All Forum Posts by: Joe Capobianco

yea, that's why I posted in here to ask for advice. I overlooked the pet fee being a fee to allow an animal in my home. Instead I saw it as a fee if the animal damages anything. completely forgot the security deposit should be able to cover me in that case. 

 Thank you for the help

Thank you for the help 

Thank you very much for the help 

Tenants have been in my rental since February with their dog and they pay $50 month extra as a pet fee. In NJ I cannot accept a pet deposit and security deposit so I decided to add the monthly pet fee.  

  The dog died a couple weeks ago and I wasn't sure if I should continue with collecting the $50 until the lease is up because I'm not sure if any damage from the pet these last few months occurred. I didn't specify in the lease about "in case of pets death" and they didn't mention to me about going out to find another pet immediately either. I wasn't sure if I should just stop the pet fee or ask to do an inspection to make sure the pet didn't damage anything. 

  They have been great tenants as far as timely payments and will notified me if there was an issues in or around the home since they've been there. I also pick up the rent in person every month so I don't think hiding a dog would be very easy for them if they do decide to not tell me

 Thank you Patricia, I was hoping someone will jump in here as the hero and tell me I can go after the township in some way but looks like this is apart of the learning process and now I know what to look out for in the future. 

I purchased my house in 2017 and received the CO without any issues. Im trying to rent it out this month and got the rental CO inspection done today with permit issues. The electrical panel doesnt have a permit so i called the township since it wouldnt have passed inspection 3 years ago without this permit. 

  They are telling me there is nothing on file with an electrical permit. Im not sure what to do at this point since the township is now telling me its on me. I even bought this house from a previous landlord so im even more confused how there was tenants in it 3 years ago and now im getting shafted when I trying to do the same. 

Since the interest rates dropped I decided to refinance my rental property into a 15 year mortgage which raised my mortgage $200. The mortgage now is $1200 and im receiving $1750 per month in rent. I just received the appraisal that needed to be done prior to closing of the refinance and realized it was appraised about $60k more than I was expecting. right now i'm kicking myself for not keeping the cheap 30 year mortgage and doing a cash out refinance and buying another property. I believe I can call my lender in 6 months and do a cash out refinance but that will most likely take away the cashflow im receiving from this property. 

  im writing this post see if sacrificing cashflow for another property would be worth it or if refiancing to 15 year was my best option?

@Nathan Gesner @Steve Vaughan @Max T. @Sam Shueh thank you guys very much for the help.

    The open house went very well. by the time Friday came I had 50 messages but only 7 people came to the open house and 5 applied. I think it was worth it and it was completely out of comfort zone. 

again I wanna thank you guys for taking the time to respond to this thread. I appreciate the help

I posted my home for rent yesterday and received 22 messages about a tour of the home and 1 person filled out an application and paid for background and credit check already. I messaged them all back last night stating I will be holding an open house style showing on sunday between x-x times. I felt that was the best way to manage my time efficiently with all the interested renters. 

I'm writing this post to see if that was the best decision in order to pick out the best applicant or should i just show the first few people that contacted me that are interested in order to get this rented out as quick as possible. I did post the home isn't available until 11/1 due to closing on another property im moving into. 

The first few people do seem like qualified tenants but after reading so many nightmare tenant stories im sceptical to rush into the first application that's sent to me. this is my first rental and want to make the best decision and also want to make sure i'm doing this all legal as well.