All Forum Posts by: Kevin Smith

I only accept full payments for the following reasons

You may have trouble evicting as you stated I also saw one person who shorted their rent $10 do you want to evict over $10 do you think a judge will allow it.

I use Erentpayments.com and it auto adds Late fees so by setting it up for full payment they cannot pay without including late fees.

I also had a tenant accidently submit a $0.00 payment and didn't realize until they were several days late, after that was when I decided to go Full payment only. ( yes I believed her I also removed late fees)

If you have carpet pull up and paint sub floor with Kilz oil base. wash down everything if you have not sealed your baseboard and other trim by caulking the edge, do so this keeps hair from getting between trim and walls.  everyday you can open the windows.
In one unit I could not get rid of dog smell and was putting down new kitchen floor when I moved refrigerator for the third time and found a big tuff of dog hair, once I took care of that the smell went away.

After that we went pet free.

You did not force issue on late fee so you basically gave up that option, do not try to collect retroactively.

As a Realtor you are going to be held at a higher standard.

You inherited the house so you inherited the debt for the deposit, Do a google search and read the laws in your state concerning security deposits you could end up paying him several times that amount if you do not do this correctly.

We have a Duplex and two SFH's and for now that is enough. We work full time jobs that we plan to keep. I fully understand why people leverage a rental to buy another but I am planning to pay off a SFH the first of year then start on second, this is for our peace of mind. I think you must decide how much risk you are open to. just have enough cash reserves so you are never crushed by a non paying tenant, roof or furnace replacement and you never are desperate enough to settle with a questionable tenant.

I have one duplex and two SFH's all in same small town.

because my SFH's do not have attached garages there is not a big difference in my rents per unit and because I paid about the same per unit it does not matter to me which goes empty the impact is the same.

duplex           pro                                            con
                      both tenants in same area        both tenants in same area
                      one roof                                    lower appreciation

If this is for potential tenants I would be afraid they would move in and claim squatters rights.

The first property we bought was a duplex, both tenants were felons one for armed robbery the other for drugs had to eventually evict both sides for non payment. If posible I would recommend reviewing applications and leases for all tenants. 

I have been considering this myself you might want to check out

http://www.ekmmetering.com.

I Clean gutters and check that water hoses have been disconnected before freeze.

Rent your house to a police officer at reduce rent, let him handle it.