All Forum Posts by: Jake Thompson

Congrats and welcome to the community!

I agree with Tobey, talk to the tenant and try to get her to leave on her own. Let her know you will be starting the eviction process if she doesn't leave willfully and make sure to explain the consequences of having an eviction filed (very difficult to find someone willing to rent to you). Hopefully she will take the smarter route and you can avoid the headache of an eviction.

I went through a similar problem and realized you really can't give any leniency.

Also no matter what, you need to remain unnattched and professional. If you take it personally or get emotional the process will be much more stressful for you (speaking from my own experience here).

Originally posted by @Dan H.:

Originally posted by @Jake Thompson:

Awesome! Systems are absolutely crucial for effective property management. At the property management company I work for in San Diego we encourage all applicants to fill out the applications online (which is free) and only show the property to qualified applicants. There are exceptions to this, like when we have a rental without a lot of interest for example, but for the most part we don't need to show the unit until we know the applicant is fully qualified.

I am a bit surprised this works.  We PM in mostly C class area (some B class area)  B  class units in San Diego county.  The buzz of having lots of people looking at the unit creates a sense of urgency.  We get a lot of people stating they will submit an application but in practice maybe 10% of those that do not apply on the spot but indicate they are going to apply actually turn in an application. 

If we only showed it to submitted applications we would not have the buzz.  We would be typically be showing it to very small groups (probably one perspective tenant at a time).  Of course if we wanted to charge below market rent we could get more applicants.  

We do charge an application fee that only gets charged if we start processing their application (if they are second to have complete application but first applicant meets our criteria we refund their (the second applicant) application fee).   Maybe we would get more applications if we did not charge the fees but I suspect we would get a lot more unqualified applicants that would require our time to determine that they are not qualified. 

Our process has worked for us in that our units are typically rented at market rent after a single open house.  

 I think it's due to the high demand of housing here that really helps. Most properties have a lot of applicants so it's a big time saver to make sure that the person is qualified. And like I said, it's not an absolute requirement but we do encourage them to apply first as housing does go quick. We process in chronological order to avoid discrimination, so the first qualified application we receive gets it.

Our company also has a unique pricing structure as well which allows us to not charge an application fee. Plus we only do the credit check once we verify the rest of the application looks good so that we aren't unnecessarily running every applicant's credit. 

Wow! Is that the same house? Looks great! Congrats!

In my market we use RUBS (Ratio Utility Billing System). It splits the water usage based on square footage and occupancy. I like this because it is helps tenants to be more water concious and reduces my expenses. The drawback is that it's harder to implement and can be tough to enforce (you may not have any recourse if they don't pay the water bill). You also need to consider if it's legal in your area and what other landlords are doing. If you're the only place charging for water you might have a hard time. Are these attached or detached units? On single family (or detached multi family) the tenants often expect to pay for their own utilities. If it's an attached multi family it may be partial tenant partial owner.

Since they are going to be a w-2 employee I would suggest paying for a business phone. If they were a licensed agent working for commissions then I would consider having them use their own phone as they are technically self employed.

Awesome! Systems are absolutely crucial for effective property management. At the property management company I work for in San Diego we encourage all applicants to fill out the applications online (which is free) and only show the property to qualified applicants. There are exceptions to this, like when we have a rental without a lot of interest for example, but for the most part we don't need to show the unit until we know the applicant is fully qualified.

My suggestion would be to find a new tenant, but if you aren't ready you could do like Jim stated and continue on a month to month until you are ready. The only issue I see with that is the potential of losing out on a month of rent when it does come time to let him go. If he gets the notice and hasn't paid his rent (which it sounds like he wouldn't until closer to the end of that month) then he may decide not to pay at all.

However she still needs to be charged for the days she lived there!

After re reading your post it sounds like the tenant had paid through to the end of August and gave 2 weeks notice on August 14th instead of 30 days correct? And planned to move out August 31st? If that's the case and the tenant has already moved out I wouldn't worry too much about it. Yes typically 30 days notice is required but it's more important to worry about getting the unit rented again in my opinion.