All Forum Posts by: Larry Tanner

double post.

QUOTE: This is why you see so many ads on CL stating not to call after a certain hour. Some people just have no common sense and think they can call about something at 3am. They must think everyone else is nocturnal like they are.

I am no longer a landlord but, at least for my area, CL is a waste of time.  Seems that most CL users looking for apartments are losers with smart phones they can't afford.  Waste of time.  Used CL for 6 months then dropped it all together. 

I found that the paper attracted much more palatable prospects.  My explanation is that idiots don't know how to use a newspaper.

PT:  What is this thing?

Me:  It's a stove...used to cook food.

PT:  Oooh....I just use my phone.

You require tenants to have a car?  Why?
How did you find out their enrollment status with a Google search?

Not true.  I currently have a work-from-home job.  

Did you ask for pay stubs from their current employer?  In 2016 there are many people who work from home...it's called telecommuting.  Some perform their whole job this way while others go into the office half the time and telecommute the other half of the time.

Never disbelieve someone who says they work from home these days as it may very well be true.  Verify with pay stubs and a call to the employer.

So why are you renting the room if the only people that would ever rent it are unemployed?  Since they are unemployed you would never rent to them, right?  Yet if they tell you they have a job you think they are lying to you and therefore you don't rent to them either.  So what's the point then?

Tenant: "I'm going to be late on rent this month because I had to get a new car.  My other one (3 years old) needed 2 new tires and a new radio so I had to get a new car and now I'm strapped."

[She got a brand spankin' new car.]

Me: [Silence.  Then I walked away.]

2BR APT, UTILS INCL. $1639

It's not the rent price that sells, is the deal you offer.

If your price is right and you word your title correctly, you should not lose out on units that have utils included. In fact, many renters like to have all or most utils included as they don't have to worry about paying all those bills separately every month.  Some even pay a tad more for the convenience. 

Always keep this in mind...

While states are legalizing MM and even though some states are decriminalizing personal use, mary jane is still illegal on the federal level.  It is my belief that the federal govt will never legalize mary jane as they make BIG profits from the "war on drugs".  That's a fact, you can debate it with yourself if you want to :)

So think twice about aligning yourself in anyway with such a product.  When the feds come a knockin', it's too late.  Sure, it may be profitable today, but it may prove to be a disaster for you later, in more ways than one.

It's a product just like anything else so the more mainstream it is the more suppliers there will be and eventually profit margins will fall sharply due to over-saturation of suppliers when demand stays pretty much flat.  Sure, this may be a long ways down the road, but it will get there eventually, just like with any other product/industry.  

Then, when the big corporations with the deep pockets get in the game, it's good-bye to the small fry, just like with all other agricultural and pharmaceutical products.  Their lobbyists will get the government to "subsidize" them and you will be left out in the cold.  Your only option for profitability at that point will be the black market (which will still exist for a product like this).  You'll go from legit to illegit almost overnight.

Housewarming gifts are for home buyers, not tenants. 

Remember in the Bugs Bunny cartoons when a character realized Bugs was playing him as a sucker?  The character's face would turn into a lollipop with the word "SUCKER" written on it.  That's how 99.9% of renters see you when you give them a housewarming gift.

About 5 years ago when I got out of the god-forsaken business of being a landlord, I bent over backwards for a tenant I had (which was my last tenant ever).  Her rent was WAY below market and I only increased her rent once in that decade because she paid on time, was mostly a good tenant and the apartment was hard to rent (another story).  She was one of the few "good tenants" I and my family had in our decades of being landlords.

But when she left, she gave me less than 15 days notice and was moving out a few days after the first of the following month.  Yet she had the audacity to get bent out of shape when I told her I would expect her to pay daily rent for the few days of the next month that she would be living there.  After all, she was the one who was stiffing me.  She could at least pay me the daily rent she rightfully owed me for the following month.  But I backed down and did not pursue it as I knew I was out of the business once she left anyhow and it would not be cost effective to pursue the whole thing legally.  I only tried demanding the daily rent out of spite for giving so little notice more than anything else.  lol

I learned (but apparently not well enough lol) as a little boy from my father when he was a landlord.  I noticed every time he stepped out of his role as a landlord and into a "friend" role, the tenant would usually try to shaft him.

Moral of the story?  Being a landlord is a business and 99.9% of your customers (the renters) will always treat their end as a business transaction.  Therefore, you should do the same.

Always remember what business you're in and act accordingly.  

It's not a friendship, it's a friendly (hopefully) business transaction.  Housewarming gifts will almost never provide any benefit to you as a landlord.  Since tenants usually never expect gifts anyway so not giving them gifts will never hurt you, but giving them usually will.

Friendly but firm is the only way to fly in this business.

I am NOT a lawyer nor am I a landlord at this point in time.  However, from what you have stated about the tenant being a hot-head, it would be in your best interest to just wait for her to leave before you show the apartment.  It may prove a disaster situation if you try to get in before then (given the situation you have told us).

Apartments going vacant and not earning you money for a time is part of the CODB (Cost Of Doing Business).  

You have to learn when to let things roll and when to be aggressive.  This is not a situation for aggressive behavior -- setting foot into this apartment while this particular tenant is still living there would be considered an "aggressive" move, given the info you have given us and it does not matter what the the law says at this point. 

You may well find yourself in a heap of a mess if you go into this apartment while she is still living there, especially if you bring in prospective tenants in while she is present.  This would not be a smart move on your part and may prove to be a waste of time (best case) or worse.

Let it be and worry about it after she moves out.  Cancel the showing.

I don't mean to be rude, but...

1.  This isn't 1950 anymore.  In America, small business is being increasingly looked upon as a criminal behavior by both the public and governments and our society is extremely litigious.  Therefore, paying people "under the table" is a risky proposition anymore.

2.  As Andrew has already said, if you are going to do it, don't talk about it...not even on the internet.  You are not as anonymous as you think you are on the internet in 2016.  No one with half a brain is going to admit to you on the internet that they pay for things "under the table" anyway so not much use in asking questions about it.

Best to just stay away from "under the table" payments this day and age.