All Forum Posts by: Kay March

Matt Devincenzo, I think we are all grateful for your informed response! I certainly would feel better if I could rent to military personnel without hesitation.

Russ McKelvey, thank you for that great info. I will keep it in mind for future applicants. This applicant decided that he was not in the market for a rental house after all. He made that decision once it was clear that I would not let him move in the day after he and his family first viewed the property and I would take time to process the application. Tevis Verrett, you are the second fellow landlord to warn me about renting to military personnel, so thank you for that reminder. As I understand it, though, we can't refuse the application based solely on the applicant's military status, so as you say, vet carefully.

An applicant for a rental that I own in Florida claims full-time employment for the U.S. Air Force as an officer making $85,000/yr. In a Linked-In profile he claims to be a Commander of a Communications Squadron in the U.S. Air Force Reserve at a base in the Atlanta area. On his rental application he lists as his supervisor a colonel who is commander of the Mission Support Group at the base in Atlanta. However, the applicant now lives in our little college town here in Florida where the only Air Force presence that I'm aware of is a recruiting office.

Please forgive my ignorance about the U.S. Air Force Reserve, but is this applicant employed full-time? I doubt I'll be able to reach the colonel to confirm the applicant's claims.

Rob K, your suggestion about referring to the insurance company's inspection requirement is just great, and I will use it! Thank you--and the "Postum" thing was very funny! Chris Sweeney and Roy N., my lease does include the terms you mention, but I'm not sure when and how to enforce those terms. For example, Jon K. describes situations where the landlord might not want or need to interfere with tenants who do minor, necessary repairs, but in my situation I have reason to fear that the tenants might go too far. Thank you, Steve Might and Karen Margrave, for describing actual situations that I hadn't thought about and for encouraging me to do the inspection. I haven't been inside the rental since January, so I definitely will insist on going in before the 60-day deadline for lease termination at the end of July.

First of all, motivate yourself by deciding how you will spend all the money that you will save by doing as much as you can by yourself! Then start small, picking minor projecs that need to be done soon and using the Internet and the wonderful people at Home Depot as your sources of information. You will learn fast!

Remember that your first priority will be safety, but don't let worrying about safety discourage you. Safety can be managed.

Once I started doing projects myself I was surprised--even startled!--at all the friendly encouragement I got from men! It began to dawn on me that they must be mystified sometimes at women's reluctance to do home repairs and improvement.

Of course, you mention doing "major" renovations, and I'm not sure what you mean by "major." I do use professionals when doing so saves a great deal of time or when a great deal of muscle is required to do the job.

My new tenants seem to want to take care of repairs themselves. They are a couple in their seventies, so I see their obvious aversion to having the landlord coming around to take care of things as evidence of their desire for privacy (see below about dementia)--I don't think they're trying to hide illegal activity, for example. I worry, though, since they seem to like to pretend that they own the place, and they often have a desire to "improve" things that don't need improving. Their lease renews on October 1, and since there is a 60-day notice provision either party would have to terminate by the end of July. Should I insist on visiting them to inspect the property before the end of July? Before you say, why not, what's the harm, let me explain that the wife is, unfortunately, suffering from dementia and she's extremely unstable, difficult, and paranoid, so there's something to be said for keeping a low profile and not rocking the boat. I do want to keep the tenants, since the husband pays the rent reliably. Any wisdom anyone could share would be much appreciated!