All Forum Posts by: Mary Smith

Definitely hire a professional to take care of it. I've made the mistake of having tenants take care of maintenance/repairs in the past and it has never gone down well.

LVP flooring has always been good for us, and I highly recommend it!

Hey @Jojo James We have a good pet policy in place where we charge a one time, non-refundable pet fee - most landlords usually charge anywhere between $50-$500 for pet fees, which you can use for any damages. You can charge this fee, depending on the amount of risk presented by the pet. Additionally, we charge a small monthly amount for pet rent, where you can charge anywhere from $10-$80 each month. Pet fees (whether one time or monthly rent) are not legal in every state, so I suggest you refer to your state laws as well. Hope this helps!

Hey @Daneca Hall, we sign leases with our tenants online all the time through our property management software. Online leases are fully recognized by the US government, thanks to the ESIGN Act (you can look it up for more information). As long as the software you are using tracks the tenants IP Address and location, you can prove that it was signed by them in a court of law.

Hey @Catherine Jacoby I would highly recommend listing your rental to multiple listing sites. Apartments.com and Marketplace have been doing very well for me in the past year. 

I would also recommend that you find a free property management software to manage both your listings and tenant screening. We use Innago, and screening applicants is a very easy process here and they use TransUnion so the data is verified as well. 

Hey guys, I'm trying to find real estate newsletter recommendations, so that it's easier for me to keep track of any real estate/landlord related news. Does anyone have any suggestions or has subscribed to any of these?

So glad to hear it Trevor!

Hey Aziz, I'm not sure what your first statement is referring to. I just recommended Innago to Grant because as a property owner, this is a software I use to manage my rentals, which also integrates with Quickbooks. And as far as market percentage is concerned, this is not something I specifically look at when I purchase any products or select any software to use. I'm not sure how the market percentage equates to the quality of the product. 

@Mark Nguyen Ideally a landlord should not charge you to replace a microwave, unless it was clearly your fault that it needs to be replaced or if stated in your lease agreement. 

@Gray Wilson If you are using PayPal or Venmo to collect rent, you need to be sure that you are using a business account to do so. These business accounts come with additional fees, so many landlords try to bypass this by using a personal account. This is a direct violation of their User Agreements, so I just would like you to be aware. 

I would recommend you find a property management software to manage your rent payments. It not only makes it very convenient for you but it also makes it very easy for your tenants. We've been using Innago to manage our rentals for the past couple of years and it has made our lives significantly easier.