All Forum Posts by: Michelle C.

I am moving away from security deposits, and starting to take move in fee's.  As a small time landlord, I can't afford to be taken to court for a small security deposit mistake (and there are a lot of ways to make a mistake with this rule).  I had a family member once get hit with a 15k lawsuit over this issue, and it was enough to scare us all away from security deposits once and for all.  The way I see it, you can hopefully use that money you got as a move in fee to help pay for anything that might be wrong when the tenant leaves.  Hopefully there will be no major damages-  if there are, you can always try to bill them, or go to small claims court.  The only way I would take a security deposit in Chicago is if you have an owner-occupied building 4 units or less, because then you aren't governed by the CTRLO and the security deposit rules.  

I have a no smoking policy and I mention it in my listing up front.  I ask again when screening, and still I still get smokers trying to apply.  Lots of people say yes but "only outside".  As someone who used to smoke, I know how easy it is to get lazy about this (especially in cold weather climates such as mine), and prefer to not have to deal with it. I'm talking about opening the door and smoking in front of the door, smoking out the windows, etc...   Not to mention, you will get butts on the ground at some point depending on how good they are about it. If all this makes your blood pressure rise, just say no to smokers.  

when it is free, people will do laundry much more frequently, sometimes be wasteful, and sometimes abuse it.  we have free laundry in our building and sometimes find they are being wasteful and are washing 1 item at a time, such as a rug. no wonder the laundry machine is always in use!  also i found they used our machines to wash clothes for charity, and that day the laundry was in use ALL DAY long and no one else could use it.  we are thinking of switching to coin laundry just to curb this kind of behavior.

I agree on early summer being best.  As an example, one unit took 15-20 showings to rent in september of one year.... a year or two later I listed it in May and had 6 applications in one day.  No changes to the unit, and the neighborhood has always been popular.  From now on I'm going to try to get my leases to end around then.  

All- I am about to take on a bathroom rehab in our rental, as well as cosmetic updates throughout (new paint, maybe paint the kitchen cabinets).  The question is, when should I list it?  The new paint job should hopefully only take a few days, but the bathroom will take 3-4 weeks. Painting cabinets might take a week if we choose to do that. I hoped to only have it off the market for 1 month, and get it rented while it is being worked on.  People usually look 1 to sign about 1 month before move in, so waiting too long to list it could leave us without rent for more than 1 month.  I know that this is a no-no for for sale homes, but what about for rentals?

My initial thought was to paint it as quickly as possible and photograph right away, so we are still at the beginning of the month when we start showings. I also have a 3d image of the new bathroom design that I intend to put in the ad.  

Does anyone think the bathroom construction would turn people away? There is only 1 bathroom.  I planned to show off the tile and fixtures during showings to give people an idea of what it will look like. 

I rent my old condo, for a long time I loved it - no maintenance etc. but lately the property management changed, they made a whole slew of new rules about renters, and basically are making it difficult and expensive to rent your unit. It literally feels like the intention is to drive investors out.  Lots of fees... and fines if you don't do it all right. I am currently an owner occupant of a 2 flat, and I got used to making my own rules.  Now I am seeing how the condo thing seems a bit ridiculous.  It makes good money and is low maintenance so I don't want to give it up, but boy they are making it really hard for people like me....

I had an issue with our "free" basement storage and laundry... We did not set limits on the amount of storage and so the whole basement now seems like a dumping zone.  I am pretty sure its being used for storage for other people (theater school props, etc).  They once offered up the basement for furniture storage for a charity drive... and also used the washing machine to wash about 20 loads of clothing they were going to donate. No one else could do laundry that weekend because they were using them nonstop.   Our next lease will have a lot more rules regarding use of the basement and laundry.  

Yes I have encountered several actually, they are always young and claim to not have any credit cards.  I am not sure how this is possible, as one has her own website, all are on their own at school etc.  I just have to assume the credit cards are all in their parents names?   In this case I made the parent be a cosigner.  In the future I prefer to only take on tenants who have credit, who can show me they have a history of resposible financial decisions.

Using the word "lifestyle" is actually right on point.... good advice.

We're live in our owner occupied 2 unit building, and are realizing the importance of attracting high quality tenants so we can co-exist peacefully and happily at our home.  We have been investing money heavily into this property to make it appealing, not just to us, but to our future tenants.  We are always looking for ways to attract better people. We've made a lot of impovements around the building, keeping things clean, landscaping, etc.  We are starting to talk about renovations inside the unit itself, and are trying to decide how far to go with the renovations.  What kinds of things do your high quality tenants look for in a home?

To give some context, we are in a very desireable neighborhood in Chicago, close to transit, restuarants etc.  The clientele we want to rent to is deinitely looking here, and we want them to want to rent from us.