All Forum Posts by: Jim Bryant

So one of my goofy renters' goofy kids was playing with a lighter and basically burnt up her room and a good portion of the upstairs.  

She has renters insurance and of course I have insurance.  This just happened, I wanted to see if anyone has the same experience and how it panned out.   

I'm probably not going to extend the lease, as she's pretty messy and apparently doesn't watch her children that well!

Well, I hear you guys and it's good info.  However, this tenant has paid for the year and was on time before she coughed up 10 months of rent.  So she isn't someone I would want to get out of the lease.  I just want to nudge her in the directly of not being a drama queen since, I will be leaving the local area and won't personally (and for free) be able to check out whatever she has a bee in her bonnet about at that point.

Just wanted to give some info to my fellow Illinois Valley Landlords.  Good rental data can be hard to come by, so let me give you what I have.  I work mostly in DePue, so I think I have some decent info:

2bd/1 bath, 1 story, 2 car garage, no basement in Oakbrook subdivision- Currently getting 550, will probably bump to 600 next tenant

3bd/1.5 bath, 2 story, street parking, full unfurnished basement downtown- Recently priced to 600, seems to draw lower quality clientele though

3bd/2 bath, 2 story, 1 car garage (larger than the other two), full basement, near the lake-rented for 650 and have been able to maintain a family for the last couple of years in it, feel like I could get more

4bd/2 bath, 2 story, 1 car garage 2.5k square feet, full basement, just rented after only a week of advertising on facebook and craigslist, with a number of well qualified (for this area) applicants, 800 dollar rent, originally I wanted to go for 900, but the wife wasn't optimistic and I chickened.  I'm sure I could have gotten it.

The other piece of info is that at least one landlord here is charging 500 for a 2bd/1 bath apartment, which looked nice, but of course was small.

A house I am currently buying in Ladd, which is 2bd (although being used as 3bd from an extra room in the basement)/ 2 bath near the school is renting for 850, not sure if that is the standard but seems like quite the jump in rents from DePue to Ladd.  

Anyway, I hope that info is useful to you guys.

So, I have this tenant who is sort of a drama queen.  You may remember the story about a tenant who had a brick thrown through her window (thrown by a babysitter in rage over her being a bad mother, apparently), well this is the same one.  She has complained that the AC was, making funny noises (it was fine), that there is an issue with the metal roof (there isn't), that she thinks she has carpenter ants (not likely) and just generally annoyance.

Has anyone had an issue with a tenant who always seem to have, often imaginary, issues?  How did you hand it?

I'll be back on the 19th.  I guess shoot me a message here and let me know where and when you'd like to meet up. 

Hey good to hear from you, Anthony.  As you can see above I work out of DePue.  I am currently out of the country, but would be great to get together.  The wife and I usually work at the Metro early in the morning, so we're in Princeton almost daily.  

Also Jeff if you're still out there, I haven't been paying attention to this enough lately.  We could compare notes as well.  I usually work in Bureau county but it look like we're about to buy our first duplex in Peru.  

There's also a guy from LaSalle I've been talking to, we should try to get together and at least share our list of people not to rent to :D!

Jim

I'm going to take a look at the google forms thing, that sounds like a great idea.

Yeah I know what you mean, Meagan.  The smoking thing is not too much of an issue, in Illinois marijuana is still illegal and this is a working class area, so still plenty of people who smoke.  The fact that I have a minimum income and credit score has deterred my exhibitionist friends every time.

Bianca sounds like someone who is upper middle class, no doubt.  The "winners" I get usually give up right after I tell them the qualifications.

Wow, thanks for all the stories!  It comes down to being able to see picks.  Some potential tenants are not very self-aware or they don't think that having pictures of them straight up smoking weed will be an issue.  

I did have way more responses than actual "serious" inquiries, but I would imagine that is normal with all tenant-finding tools.  I mean, after all you are only going to have one "successful" inquiry.