All Forum Posts by: Krista Dodson

In my opinion, talking with the tenants is always the first and best course of action. In my experience with distressed tenants, their housing costs are always their first priority, and one in which they have the most pride in maintaining. If treated kindly and with respect, they will usually be honest and vulnerable about what they are going through and how they might be able to either salvage the situation or walk away with dignity. 

Either way, it's a hard position to be in as a landlord, and I wish you all the best in the world in having the hard conversations. I would love to hear how this turned out.

Hey, Daniel. I, too, am an investor in the Richmond Metro area. With units in Church Hill, Midlothian, and Willow Lawn. Now an agent, I'm passionate about helping investors enter the market, and first time home buyers. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

Hey, Denise. I, too, am in Richmond, VA. I use Apartments.com to manage my rentals. We have 6 units so far, and I manage all of them from application and background check through rental payments on Apartments.com. As long as the properties managed remain under 4 units a piece, it's FREE! :-) Good luck with your first rental!

Sent a PM.

I have not taken advantage of that membership. There are deals offered at every meeting. I haven't been in a few months, but the last few I went to started with 3 or 4 deals. Usually in the Petersberg area.

Hey, Shane. I'm also an investor in the Richmond area. There are a couple of great meetings in the area. The Richmond REIA meets monthly as well as RING. I haven't been in a couple of months, as family life has gotten in the way, but both are great resources.

Looking for a Class A Contractor for bathroom and kitchen remodel on a rental in Arlington, VA. Anyone have any recommendations?

@Russell Brazil, Good point re: market rates. In a potential group of four tenants, one has already had the background check run, and I just found out that the holdup is that one of the other three has just had a job change. So they're trying to figure everything out again. I need to be consistent with all applicants for this go around, so will have to stick with what I've advertised ($40 application fee per applicant) until I have no leads, and re-advertise differently.

So far, I've seen you from Rockville (pretty similar to Arlington), @Jonathan Jaime Velarde from Fredrick, MD. Anyone else from the Arlington, VA or Washington DC area want to chime in on application fees?

@Colleen F. Not a termed "group home". More like a house that a group of people rent together. sorry for the confusion. Typically we've had a group of 4-5 unrelated single professionals between 1-3 years out of college. It's a really sturdy house about 15 minutes outside of DC, inside the beltway, so the tenant pool has never been an issue until now.

@Rick S. Yes, that's how it's set up. The application has been filled out for two of the four in the first group to apply, but when they were asked to pay the fee, they stopped there. It looks like I can "request" the background and credit checks. So I did on the two that filled out the applications. But I haven't gotten a response on those yet.