All Forum Posts by: Lauren M.

I bought a duplex that needs new kitchen cabinets, counters, and flooring throughout. 

Questions:

1. What color kitchen cabinets hold up the best? I love the white look (and prospective tenants would too), but does white hold up? 

2. What type of counter top holds up the best? I'm willing to put in something nicer if it will hold up. 

3. What's the best flooring to put in? I heard tile holds up the best, but what are the pros and cons of all tile? Other options? 

4. Do you use the same wall color for all of your units? Recommendations appreciated. 

Would appreciate any advice!

I recently purchased a duplex. The current tenants leave empty beer bottles in the yard, leave toys outside, and store items like folding tables propped up against the exterior. Does anyone have a good clause in their tenant rules & regulations for handling these problems that they can share?

I'm in the process of firing my management company. We purchased a duplex at the end of November and kept the existing management company in place. They communicated with us just enough for us to sign the management agreement, but have failed to answer emails, text and phone calls for more than a week and have not deposited any earned rent for this month into our account.

I was reading through the management agreement. This line has me worried: "If agreement is terminated by owner, owner agrees to pay The Rent Company any commissions or management fees that would have been earned under any existing lease agreements."

If I fire my management company, will I still have to pay their monthly fee until both leases expire? One expires January 31st, 2017 and the other expires May 31st, 2017. It seems unfair that they could make me pay for a service they've failed to provide, but at this point I don't trust that they won't try to pull something on us.

@Norman Dean - I would love to hear the outcome of this. We are in a similar situation and we don't know if we should contact the tenants directly since the PM company is ignoring all of our emails, texts, and phone calls. How did it turn out for you?

@Mark Gallagher Thank you. That helps clarify things.

@Kurt K. Thank you for your help! I'm a newbie and I wanted to make sure there weren't any glaring risks with paying with my personal name. I couldn't figure out any major risks with setting it up this way, but it helps to ask other people in case I missed something major. 

@Kurt K. What you've explained would be our ideal situation. I guess what I'm specifically wondering is what would be the benefit (legal or otherwise) of setting up utilities under a business name rather than your personal name? Conversely, what would be the risks of paying a rental property's utilities under your own personal name?

I am in the process of firing our PM company. All utilities were set up in their name and they would deduct the bills from collected rent before paying me for the month. To gain more control, I decided to set up utilities in my name (unfortunately, right now we pay water, wastewater, gas and electric for tenants). What are the risks and/or benefits of setting up utilities in my personal name? I asked the utility company and I can put utilities under our business name (we haven't set up an LLC though), but I have to put down a fairly big deposit. When I asked the representative what the benefit would be to set up the accounts under our business name, she said I would have to talk to a lawyer. Thoughts?

I closed on a duplex on November 30th of this year. We decided to stick with the management company that had managed the property before. It's been a week of calls and emails and I have yet to hear from anyone after signing the rental agreement.

The contract says I just need to give them 30 days of written notice to cancel the rental agreement. However, how do I make sure to get the money they owe me? Also, all utilities are set-up under their company. Can I switch utility payments to our name without them?  

The company is unresponsive, but I do not want to get into any legal trouble if we work around them to contact the tenants. Are there things I should be aware of before I take matters into my own hands and contact the tenants that the management company was fired?

I closed on a duplex at the end of November. I kept the management company the previous owner used. One of the tenants only paid half of a month's rent for December. I brought this to the property management company's attention last week and they said they would follow up with the tenant. I haven't heard anything since then and I've been trying to get a hold of the management company by phone and email since Wednesday of last week and haven't heard anything. 

How should I handle this situation? The tenant has clearly broken their contractual obligation by only paying half of the rent. The due date is the first of the month and it's the twelfth of the month as I write this. I want to serve notice that the tenant has three days to make their payment before the eviction process is started, but can I do this without the management company knowing? What if the management company hasn't entered the check into my online account, but the tenant has paid since last week? I am assuming the tenant is testing the waters now that the duplex is under new ownership though...