All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

I remember uptown's lack of parking when I lived  there. This was around 2000? And I paid 60$/mo for an underground parking spot when one opened up in my building (there was a wait list). But I was right off of the lakes and I had to park blocks away. It was a pain. I owned a duplex in Linden Hills near Lake Harriet and rarely did my tenants use the garage there. They'd park in the street but it was easy to find a space on the street. 

If your particular street has decent off st parking space, perhaps it's not worth your while to add the garage. Plus, snow removal would be an added expense if you are also adding a driveway...

@Joe T. :

I get your situation. And, yes, sometimes it can be a slippery slope if you make exceptions and cater to every whim of nitpicky tenants. They  can get worse and more demanding. When I first started out, I had a tenant like this. 

The bad news is your tenant sounds like she might be annoying. The good news is as you continue to landlord you will learn from these situations how to deal with them. It's interesting to see a wide range in how other landlords would  deal with a tenant like this. 

Personally, I'm like you in that I want to keep things as professional as possible. I don't want to become a tenant's therapist or whipping boy or whatever. I am happy to make repairs and pride myself on offering very nice, well kept homes for tenants,  but I like to keep an arm's length with my tenants and not get overly involved with their personal lives. Not because I don't care, but just because I've noticed when I do this, it becomes a bit dramatic, exhausting, annoying and time consuming. Like a tenant soap opera. 

In your situation, since she never filled out the move in checklist, I'd head over there (doesn't have to be when her parents are there if that makes you uncomfy) with a checklist in hand, and do a walk through with her before you it gets any later. Go room by room and check off what is ok and any existing issues, date it and both of you sign it. If you see anything that needs swift attention, you can set up a time to repair. So now that's done. 

Then give her written repair request forms. In person. Slap your address and a postage stamp on some envelopes if necessary. Explain to her that you need a paper trail of some kind with regards to repairs that are non emergent, and she can fill these out and send them back to you and you will go from there. The forms should say what the repair request is for and if you feel it's a cosmetic issue that is not worth fixing, just check "no" on repair request form with a brief explanation of why you won't be repainting the place in her favorite color or adding windchimes or whatver the deal is and send it back. 

If the place is in working order and she dosent submit request forms for the cosmetic stuff, fine. If she does, you will have a paper trail that you want with descriptions of the requested repairs and why you turned them down. 

With the lost key, I have something in my lease that says I call a locksmith and the charge goes to them if this happ Ns. This was after I had a tenant call me after bars closed needing to get in and I was a new parent. It happened constantly and was exhausting. I don't always adhere to it, I go by the situation. A one time thing where someone's purse was stolen? I go unlock. A chronic key loser that's calling me at 2 AM a couple times a week? I enforce it.  Once they realize they will have to pay the locksmith, they keep better tabs on their keys! 

Tenants can be a challenge, but they are also valuable learning experiences. Next time you will know to do a walkthrough immediately with the tenant, etc. You learn as you go. Good luck! 

-M 

Hi Victor! 

I just joined this forum recently myself. Welcome to San Diego! There are a lot of interesting topics and tips from others on this site. Very useful! 

-Mary 

I'd check your local city ordinances on what you can ask of the tenants and what you can't. I have rentals in places where I cannot ask them to do yard work or shovel the snow without some sort of written agreement between me and the tenant and some consideration (rent reduction or $ in exchange for doing those services). 

I'd also consider what you trust your tenant to do with your property! Like "yard work" could turn into them making an eyesore overgrown, crazy garden out of your once meticulously landscaped front yard. Snow removal can also be tricky. For example, I have a rental in MN and I have to plow/shovel if a certain amount falls within a certain amount of hours. It snows a lot there, of course. I hired a snow removal company. I'd reduce rents to have a tenant do it, but I don't trust the tenants to do it promptly or well. Maybe they are out of town or at work, or just don't care. If someone slips and falls on some icy steps, and I didn't remove snow...uh oh...

So, I don't give my tenants any responsibilities that I'm not allowed to give them, of course, but also ones that would potentially hurt the value of my property or put me at risk if not done correctly or on time. 

For me, leases have become more restrictive over the years. Like tenant cannot _____ (paint, remove/attach fixtures) etc without written consent. They do crazy stuff sometimes! Ha. 

Perhaps a way around it is to buy a LT rental, discount the rent to the tenant because they have to be ok with the part in their lease that says they are ok with letting strangers room with them at any time. Then list the place on AirBnB and get rents from them AND your LT tenant. 

Ha! 😉

@Account Closed : Indeed. its happening all over. San Francisco is out, LA is out, Santa Monica is out, Santa Barbara is out, places in Oregon, Autin, Tx is in the news contemplating restrictions on short term rentals, Ocean City, Maryland, NYC, etc etc etc. Here, many areas that are not coastal are out, Coronado Island has had a minimum 30 day rental for a long time on all residences there, and San Diego is debating whether to severely restrict ST rentals. 

