All Forum Posts by: Louie Gabriel

I would treat these two like roommates, since they have no history of living together.

Some state has specific laws about roommates. You need to learn what those laws are. For one, you must consider combined income as your level to qualify on income.

I have it in my written criteria that if one applicant fails the screening, the whole group is rejected.

Maybe you can reject because one has no landlord references. I would reject because one has no income, but you can't do that in California if the other has enough to cover the rent.

Students don't have jobs, but they have income from somewhere, otherwise, they couldn't be going to school.

See about a parent co-signer for the student.

First time living together in a romantic relationship is pretty iffy. They may quickly decide that they don't actually like each other.

If you think the one with the good credit is fronting for the other and doesn't intend to live there, make sure he knows that he will be on the lease and you will go after him for all rent and all damages, whether he lives there are not.

I have my personal account....then I have one business checking account. All the rents, and all my agent commission checks go into it. I think having an account for each property is overkill most likely. That is with the caveat that you own the properties in your own name. If each property is owner by individual llc's, then each one would need their own accounts.

The coliform is the biggest issue, but a shock treatment with chlorine bleach is generally all you need to take care of that. An activated carbon filter will take care of the color, as that's just caused by dissolved organic material. A reverse osmosis system (for your drinking water taps only) will take care of the sodium, it's not a huge concern unless you have high blood pressure or on a salt restricted diet. The iron content is at it's limit, and you'll get red stains on anything where water sits as it oxidizes with exposure to air but a water softener will take care of that.

I use Paypal for some of my tenants. Its free and easy. Tenants normally already have a PayPal and I just provide the email address for my PayPal account. They transfer the funds and I see it immediately. Once it clears (a few days at most), we transfer to our bank account.

The potential consequences of him ruining my business are just too great especially if I knew and rented to him anyway. He might be rehabilitated; but for me, it is a no.

Why would you ever charge a renewal fee? The entire point of getting a renewal is to save money on vacancy and turnover expenses.

Even better, write an automatic renewal clause into the lease so that if the tenant doesn’t provide 30 days notice to vacate before the end of the lease term, it automatically renews for another year.

Kind of tricky. If someone gets injured they might try to turn it on you. You also don’t want to mention that to any tenants because you might give them the idea. Speaking to an attorney might be your best bet for guidance. Any update to your lease contracts can avoid this for you in the future. If you have a lease template that you yourself have not read (most people don’t) you might be surprised what you find there and may have a clause that addresses this for you. No lease contact signed, then use it as a lesson learned and adjust accordingly.

Section 8 will base their payment on fair market value. I think by "voucher", you are probably referring to a table on their web site showing what they might pay. If that is the case, that is an upper limit, not "the payment." In my area, the housing authority says they never pay that and hate that it is setting an incorrect expectation. I don't know if they pay it or not.

You can get a higher payment if you include utilities, but it might not benefit you. The housing authority will calculate what utilities should cost and include that consideration in the assistance payment which could mean higher rent to you. Unfortunately, your tenant has no reason to conserve, so why not turn the heat up to 80 and leave the window open for fresh air? I wouldn't include utilities.

The bank feed functionality is better in QBO, and the app connectivity is amazing. As another user mentioned, I also find it more searchable. Obviously there are areas that could be better that QBD does better but those are slowly being updated in QBO.

Intuit is putting a lot more development resources into QBO and want to eventually discontinue QBD support.

Consult your contract and applicable state / local laws for rules to follow.

State law probably specifies minimum notice required, and if lease was done by a RE Agent or Attorney, would guess it complies with applicable state laws.