All Forum Posts by: Joe Semifero

@John P. - Other key thing (and much cheaper) is to make sure the ground around the house is graded away from the foundation. I had a fairly severe leak in my kitchen in a bi-level in Dearborn Heights, and I put a yard of topsoil starting 6 inches deep at the side of the house and dropping 1 inch per foot away from the house. That alone fixed 99% of the issue. Make sure your downspouts are directing water away from the house at least 6-8 feet. If you combine this with digging down and sealing the outside of the wall as @Account Closed suggested, I would guess that would resolve the issue and prevent additional leaks from starting. 

@Michael Wind @Kevin Shuler  I had a bad experience with a vacation rental I did myself through a Craigslist listing and payment through PayPal. After the stay, the tenant just called his credit card company and said his card was lost. I literally had no recourse, PayPal charged me back, and I was out the fees. I'll always go through someone like AirBnB going forward, as they can deal with those types of issues. The few dollars they charge are worth the peace of mind, in my opinion, but I only rent out a couple of weeks a year, not a full time effort. 

If I am missing something and there is another way to get this same type of protection, I'd be very open to hearing more about it. 

Thanks!

Thanks, @Jay Hinrichs! Great explanation and makes perfect sense. 

@Jay Hinrichs - I don't understand what you are saying here. Are you saying that there is no use doing anything except agreeing to the subrogation? What would "legal" do in this situation? It sounds like you have been through something similar or understand this better, so could you explain what it is that would happen if the OP didn't comply with the request? 

(I have no financial interest, just trying to learn something.) 

I have heard good things about Castle Management. You can find them online.

I have been using State Farm and had good luck - Jake Hunt in Belleville. 

I also use eRentPayment and have for the last 1-2 years. Customer service is really good and responsive to tenants that need help, and their bounced payment fee is only $2 - nice to see a company not overcharge for something like this, as banks have forever. 

I have not seen the tenant name appear on the payment, though. In fact, I have had some situations where two payments were made on the same day and the deposit lumps them together into one payment, without either name mentioned. I can figure it out from the payments in erentPayment itself, but I would imagine if I had dozens of units on a single account then it would be impossible to determine by just looking at the bank statement. 

The set up for eRentPayment can take a few minutes and offers MANY options such as not allowing partial payments, requiring previous month rent be paid before accepting rent for current or later months, allowing additional payments for items such as utilities or deposits, etc. 

Did you do anything special to get the names to appear? I don't remember anything in the set up. 

 What rates have you gotten from  assetavenue and Lima One? 

@Sarah Lorenz - Where did you see homes up north for sale on land contract?

Joe