All Forum Posts by: Logan Gilbert

This is for an apartment complex I moved out of in July. I paid to have the carpets professionally cleaned, and cleaned the bathroom spotless (except for a tiny amount of grunge in tub). I'm upset because they are charging me $100 to "clean my bedroom" I have pictures of the room being spotless before I left... 

I'm curious as to what repercussions they can do to me or my credit over an insignificant cleaning charge. This complex has very shady management and ownership. 

Hi all, 

I was wondering if you can legally charge Tennants for cleaning and painting fees on move out? or I'm thinking these tasks are the responsibility of the landlord/owner of the property. 

I guess a simple solution would be to keep the security deposit if move out fees were mentioned in the lease... Any advice is appreciated! 

Also I am in Texas, which is a landlord friendly state. 

@Zachary Foust I agree with your statement on millennials, we all want to be millionaires but don't want to work for it.

Everything is and has been given to us because most of our parents worked hard to do that, and don't want their kids to struggle like they did. I think this may have caused a lack of motivation in our age group. I have noticed very few millennials are motivated to do any work really. We are accustomed to coasting by in our lives, staying comfortable and not putting yourself out there. I'd love to find a way to help people my age find motivation, and work towards something they love to do!

Great post, this got me thinking!

@Brian Garlington

Thanks for the input Brian! That was my original idea using the month to month lease to test the relationships before signing a longer term one. Don't want to be stuck with a horrible roommate for a year... Didn't know if it was a common thing or not, other people tend to shy away from month to month for turnover reasons I'm guessing.

I might just have to check the book out.. a lot of members here reference it quite a bit! Thanks Brian

@Dawn Brenengen

Hmm thank you for clearing up the maintenance, I guess it wouldn't be fair to charge someone for that. I just know living my previous apartment they tried to charge us for the fridge breaking multiple times, trying to say it was our fault... We eventually told them we weren't paying a dime in rent until they replaced the fridge.

I planned on taking parts from my old contract and having an attorney review my work. I office with some and they will review it for free (or at a discount).

@Jim Y.

This is the fun way of House hacking. My mom suggested I try this way as well. I'm pretty good with my hands, so I wouldn't mind trying to do what you did. Just live in one room, and work on the others every night. It'll be just like living in a college dorm again.

Haha do you have pictures of the kitchen in the garage, sounds like a good laugh! Glad to hear you toughed it out though and made a lot of money for your family in the process.

@Nicole Sorensen Hull Thanks for the great advice! I just hear a lot of people talk about house hacking and they seem very casual about it. But not the case with you. 

I completely agree with you. But I can see mini bubbles existing. For instance where I live, houses appreciated 10-16% from last summer alone. My house went from 305k to 355k. This is primarily driven by demand for housing and job growth, but I still think quite a lot of property is overvalued here.

House-Hacking will most likely be my first vehicle of RE investing, it seems like a great way to get started with so many people having success doing this. I had some concerns about it, hoping BP can help me figure this out.

1. Do you prefer to rent the rooms out to friends/acquaintances OR do you rent them to strangers? I can see both having pros and cons.

2. A problem I can see coming up eventually is maintenance. For example: the brand new kitchen sink breaks. Say my friend used it last and claims it "was not him who broke it" when obviously I know it was him. (How do I go about getting him to pay for this if he refuses? Do I attempt to fine, evict, argue, put terms in lease, etc.) I can see this being a problem that will no doubt come up.

3. I have a lease copy from my old college apartment, can I copy majority of this? I of course will make changes to it to fit my needs, but is this legal for me to basically copy/paste this? (I think yes)

4. I want this to be as professional as I can make it, how do you typically structure lease terms? 1 year, 6 month, month to month, etc.

My plan is to offer Month-to-Month, 3- month, and 6-month leases. And of course I will charge a little more per month for the shorter term lease. I will do Longer term if need be, but with no big discounts. All advice is greatly appreciated!

People aren't going to stop moving to DFW anytime soon.. there's too many jobs here. Therefore I personally don't see values going down in the near future, might as well buy something now with these low interest rates.