All Forum Posts by: Ju Hyun K.

@Santiago Marquez: Yes, I agree with all you said and  I will thoroughly do those as you mentioned. I was too naive and I am still learning. It's been three years since I bought my very first rental property. Thanks again for your time and advice.

Thank you for all answers. I appreciate your advice and I completely agree that I have been learning a lot.

@Nathan Gesner: thanks again for your specific advice. Your advice has been always very helpful for me.

@Jim K.: I see that my statement "I know they are lying" might have given you the impression that I am trying to maximize the return by taking advantage of them. However, that statement was based on multiple bad experience with them: First, I clearly knew the door didn't have that problem before I rented it out even though I didn't take a photo for that part. Second, they already lied for several other things. For example, they tried to hide and lie about their six unauthorized cats. I found this with undeniable evidence. With these, I decided to be very strict about any damage caused by this family. I thought this might have been caused by the kittens but I don't know. Based on other people's opinions, I would fix it myself. 

Hello,

One of my tenant families is moving out at the end of this month. In the pre-move out inspection, I found the bottom part of the master bathroom door is badly rotten (water damage) and the paint there got bubbly. I believe that the door really needs to be replaced, and the tenant is saying that it is not caused by them and that it was already like that when they moved in. They even said the previous tenant must have flooding, even though they have been the first tenant that I had for that house since I bought the house. I know they are lying. However,I do not have any photos of that part of the door before they moved in as evidence.

1) home inspection report

What I do have is the home inspection report which was written just before they moved in. I bought this house and then immediately rented out. The house was in a very good condition almost like a new home. This tenant family is the first tenant for that property. The home inspection report picks up a lot of minor cosmetic things also, but it never mentions about the bathroom door damage.

2) they didn't report the issue when they moved in

I told them verbally (but not with a written document) if they find any damage or missing part, they should let me know and take photos before they moved in. But they didn't report anything about the door damage at that time and also never mentioned about it before this pre-move out walk through.

In this case, do you think I can deduct the cost to fix this damage from their security deposit? When I rented this home out, I was a beginner in this world and I didn't know this would become a problem. 

@Scott Mac

@Gail K.

Thank you so much for your thoughts. I will let you know how the house looks once they move out. I emailed them a few time that they need to repair as much as they can, otherwise the security deposit will be used to hire professionals to fix all the problems. I will use the security deposit for cleaning and repair and then I will deduct the unpaid pet fee. It turned out they actually had six (not three) unauthorized cats. Thank you.

@Nathan Gesner @Theresa Harris  

Thank you for your answers. Unfortunately, the house was/is not in great shape compared to before I rent it to them. In my inspection, I just didn't realize it was caused by the cats. They have kids and dogs also and once they move out, there will be a lot of work to clean and repair the house. Thanks again.

Hello,

My lease has the following policy: (1) maximum two pets (more than two pets not allowed), (2) for each pet, nonrefundable deposit $250 mandatory, (3) For any pets and animals to be kept in or about the premise, the tenants must get the permission from landlord.

My tenants noticed two dogs and paid $500 as nonrefundable deposit. However, yesterday from their facebook, I found they actually have three additional unauthorized cats on top of the authorized two dogs. It seems like they fostered the cats. I am not sure if they still keep the cats. When I inspect the house, they successfully hid the cats and I couldn't find the cats.

The lease ends next month and so eviction is not very meaningful.

What can I do now? Can I deduct $750= 3*$250 from their security deposit with the evidence of facebook photos?

They don't know that I found this from their facebook yet. Please let me know if I can deduct the pet deposit from their security deposit. Thank you.

@Jiri B. I am also interested in this, if this is not too late!! Thank you for the great idea!

Jiri, thank you very much for your reply. I am not going to add the bonus room!

I recently bought a new development single family home for my investment, not for a main residence. Now I need to choose a lot of options. Now I am not sure if it would be good to add a bonus room (about 300 sqft, above garage).

Without this bonus room, the house itself is 2100 sqft, 4 bedrooms and 2 and half bath. The bonus room option costs 10K if I add it as a finished room and 3.5K if I add it as an unfinished room. The bonus room will be on the second floor over the garage and after the bonus room added, the total size of the house will be 2400 sqft. If I don't choose the bonus room option, then there will be no room over the garage.

I will immediately rent this house out once it is built. So my only interest is if this will affect the rental price positively and if this will really help reduce the vacancy and increase the resale value.

I am not sure if it is worthy. Please share you thought about this. 

Thank you.