All Forum Posts by: Justin Juhan

 @Anthony Wick

Tried 15 minute windows. waited for ours wasted all day.

Tried open house 3 hour window, had 2 people show up.

Now I tell people (example) Saturday at 1. I tell everyone the same time. Had the best luck with this one 3 out of 6 showed up (got this one from another landlord)

Last straw was the day before thanksgiving I confirmed the night before, then confirmed an hour before. drove 40 minutes over there. He said traffic was too bad and he wasn't even going to try to make it. 

@Anthony Wick

I'm in Georgia, our other properties will "carry" the mortgage on this one but that means our investments are not growing which is the bother. The tenant did end up paying but wasn't reliable with it and was at $700/month

We are at $950 with water included in one of the best school districts in the area. The only thing available in this district is basement apartments that range from 900-1000 with split bills. I've had probably 300-400 inquiries, 2 open house showings where ~10 people have actually shown up.  3 Applications. 

We offer to reduce the first months rent by the app fee but that's it. 

I think our biggest problem is that a mile down the street you can get a little cheaper $50-75 place but it's in a different school district and it's well... cheap.  Most people who have seen the place don't seem to have school aged children so they could care less about the schools.  

Maybe we should post fliers at the school haha.

@Matt P. Thanks for your helpful comment. 

This was more an issue of business practice and and norms than law. I already knew the Law in Georgia that the security deposit can be withheld to cover rent before posting this thread (I keep a copy of the Georgia Landlord Tenant handbook handy). The root question being, WE weren't actually owed unpaid rent but the tenant DID owe unpaid rent. So in this situation does the tenant get a free month because the property changed hands?  I think not based on the replies and that if your mortgage gets bought and changes hands you don't get a free month. 

@Dan Maciejewski

We did have an addendum to the purchase agreement that if the seller received any rents after closing they would be forwarded to us. Mostly because one of the tenants was section 8 and we were worried they may receive a payment before HAP could get it switched over to us. 

We are having this same issue, Closed in mid October, light rehab and listed in November, having a hard time getting people in. Rent is below local market getting lots of inquiries but only a couple applications and even those fail to pull the trigger on signing a lease. 

The inherited tenant was a month behind and I had to go post notice to get the first months rent (after purchase) out of them. Gave them a 60 day notice as they were month to month. They moved out after 30 so now we have both sides vacant.  Kicking ourselves a little but hopefully we get some tenants in there soon. 

@Lacey S.

The way I ended up looking at it was like this, If I was purchasing a 100 unit apartment complex and 10 tenants were behind on the rent. I would be assuming their leases and that debt as part of the purchase. I would also be assuming the liability and hardship of getting those tenants out.

So would the new owner of said apartment complex return ~$7,000 to the previous owner? I highly doubt it unless it was part of the purchase agreement on the property. 

My take: Just as leases follow the new owner so do account balances. 

What are your thoughts?

@Nathan Gesner Thank you so much for the link! That is very clear and answers the question.

Absolutely agree, we knew this tenant would be an issue when we did our due diligence, their rent was $200 below market and they had some late/ behind payments over the last year. They were month to month hence why we sent 60 day notice not to renew (Georgia)  as soon as we could. 

 We are in Georgia

We inherited a tenant who was one month behind (September), we gave 60 days notice immediately after closing (October). They were late on the next months (November). Now they are moving out at about 45 days and requesting a move-out inspection.  I anticipate they are going to ask for their deposit back which is less than the months rent they are behind (the month before we bought it). Are we in the right to keep the deposit to cover the month they are behind?