All Forum Posts by: J Richardson

Thanks Chris
I'll send you an email

Bienes,
I've heard the samething from other people but normally when I'm showing the property it is when they fill out application and I would rather get the money then, so people normally have a personal check or cash, which so far for only 37 dollars a personal check has only bounced twice.

I did see that bigger pockets has partnered with mysmartmove, which from watching the video there's a lot of things I like better. For one thing I can get the applicant to pay completely online, which I know e-renter.com doesn't offer that service as I've called them about it before. It seems that you can actually get a credit score number instead of a pass or fail, which is what e-renter offered me. It's cheaper than e-renter, so I think I might set up an account with them as many of the things I'm interested in, it appears they have it.

A question is does biggerpockets get some type of refferal bonus or something if I go to https://biggerpockets.mysmartmove.com/ versus mysmartmove.com ? Since I enjoy the site and forum I'd prefer to give a referral bonus if it helps in anyway.

Thanks for the reply Chris,
I've been telling the people verbally the process, but normally I don't say much until I received the document filled out. I have a feeling that the more I say before they fill out the application the less likely they will be honest with the application.

I'm trying to figure out how putting it in writing is going to benefit me? I've had some tenants that were borderline and they agreed to give me first month, last month and security deposit since they really didn't qualify and sometimes these are my best tenants.

I do go through the application myself before cashing any check for the screening process. If I get a few applicants and I see a person has moved around twice in the last 3 years and another person is pretty equal except they don't seem to move around as much I tend to prefer a person who will stay more than just one year. Yet I really don't want to put all of this in writing as I can only see this hurting me and not helping me. I've called past landlords who have said bad things about the tenant to me on the phone, but I'm sure they would never put anything in writing. So I'm not seeing the benefit of putting in writing the reason I would reject a tenant. After I go through the process I explain each time why I rejected them, but it reality it's only happened twice. I use the online service as my last resort before excepting the applicant.

I guess I could see the need for this if I owned an apartment complex with hundreds of rentals. I only have two rentals and one of them the family has stayed or signed for almost 5 years.

I'm also asking for future, what's done is done. I just see my background screening process as being flawed right now. When a person bounces a check for 37 dollars, something is wrong.

I'm on my second rental property, but I've always struggle with the background check. It seems that most of the bad applicants won't even fill out the one page background application and return it if they have a bad background, so far I've gotten lucky, but that is it I just feel lucky.

I've been using www.e-renter.com/ for awhile now and it costs 37 dollars in which the applicant is the one that pays. It won't give me a credit score or report, but comes back if it meets the minimum requirement. Since there's so many foreclosures I've been keeping my minimum score really low at around 500.

The service recently gave me an option to put in the applicant's bank account information, which I took from the check they wrote. Well for an example I put in 1500 dollars and the service came back and said the person can afford the rental. I know the person makes twice as much as my requirement, so I believe the system.

Then I found out that the 37 dollar check bounced. Ok, the person doesn't even have enough for the 37 dollar check, so that service from www.e-renter.com was pretty much useless.

I'm wondering if there's better sites out there or if they all pretty much do the samething? My second question is do people ask for the last month's bank statement? I found out through my bank that this applicant consistently bounced checks for insufficient funds, so I'm thinking if I required the last month's bank statement that would tell me a lot of things. I could verify that the amount of money the person claims to make can also be verified, it will tell me if the person has only 10 bucks left in the account as well. I'm just wondering would most applicants be alright with me asking for their last month's bank statement?

I'm just really trying to figure out how I can avoid this issue again. I would imagine me requiring a better credit score would avoid getting a person who is consistently bouncing checks, but the best tenant I've ever had was foreclosed on for losing his job a few years back, so I really don't think the credit score is a great way to determine if a person goes a good job with their finances. How much they make is only one determination, because this person makes 2 or 3 times the required salary (I use 3 times the rental).

I'm actually getting this all the time now, since times have changed. Everybody wants to make sure that I own the property and that I'm not going to be foreclosed on, so that I'm not collecting rent and the tenant will be kicked out in a few months.

The new tenant I have kept telling me he wants proof, which he mentioned a statement that shows I've paid up, but I prefer not to show them how much I pay for the property every month. So I'm not sure if contacting the bank or asking for a letter is something that I should do?

