All Forum Posts by: Joanne Tsai

@Greg M.

Yeah I should have insisted to have the house shown before the previous tenants. They moved out on May 30 th. Place was in very good condition, we got two qualified applicants verified the first week, but move in date is 6/18, I just lost $1500 right there. I didn’t think LL could sustain that kind of loss every time there is a turn over. Lesson learned. Thanks everyone.

Hi all, 

I am curious about the common practice here. I have a condo in NYC, where the realtors always show the unit before the tenants move out. in the end of the day, my vacancy has been 0 days in the past 10 years. Similar stories with our MF in Mass, very very few days in between tenants.

Now I have several houses in TX, and my PM keeps telling me it's not recommended to show when the tenants are still in there. It impacts the quality of the applicants bc the condition of the house can be messy, etc. But that translates into, tenants move out, showing, accepting application, and background checks, etc, before we know it, it's a month in between tenants.  

what do you do? I figure given the competitiveness of the rental market now, I don't see why one can't show before the current tenants move out as long as the lease terms allow it. 

Any advice?

Thanks, 

Joanne

we have used Eagle improvement in the past to renovate our 2nd home, Joe was reliable, and we were able to manage the process out of state without too much headache. 

@Mary M. @Nathan Gesner Not sure if writing off will benefit me to be honest. I can't take any loss in passive income as my W2 income is too high according to IRS (which I am sure it's not real inflation adjusted!) till I sell the property, I presume it would be the same case here..... 

@Jerel Ehlert Thanks for your input. I do have a diagnosis from AC company who did the repair and the potential cause of the failure was not changing filters. I didn't put it on the tenants, obviously because I believed they were good tenants who were paying rent on time before they completely disappeared.

my PM is currently putting it on the market and trying to have it lease it again, and afterwards we would be able to assess the damage. 

@Josue Vargas I agreed with you. When we moved back to NJ from CA, we knew we wanted to buy soon, and we wanted to rent before the purchase.  We simply told the LL, we probably would be moving out as soon as we found something so we asked for a shorter-term lease. We ended up paying a higher rent for 6 months, and that worked out great for us. I just don't understand why people couldn't be honest and upfront about this. Most LLs are understanding, and it's the deception that annoys me.

Thanks everyone for your response. I have been a renter myself in many states before, have changed jobs and relocated also. I have also purchased homes and moved out of my rental. I have never failed my obligation either to communicate or to pay till LLs found their next tenants. And there was not one time, the LL was not understanding the situation and wasn't willing to work with me to find a solution..... I would like to have a court judgement against them, because people shouldn't be getting away things simply because they can. How do we even teach our kids these days from right to wrong if there is never consequence to their behavior? I get your point though, ROI isn't worth of my time/effort.....

Hello BPers, 

this property is in TX. Tenants moved out on Nov 30th, and sent an email to PM saying they moved out after purchasing a house. Their lease doesn't end till the end of April 2022, so they lived there 7 out of 12 months. There is no early termination clause in the contract, basically they are obligated to pay for the remainder of the lease. if my PM finds another tenant before April, they would have to pay rent till then and pay the placement fee. But no surprise here, they stopped paying Dec rent. PM went to check the property, and apparently tenants didn't change AC filters, and that led to a significant repair two months back. AC filters were delivered to them monthly, but they never bothered to change it though it was also in the lease.

My Question is what can I do to hold these tenants accountable for the rent and placement fee till the next tenants move in? should I just hire attorney and let them know if they don't pay accordingly to the contract, a legal action will be taken against them? Let's presume the attorney fee is not a concern, is this the best way to go about it? I believe having a contract is to be able to enforce it, or else what's the point of having a lease. it's also the fact, they never communicated they were looking to buy a home and they pretty much used this house as a hotel while they shopped for a house.

any thoughts would be deeply appreciated! 

@Anjali L.

I srsly will find another tenant. Anyone would look “nice” when she needs a roof. We are part time investors, the headache that this may bring is just not worth it. Would you trust your money with someone without credential but seems nice? Then why do so with your property?

@Alan Y. He did sign a lease, didn’t he? It means he agreed to the terms and conditions. If in a month your next tenant also wants out, would you let him out again?

I agree I wouldn’t want some unhappy tenants but signing a lease means something. You should at least make him responsible for the rent till the new tenants move in. I have rented apartment from big corporations before, and that’s exactly what they would do or they would charge you the entire duration of the lease. They don’t let you out just because “oops, I change my mind”.