All Forum Posts by: Jim Peckey

I'll echo the positive feedback of @Christopher Contento @ The Contento Company.  I've had his company do a number of repairs & full renovation projects for a multi-family property we own and have been very pleased working with him and his staff.  I'll definitely be working with The Contento Company moving forward as we purchase more multi-family properties. 

Chris is a very experienced investor and has the hands-on background for all the home improvement & renovation work his company performs.  His advice & suggestions are always on point, you can't go wrong working with Chris.

@Nathan Gesner - many thanks for the response good sir!  Currently, our lease is setup as month-to-month; being relatively new to landlording, I specifically went for the MTM lease to make it easier to part ways with tenant should either side be unhappy.  This approach makes sense as I'm continuing to learn the ropes, but admittedly I'm now sure how a long(er) term lease would benefit/not benefit me.

If I understand your feedback correctly, the tenant is responsible to pay rent through the natural expiration of the lease (whether that's 1-year or month-to-month) or until a new tenant takes over/starts a new lease.

It makes sense the the lease doesn't need to include verbiage re:  tenant breaking the lease and in my case, NY State Law, applies regardless of whether I have it listed in the lease or not.  I know that NY State Law requires the tenant (or landlord) to give a 30 day notice to quit.  I'm inclined to explicitly include this in our lease as a proactive measure and to ensure it's discussed at the time of lease signing with a new tenant, rather than the tenant being caught off guard should the issue arise, stoke anger and ultimately instigate a tenant to damage our property.  As a very proactive person, this seems like a reasonable approach to me.

I'm realizing that we don't have an early termination clause/fee listed in our lease.  In long(er) term leases like yours, it seems like that makes perfect sense and is reasonable - it doesn't seem very helpful in a month-to-month lease, at least in my newbie perception.  Question:  Is it legal to require payment of the early termination fee at the time of notice and ignore the notice if the tenant doesn't pay at the time of notice?  I'd imagine that differs from state to state, I'll need to look that up for NY State for sure.  We do have listed in our lease that the unit can be shown to prospective tenants once notice to terminate the lease is given, with a 24hr notice of course.  

Now you have me revisiting the decision of going with a MTM lease over a 1yr lease.  Is it just as easy to terminate a MTM lease with an undesirable tenant as it is with a 1yr lease?  I certainly wouldn't mind accommodating a tenant if they wanted to terminate the lease early due to some fault of my own, but being the proactive person that I am, I bend over backwards to make sure my end of the lease agreement is followed to the T.

@Filipe Pereira - thank you kindly for the response as well as the 30 day notice verbiage from your lease good sir.  I've confirmed that NY State does require tenants to give a 30 day notice before moving out - this also applies to landlords.

I'm noticing the verbiage in your lease, or at least the section you've shared, doesn't mention any sort of early termination fees.  Do you account for that in a set fee?  Or do you simply pro-rate the rent to account for 30 days from the date of notice, and deduct from the security deposit?  (e.g. tenant pays rent at the 1st of the month, gives notice on the 20th of the month - do you pro-rate their rent to the 20th day of the following month?)

If you don't mind, I'd like to incorporate the verbiage from your lease into our lease.  I realize that I'm covered by NY State law, but for the sake of being explicit, I'd like to ensure it's written into the lease and explained to the tenant during lease signing.  To make sure our lease is air-tight, I'll certainly be engaging an attorney to review accordingly.

@Theresa Harris - thanks for the response! You're absolutely right, NY State does require both tenants and landlords to provide at least a 30 day notice before moving out/terminating the lease.  I'll be looking to add this verbiage to our lease and at some point having an attorney review to ensure our lease is air-tight.

Howdy folks,

We rented out a unit to a tenant this past September and fast forward 2 months later, the tenant has indicated the rent is too high and has decided to move out.  I'm waiting to find out when they will be moving out, but I gather it will be before 1 December and when the next month's rent is due.  This is happening at the end of the month and without giving us as the landlords a proper 30 day notice.

I'm taking a closer look at a copy of the least we had the tenant sign, which we procured from here on BP, and I'm realizing there is no verbiage requiring that tenant's give a 30 day notice prior to moving out of their property.  I'm kicking myself in the butt for not catching & adding this verbiage before I had the tenant sign the lease.  