Vacation rentals by owner gained in popularity during the big market crash. Many faced a situation where they could not sell and long term rental rates would not cover their expenses. Vacation rentals were a solution to riding out the crash without falling into financial hardship/short sale/foreclosure. And communities and HOAs were okay to allow this so the condo building or community didn't become a bunch of foreclosures, vacant properties and properties not paying in their HOA dues, causing the buildings to fall into disrepair.

Now that the market has recovered, and so many people are doing this, it's kind of getting out of hand. As I said before, AirBnB coming on the scene was initially helpful, but now could ruin traditional vacation rentals for many. 

It seems an IPO is on the horizon for AirBnB, and they do not want regulatory issues hurting their stock prices. So they are helping to snuff out professional vacation rental owners and those renting a vacant, furnished place  and taking their listings off of the AirBnB site. Many VR owners have already been removed by AirBnB. At the same time, they are pushing to legalize "home sharing" where the owner/occupant lets out a portion of their home to a renter, as this is something their competitors have yet to offer. They are thus far successful in many of their attempts. 

Be careful out there! Honestly, I'd stick to LT cash flowing rentals, and if you want to rent them as vacation rentals if you are able, cool. Alternatively, shop in areas where this vacation rental debauchle has already been completed and so you KNOW you can operate a vacation rental and won't be shut down anytime soon. 

As a native Midwesterner, I know that RE trends tend to start on the coast and move in. So while you might not be seeing much regulation yet, just be aware that this is going on right now. 

Good luck, everyone! 

@Christopher B. Haha, small world! I bought all of my tile from The Tile Shop when I was in MN. The neighboring store had mosaic marble for $35/sq ft and The Tile Shop had better selection for about $10-14/sq ft. Plus they'd give me 20% off for contractor's discount. Great store. I wish we had one here. There is a pretty poor selection of tile, etc here in San Diego. I find I get better selection and pricing driving up to Orange County, which is a major pain. The Tile Shop made me a tile snob, too! And I didn't even work there! You must be an excellent tiler after working there. I have yet to trust myself with prepping the floor for tiling, but have become one with the wet saw. Ha.

Many homes here tile the living areas and then carpet the bathrooms! What is going on? It makes me crazy! I'm also getting used to engineered hardwood flooring. Many of the homes here are newer and built on concrete so real wood floors are not an option. I miss those 2 1/4 planks of the real deal. Speaking of tile, have you ever seen engineered wood "tiles" or pieces designed in a chevron pattern? I would love to install that in the home I'm working on but I haven't found anything like that. It would be cool to have chevron or herringbone pieces that click together like planks of engineered wood. 

@Christopher B. : That's where I got this tile! And the inspiration! The Tile Shop in Plymouth, MN. I miss that place.  Nice tile, good prices. Plus they taught me how to tile. They had free seminars every weekend. I would have never thought to use "fake" marble but it actually works well when blended with the real deal. Many thanks to The Tile Shop! 

Sorry for so many posts, but I thought this was very interesting and worth sharing: 

After posting I looked around online to see what is happening in other cities with regard to vacation rentals, and didn't realize that AirBnB is actually *pushing* for vacation rental bans! They want to legalize "home sharing" which is popular with AirBnB - where someone crashes in a guest room or on the couch of someone else's main residence - but get cities to ban vacation rentals, especially rental agreements that are 30 days or less. This allows AirBnB to have a monopoly of sorts on the VR market, pushing out competitors like VRBO. 

http://www.vrmintel.com/california-misses-the-boat-on-vacation-home-sales/

@Ravi P. : Yes, true. And we already pay a hotel tax here to the city as well. So changes like that could really affect the bottom line. There are still many other sites that have been around longer than AirBnB (I personally prefer them when I book a VR because AirBnB seems like more of a wildcard in what you will get. Will I get professional management? Or someone's cat or grandma sleeping in my bed? Haha). I think about 50% of my bookings come from AirBnB and the other half from sites like homeaway, VRBO, etc. But who knows what might happen. I don't mean to sound paranoid, but I've been looking for a vacation rental for some time now, and 95% of the time the issue is a minimum lease enforced by city/HOA. It's frustrating, because I really would like more, but there's no way I'd buy with the intent of using as a VR and then get shut down a week into it by an angry neighbor!

I also wonder if you use your VR numbers as a means of getting more for the property, if you are on the hook should the buyer get shut down using it as a VR shortly after buying it. I was actually going to start up a website that sells VRs and second homes, because there really isn't a good site for searching for VR to buy and not rent. But there'd have to be a ton of disclaimers saying that if someone buys a place and can't use it as a VR it's not my fault (caveat emptor). I'd worry a lot of people would rent their place on the sly, use those numbers to get a better price, and then the buyer comes in and is told no short terms rentals allowed. It's complicated!  And ever changing...