All Forum Posts by: Marc Izquierdo

@Kyle Sullivan

This sounds extremely similar to my girlfriend and I's situation. We're also about 80% of the way there and intent to finish it up after we finish working on a current rental property. We have contacted about 3 banks about getting a HELOC on an investment property and also on the SFH that we live in and are fixing up. Of the three banks that we contacted, one did a drive by appraisal, the other said they would come in and appraise it, and the other said they would do a drive by appraisal.

In your case, and in our case with our SFH, the drive by appraisal would work well. We live on plywood floors and they appraised it as if it were finished because they only drove by. So if you could get a drive by appraisal and have them come up with a number high enough, you might be able to make that work.

Unfortunately for my rental properties, I want them to come in and see the updates rather than just drive by because the drive bys tend to just give you a "middle of the road" appraisal.  My rentals after they've been rehabbed look great and would appraise for much higher than a drive by (based on market comps).  During a drive by they have no idea whats inside, does it have central AC, washer and dryer, etc? 

All in all, contact a few banks and see what appraisal process they use.  Good luck!

@Sharon Rosendahl Yea I may have to somehow build it into the rent moving forward.  I'll have to think about it since my properties are duplexes I appreciate the input.  Can they partially pay the recurring rent amount?  I can't remember but I believe that is all or nothing.  

@Sharon Rosendahl yea it doesn’t look like you can manually adjust their rent each month.  When you set up their lease you have to put in an amount (not zero) and then that amount gets charged to the tenant each month.  The only thing I thought to do would be to make their rent payment $1.00 and then each month go in and add a bill for the total rent+utilities (minus the 1 dollar).  However, they can still partially pay which I don’t like.

Doesn’t look like anyone else is having this issue I guess.

Hi everyone

I am currently managing my duplexes using RUBS for water and sewer.  I do the math each month and send my tenants a “rental invoice” which includes how much they owe in billed back utilities plus their base rent.  Obviously each month, the total amount due for rent changes based on their water and sewer bills.  

I use Cozy to manage these properties.  I put their base rent into Cozy and it automatically charges the tenants that base amount each month.  I also add a bill into Cozy for their utility payment.  So on the first of the month, the tenant pays the recurring base rent and the manually entered one time payment for their utility bills.

My concern is about partial payment of rent.  I don’t like to accept partial payment.  I want all or nothing just incase I have to evict.  I don’t want partial payment to muddy the water.

What if a situation occurred where the tenant paid the recurring base rent but not their utilities in Cozy?  In that case they haven’t paid their full rent amount and I can post my notice to pay or vacate but I accepted partial payment.  Are they entitled to the time to live in the property that they paid for?  I would like to avoid this hairy situation in the future but cant figure out a way in Cozy to have the full amount (base rent + RUBS) as an all or nothing payment.

I was thinking about making their recurring rent $1.00 in Cozy (can’t make it zero), and each month manually inputting the full amount (minus $1.00).  

I was interested if anyone else had this issue and what you have done to combat it?

I’ve been using RUBS for water and sewer and have been doing the calcs myself on the duplex I own.  It’s been good so far and I plan on using it on the duplex I’m currently renovating.  However, this is a bit of a laborious task each month.

Each month I get the bill for water from the month before.  I take that and split the bill based on occupancy and how many days the unit was occupied by the tenant.  The first few months it takes some time but like anything, you develop a system and it goes pretty quick now.  

I wasn’t aware that companies handle this for you.  Might be worth looking into depending on what they charge.

Hi everyone,

I have what feels like my first eviction on the horizon and was looking for some good landlord tenant lawyer references.

My tenants were served the notice to pay or vacate on the 6th and have until the 16th to remedy the situation.  Naturally they have buried their heads and have not been responding to any form of communication so I feel that on the 17th, I will have to file for eviction.

If anyone could give some good references it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Marc

Hi everyone,

I was wondering when people bill their tenants for repairs.  By when I mean do you lump it into the upcoming rent, is it a separate bill, etc?  These repairs are repairs that resulted from tenants negligence or misuse.

Right now I’m lumping it into the next months rent as a bill back which isn’t an issue as the repairs have been 100 bucks or less.  What if a repair is large and is maybe 500+ that the tenant can’t afford in the upcoming month.  I don’t think that billing them in the next rent payment, them not being able to pay it, then giving them notice to pay or vacate sounds right.  I just wanted to get other people’s opinion on how they handle it.

Thanks in advance!

Marc

Hi everyone,

I finished up the rehab on my first rental property at the end of February and am already having major issues with my new tenants (despite using the screening techniques taught in The Book on Managing Rental Properties) .  I caught them subletting (written agreement and all) to another couple.  Initially, my tenant called me and said that they had had guests over for a few nights to help them get back on their feet and now are refusing to leave.  I had the police go to the property and attempt to remove the guests.  The officer called me and said that the guests had been living there for about 2 weeks at that point (he responded to a call a few weeks ago at my property and saw them living there).  He told me that they had established residency, he could not remove them, and that I would have to evict them.  After discussions with the guests and my tenants, I discovered that they were actually subletting and had paid a security deposit to my tenant.  I went to the property and gave written notice to the guests to vacate.  15 days will be Wednesday, April 10th.  After the 15th day, if they have not vacated, I will file for eviction.  I recently talked to the guests and they said that they will not leave because my tenant owes them their money back.  I told them that I'll still be filing for eviction on the 11th if they have not left (passing legal fees back to my tenant).  The guests said that they will be getting a lawyer as this is "not right".  I relayed to my tenant that it is likely more beneficial for them to pay whatever money is being requested instead of paying the cost of an eviction.  That is where I left it at this point.  I was wondering if anyone else has run into something like this and what advice you may have.  I'm shocked that someone can walk into my house, not on a lease, and "establish residency".  I have no idea who these people are and just want them gone!  I'll deal with the repercussions that my tenant will be facing after the guests leave.

Thanks in advance!

Marc   

@Jason D.

Thanks for the input.  If I had multiple applicants, that would definitely be an easy way to deny people.  Unfortunately I only have on applicant (co-applicants) right now so saying I chose someone more qualified doesn’t work for me here.  

So in a case where there are two or more applicants, if one of the applicants is denied but the others meet my minimum standards but since the one was denied, the combined income of the approved applicants doesn’t meet the income requirement, do you also send a denial letter to the “approved” applicants?  How is a situation like that handled since I can’t say to the approved applicants “you were approved but one of the other applicants was denied” (because then I’m giving away personal information)