At first I thought it was just one individual, but now I've ran into 3 different people who want to make sure I'm not going to foreclose on the property. I'm in the state of Florida that I personally know people who are going through the foreclosure process on their house, so they rented it out for months without paying the mortgage. So I completely understand tenants concerns.

@ Jon Holdman
I actually think it's a great idea. I rarely have no shows, very very rare, but I call before I drive out anywhere. Normally I get to the house a few minutes before, open all the blinds so that more light comes through and it has a larger appearance, but I really think you have a point. Maybe next time I can schedule them, not at the sametime, but 15 minutes from each other.

Funny about what happened with your faucet, but I had the exact same with a faucet and this was with a contract that landlord covers 100% and no 10 dollars per incident.
The tenants finally told me that there was the facet was leaking and by then the bottom of the cabinet rotted out completely.
So I don't see either contract helping me in that situation, because it probably took me a few hours to rebuild a new bottom cabinet and rip out all the rotten out stuff. I do about 90% of my own work at the place, but I have a plumber that is too inexpensive that it makes no sense for me to do certain plumbing myself.

I do see value in what your saying, because one tenant I had told me he hear noise in my walls, which I had a busted pipe a few years ago. Maybe if there was a deductible that they would be less likely to call and the damage could have been horrible. My plumber came in, cut the wall, replaced the pipe, patched it up and painted for 40 bucks. But I can see what you mean about what if the tenant would never had called, but I guess it's one bad tenant that would call about 3-4 times a month with things that were just silly and normal. Maybe 1 out of 4 was something needed repaired. That's all I want to avoid the things I feel are not an issue.
I'm talking about things I would not even fix at my own house, so I find it insane to do it for my tenants when they aren't issues, but a persons preference.

@ Financexaminer
How would I know the law in Florida? A few property managers have been doing it as far as I'm aware.
It's not about them paying for repairs, it's about paying for convenience or the argument that they believe something needs updated/fixed, when I disagree and I know spending the money is an absolute waste of money. I know when the next tenant comes in, they will careless about the change.

I have recently had two people ask me who is responsible for repairs before I ever showed them the contract and I told them I would take care of anything the first 30 days, because I feel it's unfair for them to pay for any repair that was mostly likely there already before they moved in and that I charge 10-25 bucks after the first month for any repair. I explain to them that I just want to avoid people calling me for silly things that they should be able to do themselves or that aren't even issues.

J S. -> lockbox sounds interesting, but a little bit nervous about strangers coming in my property without me ever seeing them or knowing who they are. I've noticed I've gotten all kinds of people and would hate for the wrong one to show up.
I can see it benefiting time though

Jon H.
I was a little confused with your post. Do you actually show possible tenants at the sametime? So if a few call, then you tell them all to show up at the sametime?

I also use erentpayment.com and as other have stated it's 3 dollars a transaction. I've been using it for about 2 years now and have zero complaints.
I make the tenants sign the automatic drafts and it helps also, so that people who try to use last months rent can't.

I had one tenant contact the company and try to get them to stop the last month's rent, so that I would use the security deposit instead and they told the tenants that only the property manager can make these changes, so it protected me from the tenant screwing up the place and leaving me without last months check.

You can also push money back to them, so I inspect a property and I don't come with a check and when a tenant leaves I go online and push money back to them.

I tried searching around, so i know this has been posted before, but what total income do you guys look at to determine if somebody can afford something?

I've been taking the rent for a year and multiplying it by 3 and require them to make that at the minimum. So if rent is 1,000 dollars a month, then the tenants need to make at least 36,000 dollars.

I've taken as low as 2.5 times their income if they can come up with last months' rent as well. Normally I collect first months and security, but if they don't make 3 times and are 2.5 then I've been collecting first, security and last.

I'm not sure if there's a rule of thumb, are kids considered or other expenses?

Trying to figure a quick way to determine if somebody can afford it and not sure I'm doing it right.

Thanks in advance

@ smitnlit
Thanks for the info,
The worst part for me of being a landlord has been showing the property. I just haven't been lucky enough yet to have anybody stay longer than a year, but it's not because of property, normally they are moving out of the city. But I'm amazed at how many people know the address and I drive 30 minutes, wait for them another 15 minutes, talk to them for 15 minutes showing them the property while they explain to me that it's farther than they thought, even though I explain really well where it's located. It's in an area most people in my city know, then I drive home wasting almost 2 hours out of my day. It wouldn't bother me if the person wasn't interested, but when they think it's too far I felt they should have map quested it before.