All Forum Posts by: Kyle Meyers

I have one rental insured by Nationwide. They declined to insure my other property because it was going to be vacant and rehabbed before I got it rented, I have it insured with Farmers.

I have a rental condo in a HOA. First, make sure you take a look at the HOA's financial statements, they need to have some reserve funds, parks and pools are expensive to repair/replace when the time comes, make sure they are planning for that.

Make your lease state that the tenant must abide by all rules of the HOA and give them a copy of the rules and regs. Any fines you get from the HOA, charge to the tenant.

Marc,

Have you found a way to get copies of the bills sent to you? Glad to hear that the gas, electric, and part of the water bill stick with the tenant. I had hoped to include water in the rent, but as you mentioned it would cause my rents to look higher than the other available units.

Any idea if this will change with the water company being sold to Citizens?

Mike,

Thanks for your input, your welcome back post was actually what led me to try to find out more about this. I found an article about your case online and it looked like it was based on an agreement the utility company had made a few years ago, I have been trying to find if there is a similar agreement that my utility companies have made. If you wouldn't mind sharing any more information you have on how it is that you were able to fight the charges being put back on the landlords I would really appreciate that. Also, were the bills that were being transferred to the landlords only from city owned utilities?

Welcome back, I enjoy reading your posts.

I have also read that having the deposit be a different amount than the monthly rent cuts down on tenants claiming they thought the security deposit was the last months rent. Also, make the difference very clear in the lease.

All the utility bills for my properties are paid by the tenants, I want to make sure that if they stop paying them I won't be on the line for the bill, or at least I will be prepared and check the status. I can't find this information on the utility company websites, but in reading other BP posts it looks like only the utilities owned by the city can place a lien on your property if the tenant doesn't pay the bills, is that true? In Indianapolis the water and sewer is being sold by the city to an outside company which would mean there would not be any city owned utilities for my properties anymore so it would be nice if that also prevented the liens.

On a related topic, what do other landlords do to verify the bills have been paid? I contacted all the companies to try to have copies of the bills sent to me, but they do not offer that service. Will I be able to call them once the tenant moves out to confirm all the bills have been paid?

I am a college student and Indiana University in Bloomington, IN. Students are required to live in the dorms their first year and most move out of the dorms after that for a cheaper larger space. I don't know if a private dorm would work well since people mostly do not live in the dorms by choice, but I think in limited quantity their could be enough demand with the low rents you were considering. In this area the properties that seem to do the best are the small 1 bedroom and studio apartments that students can rent for cheap, and their are some large houses that rent to 4 or 5 people so the per person cost is not too high. In the city their are occupancy permits required that allow 3, 4, or 5 unrelated tenants. I am sure it varies by school.

I have been collecting a $500 security deposit on all my units (rents range from $595 to $750). The amount you can get is limited by law and the market. I would legally be allowed to collect more than 1 months rent security deposit, but it would delay getting a tenant.

I did an eviction check, and verified income. I did not do a criminal check, I think I will add this to my screening process soon though. I paid $10 for each check. I don't really care about their credit, I assume that if they had great credit they would buy their own place, even if they have terrible credit, that does not mean they won't pay rent, that is why I do the eviction check to see if that has been a problem for them in the past.

My rents are due the first and have a grace period to the fifth. Then their is a late charge of $5 per day.

I made my lease online with ezlandlordforms.com and added some additional clauses that I thought would be useful that I saw on BP. I plan to get a more customized lease put together by a lawyer probably by the time I rent out another unit (not sure when that will be). Do some research on your state, county, and city laws before you make your lease so you know what you can legally agree to.

On one of my properties I offered a $100 off the first month's rent deal. Then I posted my ads on craigslist with the discounted rent. I think that helps because you get more visibility your rental will be filtered out less often by price. I think people like to think they are getting a deal too so even though it is just a small discount it makes your unit more attractive to renters.

In Indianapolis I have been trying to stick with a 15% cap rate, so based on that and the 50% rule I would value this at $36,000 with no repairs. If I was going to make a cash offer it would be less.