The tenant has been very nice and respectful, and I don't foresee any damages or uncleanliness to address as they've only been in the apartment for a few weeks.  However, I would like to add the requirement for a 30 day notice to our lease for future use.

That being said, would anyone be so kind as to share the verbiage from their lease covering the '30 day move-out notice' period?  (preferably from a NY State lease)

Thank you very much in advance and Happy Holidays!

@Sean Fillmore - thanks for the response! I don't know why I haven't looked into getting a VA disability rating by now, I can see there's numerous benefits for sure. I got out in '02 and despite not having any major disabilities, I certainly wouldn't turn down any offered benefits over the minor injuries I sustained while on active duty. I've been looking at the VA website this evening and attempted to start an online claim, but it looks like the website is prompting me to call in during normal business hours - perhaps I'll try giving them a call tomorrow. I've always envisioned the process to get a disability rating to be intensive with having to visit numerous doctors to generate a paper trail, submit updated medical records as evidence, and all that jazz. Have you found getting a disability rating to be a hassle in general, or has that been pretty easy to do?

Cheers and have an excellent upcoming weekend!

@Stephanie P. - Thanks again for your insight, I really appreciate it.  I also completely agree that sound financing and positive numbers should precede a plan.  

We're still working on our first "investment" property, and so far we're following pretty closely to your advice. We purchased it on a VA loan with 15% down and have been house hacking, while steadily making improvements to the property. We're finally at the point of having the other unit fully renovated, rented out and we're looking for our next multi-family property – ideally a quadplex. It sounds like we should be considering an FHA or conventional loan for that property, which makes sense. It also makes sense to reserve the VA loan for the bigger house purchase that we plan on making within the next year or two and once we build our portfolio to 10 rental units.

We recently found a quadplex that's zoned commercial. Admittedly, I don't have much experience in the commercial world but I'm going to be shopping for a commercial loan over the next few days. I'm just hoping the process & acquiring a pre-approval letter won't jeopardize or conflict with the refinance we're currently working to finalize, especially considering there's going to be a delay with switching from a VA loan to a conventional loan in the 11th hour.
If you work with borrowers in NY, I’d be glad to explore commercial loan options with you.

Thanks again and have a great upcoming weekend!

Cheers.

@Stephanie P. - thanks so much for the response! You've definitely had me take a step back and question our current trajectory with the refinance and looking at purchasing a new home for ourselves next year, which the VA loan would certainly come in handy for.

When we started the refinance process a few months ago, we were shooting for a 95% LTV ratio, which the VA loan made sense with given the no PMI. I've since scaled back to 80% LTV to ensure there's ample monthly cash flow. If we don't need to worry about PMI now and the rates are comparable, it makes sense to push back the closing date to save on closing costs as well as bank the VA loan opportunity on the next house purchase.

I really appreciate the insight and nudge in the right direction.

Thanks again and have an excellent day!

@Steve Vaughan - thanks for the response! This being our first refi using a VA loan and while I appreciate the low interest rate, I've learned my lesson to go with a conventional loan from now on. Especially considering I'm debt free and with a good credit score. Admittedly, I put a bit too much emphasis on the lowest possible interest rate, which the VA loan seemed to offer at the time.

Cheers and have a great day!

@Michael Brant - that's a good question! While I am former military, I don't receive any sort of VA/disability benefits, which puts me in the non-exempt category. From a quick search online, here's the requirements for exempt status:

• Receiving VA compensation for a service-connected disability, or
• Eligible to receive VA compensation for a service-connected disability, but you're receiving retirement or active-duty pay instead, or
  
• The surviving spouse of a Veteran who died in service or from a service-connected disability, or who was totally disabled, and you're receiving Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC), or
  
• A service member with a proposed or memorandum rating, before the loan closing date, saying you're eligible to get compensation because of a pre-discharge claim, or
  
• A service member on active duty who before or on the loan closing date provides evidence of having received the Purple Heart
  

To your point, it doesn't list a disability percentage in order to qualify, rather receiving VA compensation in any way qualifies you.