All Forum Posts by: Mahmuda L.

When you are confused about holding onto your out of state rental property or selling it, which professionals help you decide the actions best for you? I am wondering if there is any professional paid consulting service for this matter who can suggest any personal strategy suited for my situation?

Philadelphia has a very long line of getting approved for vouchers. Their waitlist has been closed since 2013. I have had couple families asking me if I have section 8 for this house. I have been reading articles on the pros and cons. Looks like it's not a good idea for landlords to accept section 8 housing. Once voucher starts coming, it's low risk, But getting the first payment might take long time. Even the property managers might be discouraged in dealing with section 8. I have to actually ask this company but most likely they don't want it either.

 I like the high and low risk factor. That's a good way to look at it

Thank you so much for your insights. These gave me a lot more to think about. My property is C type property at best. Well maintained but 100 year old. Inspection said it looked like 20 year old property. I am not in position to advertise and lease myself so need to rely on management company. The listing rent is 2400 for this house. Having 3x rent for monthly income is already a lot. So 4x won't lead me to anyone. It in in a student area but families nearby are middle class mostly if not lower-middle class. Students are already starting their semester so family is the main target. The company gave me good references for maintenance before. So, I was thinking of having a 2 month leasing contract with them. And if they can lease in this 2 month, I was thinking of handing it over to their management. I hope this company doesn't lease just about someone and decide not to manage. I don't know if it's better option to sign management contract instead to avoid this risk. The reason I did not want management contract is if this house is empty for next two months, I am not comfortable keep advertising it. I have someone who can rent room and was gonna default to her if this way of doing it does not work out after 2 months.

About the housing law, not only that I can't have a min credit score, I can't reject someone for not paying rent/utilites during covid (basically last 2.5y). That pretty much covers most of the 4y timeframe for eviction screening allowed. This is such a tough time. I am not open to accepting section 8 tenants either. But previously some section 8 showed interest. The law allows criminal background check, and check for on-time rent payment history. Credit history doesn't reflect rent payment history, there might be additional app for those. And I have to ask if this company use any of those measure.  

I can have first, last and 1 month security which will be a lot for someone to bring anyways. Is it a good idea to have a video call as owner before PM decides to send someone a lease to sign? Or will it be too much interfering? Their leasing contract says, I will have to pay them 1 month rent as leasing fee when they secure a lease but if I reject someone who meets the criteria and is willing to pay rent, I will still have to pay them 1 month leasing fee. I don't know if it would be ideal to have video call and I don't feel comfortable approaching that candidate for some unseen reason. 

I would appreciate any thoughts on this. Thank you.

I posted this forum before they informed me about this fair housing law. I haven't signed contract with the manager yet. I get how, if I was screening as landlord, I can lean toward no eviction. But if I sign the contract, I will have to comply with this law. It's not even company specific :/

This is the manager's clause:

Applicants to make 3x the monthly rent in verifiable net income, no landlord filings or evictions within the past 4 years, and must have a verifiable rental history.

Also manager can rent the property sight unseen. This would mean that the applicants have not physically been to the property but instead, have done a FaceTime tour or had a friend view on their behalf.

Is this a reasonable ask. Or should I add or remove something?

Thanks for the suggestions. My manager gave me this link and said, due to fair housing law, I can not screen tenants' eviction that happened before the last 4 years. Any thoughts?
10.13.21 Renters' Access Act Tenant Screening Guidelines (phila.gov)

My manager is asking if I (landlord) will allow prospective tenants with no eviction in past 4 years. I was thinking no evictions at all. But what's the acceptable and more common practice here? From a simple online search, it looks like background check goes 10 years back, so having no eviction is past 10 years is also acceptable right? I am trying to gauge what's the usual practice among the landlords here. Thanks!

Hi, I have a fully furnished old 5b2b rental property. I am finding it very challenging to rent the whole house given it's furnished. I spend about 20k furnishing this place. Property managers do want the business so they don't say no to this house. But when I sign contract, they start listing, it sits there with barely any showing. I noticed this because I had this house listed twice by two different companies over the last few years. I had to change the business model and rent furnished place to students myself. It became too much to handle so I want to rent to family again. I am not sure what to do with these furnitures. My family is abroad and plan to be here in few years. I was hoping to transfer those furnitures when I can buy a house for my family when they come. It also sounds very expensive to disassemble all these 20+ furnitures. I live out of state so can't do it myself. I have some relatives near the rental but it's too much to disassemble. And frankly where would I put these especially 5 mattresses. I considered storage at relative's place but apparently that became a bit touchy subject. I don't have any storage other than the basement of this rental. But that's accessible by tenant and I don't think it will be secured. I can't lock the basement door because there is main circuit board and in unit washer dryer. So I am simply stuck with these furnitures. I am losing potential rent that I need to pay mortgage given family don't usually want furnished house. And I don't feel comfortable losing all these furnitures. And selling them on marketplace is way too much for me given I am almost thousands of miles away from the house. It's hard to find management company who will remove these furnitures and compensate me for the price. I don't know what to do. Can you please suggest.

Hi, I have a fully furnished old 5b2b rental property. I am finding it very challenging to rent the whole house given it's furnished. I spend about 20k furnishing this place. Property managers do want the business so they don't say no to this house. But when I sign contract, they start listing, it sits there with barely any showing. I noticed this because I had this house listed twice by two different companies over the last few years. I had to change the business model and rent furnished place to students myself. It became too much to handle so I want to rent to family again. I am not sure what to do with these furnitures. My family is abroad and plan to be here in few years. I was hoping to transfer those furnitures when I can buy a house for my family when they come. It also sounds very expensive to disassemble all these 20+ furnitures. I live out of state so can't do it myself. I have some relatives near the rental but it's too much to disassemble. And frankly where would I put these especially 5 mattresses. I considered storage at relative's place but apparently that became a bit touchy subject. I don't have any storage other than the basement of this rental. But that's accessible by tenant and I don't think it will be secured. I can't lock the basement door because there is main circuit board and in unit washer dryer. So I am simply stuck with these furnitures. I am losing potential rent that I need to pay mortgage given family don't usually want furnished house. And I don't feel comfortable losing all these furnitures. And selling them on marketplace is way too much for me given I am almost thousands of miles away from the house. It's hard to find management company who will remove these furnitures and compensate me for the price. I don't know what to do. Can you please suggest.