All Forum Posts by: Matt R.

Make sure you're familiar with any local (city/county) regulations on rental properties.  Small university towns in the middle of the state will often have more regulations on rental properties than you might expect.  A little bit of that is the university trying to reduce competition for the dorms.  Some of it is because when they had fewer regulations, people would buy a 1000 square foot 3 bed/1 bath house and rent it to 8 students.

Disclaimer: I have done this exactly once so far.  In a few weeks, I will do it again.  It's possibly a little hotter market than it was last time, so I may learn some new things too.

I did most of the same things that @Kyle J. mentioned. I watermarked all my photos before posting them anywhere. They didn't get posted on an MLS, so I could do what I wanted. I also had a "for rent" sign in the yard with my phone number and Web site.

One thing I thought of, but didn't end up doing, was posting a notice at the property, on the inside of one of the front windows.  I was going to include my photograph, contact information, and words to the effect of "If you haven't talked to the guy in this photo and seen the inside of the house, don't give anybody any money!"

@Stephen Sloane Good to hear you fixed it!  Also, thanks for posting back with the results.  That helps everyone give better advice to the next person.

Disclaimer: I am not a professional electrician.

I can think of a couple of possible problems:

1: If somebody wants to work on the heater, they will probably go to whichever panel is closest, and turn off the 50 amp breaker marked "water heater".  They will then open up the heater and get shocked, because there is still power to it from the other panel.  Same thing applies if the water heater is obviously screwing up in some way, and the tenant wants to shut off power to it... it won't be obvious that both tenants need to turn off a breaker to shut it down completely.

You could fix this by installing a disconnect switch next to the heater, but if the heater works like I think it does, it would have to be a fairly unusual type of switch - a 4PST (four-pole) switch, rather than the common 2PST (two-pole) switch.

2: Depending on how the heater is wired internally, a failure *might* cause it to connect the two separate feeds together inside.  This leads to a dangerous situation: somebody wants to do work or just shut off the power to side A, so they turn off the main breaker in side A's panel.  However, the failure in the heater will allow power from side B's panel (which is still on) to flow into side A's panel, energizing everything in side A.  Someone working on side A of the house could get shocked, even though they turned the main breaker off.

I haven't had this situation before, but I'd be inclined to say yes, as long as you do the following:

Make sure his income can cover the increased rent.  It's up to you whether to re-use the documentation he supplied when renting the first property, or have him provide updated documentation.  You should at least verify that he's still employed.

Ask for a higher security deposit on the second property.  It's up to you whether that means 1) you collect the full security deposit for #2 from him before he moves into #2, and then refund him back his deposit on #1 less repairs once he moves out of #1, or 2) you just charge him the difference in deposits before he moves into #2, and then charge him for any repairs once he moves out of #1.  The first way is more secure for you, but sometimes tenants have trouble with coming up with the deposit on the new place if they haven't got the deposit from the old place back yet.  The second way is more risky for you, but it may improve cash flow for the tenant.

Be up-front with him about the progress of the rehab on #2.  You don't have to tell him every week, but let him know if the April 2019 date is going to change substantially.

I use Cozy.co. I wrote a big post about it here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

I'm going to add my voice to the chorus that $7K and $10K seem high, especially if it's just a furnace.  In the Kansas City area, for a 3/1 house between about 900 to 1,500 square feet, built from the mid-1950s on up (so, some insulation installed), with existing ductwork, I can get a value-priced forced-air gas furnace and electric A/C installed for around $4k to $5k.  If I move up to a higher-end brand, with higher-efficiency furnace and A/C, maybe $7k for everything.

The same house in Philadelphia might need the next size or two up on the furnace, but can probably use the next size or two smaller A/C.  Going up or down a couple of sizes doesn't really affect the price that much, in my experience.

If you have something like a 2,500 square foot house from 1910, that hasn't had insulation installed in the outside walls, then yeah, you're gonna need a really big furnace and it will cost more.  If it's a boiler / radiator system, or an oil furnace, then I'm not familiar with what those "should" cost.

@Kenneth N. Like @Anthony Wick said, sometimes searching the city/county/state court records yourself can be useful.  Usually searching is free, and certified copies of the records cost money; some of the more broke jurisdictions try to charge you for searching.  If you're in a big metro area, you might have to check several cities and counties in the area.  It's better to go directly to the government's web site to do the search, because there are a lot of fake "search all public records" sites that will always tell you that they found 387 entries, and then try to charge you to see the results.

If you do this, it's also on you to make sure you find the right records - a lot of the public search sites will only let you search by name or address, and not SSN.  If the person has a relatively uncommon name, you're in good shape, but if it's John Smith, you have to narrow it down a little more.  It's also probably a good idea to do the same searches on all your applicants, to avoid discrimination concerns.

I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice.

Does your lease have anything like a "crime-free" provision in it?  Mine has a "crime-free addendum" that the tenants sign.  Essentially, it says if they do crimes while living there, they can be evicted, even if they are complying with the rest of the lease.  The fact that he hasn't been convicted yet might keep you from enforcing those terms, though.

Other than that, start documenting all the complaints from the other tenants.  If you get enough of them that show he is violating the terms of the lease, and you give him notice as specified in the lease, the lease should allow you to start an eviction.

Keep in mind that ADW doesn't necessarily mean he ran up to somebody and pointed a rifle or pistol at them.  If he was in his car, his girlfriend was standing some distance in front of the car arguing with him, and he drove forward a little and then stopped without hitting her, sometimes that's enough for an ADW charge.  You still might not want him in your property, though.

@Scott Mac He could have posted a cash bond for $30K, but he also could have gotten a bail bondsman to post bond for him for much less than that, maybe around $3K to $5K.  The bondsman may have wanted some other collateral, but it doesn't have to be all cash.

I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice.@Scott Mac

I agree with all of @Nik Corbaxhi 's points.

Also, if you have your own real estate agent, be aware that they probably get some kind of benefit from anyone they refer you to in the sale process, like a home inspector.  Both parties are smart enough to call it a "referral bonus" or something similar, so as not to raise eyebrows.  For nearly everything like that, it's possible for you to find and hire someone on your own, and I recommend doing so, at least for the inspection.

You may have researched this already, but you might check with your city's building code people to see if there are any required upgrades you have to make, either because the property is old, or because you're making it a rental.  Sometimes they are a little more strict with condos (compared to a single-family residence) because a fire or other big problem in your unit has the potential to affect the neighbors too.  There's a decent chance that they won't require anything beyond what's there now, and also a decent chance that it's something simple that you can do, like hanging up more smoke detectors.  In case it's more complicated than that, it's good to know about it before making an offer.