All Forum Posts by: Maria S.

If my tenant asks to pro-rate the rent, I collect the full first month + deposit and give the credit for the second month.

For example, let's say the rent is 600. You meet the tenant and they sign the lease on the 10th. You collect 1,200 and a signed lease at the same time. Next month, they pay 426 (credit of 174 for Jan 1 - Jan 9) and they pay the full amount thereafter.

@Amanda Thompson

She told you that the old man had her removed from the house - if your minimum criteria say anything like "no evictions" or "no recent evictions", then she doesn't meet them.

If anything gets ripped out of the wall, like toilet paper holders, run a brace between 2 studs and attach it to a brace if there isn't a handy stud to attach it.

The part that you're missing is to build/rebuild your reserves and improve your credit. You need to be able to swing a major repair or vacancy without an immediate hit to your credit.

You need to have an honest conversation with yourself about why you're doing this. A couple of possible answers are:

1. An additional income stream - in this case, you will need to work on optimizing your profit. You will need to define your process. What is a deal-breaker? Do you serve notice at 1 unauthorized animal? Two? Four? Or when you can smell them outside the front door? When do you serve pay or quit notice? One week late? One month? Do you serve notice immediately if you don't hear from the tenant before the due date, but allow a payment plan if they ask you before the rent is due? You need to figure out the rules, write them down and then follow them.

2. A charity - if you're losing sleep over enforcing simple rules, then this is not the right business for you. You will need to figure out your exit strategy - either sell the properties or donate them to a housing-related charity that is more prepared to provide this type of help.

An obvious takeaway is that you cannot care more about someone's ability to keep a roof over their head than they themselves care.

Let the tenants know that Community Action will pay their back rent plus 3 months' future rent if they have been impacted by COVID. The forms are fairly simple and can be done online (scanned/mailed). HOWEVER, the tenant needs to initiate it. You need to start the eviction and only stop/delay when you have proof that they have started this process.

I used Codelocks CL5510 from GoKeyLess, about 400. It allows both card access and code access. The tenants get 1 card per person on lease. I provided a code to the dispatch so that police | fire |ems can enter. I bought a Salsbury front-loading mailbox and put that outside. That seemed to solve the issue. The locks have held up well. You can also have a Wifi Gateway for about 150 that allows you to remotely lock/unlock the door.

Bees can become an issue in the fall/early winter when they are more protective when people walk in/across their flight path. In this case, the recommended solution is to install a 6 ft tall privacy fence to redirect the flight path up. I suggest that you put something in your addendum that makes the tenant responsible for mitigation.

Have the electric company take a look at your service. You may need updating all the way to the street with new shutoffs, and service lines, etc. If this is the case, this would explain the lack of interest before.