All Forum Posts by: Maria S.

In my lease, there is a section called RENTAL PROPERTY: 

The Landlord agrees to rent to the Tenant the property described as a(n) single-family / detached located at [address], excluding the detached garage, which will be referred to in this Lease as the “Leased Premises.”

I hope this helps.

Try to make the building inconvenient for drug sales, etc. Ask for increased patrols in the area and install a camera system in the common areas. Remove the problem tenants as fast as possible even if it means cash for keys.

Lol! They are saving you some hauling-away fees :)

I am currently renovating an apartment where *everything* is hot-glued. Backsplash - hot glued, sink - hot glued to the wall (instead of caulk), sink drain pipe - hot glued, mirror - hot glued. At least it pops clean off.

There are several options to explore:

1. Where are you advertising? I noticed that my market seems to be pulling away from Zillow and towards Facebook Marketplace. Find out where the other landlords are advertising.

2. You mentioned that you bought from a "slumlord"? Does your place have a reputation? If that is the case you might need to run with lower rent than the comps until word spreads that the place is under new management and that you take care of the problems. Make sure your ads mention the new management.

3. Do you have any problematic inherited tenants that might be driving desirable candidates away?

@Jim K., I see your point. I've had 2 evictions so far and in both cases, the tenants have been extremely obstinate, majorly unreasonable and, they all have been pathological liars.

@Bjorn Ahlblad, the question is purely academical for me  - I've seen posts mentioning it and I want to learn how it has been done before.

I've seen several posts mentioning that eviction moratoriums put a wrench into landlords' risk management strategies.

I am in a state where it takes roughly 1 month from filing for an eviction to the bailiffs' removing the tenants from the property.

How would you price the risk of accepting a tenant with eviction or a low credit in that situation? Let's say the perfect tenant pays 450 in rent + 450 refundable deposit, an eviction costs about 900 in lawyer costs/fees and you lose about 2 months of rent (rent due on the 1st, file on the 15th and they are out by the 15th next month). What would you expect a tenant with eviction to bring to the table in order to consider them?

@Nathan Gesner, could you please share the specific language?

Do you have specific language in the lease regarding frozen pipes and keeping pipes from freezing?

Here is the specific situation - one of my tenants in SFR kept the house too cold (admitted to keeping it at 66F). It seems that he opted not to run the furnace (gas) and instead used space heaters. The main water pipe in the crawlspace runs along the heat ducts and that along with the insulation protects it from freezing.

When the pipe froze (single digits week) I went and thawed it out for him and left a heat light to keep it from freezing again. I've had graduate students in that house for 2 years before him with colder winters and never had this issue before.

So do you have specific language in the lease or in a separate document outlining what steps to take to keep the pipes from freezing?

If the inspector found a bedbug, the condo most likely has a bedbug problem.

You can ask for pest control reports for the condo - they will tell you the date of the application and what the targeted pests are.

You can buy a bedbug trap and check for them yourself.

You can contact pest control companies in the area and see what they say it would take to eradicate them. In my experience, with tenants in the apartment, it takes 3-4 applications a month apart to be totally rid of them. The tenants have to follow the pre-treatment/post-treatment procedures to the letter. The tenants have to be out for 8 hours after the treatment. In another, empty apartment it took 1 application.