All Forum Posts by: Kevin Smith

Warning: be careful how you setup your online payments, if they have a per transaction fee and you pay it your tenant may be able to pay rent  $1 at a time.

I tell tenants it is set up that they pay the fee but I reduce rent payment amount by the Transaction fee.

My wife would feel sorry for tenants and let them out of late fee, they would start expecting this and would become a problem. I have since started using Erentpayments.com with new Tenants (is in the lease) it automatically calculates late fees and I can set it up for full payment only. I allow one freebie per tenant and have had only one tenant pay a late fee in almost 3 years. It does have a $3 per transaction fee.

I tell all potential tenants that every 3 months I will change filters explaining that it saves my equipment and saves them money on heating and cooling I also look under sinks for leaks. Last month I found a kitchen faucet leaking under the sink.

I have found that 3 months is sufficient since I have gotten rid of most of my carpet. 

It does not take much to give off odor.
I had a unit that had a wet dog smell, I did a complete remodel and still had the odor I found a big hair ball under the fridge.

Paint the subfloor with Kilz
Caulk trim (hair can get between wall and baseboard)
Vacuum registers and cold air return ducts and change filter
Open windows for a few days can help
Paint or wash all surfaces

If unit has been vacant drain traps may be empty allowing sewer gas backup

I understand that it was an old post but I also know that the Government and Police are still seizing property. I was just trying to let people know that if you are ignoring illegal activity in your property it could come back to bite you.  The one thing you can be sure of, is you can never be sure of what the government will do.

Did a search for "can police seize rental property" Found this on another site. just something to consider.

Skaleen

03-25-2002, 10:14 AM

Yes! If your tenants are commit drug related crimes or are suspected to have committed drug related crimes and the cops bust them, they can and often do seize the house, cars and property within. It is VERY difficult to reclaim your property even if they were renting the house and you had nothing to do with it. Sometimes you can't even get it back if the parties involved were found to be innocent of all charges- especially if the police auction occurs between the time your property is seized and the charges are dropped.
Often times it's impossible to get your property back- especially if it's something valuable like a nice car or an airplane because of the roadblocks thrown up by complicated paperwork.

Drug busts are huge money-makers for police departments because they get to keep or sell everything they seize including but not limited to any cash laying around, weapons (even legal ones!), bicycles, computers, the house itself... A lot of laws allowing seizure are appalling in the power they give officers and departments and by and large are ignored because people/ judges appear to have the opinion that "if you're dumb enough to lend your car/house/airplane to a drug user you deserve what you get" or "if you're mistaken for a drug dealer there's probably something fishy going on because innocent people don't just get mistaken like that".

Not all police departments will take advantage of a person, but some do and it's those few that tarnish the reputation of cops in general.

I have been thinking about a metering system such as

http://www.ekmmetering.com/

This would not work under existing lease but if you put in place before hand, when you renew or replace tenants you could charge them according to percentage of use.  check your state laws first.

If It needs done and you can afford it then do it all at once. You may find a few surprises when you pull lower cabinets and why take a chance damaging new flooring a year or two later. Plus an updated kitchen should give you higher rent or at least attract better tenants depending on area.

I had one inherited tenant that was off and on a pain. I wanted to get rid of her but wife insisted on keeping her, cost us big in the long run. From now on if one of us says they go their gone.

As far as inspections go, I change furnace filters and check under sinks every 3 months, you cannot count on tenants to do this. if I see any thing that catches my attention I can do a electrical outlet test to get in rest of house. I tell potential tenants up front and have had no problems. 

I needed a quick solution for a sick tenant, so I used Rigid galvanized conduit,  2 - 90 deg Elbows and a coupling for the top and one section of pipe cut in half with 2 couplings for the posts. dug post holes beside steps put pipe together making a big U and concreted in at proper Height, it worked great.