All Forum Posts by: Kim Parker

Update—

I ended up deciding that I would charge some rent, but not the full amount to hold the unit. I also left a message with her recruiter advocating for her. 

They were able to get everything squared away and she arrives tomorrow. Yay 🎉 

Someone had asked the length of her stay. Our practice has been to write a lease for their contract dates (typically 12 weeks). If they extend past that, then we go month-to-month. That has worked well for us, a few travelers have stayed six or nine months. 
Thanks for your perspectives!

Hi BiggerPockets community,
We have a MTR that we rent the main floor and lower level separately to traveling healthcare professionals. It has gone very well so far.

We are set to welcome our next guest in two days. We have a holding deposit/agreement in place and the lease is already signed and prorated rent paid. 

She let me know yesterday that the hospital may push her start date back a week — sounds like it’s due to laggy intake processes (not her fault). 

If she cancels, I would keep the holding deposit. If she was already here and needed to leave early, I have that clearly outlined in the lease. 

If she wants me to hold it for her an additional week, would you have her pay rent as usual? Would you change lease dates? Some compromise in the middle?

Also, do you have this outlined in your MTR lease? I do have a failure to take occupancy piece in the lease, but the wording in it really is more geared towards a 12 month lease.

Thanks for your advice!

Hello bigger pockets peeps!

We have self managed a couple properties for the last few years. One of them is up for renewal in a few months and I have a specific question I wanted to see what others would do.

We have a great couple who have rented our property since 10/2022. They broke up a few months ago. Thankfully, they decided to honor the lease agreement and split payments even though one has moved out. We are at lease renewal time, we will raise rent $50-$100 to match market pricing. I like our renter and would like him to stay... from our last inspection--he is taking good care of the property and has good communication and never a late payment.

Would you verify income before renewing the lease?

If he does not meet the criteria (3x rent), would you allow a cosigner or a roommate?

Thanks!

Kim

@Bonnie Low

We use one account for all our rentals, it's an interesting idea to separate it for each property. As we grow I might have to think about that more. The deposit and cleaning fee we charge is very similar.

We also use Avail and as far as I can tell, there is not a way to return a security deposit through Avail.co. If you are able to do that...would you let me know how? When I looked this is what I saw:

"Avail currently supports transferring funds from tenant to landlord, but not from landlord to tenant. I apologize for this inconvenience. I suggest refunding your tenant outside of Avail. We are sorry about that." 

I also like your language about early termination of the lease. I think my lease has something like that in it but I need to double check!

Thanks 

Kim P

@Nick Gober-Keller 

Yep, we do have our business bank account set up for our LLC and we also have a Venmo account set up with it. We have other LTR's and use Avail and send a check with the deposit. One of our current renters is traveling internationally immediately after leaving us and so sending it electronically would be nice. Especially for travelers I would like to get their deposit back to them ASAP.

PayPal business might be a good option. Our bank is a small local one and does not support Zelle.

Thanks for the suggestions!

Kim

We use avail for rent collection/deposits etc. I checked and it doesn't look like there's an option to return security deposit through their site. That would be the easiest solution if it was an option.

Hi BP forums, 

We have a house that we are renting as an MTR. Going well so far and I'm honing in our processes. We do collect a security deposit and a cleaning fee. Unless something is trashed or missing I am assuming that we will return the security deposit. For our LTR we send the security deposit in the mail with an itemized deduction if needed. But for an MTR I would love an option where I can just send it online or quicker/easier than mail.

Advise?

I actually got ahold of them and their suggestion is to change the end date of the previous lease. It doesn't change what was signed previously. So, I changed the previous lease to end three days earlier and I will put a holding agreement in for one day and then have the lease start on the actual day they are moving in.

I'm trying to get a hold of their customer service but wondered if any of you smart folks have run into this before--

I'm running into an issue with avail.co and wondered if anyone had a fix/solution that has worked for them. We have a property that we use as a mid term rental. The current tenant is moving out mid June and I need to have a holding agreement/deposit signed now for the next tenant that is going to move in the same day the other tenant moves out. The issue that I'm having is that they won't allow overlapping leases. Holding agreement really isn't a lease but I don't see another way to put it in their system. Also, I want the next tenant to be able to pay the holding deposit on the website to get them set up and started...which requires some sort of lease or signed document. Previously, I have had at least a couple day gap and so I can fudge the dates slightly to make it work on their website. However with mid term rentals I think I'm going to run into this more because of quick turn arounds.

Also, their software won't allow me to have one lease end and the next begin the same day. 

Any wisdom? Thanks

Kim Parker

@Sheena Drake we also use Avail.com for lease signing and payments. I think it's pretty straightforward for small portfolios. One thing I learned recently is that you can clone previous leases which makes it really simple. When we started offering one of our properties as an MTR, I built a separate abbreviated application form (to standardize my process) and modified the lease we use for LTR. It's basically the same lease but with some rules changed and some wording is different.

As far as extending. You can choose to either sign a new lease or allow them to go month-to-month. From what I have heard from other hosts, most ask the traveler around a month before their lease is finished if they are planning on extending. It can be tricky though!