a tenant out of the lease early. I think I made the right call by letting her out of the lease two months in without a penalty. Hearing she wanted to keep the dog, the Animal Control Officer wanted to release the dog back to her, and the fact children live next door, I felt it was best if she moved from the property before paying the registration fee to an online ESA outfit and bringing the dog back onto the property. My fear was I would get roped into a lawsuit if she brought the dog back and it attacked one of the neighbor's children, or continued to cause issues with the neighbor. The kicker was she was late on rent for March because she spent a bunch of money adopting the dog.