All Forum Posts by: Luke Ostergaard

@Luke Ostergaard I've been pleasantly surprised by Avail. It works pretty seamlessly, their e-sign feature is very slick, and their auto-generated payment reminders and notifications are fantastic for staying organized and on top of all the payments. The only issue I've found so far is that I have 2 people on a particular lease and it wants to invoice BOTH of them for the payment. So, for example, the rent is $1350 which tenant #1 paid. Instead of marking it as paid, Avail keeps sending notices to tenant #2 saying her payment is overdue. I'm 100% sure this is a setting I need to fix on my end. I just haven't figured it out yet.

I use Avail to generate my state specific lease agreement and to collect payments. Guests pay a deposit through Avail then receive notification when the rent is due each month. 

Hi Luke!

I take payment month by month but when a new tenant signs their lease I require a small deposit that's a portion of the rent and rent is due 3 days before move in. I recommend using a software or talking to an attorney to get a MTR specific lease. I use Avail and I have a few modifications: utilities are paid entirely by me, I list out the furniture that is in the house and have a clause where damage to the furniture will result in a deduction of the security deposit, and a utility max letting guests know that if the bill is over a certain $ amount that the difference will come out of their security deposit.

I have seen other investors include occupancy maximums too, especially for rent by the room MTRs. 

@Luke Ostergaard - definitely more reasonable to collect rent on a monthly basis. You'll get some people on furnished finder who will want to rent for more than just a month or 2. Only modification I made from LTR lease to MTR was that utilities are included. I ask for a lesser deposit amount for MTR than LTR as well, as that's what the other listings in my market have. 

Month-by-month. If it's a 6+ month stay, you're asking them to come up with thousands upfront, which isn't reasonable. 

I don't know that we'll be making many modifications to our lease that aren't term-related. Some clauses stating they're responsible for furniture damage, that any inventory missing will be charged, and some tweaks to what we're responsible for vs. the tenant. But I don't see a lot of major differences needed. That being said, we haven't sat down with our lease to make the necessary amendments, so I'm sure there's plenty I'm not thinking about. I'm eager to see responses from others.