All Forum Posts by: John Park

Originally posted by @Adama Sombie:

Clearly there is not much you can do for now..., but I have some questions for you: 

 Is she a good tenant? Was there others tenants before her?

Did she have trouble making payment on time? Is she currently employ? 

If you can answer these questions  and know the history of the property you might know what to do. 

Please keep us posted on what you decide to do.

She has been a good tenant, paying on time or even early. As I have mentioned, there are now only 3 months left in the lease and as long as I get the last 3 months, I'm good.

Originally posted by @Kevin Yang:

Has anyone besides her seen the ghost? Maybe turn the place into a tourist attraction and profit off of it.

One of my employees husband owns a 'real ghost house' that he charges ghosthunters to spend the night or nights there. Apparently he's booked most weekends with people and their ghost cameras and ghost-o-graphs. And no, I don't want anything like that at this house, haha.

Originally posted by @Ericka Parrott:

Just tell your tenant the truth, which is that you have never dealt with a situation like this before.  ( Nor, has any other landlord that you personally know) Then, tell her that she and her daughter should research online.  

And leave it at that. Don't say research how to get rid of the ghost or how to speak with spirits.  People see what they want to see and believe what they want to believe.  What a strange thing for anyone to say, I wonder what she wants you to do about the situation?  Of course as others have mentioned, I'm thinking she just wants to break the lease. 

Well...she has not indicated that she wishes to break the lease (yet), just that she will not be renewing the lease at the end of term primarily because she is getting married. Which is fine, 3 months left and leaving the potential to ask for a bit higher rent with the next tenant as market rents have been creeping up. Not much make-ready to be done (hopefully) as the house was extensively remodeled prior to her tenancy.

After further inquiry she has indicated that she is getting married and will not renew the lease at the end of term, which is in 3 months. I said that a 30 day notice will suffice, ghosts not withstanding. I do not plan on taking any action unless she explicitly asks, which she has not as of yet. She just kind of mentioned it out of the blue without any call to action, which triggered my initial post. BTW the house is an early 80s build 3/2/2 in a pretty dense neighborhood, not a lonely rickety 120 year old house in the deep woods, just in case anyone was wondering. Insofar as if that is a motive? I don't know. Just as long as the rent is paid for the final 3 months, I'm copasetic.

Yeah...I told her that I have no good answer for the ghost and left it at that.

So...one of my tenants is claiming that she and her daughter are seeing a spirit in the house. Did not know how to respond to this. If it was a maintenance item I would send my guy to take a look right away, but what the heck I am I supposed to tell someone who's seeing things? BTW I don't believe in ghosts (although those who do believe in ghosts are free to do so and disagree accordingly), but I don't want to be politically ghost believer insensitive and tell her she's crazy. Any advice would be helpful, Ghostbusters, new or old, need not apply.

When renewing a lease, do you have the tenant sign a brand new lease agreement or do you add an amendment to the existing one?

I have been exploring the possibility of Airbnb and short term rentals, but lately there has been a lot of discouraging news about cities really cracking down on Airbnb's short term rental model. San Francisco and Paris most recently, I think. It seems as if the powers that be, not only here in the US but worldwide really have a disdain for Airbnb. Might it not really be worth it to even hunt for a property for Airbnb seeing as the model may become a dinosaur in the not so distant future? Or am I misinterpreting the latest news about the business?

Of course I would like to buy a whole duplex, but the more common listing I have been finding is 1/2 of a duplex. I want to buy and hold, and I was wondering if there was anyone that could share their experiences either way. What happens when the roof needs to be done or other items that are common to both sides of the building? I guess the nightmare scenario would be an uncooperative owner on the other side, but are there any laws regarding the necessity of both owners sharing the expenses?

I inherited a tenant and did perform an inspection with her to have a baseline moving forward. There were a few existing holes in the walls and doors that I took note of and told her that anything above and beyond what we note on the inspection will be her responsibility and that I would not be fixing the existing cosmetic issues anytime soon.