All Forum Posts by: Mark Forest

My concern is that the lawn companies charge a lot for their services. Two of my lawns are just under an acre.

I have several SFH. One home in particular has bald spots in the lawn. Some of the houses have weeds and brown areas. How far do most of you go to have nice lawns? I require tenants to mow the lawn, but I doubt they would go for paying for a spray company to fertilize. You can have houses with perfectly green lush lawns like on a golf course, but that would be very costly. What do you all do if anything?

This experience further convinced me that multi family apartments are the way to go.

The new fridge is now in the pictures. My camera has a learning curve, but I think the pictures are better. We have talked to a couple who claim they can meet our criteria, so I have not yet deleted the deposit and income requirements. 

Yes I know tattoos are pervasive, but this guy appeared to have them on his entire torso. I have found that extreme over the top people make bad tenants. This guy gives off a vibe that sends up red flags for me.

I will probably end up selling this one. 

We have a vacancy that receives several calls a day and we try to respond to all phone calls and emails. Occasionally when I call someone back I receive a recording their voicemail is full.  We received a series of irate texts from an individual who claims that we still have the ad up, but never got back to her/him. This person said they would flag us as "scamers" and that we must be "phishing".  In our Zillow account they left messages that we are after people's Bank info. 

I assume this person has some serious anger issues and I don't want to have anything to do with them. Recently my wife received a message that she/he wants a tour of our property. I say we have the right to disqualify this individual on the basis that they are accusing us of fraud and harassing us. I assume this is a legitamant reason to not consider them any further?  

Why are so many landlords afraid of electrical work? Electricians charge big money just to walk in the house. You are perfectly capable of at least assessing the situation on your own. Is the tenant overloading the circuit with multiple appliances and extension cords? Circuit breaker switches do go bad so turn off the power and replace it. 

Breaker switches go off to prevent fire. That is what they are supposed to do, so it is not an immediate threat.  I had a tenant complain about this and I discovered he was using a faulty power strip for his TV and sound system.

If your troubleshooting does not yield a solution then you can "call a pro.  I say 90 percent of the time it's an easy fix I do myself with one trip to HD.

In a recent real estate class the instructor said a doctor signed off on a pony as a service animal. The poor landlord had to allow this beast into his apartment building!

I have always passed inspections except for this year. The inspector said I had "overgrowth". The city has a rule that lawns can't be longer than eight inches, and I knew on that day the tenant had cut his grass. i called the inspector and told him I had pictures of the properly trimmed lawn so he stammered something about grass in the driveway cracks.

I went around town and took pictures of other houses with true overgrowth and grass in the driveway cracks. I sent the pictures to his boss asking why the inspector was discriminating against me and not equally enforcing ordinances. His boss called me and said if I fail again he would personally do a reinspection.  I passed with no mention of the prior "overgrowth," issue.

I have a no pet policy and I have been getting calls from prospective tenants demanding I accept their "service dog".  I am convinced there is some pro tenant website out there coaching these people on how to get their pets into no pet homes.  It's true you can't ask about the nature of their disability. However I tell them I want a letter from their  doctor with his letterhead stating that this specific dog is a service animal. They all hang up at that point.

@shaun c :I bought this house for $11K and put $10K into it.

We picked up a used white fridge that is now in kitchen. I am reading my manual  for my new Canon camera so I can take new pics.

There is no way I am going to spring for new appliances for this house. I will sell first. 

The last prospective tenants I had a showing with were indicative of the area. The wife was very happy she was on SSI and she was doing all she could to get her daughter on it. BTW she could not read or write. The husband was covered in tattoos on his head, arms, and legs. The reason my wording seems harsh is because most prospective tenants continue to ask me questions already covered in my ad. "I am sure your dog is special, but we don't accept pets".  "No I won't take only $300.00 a month for rent." " I understand you have a medical marijuana card but we don't  allow smoking. "etc