All Forum Posts by: Karla Simmons

Hi, we never did go through with it. The 5 bedroom home I was mentioning is our primary home. We may decide to rent it out in future. I believe it could be harder to find tenants because of size and price but not impossible. Thank you

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I understand your frustration. Last year we rented to a military couple and they asked if we would put a military clause in the lease agreement stating that if they received orders, we would let them out of their lease without penalty. Well, 7 months later they had orders to be transferred to Texas. The wife was from the same area of Texas and it looks as though she requested that transfer. She had mentioned having lots of family there. I felt taken advantage of. I can understand if they got orders to go overseas. It definitely has me re-thinking renting to military.

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Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Quote from @Corey M.:

I purchased my 1st investment property from REI Nation last year and a major selling point to me was that the average tenant staying for ~5.5 years. This morning, after ~1.5 years, I was informed my tenant is terminating the lease early, without penalty, because of a military transfer. I looked in the lease agreement and there is no language to support this move. However, there is apparently a federal law allowing for military transfers without penalty. I wish I was aware of this up front, as I would've thought twice about renting to someone who is likely to be relocated during the lease term.

Re-leasing the unit is going to require me to make any necessary repairs and pay one month's rent to the management company for finding a new tenant. In short, this early termination is likely going to wipe out my cash flow for the first year-and-a-half of the lease. It's a huge bummer to have both repair and re-leasing expenses this quickly.

As a landlord, what are my rights here?

- REI is saying the tenant is only responsible for this month's rent, but in my brief googling, it appears they are also responsible for next month's. Is that correct?

- To prevent this in the future, is it within my landlord rights to tell the management company to only lease to a civilian? I want to support the military, but also don't want to lose money on this investment, which will happen if I keep putting in tenants who are likely to get transfers.

I'm sure there are seasoned landlords who knew about this rule, but it had never been brought up to me; I was a little blindsided by the financial hit. Some of it may be recouped by a higher rental fee for a new lease, but it doesn't look like rental prices have increased significantly in the area.

@Chris Clothier, would you mind weighing in?

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Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Great, thank you!

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Thank you for letting me know.

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I upgraded my iPhone and can’t find the BP app anymore. Am I missing something?

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@Tim Jacob

I love FB for checking out potential tenants. And it’s really kind of funny that a lot of them don’t realize that we do that. It’s obvious they don’t realize because of what they will put on their profile. They say they don’t have any pets but their picture clearly shows them with their 3 pit bulls. Lol

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Upstate New York, New York

@Sam Ohanesian

I agree with you on the Zillow application process.

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Upstate New York, New York

@Jaron Walling

That’s funny what you said about placing a FOR RENT sign in front yard. When my husband and I first started renting our first and second homes (20+ years ago), that’s exactly how we did it. A sign in the yard and we placed an ad in local newspaper. Those ads were expensive! But there was no Zillow, Realtor.com or anything else on line, so that’s the way we did it.

1 Vote

Upstate New York, New York

@Samantha Swenson

My father was very skeptical when my husband and i started investing in real estate and became landlords. He was filled with worry of what could go wrong. Eventually he was able to see with his own eyes that we made it work for us. It was just something out of his comfort zone that he couldn’t see himself doing. It isn’t for everyone, that’s for sure.

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All Forum Posts by: Karla Simmons

Karla Simmons has started 23 posts and replied 216 times.

Post: 5 bedroom rental property

Post: Landlord rights in regards to Military lease early termination

Post: Landlord rights in regards to Military lease early termination

Post: What happened to BP app?

Post: What happened to BP app?

Post: What happened to BP app?

Post: How are people finding tenants?

Post: How are people finding tenants?

Post: How are people finding tenants?

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