All Forum Posts by: Luke M.

I'm going through my first eviction in Ohio since we started rentals in late 2011 (not including renting part of my personal home). My attorney is charging $150 for filing and the eviction hearing, and another $150 for the damages hearing. I guess it takes a lot of time to sit in Muni court waiting for our case to come up (and I experienced it once before for a property we were buying, lol but what do you expect from the government...). Hopefully it will be less because they ended up moving out, but as @Michaela G. said, the real cost is lost rent and damages. Thankfully they left the place with little damage, but being the nice guy I am (and that is changing), I'm already out 2 months rent plus January until I re-rent (or sell) it. I hope our lease is solid; I just sent an email to the attorney with damages amounts. We are re-painting and filling in hundreds of nail holes, but that wasn't due to these tenants.

@Tiger M. lol. Not to go off on a tangent on this thread, but yeah I'm probably still too nice. But, it is about money, too. I charge a $50 late fee and try to get tenants to pay at least half when they ask me if they can be late. Unfortunately, these tenants I'm evicting kept giving me a good story, and I bought it. 2 months later, I'm wondering if I'll see any of the money... maybe I'll post about it or see if there is an applicable thread already so that this one doesn't go off topic.

I have about 10 rentals, but if we get many more, I'll be looking into automating it. I think I'll check out some of the payment systems mentioned here if we outgrow our current system. I like to think big but right now it is manageable as long as I stay on top of it (that's my new year's resolution lol).

P.S. I believe humor is a necessity in life. Glad I made someone chuckle.

I just recently figured out that I can view the deposit slips online, so I'm telling tenants to write their name or address on the deposit slips. No more need to make different rents, like $750, 751, 752.

Also, one tenant wired some money one time and then I got charged for the fee. I had it reversed, but they won't reverse it again. I'll have to address that in the lease from now on.

P.S. just now going through my first eviction, too. "No more Mr. Nice Guy", but I still am probably too nice to my tenants. ;)

What are you looking for? I used to work in Erie (unrelated to real estate). I'm in the southern part of Ohio but am still interested. Feel free to send me a colleague request or contact me... maybe something will work out, maybe not.

Ok. I guess I don't understand, in Ohio we have to provide name (i.e. LLC name) and address (I provide PO box). If someone asked me the name of the owner, I'd provide them the LLC name. After all it is public record. And I agree, Landlords and tenants should be upfront with each other.

I wouldn't say they "hide" their properties... more like a business decision and liability decision. Regardless, a tenant should have a contact name and number for a property manager. My tenants know my name and number even though our properties are in an LLC.

We did take a loss on one property, beautiful old house but someone had cut the knob and tube wiring at the box and electric alone would have cost $7k+ to make it safe... all for less than $50 scrap probably. I don't know how much drugs that will buy, but it was our second purchase. Live and learn. Unless I can test the electric before making an offer, or it would be easy to run new wiring, if it is knob and tube, I'll make a lowball offer, move on to the next property, or assume it has to be replaced and adjust my offer accordingly.

What has worked for me is to network with local people. Of course, being in a small market helps, but I'm on a first name basis with the manager at Carter Lumber, many employees at Lowes, Sherwin Williams, etc... Our main contractor knows a lot of people, so I always ask him when I need something done. One more reason I like investing in more rural communities.

Welcome from a couple hours east! I've found this forum to be a great resource. Glad to have more people near me on here!

Not necessarily. I know people born in the USA (with "native" parents) who don't have an SSN. I also know parents who specifically don't get a number for their kids but will let them decide when they turn 18 whether to get one or not.

If the rest of their application is good, I'd ask them about it or just accept them. Otherwise, keep the application fee (if you charge one) and move on to the next applicant.