All Forum Posts by: Leeling Chew

Hi BP community,

I have a couple of questions:

1. I listed my South Austin property for room rental six months ago. Shortly after, I noticed another listing using my property photos but with different rent prices. I contacted Zillow about this issue but received no response. I recently changed the rental type to "whole house" and the fraudulent listing also adjusted its rental price. I attempted to access and delete the fake listing but was unable to, as Zillow indicated that I am not the owner of the property. While I haven't personally experienced any negative impacts from this fraudulent listing, I'm concerned that it could mislead potential renters and cause them financial distress. What do you suggest I do, if there's anything else I can possibly do?

2. When renting out furnished rooms, am I obligated to provide the exact furnishings and decor shown in the original listing photos? My current tenant has removed a picture from the wall and replaced the provided bedding with their own belongings. 

Leeling

Hi all,

We are facing significant challenges with a tenant in our 'rent-by-room' property. Despite only renting for two months, this tenant's aggressive behavior is creating a hostile living environment for other residents.

• Specific Issues:

  • He complains about our lack of notice when entering the property during our own move, despite prior notification.
  • He has moved items around the house without permission.
  • His communication has been condescending and confrontational.
  • He installed a surveillance camera in a common area, violating the lease agreement.
    He banged on the door because he couldn't use the smartlock code properly.
    

• Considered Actions:

  • We plan to serve him with a notice to vacate.
  • We are considering having a constable with us when we serve him the notice.
    

• Questions:

  • Should we just give him warnings considering that his actions may not improve?
    Should we involve an attorney now, even if eviction isn't immediate?
  • How can we best protect ourselves from potential retaliation and property damage?
  • How can we prove that any damage is caused by this specific tenant, given multiple residents in the property?
    Do you have attorneys you can recommend?
    
    We haven't documented with dates and times all the incidents that happened. We will start to do that now.
    We haven't discussed with him any of these issues for fear of his irrational responses. 
    
    Leeling
    
    
    
    

Hi all,
My tenant's lease expires on December 31, 2024, and converts to a month-to-month tenancy with a $150 rent increase. She informed me on December 1st that she was expecting a job offer requiring a January move-out, which she received on December 12th. Should I charge her a prorated amount of the original rent or the increased month-to-month rent for January?

Leeling

Bigger Pocket Community,

I need advice from rent-by-the-room owners and Texas lawyers.

Quick introduction. I own a property in Austin (3 Bed 2 Bath). I was doing LTR but decided to renovate to do STR. To pay for the renovation, we did a cash out refinance. As a result, we need about 3.2k per month for mortgage + property taxes. After STR wasn't stable enough, we pivoted to Rent by the Room. With all three rooms rented, we make about 2.9k per month.

Now that you are all caught up, at the moment all three rooms are rented. Tenant James (fake name) is in the master. Two rooms are side by side. Tenant Steve (fake name) is male 30. He lost his job and his mother is currently paying for the rent. His lease ends on Dec 5th. Tenant Sophie (fake name) is female 40.

Steve moved in first. When James moved into the master, he complained about Steve playing music too loud. They worked it out mostly by having Steve move his stereo from the living room to the bedroom and he doesn’t play music when James is home. Then Sophie moved into the room next to James. Since then, she has been complaining about him playing music too loud. I tried to mediate by setting dB of 40avg and 50 peak at night and 50avg and 60peak during the day.

Sophie sends measurements of music over the established threshold and Steve complains about the validity of the app’s measurements. They disagree when they want the house cleaned as I didn’t establish house rules assuming they are adults and would figure it out. In the house group chat, Sophie asked for a rotating cleaning schedule. Steve disagreed. He would say she has mental disorders and anxiety issues in the group chat. Mostly being condescending, uncooperative and rude in a “joking” manner as he puts it.

In the past three days the issues have gotten worse. At night, he was playing his music loud again. Steve happened to come out while she was getting a reading and cussed her out. She felt threatened and called the cops as well as stating in the group chat that it was unacceptable. Steve belittled her and mocked her after the police called him. They have continued to argue over the group chat.

Friday the 19th was the final straw. Apparently, James walked over to measure the noise level and discovered Steve’s door was cracked open. At that time, he saw Steve in the adjacent bathroom with a partially opened door observing he had a knife to his own neck. James immediate reaction was that he feared Steve might be considering suicide. Rather than confronting Steve, he chose to retreat and reached out to me for advice. His mom believed it was just an innocent activity, and it was all a big misunderstanding. After James let me know and I called the cops to report Jame’s concern for Steve’s well being. Once Sophie heard about it, she packed up and left for a hotel for the night. The police determined it best to take Steve in for hospital observation. The hospital said they were not sure of his state of mind and chose to keep him for three days observation.

