All Forum Posts by: Kris Belco

I posted back on April 10 that I took the decision to rent it out to these two students.

Thanks everyone for your responses and I'm glad to have the support of this tremendous community!

@Jean Bolger - Yes, I'm putting in quarterly inspections in the rental lease agreement.

@Josh Dotzler and @Phillip Syrios - I did talk to the dorm superintendent. One of the tenants had actually worked as a RA at the dorm, and he had glowing recommendations. For the other tenant, there was "we had no problem with this fellow".

Thanks for the responses. I have taken the decision to rent it out to these two. Hopefully it won't be a decision that will cause me anguish down the line.

My rental has been out on the market for 2 weeks. Have got a lot of inquiries but only one showing. Two undergrads, in their senior year, graduating in May 2014. Both have job offers with very reputed consulting firms. Their combined monthly gross income will be almost 6x the monthly rent.

Here is the "but": both are international students, with very little credit report and tenant history. They have been in the US for 4 years, and have lived in the dorm for that time.

I have run SmartMove reports both. Clean, but very little information, as they haven't really built up credit. Clean criminal records. I have verified that they are current students in the college. Verified that their job offers and salaries are legit. And the best (or maybe the worst) part is that my gut instinct tells me they are good kids. Both are in their early 20s, and both seemed genuinely frustrated that a lot of landlords are very skeptical about them and denying them rentals. Which, as far as I know, is illegal. That is denying rental based on nationality.

My heart, and most of my brain, tells me that they will turn out fine. But there is a tiny part of the brain that still needs convincing.

What do people think?

Recently moved to "south of the river", and would love to meet up with people from whom I can learn from.

Hi All,

I joined this site yesterday, but interestingly this isn't my first post! I was so eager to pick on the collective mind of this site, I dived headlong and posted this arduously detailed post about my present situation.

Anyway, I'm glad I found this community. Hope to make connections with people who are in similar boat as I am.

Any new landlords in the Twin Cities area?

Thanks Gerald for your inputs! Seems like I missed your comment.

The local landlord association sounds interesting, I will check if something like that is around my place.

I've actually thought about the inspection. In fact, I am thinking of putting in a clause in the agreement that will allow me to come and inspect the property once a month. I'm not sure about the legality of that, but I'm sure something will be worked out when I sit down with the attorney. And as others have mentioned, a written, and agreed upon, process is the way to go for any eventualities.

Hi Jesse, thanks for your input!

The utilities are there as a line item in my mind, but I didn't put that out in my original post as to me they are details that need to be put into the lease agreement. Other such items would be pets (no), smoking (NO) and the such. But in hindsight, I would need to highlight these factors in the ad that I'll be creating.

The tenant will pay for electricity and gas. And internet, if they want to. I will provide for the water/sewer/trash and cable/satellite. I am on a two year contract with DISH, and even though they will move the satellite receiver to my new place for free, I want to try something else. Lawn care and snow removal is taken care of by the HOA.

Hi Tomasz,

If by "claimed your homeowners exemption" you mean if my home is registered as a "homestead", then yes. I think because it is my primary residence I do get an advantage on the property tax.

By law (in my current city, which is a suburb of Minneapolis), I have to convert the place to a rental, for which the city charges a one time fee of $500. Then to get the rental license there is a fee of $150, renewed every year (at $125). I'm pretty sure the $500 fee is for the city to recoup the property tax that I was paying *less* because it was my primary residence.

That's my understanding; I might be wrong. Any expert opinion, anyone?

Thanks Bill for your detailed response!

About the minimum criteria for tenant, I was mainly looking at what Brandon mentions here http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/01/04/how-to-rent-your-house

About the initial screening process, I am copy/pasting from the article mentioned above, but I will definitely give this more thought.

Well, the questions will be in a format that will not give my game away :)

I'm pretty sure you are absolutely correct in pointing out that I'll need the lease agreement before I show the place to people. That step should move up. Also, consulting a lawyer to draw up a specific rental lease agreement sounds like the way to go!

Thanks Brianna for your insights and the form templates!

Yes, I missed the move in walk through.