All Forum Posts by: Melissa Faraias

Hello BP community,

I am a new landlord and I recently rented out one of my properties in Houston to a family of 4. After a month of staying in the unit, the Tenant calls me to tell me that they need to break the lease because he has to relocate unexpectedly. He says that he is willing to cooperate and pay all the fees that are mentioned in the lease. I have a clause in the lease stating that " Any notice to terminate this tenancy must comply with the applicable legislation of the State of Texas (the "Act")." and "a re-rent levy fee of $500 will be charged to the Tenant". I read through the Landlord-Tenant laws regarding breaking a lease in TX, and my understanding is that he needs to give a 30 day written notice with a valid reason to terminate. Can I also charge him rent till I find a suitable tenant ( I intend to aggressively market the unit)? Do I have to return his security deposit? I do not intend to be unreasonable especially since he is willing to cooperate.  I would appreciate any advice from Texas landlords that have been in this situation before. Thank you in advance.

Hello BP community,

I am a relatively new out of state landlord and I have a rental on the market in Bluffton SC, which has been hard to get rented. I made a few changes based on the advice that I received here on Bigger Pockets and got three applications. The most qualified applicant in my opinion is a family of three, whose credit and background checks are clear.  Their combined monthly income is 3X my rental amount but the man's income is in cash (he is a car mechanic). His employer gave him a great reference and indicated that the position is permanent and stable. I also checked their 6 months bank statements and it seems like they are able to pay all their bills from her income alone.  Would you accept this family? They have a guarantor but her monthly income is not 3X my rental amount either.

I use RentRedi to manage my properties and they recommended a company called TheGuarantors. Has anybody used this company before? Do you suggest that I use them as guarantors for this situation? Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Thank you all for your valuable insights. 

 Unfortunately I should have asked for advice before I started the process with the current tenants. I will only be accepting him and not the family. Thank you for your response. 

 Thank you for your response. I added an amendment to the current lease and I increased the security deposit and rent (not by much though) and told the tenants that I will not be accepting the wife and child when they move here in 4-6 months. I hope I haven't taken too much of a risk. Thank you once again.

Hello BP community,

I am a newbie landlord and I have rented one of my units (SFH with 3 bedrooms/2 baths) to an older couple and their adult daughter. They have been wonderful tenants so far. The mom recently told me that her adult son is moving to the United States from Dubai and will be looking for a job here. He would like to stay at the house till he finds a job. His wife and child may be moving as well in a few months. He just got a social security number and has signed the lease. I wanted him to fill out the application and do a credit/income/background check but I'm not sure if he will pass since he has no history in this country. I do not want to reject him based on those grounds and I am considering increasing the rent by $100 a month and letting him move in. I did tell the current tenants that if the wife and child move in, it will be an additional $100 per adult and $50 per child to account for the wear and tear on the property. Does that sound reasonable? Should I have the current tenants sign some sort of document taking full responsibility for the family that is moving in? Thank you for any advice that you can give me.

I have noticed that once I send prospective tenants a link to fill out my pre qualification form on RentRedi, they just disappear. So then I started texting them the pre qualification criteria and just asking them if they qualify and then agreeing to show the unit. Now I am not sending them the pre qualification criteria and trying to just get them to come see the unit. I will let ethe listing expire and list again. Thank you for your input. 

 Thank you for these great ideas. I am going to do this today. 

 Ok. I am ready to do a price reduction by this weekend. I have had about 10 more inquiries since I made this post and 3 people are going to see it this week. If it doesn't rent, I will lower the price by $100 over the weekend. Thank you for your input.