All Forum Posts by: Mike Buckley

I have short term weekly rentals in a rooming house as well. I have had tenants play the mental illness alcoholic card a couple times. I always let them know it has nothing to do with a mental illness. It has to do with the fact they cannot obey the rules and regs of the building and it's a disrespect to others under the same roof. Therefore they are out of lease after one week and it is not working out and I do not continue. This works in some states but I have heard something about Washington D.C not allowing 30 day notices to end tenacy at will.

Most likely won't happen but In a worst case the current tenants having to be placed into a hotel due to the extent of the renovation being done. Water shut off etc.

You mean like section 8 or social service programs? I manage some HUD programs and basically you always get paid so you can afford to deal with their standards. They have monthly inspections where they need to "justify their jobs" and force you to fix things that even the tenant would not care about. As long as you have a good management system in place do it.

You're right. Business is business, if it costs more money to go to court cash for keys is the answer. Iv been to court to waste $1500 on a professional tenant who destroyed the unit and Iv paid $500 to get the keys back and the unit in perfect condition in half the time.

Is anyone else worrying/anticipating the rising costs of construction due to less people choosing the trades to make a living?

I was wondering if any other investors out there have really good pre-buy checklists. Also what are some red flags that I should stay away from when purchasing?

Exactly Nancy, it's stuff that should be common sense like light bulbs but the tenants insist and if I spent all day changing bulbs I would be out of business. And if I refuse I could possibly get sued for an unsafe home.

Patrick M. I do understand this logic as well too. I like the voicemail idea is good because it gives a chance to come up with a well thought out response.

All good advice. I need to start not renewing leases so easily. It is tough in my market sometimes to find quality tenants but these ones who are never happy are hurting my bottom line. Also deflecting the questions back to a "partner" isn't a bad idea either.

Looking for some advice on how to turn down tenant requests. I would like to consider myself a "great" landlord. I take care of problems immediately and always think "what if I was living there what would I like to see done." However I do occasionally come across constantly complaining tenants who make issues over extremely small and trivial things. Is it better to ignore these or give a more confrontational "no" as an answer?