All Forum Posts by: Josh Gibson

@JD Martin thank you for your insight. This is exactly what I need to read. I agree with everything you just said.

As far as the lease I guess I wanted to start with something more legal so I used the apartments.com lease agreement just so everything was on paper. When I took over the last landlord basically gave me nothing. There was no lease or anything for this old lady. I guess in hindsight I could have just done a m2m from the get go. I think I was also trying to ease her fears about a new landlord coming in at the time too.

I’m definitely going to repair what ever needs fixed. I actually didn’t know the tub and surround were in the shape that they were in. She never mentioned her concerns to me until I told her rent was going to start going up.

I appreciate your advice!

Josh

@Kevin Sobilo I appreciate your insight. That’s exactly what I was thinking about the carpet. Since she mentioned to me that she may trip and get hurt.

Yeah the tub definitely shows sign of water damage behind the tile shower surround. So I’m going to take care of that. With it being a 1 bath unit I just figured it might be a little tough to do.

I did have a conversation with her too about the rent. In a nice way I let her know that while she has been paying $700 a month other units with the same features and sq are at $950-$1000 for duplex and $1400 for single families.

I actually even mentioned to her that she should look into a 55 and up complex. She didn’t like that idea. Hahaha

Thanks again!

@Theresa Harris thank you for your advice. I did re-caulk the tub. And while I was over there doing it. We even had the rescission about how I would be happy to remodel and update the whole unit. Then I told her once I do that then the rent would increase to $1000/mo. She wasn’t on board with that. Go figure!

@Nathan G. Thank you for your reply. I did look into it a little bit. Home Depot would actually move all of the big furniture but she has little knickknack type of items everywhere. She’s not ready messy she just has a lot of stuff. Boxes, plants and small stuff payed out everywhere and I even told her if I did decide to get new flooring that she would have to move all of the small stuff. Then she said “we’ll I don’t know how I’m going to do that.

She is pretty far below rent. I let her know that too (in a nice way) she’s at $700 now going to $750. The cheapest rent in that area for a 2 bed 1 bath is $1000.

Thanks again!

@John Underwood thanks for the reply. So the tub has been reglazed in the past and it’s actually starting to flake off. The other issues are the shower surround and the shower mixing valve. I haven’t felt it myself but she says she sometimes will be taking a shower and then all of a sudden the water will get very hot. The shower surround does have loose tiles that I have siliconed back in place. I can tell that water has been getting behind the tiles so that’s why I’m thinking I should go ahead a get that taken care of. Thanks for the advice on just stretching the carpet.

Yeah I even said to her when I bought the place last year that she would have an entire year of no raised rent, but after that the rent will have to go up.

Hi,

Looking for some advice. I currently have a tenant in a duplex that I acquired about a year ago. Nice older lady (72) on fixed income. I am her 3rd landlord in 15 years. When I bought the place she was on a month to month paying only $700/mo. I told her then that I would not raise the rent for an entire year. We signed the new 1 year lease which is about to end at the end of September. I sent her a letter letting her know that her rent will be going up $50 a month to $750. A couple of days later she called me and wanted to know what kind of improvements I was going to make. I asked her what needed to be done? She said the the carpet has a ripple in the front of her bed and she’s worried that she may trip so she wants new carpet. However she has no way of moving her things in order to have new carpet installed. Secondly she wants new flooring in the kitchen because there is a small cut in the vinyl where a knife dropped. Thirdly, she was complaining about her tub and surround.

So what I’m thinking of doing is to get a carpet repair company out there to restretch the carpet since she stated that it’s a safety concern and then I will get a new tub, surround and plumbing fixtures because it actually could become a problem down the road. Not to mention it could use a replacement.

Just wondering if anyone has gone through anything like this with tenants in place?

@Daniel Smyth agreed! I hope to have this all worked out this week.

Thank you!

@Scott M. I didn’t mean to come off as I was going to come in like a wrecking ball. I’ve been a landlord for 13 years with just a few other houses. This is my first duplex. I normally get to vet my tenants and have always kept great relationships with them. Always on time payments and in return I have been extremely responsive in fixing any issues or problems I try to go above and beyond. I will always work to find a solution. I guess I was getting ahead of myself and trying to see what my options were going to be if in fact I did end up having an issue with this tenant. The duplex is in St. Louis, mo.

I basically needed to know if by the tenant not agreeing to do his part of the lease agreement is he in violation. I now understand that if I do end up having an issue that I need to go through a proper process before I can change anything.

Thanks for your insight!

Josh

@Wale Lawal I appreciate your response, very good advice!

@Travis Stevens the current lease is up April 2022.