All Forum Posts by: Joni Chin

@Karina Santos

Check with the water/sewer company they should be able to check the previous billing history of previous occupants.

It could be a more than one running toilet..I had a running toilet at my house for few months, it tripled our water usage and our bill went from around $250 up to over $400.

But $843??? That’s got to be more than just toilets, unless your area just has high water rates in general. We had a vacant duplex (under rehab) our first bill was over $700 on one side only. But I contacted the water company and they checked the previous billing history and there was some kind of issue on one side. We were replacing much of the plumbing anyway and now (so far) our bills have been minimal so what ever the problem was appear to be fixed. I then requested a credit through the utility and it’s currently under review, and I’m hoping to get an adjustment/credit.

It never hurts to ask for adjustment once you discover what the issue is and get it fixed.

The other thing they told me was sometimes there is a problem with the meter itself.

@Joe Splitrock

I use cozy but it hasn’t transitioned over to apartments.com for me yet. Did you get some kind of notice or did they transition to apartments.com with little warning ? Not looking forward to dealing with it.

@Shelby Willitts

My first two rental property investments were because 3 of my 4 children went out of state for college. All but one is out now, we have a triplex in AZ and another SFH w/ a detached studio in OR. My criteria was getting the maximum number of bedrooms for the best price close to campus.

We rented by the room initially, but now most are under 1 lease per dwelling unit. It’s worked well for us, we have had very few problems with parties, late rent, or damages to property. Apart from the very occasional “helicopter” mom and /or entitlement attitude student we have had great tenants and parents, who co-sign the lease or a financial responsibility agreement. Both properties have appreciated 100k-150k over the last 5-7 yrs we have owned them, and have nearly zero vacancy over those years even in 2020 with Covid.

@Ryan Malcolm

I did get one for one of my rental properties but it only paid for one $65 service call and a temporary fix/repair for a bigger problem but none of the other things I eventually had to pay for that year could be covered by it unfortunately. I think it might be worth it in certain circumstances though, it just didn’t do anything for me-it was a “wash”.

@Jay Hinrichs

Yup, and this is in Monmouth so I really thought it wouldn’t be going up much at all but it didn’t make financial sense having to pay for 2 or more years of $$$$ dorms or rent for my son that transferred to WOU his junior year, so we bought a 4+ bedroom house instead! We were able to use the rental income to pay for his tuition too so it all worked out. :)

@Elijah White

We have a 80+ yr old house in Oregon, that we bought in 2016 as is. We had to put in some expected repairs (electrical/plumbing) as well as very unexpected repairs (sewer line collapse/back up, emergency bathroom repairs including a new toilet/floor and subfloor/new fridge/new water heaterI think we spent 20k + that first year! It was a money pit! But since then it has appreciated close to 100k, it’s been cash flowing, with nearly zero vacancy (just two weeks max between turnovers) and other than some maintenance and small repairs over the last 4 yrs all the major stuff has happened already so I’m not complaining now. Of course today when my new tenants moved in I found out a storm had passed through last night and there are large broken branches everywhere including one that crashed through my neighbors fence! So $h$t does happen but it’s been positive cash flow, appreciation, and tax deductions we wouldn’t otherwise have. :)

@Greg Gillespie

I use Zillow rental manager on the properties I self manage, including two out of state properties, but so far I have only used it to advertise my rentals and for tenant screening (but only if they come from my Zillow listing) I haven’t gone any further than that because I’ve been using cozy.co for everything else. (Application, background screen, tenant info and payment tracking.) Once I have a new tenant i send them an invite link so they can get their account set up and payments scheduled—I collect security deposits, as well as the monthly rent through there. My tenants occasionally will post their maintenance requests there too.

Since I already have everything in Cozy I hate to switch but it looks like Zillow rental Mgr has similar features as Cozy. If I did switch it would make it more streamlined and efficient but I’m just not ready to do that yet.

@Kyle Keller

Just give them extra day or two, if they read their lease, they know you are allowed to charge double the monthly rent (prorated), you could remind them that’s what the charge will be, hopefully that will motivate them. And take that out of their security deposit but let them know. Otherwise if they are a problem tenant already they might give you trouble.

Trust me, you do not want to go through the eviction process here—-one day I might post here about the nightmare tenant that was our one and only eviction— (former friend who just wanted to store some furniture in our storage under our house for a few days but started “living” there—turned into a 6 yr “tenant” -was mostly ok/tolerable but turned into a nightmare last two years when we told him it was time to move on—eviction alone took 5 months!) Especially with the Covid restrictions, court will be problematic right now. And the judges even after they rule in your favor will try for “mediation” !!

@Antonio Cucciniello

@Antonio Cucciniello

I have several LLC each with its own bank account at KeyBank. I use just one log in. Also have the same at Washington Federal. I believe at Wells Fargo you can do the same.

I’m not sure if these banks operate on your state though. Try chase or Bank of America-I believe most banks will let you access multiple accounts with one log in, that has been my experience so far.

@Jeremy Kong

Maybe you should try another lender. My mom applied for a heloc a several years ago to help us both to make additional investments in real estate and she was “retired” and 91 years old. They didn’t not disqualify her on age.

What killed it eventually was the 6 months it took to approve because more than 70% of her income were from rentals and we were constantly asked to show endless documentation for that rental income—all of the rental income was paid online by tenants through Zelle/QuickPay at the time, the lender/processor kept asking for cancelled checks, etc. at one point stating that without cancelled checks they couldn't verify(!!!)....it was insanely ridiculous. And this was the bank where we both had our accounts for many years! They eventually offered a 130k HELOC equal to 10% of the value of her primary home that she owned free and clear. (that even has a separate rental unit on the property!) But it got to the point we didn't want to deal with it anymore, it wasn't worth the stress and time involvement. About a year later she got a reverse mortgage to use for home improvements, for nursing/rehab care and to use for more real estate investment. The HELOC would have been better cost wise as interest rate is lower and you only pay for what you use, but the reverse Mtg provided far more flexibility, access to the equity in the home (4x more) without having additional payments to make. But there are drawbacks too so it's best to see what's right for you and your family.