All Forum Posts by: James DeRoest

The owner of the properties runs and owns them through his own company that might be called Joe blogs Property Management.

You certainly don't transfer deeds or record anything publicly about your management agreements.

Rabbits are the ones you need to stay away from.

We have a strict no rabbits rule in the lease.

If you want to win the lottery, you need to buy a ticket.

We've done a lot of great deals, we buy distressed, rehab ourselves, and rent out. I'm sure there's an acronym somewhere but it really doesn't matter.

But, we've also done some deals that probably aren't as great as they could have been, we could have waited and got better deals, but we have one small problem - we don't have a crystal ball.

So we play the game the best we can today, rather than worry about the deal that may or may not happen tomorrow.

However, of the bad deals, although they may not be as good as we want it opens doors (both physically and metaphorically).

For instance, we got to a size of SFRs (with the bad deals - grass still needs cutting) where my wife employed a gardener for two months whilst I was away. We got on really well with him. Out of the blue a few months later, he's working on a house, thinks the owner landlord wants to sell. House too trashed, owner too old.

So we saw the house, bought it for $25k, put $6k in it, and our realtor handily sold the house across the road for $98,000, which made the instant valuation of this house up around $80k, and rents for $700pm. It'll be going to $800 early next year we think.

Had we not played the game, we wouldn't have got this house. So although I admire your tenacity to look for a good deal, don't overlook the joining the game. 

If you want to win the lottery, you need to buy a ticket.

 Excellent. Change the locks immediately. Like this morning.

Totally trust your gut. If you don't get on with someone, why would you want to rent to them? You have a fairly substantial contract with this person and if you're thinking the first time you met them "don't really like them", then what's the point?

Tell them to get lost and don't worry about it.

As for the application - you did the right thing. Worded it perfectly. Threw it back on them with their words, "you don't like my apartment, don't waste my time."

You can probably understand at this point why I don't show our properties, and why I leave the wife and the cute dog doing the showing. Cute dog - if they like our cute dog they are good people, if they are indifferent to 100% max cuteness, they ain't renting from us. (Seriously, it's one of the things we do to gauge people, you can tell a lot by how they interact with a cute dog).

You could check on a UK credit record, but I really see no point.

As for criminal records, as part of the visa requirements he would have got an ACPO certificate (think that's the right four letters) which is a certificate from Hampshire Constabularly iirc who do a background check within the UK. That's then submitted to US immigration, and it should have the words "NO TRACE" across the top. If it doesn't, then he won't be in the US, and more so, he'll be banned from the US for 10 years.

Hold up there, as someone else said about the legal bit....

If a tenant ever threatens anything legal, your relationship with them is over. It's dead and buried. It has a gravestone "here lies my relationship with this tenant". 

Suck up the last 4 months of the lease, issue whatever notice is required by state for the non renewal of the lease, and let them be on their way. You do not want them to stay one second longer than needs be.

Don't even think about jacking up the rent as you do not want this tenant. If they pay more, they will expect more.

Don't get discouraged though, we've all had a bad tenant or three. 

Bike in back yard? That's nothing, we rented a house to a family, within a week there were pickups lined up across the front yard. All parked neatly. All 7 of them.

Exactly that.

We have one at the moment, four months in, become a bit of a pest. Gonna give it a couple of month before I pull them aside and tell them that we may not renew in April.

If you have fleas in the house and it's empty it's because you have pests, eg mice and rats.

Bombing the house will do nothing. Either go to your local pest place and buy some stuff for mice and rats, or get someone in. Look at your neighbors properties as they will be the cause of the rats/mice (unless you have trash on your property) - and then report them to your local environment department.

Bombs will do nothing and you will get calls from the tenant in the future. Don't cheap out if you want a quiet life.