For additional context, we have attempted to mediate with the tenants regarding the sound issue. And I have issued Steve an official warning notice. While Steve expressed concerns about measurement metrics, I am still receiving what I believe are credible noise complaints. The issue that concerned me the most has been the level of animosity and condescending communication that has been occurring between Steve and Sophie while trying to address issues. This has been disruptive to peaceful living conditions and I was just about to send a comply or quit notice to Steve when this situation with the police and hospitalization occurred. Now my desire is to give a notice to vacate to Steve. I have run into conflicting information about whether the minimum amount of time I am required to give, 3 days versus 30 days. I would like to give him a 3-day notice to vacate if possible. Is it legal to do so? (Question 1)

My friends expressed concerns about Steve potential retaliation, maybe in ways that I might not be able to directly identify him for (e.g. causing damage to appliances in the common area and I would have no way of knowing who did it.) While I understand the concerns and are worried about it, I feel it’s probably less of a risk to let him out than to keep him in. What would you all advise? (Q2)

Another question I have is that since Steve broke the terms of the lease by affecting the other tenants’ “peaceful and quiet enjoyment of the property”, is he obligated to pay the rest of the rent even though he will be vacating the property before the end of the lease? (Q3)

Security deposit is another area that I need clarifying on. Am I obligated to return the deposit (minus any that goes to cover damages beyond normal wear and tear) even though he breaks the lease? (Q4)

I have talked to friends to consider all options as this just happened. I am reaching out to the bigger pockets community for advice. I want to give Steve a notice to vacate but am looking for more experienced input as this is my first Rent by the room eviction. If any lawyers or Rent by the room owners have time for a quick 15-20 minute chat, I would truly appreciate it.

Thanks for reading. Sorry for the lengthy post. All advice is appreciated.

Tl:DR

Rent-by-the-room tenants are unable to get along because of music being played too loud. Cops have been called twice. One tenant will leave if the other will stay. Need lawyer advice for notice to vacate and other issues.

Hi all,
We renovated our south Austin house after evicting a tenant 3 years ago in 2022. Then we experimented doing AirBnb for 1.5 years. Due to high interest rate and almost $10k of property tax, we negative cash flow over $10k in 2023. My current AirBnb tenant will be moving out June 5th, 2024. We want to experiment with renting by rooms.

Here are the pricing we set:

Master 150 sq ft (private bathroom) $1100
Room 2 120 sq ft (shared bathroom) $1000
Room 3 100 sq ft (shared bathroom, 2 walk-in closets) $950

Here are the pictures of the house:
https://austin.craigslist.org/roo/d/austin-spacious-newly-re...

We listed the house on Zillow, Craigslist, FB Marketplace, Roomster, Roomies, TurnoTenant (which broadcasted to over 10 other platforms), Avail, FB groups, etc. It was around early May, and though there are traffic, no lease has been signed. It's close to a month now. I struggled with pricing the rent because my house is furnished and newly renovated with all new appliances, but it's shared space.

Since this is the first time we are experimenting renting by rooms, we are not familiar with the market. Is it a disadvantage to have shared space? Should we have lower rents compared to empty apartments?

We also struggled with the issue of allowing pets. When we were renting out the whole house, pets were allowed with no issues. But now with multiple tenants, is allowing pets a good idea? What if the pets of different tenants don't get along?

Looking forward to any advice for my situation!

My 12th grade son just finished his SAT and he will have one month off from school in December. We are wondering if he should go ahead and sign up for a real estate course. Our family has a few rental properties but would like to invest more in the future. My son has interest in real estate investing as well but probably won't become an agent himself. Are there benefits for being an investor in the long run to have passed the real estate course? 

New landlord here. I recently purchased a fourplex in Killeen, TX. Asking price was $350K, but after negotiation, it went down to $333K. Down payment $87K. Each 2/1 unit is close to 800 sq ft. The neighborhood has about 30 other fourplexes, and is a safe neighborhood. My For Rent sign drew many inquiries from people with under 600 credit scores, and a few are section 8. The rent comps nearby range from $700 - $985.

Unit A has an existing tenant, and I increased the rent to $830 with only newly painted wall and vinyl floor.

I spent $16K renovated unit C to STR standard except without changing the existing appliances, and is currently renting for $950. Contractor worked fast, and he only took two weeks to finish.

Unit B will be vacant starting in Nov, and I am needing help in deciding if I should renovate or not, and if I do, how much renovation to do?

Unit D will be vacant starting in mid-Nov, and original plan is to renovate it to STR standard and to do STR for an experiment.

The pictures in unit C came out stunning and I listed it for $1000 just to see if there's any takers. Many people inquired on Zillow but none panned out after one week. 

It takes $16K to renovate each unit to STR standard (rent $950-$1000), but around $11K to paint and have new vinyl floor (rent $830-$900). How do I go about determining if I should put $16K or $11 into unit B?

I did some calculation below (assuming all four units have the same renovation). (Did I even do it right?) Should I do another calculation with partial renovation and compare the cash on cash return with the return of the full renovation?

Hi all,
I am relatively new to BP. I am looking for an accountant who is familiar with real estate STR investment. I tried searching on the forums for accountant recommendations. How crucial is it to get an accountant who is local?
I am based in Austin, TX. Any accountant who serves this area, please reach out to me.

Leeling

Hi, has anyone used PM services offered by TX Vacation Rentals? They charge 16% to 18%. When I tried googling, I couldn't find any reviews.

After reading up all the negative reviews on Evolve and RedAwning,  I am reaching out to companies more local. The owner is also a real estate agent and I am in the process of reaching out to him.

Leeling