All Forum Posts by: Jennifer Rysdam

I repaint my own units in my 8-plex (720 square feet) and it takes me about 6-8 hours to do the whole thing. Make sure to put your roller on a pole and use a paint pad with wheels to do at the ceilings, around windows, trim, and cabinets. It's the best painting invention I have found. I don't dip it in the paint pan, I put paint on it with a brush. It keeps the wheels clean. It makes the job SO much faster! I have a big drop cloth that I move around the rooms with me to keep the floors clean. My favorite color to use is Agreeable Gray from Benjamin Moore. Tenants love it!

No, surprisingly it wasn't. That picture was taken just about an hour after he left and it was still plugged in and running. I can't imagine putting my food in that.

 I bought the property just over 2 years ago. It's a very small town. It was a partial section 8 property and the program had ended. The rent was $444 at the time and whoever was willing/able to pay the rent could stay. A year later I raised the rent to $500 and he has always paid on time. The $300 deposit was there from when he moved in. His lease was ended because of doing drugs and being loud and disruptive to the other tenants. He's also a drunk who is very verbally abusive to other tenants and myself. Lots of lease violations, as he did as he pleased. I should have removed him long ago but he is friends with the handicapped tenant next door and helps him out. Once we got to the drugs part I had to end his lease. He refused to lease so I had to evict him. Even then he moved out when he wanted to.

I won't tell them how to live, and I don't expect their place to be spotless, but our lease states that they have to keep their apartment clean.

1. "HOUSEKEEPING. On an ongoing basis, Tenant agrees to keep the home in a clean, neat, and sanitary condition."

Did you see the pic of the fridge that I posted above? Things like that are something that I'm going to start pointing out. He ruined that fridge. I had to replace it. Broken drawers and door shelves. I'd rather see many other items broken than a fridge like that. His $300 deposit didn't quite cover his damages or his unpaid rent.

I get what you're saying. I don't expect them to be perfect. But his was just gross. Here is the fridge for example.
 

I did do a mini rehab, but it would've been nice to not have to spend so much time cleaning the filth as well. The fridge wasn't that old but had to be replaced because it was so gross and broken inside. The floors had to be scrubbed before putting new vinyl plank on top of them. Under the fridge and stove were just disgusting. The tile surround and tub were nasty and the carpets all stained. I'm just curious if these are things that get brought up during inspections. Not only is it more work for me when they move out, it causes bugs and mold as well. I have run into such filth in apartments where people have only been there a couple of years too.

I just evicted a tenant who had lived in one of my apartments for 8 years. He obviously hadn't cleaned in all those years. I'm wondering, when you do inspections what do you point out for tenants to clean/fix? Do you have them clean, wipe food off of walls, pull out appliances and clean under, scrub shower, clean carpets, etc.? I'm realizing that maybe if I had pointed these things out in the last 2 years that I have owned this building that I might not have had to do so much of it myself when he moved out.

 Thanks Michael! I'm really struggling to find a decent park. I will have to keep looking :)

I have an application on my website that they can either print or fill out online and email to me. After I've reviewed their information and verified it all I go into SmartMove an have them send the email to the applicant so that they can go to the website and pay for the credit/background check to be sent to me. They can't apply through SmartMove, it's just for the credit/background check. They are run by TransUnion. With Cozy.co you can do the whole process on their website I believe. I just prefer to do it this way.

Tenants call first and then the utility will call me to verify since I'm the owner and they can't do it without my permission.