All Forum Posts by: Joe Carlile

My tenant caused a fire in a four unit apartment. The fire has made his unit uninhabitable, and will take me a month or so to fix.

He was only on a month to month lease and is not trying to move back in when it is fixed. He already paid for the month of March and is now asking for his money back. Am I in any legal obligation to give him back his money? Or do I need to find somewhere for him to live?

Also, if he decides after I get it fixed that he is going to move back in do I need to evict him?

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks this is great advice. Wondering if this makes him my employee though? That could likely add some new concerns

I recently purchased a quad in which the one of the tenant has the nicest apartment, has been there for 9 years and takes care of the lawn and snow removal. I don’t have anything documenting this except him and the landlord told me he takes care of it. He does not speak English well but we are able to communicate. Should I allow this to continue or just get a company to do it? I would like to continue allowing him to take care of these things but also want to be protected in case he gets hurt, or someone gets hurt on the property.

I currently have a Quadraplex under contract that has existing tenants in all four apartments. The neighborhood is somewhere between a C and a D so I am not confident I am acquiring the best tenants. The only landlord did collect security deposits but only has a verbal lease with these tenants. What I'm wondering is what would you have the tenants sign before buying the property? I found a good estoppel on biggerpockets but it doesn't list important things that would be found in a lease. 

Also, right now one of the tenants is paying significantly below market rents but is taking care of the lawn care and snow removal. I would like to keep this agreement with him, but am curious if anyone has any input on this? Any information you can give me is appreciated, I am not closing for 3 weeks so I still have a little time to get these things taken care of.

@Kate Hall can you please add me to your list? [email protected]

I am new to real estate investing and was wondering what data landlords use to know which neighborhoods to avoid? Specifically, will I be able to find renters in some neighborhoods and in others will I be able to find renters with decent credit that I can trust to pay the rent? Hopefully I am asking the right questions, I have been focusing most of my research on finding properties and haven’t been focused on the landlord side of things.