All Forum Posts by: Jennifer L.

I have two rental properties which are collecting rents via Apartments.com, having migrated from Cozy.  I have a basic business checking account with Chase, but am interested in exploring other options out there.  Having done some basic research, I came away with a couple of possible options: BlueVine was one, Novo was another.  I don't need to make cash deposits. Does anyone here have an account with one of these two banks? If not, is there another business checking you can recommend?  

Things I'm looking for: ability to accept ACH directly and circumvent Apartments.com or other 3rd party website; no fees; interest.

I'm not really sure how I stumbled on this information, but I recently learned that a new law was enacted which requires landlords to notify tenants that a rental is in a flood zone when they have actual knowledge of that fact.  Requirements of the law are set forth in CA Govt Code Section 8589.45. It is required for leases entered into on or after July 1, 2018.  

The language can easily be included in your lease and must be in at least 8 pt font. If you check out the code section, you can track the language from the statute which you need to include in your leases going forward.    

Can this work out in theory?  Yes. 

I sort of accidentally ended up doing this with my rental property after I got married and rented out my home.  I treated it as a college savings plan, so I didn't sweat negative cash flow.  It worked out since it is paid off now while my kids are still in high school, has more than doubled in value (about 135% of what I paid), and is now providing a good revenue stream.  

Why I prefer this to a regular 529 plan is that instead of just putting money into a investment account and then spending it, I will still have a property that will provide income after my kids finish school.

http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/11/25/bidding-for-...

I read this article and thought this was an interesting concept.  You put your property up on the site and potential tenants can bid on a rental price.  Though it appears that landlords are typically getting less than asking rent, I wonder if it is more than what they would have gotten if they just listed it on Zillow.  

I checked to see if there were any listing through Rentberry in my rental's zip code and there was only one. 

Has anybody used this to rent their property?  Thoughts?

I have a single unit in San Jose.  Up until July, 2017, this was not locally taxed.  However, I received a notice that San Jose implemented a tax on all rental units, even for landlords that had 2 or fewer units in the city.  It is just under $200/year.  Just an FYI if you haven't gotten a notice. 

@Ron Fletcher I use Cozy.co for accepting rental applications and screening potential tenants.  I also have used Cozy.co for over 2 years for collecting rent. The payments take 5 business days to deposit into my account.  My actual lease is not maintained on the site, I just save that document elsewhere.

A day or two early, I'd probably let it go.  8 days early, I'm charging them pro-rated rent.

Your lender should be able to give you the information you need to pay the judgment. It is up to the lender whether to approve the loan and it is pretty standard that they will want you to be clear of judgments  by the time escrow closes.  Just went through a refi and discovered there was a judgment against me.  I called the company that won the judgment and negotiated with them.  They knocked off 30% from the judgment and filed the satisfaction of judgment.  The big thing is making sure the record the satisfaction of judgment.

Good luck!

I just have them initiate on the 1st. This July is particularly slow since the 1st fell on a Saturday and the 4th was a holiday. But if timing of the deposit creates potential cash-flow issues, I'd pay the extra $3 to get the payment expedited.  For me, the convenience of using Cozy for my tenants and me far outweighs any inconvenience the delay in depositing causes.  Since my state requires me to give my tenants an option of payment that is neither cash nor electronic funds transfer, I wouldn't want my tenants to shy away from EFT because they could send a check in 5 days later.

@Cody L. I find that my tenants self-select themselves in being internet friendly since I only advertise online and I use Cozy to process my applications.  But I am also in Silicon Valley, so I get that there may be some areas or properties that aren't necessarily going to attract tech-savvy people.