All Forum Posts by: Colton W.

Hello, a tenant of mine is asking me to reimburse them for a new toilet seat they bought because the screw on their current one broke. Is this my responsibility? If it was a new tenant I would cover the cost of the toilet seat, but this tenant has been renting for several years. 

Thanks,

I am not excited about the transition to Apartments.com. I'm a HUGE fan of Cozy and liked that it was marked as always being free for landlords. Now they will charge you if you have more than 20. This transition to Apartments.com means that they are not keeping their word. I understand the Apartments.com will be more "powerful" but Cozy works just fine for me. If I want to use new features we should be allowed to choose to use them by paying for them separately, not forced out because we don't like it. 

I'm not excited about this merger. Cozy was billed as free forever for landlords with no strings attached. Now it looks like they are going to start charging if you have more than 20 units. I am definitely a big fan of Cozy and have recommended it to all of my landlord friends. I'll probably be looking for a new service if they don't honor the free promise to their long time users. 

I own multi family units and I tell all my tenants, even the good ones, that I always charge the late fee. It's the fair thing to do. All my tenants know that they are getting the same treatment as their neighbors, and it saves me a lot of headache because everyone has the same policy. 

I recently had a tenant that decided they want to break their lease and move to another city for treatment. It is kind of a coincidence because the deadline for renewing their lease was July 31st, 2017. The current lease ends on September 30th, 2017.  It is July 27th and they just told me today that they will not be renewing their lease and that they will moving out on July 31st. How do I move forward with this lease break? Do I stick to the rules and bill the tenant? Or should I suck it up and take the financial hit? 

Hello, I have an applicant that recently filed for bankruptcy due to a divorce. Is it wise to rent to a tenant like this? They are a former police officer and a manager for a local Security Firm, so that seems comforting. 

Typically I require a double security deposit for people with low credit and I never approve anyone with a bankruptcy in the past 10 years. Recently I heard about a program called LeaseLock and I was thinking of testing it. Any advice on 1. Approving the tenant above, and 2. Using LeaseLock as a condition to approve the tenant?

I saw this too! 

I spent some time on it and created a workflow that automatically creates an excel document for allowing me to book my mileage.

All I have to do his hit a button on my homescreen, enter my mileage from the previous trip, pick between personal or rental and it adds a new line to  the excel file.  Previously I used to used Siri to make a note, and then I would have to manually type the information into excel. Here is the video I found that was helpful to set this system up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWj69U8rVHY

I like the idea of the share availability for showings. However, I recently just started putting a lock on the door and having the prospect send me a picture of their driver's license. After I can verify their identity I give them the code to the unit. This worked out extremely well my first time, I had 5 showings one weekend when I was out of town and one of those showing ended up renting the unit.

What if a property is bought at a master commissioner sale that is still occupied by the current tenants? What happens to the security deposits for those tenants. I am assuming the old landlord as spent the money because they keep going back to the property and trying to collect rent in cash.

I decided to keep the policy as is and told the tenant that since we had moved the due date back for her before and she still paid late, I doubted that moving her late due date would help. Also, to avoid having a multiple due dates for tenants we want to stick to the same policy for everyone.

She has since told me that she wants a lot of little maintenance issues fixed. (broken toilet seat, and other issues the previous landlord did a half job of.) Although her response is confrontational and a little stressful, I guess this is actually a good thing. I am now finding out what is wrong with the property, and I am raising extra money to fix the problems. Sounds like a win win solution.

@Kim Meredith Hampton, I am pretty sure that the old property manager was more lenient. She complains some about differed maintenance left from the previous landlord(s), nit picky things (ex. drawer doesn't catch on cabinet) nothing major. Her complaints have risen since I enforce the late fees and I don't think the previous landlord did.