All Forum Posts by: Joni Chin

@Nathan G.

Yup exactly! —this was a co-worker and friend of my husband, who was a little quirky, but seemed nice enough. About 10 years ago he asked us if he could store his furniture for a few days as he was having trouble with his roommates, and was looking for another place to rent. One day my husband goes to our storage space under the house and finds friend sleeping in there! That should have been the first red flag lol. But we made the mistake of offering him the space, which he eventually made into a nice little “room” and started paying us rent and fixing things around the property. But that eventually escalated into “unauthorized” modifications to our property and that resulted in crazy and passive-aggressive behavior when we started to object. 5 years later the drama started—confrontations, restraining order, police visits, but eventually we got him evicted. He even tried to counter sue us for 10k saying that we owed him for all his “work” on our property. After a few years we realized he had some mental illness so we tried to give him a break but that was totally the wrong thing to do. It only extended our misery. The one good thing we got out of it is that we have a cozy little “man cave” “she shed” (?) now.

Now all we need to do is dig another 2-3 feet down, and add some drywall, new floors and put some plumbing in and turn it into another rental unit. :)

@Nathan G.

We once had to evict a former friend we were helping out (never again—he stayed for 6 + years) that we eventually had to evict. After eviction he was given 45 days by the court ordered “mediater”. Eviction itself took 3 months to get through but that was part of a 1+ year “ordeal” after we gave him more than 6 months (!) notice to find another place.) This was obviously before we knew any better about letting friends “rent”! Anyway, after he moved out he still had some larger items stored under our house, including a kayak, but most of it was just low value personal belongings. We told him we would hold his stuff for another 30 days but after that we would have bulk trash pick it up. 1 month later he hauls his kayak away but the rest he leaves behind. I text him numerous times to pick up his remaining stuff but he doesn’t pick it up and I miss the bulk pick up that month. We told him we have it in our yard and it will be gone if he doesn’t pick it up in 48 hrs. Of course he doesn’t show up again. 1 month later we put it on the curb for bulk pick up and we take video to prove it was taken. About 2 weeks later I see him sitting outside our house and he tells us he is waiting for the police to come because we stole his stuff! Sure enough, police came and knock on our door. My husband shows the police the video and explained everything that happened. The look on the police’s face—he was pissed! I think probably he got charged with making a false report lol. We never saw him again.

@Jacob Sloop

You did great! How much was the rehab? What neighborhood is the house located?

I used to live in Virginia Beach and my family had two homes in Princess Anne (?) neighborhood. Sadly my parents sold both back in 1999-2000, before I knew enough to give them advice :)

@Matt B.

I guess you could but I need an address for LLC's in another state so that's why I have more than one. I also have a mailbox in my state that I use as my business address.

@Matt B.

I use ipostal1. I think prices vary depending on location but I pay about $10 mo. And it's slightly less if I pay for the year upfront. 1 per LLC.

https://ipostal1.com/

@Sheldon Tausch

We live in Honolulu and invest out of state but not in San Antonio.

Not yet anyway :)

We self manage in Hawaii, Oregon and AZ, but use PM for our property in Indianapolis.

We also have some (“passive” ) investments in TX and AZ.

Good to see all the other Hawaii folks here that invest elsewhere!

@Jay Ingersoll

What do you like about turbo tenant than cozy.co? I also had cozy but got transitioned to apartments.com and I am not happy. So far I haven’t found one that I like and I really don’t want to pay additional fees.

@Brandon Allenczy

I use usually use rent prep which I think charges $32.50(?) for the evictions/criminal/credit.

If I use rent prep, the application itself is free so I encourage everyone who will be viewing the rental (that is prescreened using certain criteria) to fill it out. Then I show the property. I explain that I will accept applications and we will check work/rental references and then we select the most qualified to move forward with the tenant screening process at which time I will charge the cost of screening to those applicant(s). Usually it’s one at a time, but if some are equally/fairly close to the best qualified, then I will let all parties know and run more than one party through the background screening. When that happens I will waive/refund the fees for whichever applicant didn’t get selected. I hate charging a lot for fees and rent prep seems pretty thorough so that’s why I like to use them.

When I advertise on Zillow, I will accept Zillow applications, but I prefer Rent prep .

I also deal with mostly students at one of our rentals so with students many do not have credit history so I will forgo the credit screening for them and will ask their parents to co-sign instead.

@Joe S.

I provide a new shower curtain liner in the rental that I self manage by my house. (All my other rentals are OOS) The reason I do this is because it’s a shower unit with a low lip so the curtain has to be fitted into a curved guide and “clipped” on the side so the water doesn’t get out and damage the walls and trim. This way I can show the new tenants how to put their shower curtain in properly and to explain how to keep the water from coming out of the shower stall, although some will just use the liner. It just cuts down on the water damage and mold that can result if tenants aren’t aware of the water spraying out.

I also provide a new filter for the hood range and ask them to replace it every six months or as needed.

@Marco Trimborn

Oops I hit post before finishing but I meant to add one of those disregarded LLC's is a Indiana LLC, if I recall it's just $50 every two years to renew it.