All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

Now is definitely the way to go. You want people that will be giving their current landlord a 30 day notice. This gives them time to do that.

I manage and own several vacation homes, and many of them are dog friendly. We have rarely had a problem with the dogs. I charge $25 per dog per stay. It is non-refundable. Then when we do occasionally have to clean carpet due to a dog, we have plenty of money that has accumulated from the $25 fee over several months of rentals.

People are going to sneak their dog in anyway, so you might as well get some extra money out of it.

Communication is extremely important between you and your PM. There is absolutely no excuse for taking days or weeks to get back to you. I would fire them now.

You may have something in the contract that talks about non-performance. Even if not, it probably won't be worth their time and money to try to enforce the contract. If they push it, give them their commission for the rented units till the end of the lease period, but move on now.

Since I'm in a small town, I don't get a ton of people calling to see a place all at once. So, I have to show it to each individually when they call. I weed them out with a phone interview, then schedule a showing. 

Since all of my rentals are within 10 minutes of my house, I tell all of them to call me 30 minutes before the showing to confirm that they are still coming. If they don't call, I don't go.

I used to go sit and wait on people, and so many no-showed. This has saved me countless hours.

I don't know about Georgia, but here in California if a tenant pre pays any rent, it still goes into a trust account until it is earned. So, it really wouldn't matter what you call it, it all goes into a trust account anyway. You should check your state laws.

I collect 1.5 times the rent as a security deposit. If you collect only 1 month's worth, they will very often use it as the last month's rent, whether you like it or not. Then you have nothing left over for damages & cleaning. With 1.5 times the rent, if they don't pay the last month, I still have 1/2 a month's worth to use for damages.

I always wait until after rent is paid for the month before I give someone notice to move out.  You may still have to evict them the following month if they stay and don't pay, but at least you get your rent for the month of the notice.

I would look at all the information you can get on both tenants. Pick the best one. Then send the rent increase notice only to them. If they stay, then it's an easy decision. You can then give the other one the proper notice to vacate.

If the best one decides to leave, based on the rent increase, then send the letter to the other unit. 

I would not send both at the same time, in case they both want to stay.

They will smoke pot in your house. It will happen, guaranteed. I have rented to people with possession charges a couple of times, thinking it was no big deal. Then, when I went to do a maintenance check, the places reeked of the stuff. Really obvious they were smoking inside. I would pass on this one.

If the contract says that you are responsible for paying the management fees for the remaining months on the lease, then you can either have them go ahead and continue managing it, since you have to pay the fees anyway, or cancel the contract and pay the remaining fees.

She sounds like she is going to be a problem tenant.

You have a signed lease, so you can't terminate it. I would tell her that the house is rented "as is". If she wants to terminate the lease, then you would allow her to do that. That way it is her idea. Get everything in writing.