All Forum Posts by: Mike Palmer

We are pro-landlord. 

The fridge lever has been broken for some time now and I have not taken care of it. I have already done a few things that I feel should have been on them (for example the oven heating element burned out because it was so caked with food and crap that it created a hot-spot that burned through and I replaced it for them), but I felt the fridge lever was specifically damaged/broken by them. 

And on the stretching yes it does not cost a ton, but should I pay for it or should they? Is it normal wear and tear (in either of these items) or damage? I just don't normally see this kind of stuff happen without being treated abnormally. In all the homes/apartments I see you rarely see carpet needing restretched. This carpet had been in place a few years before (and still looked nearly new) and logically thinking it seems it would have stretched or settled or whatever already. 

They are actually in charge of having the carpet professionally cleaned, but I am worried with how bad it looks that it is not going to come clean. In that case how do I determine a value for the stains they caused that don't come out? They told me they actually had it professionally cleaned once while they have lived there as well, and I have not really noticed these particular stain spots previously. Hopefully they will come out, but I am a little skeptical.

I have a tenant that broke the fridge water lever off. Like the part where you press with the cup to get the water to shoot out, broken clean off. You can stick your finger up in the hole and pull on it and still get water.

In all the fridges I have now and have gone through over the years (at least 6 off the top of my head), and in all the fridges I have ever personally used or seen in all of my memory, I have NEVER seen this happen. I was planning to charge the tenant as the only way I can see the lever breaking off is being too rough with it, but then I saw this thread with the control panel hanging off and the consensus seemed to be that this was normal wear and tear. I actually have seen that before and I would agree, but I still feel like they broke the lever and I should charge them. It was possibly even one of their kids just pressing too hard or not being watched or whatever. Thoughts?

I also noticed that the carpet has several buckles in one room that were not there before. They have a lot of large/heavy furniture (and a LOT of 'stuff' in general), and I am thinking they have probably moved a lot of their large items around by pushing/dragging across the carpet (just a guess on my part, but the carpet was fine before). It is also very stained and dark/dingy, but that is another matter. I think it will need re-stretched in that room. I have also never seen carpet that was properly installed and fine at move-in need re-stretched at move-out, and I suspect they caused this with the way they have used it. They will have been there almost 3 years when they move out if that matters. Should I charge them for stretching the carpet or is this considered normal wear and tear?

Just curious what others are doing with door locks. Do you automatically change locks with every turnover? Do you never change locks? Do you only change if there is evidence that previous tenant(s) may not be trusted or you have suspicious feelings about them?

Any thoughts on this?

Do you all change the locks every time, or only if you have suspicious feelings about previous tenant or something?

I know this is an old thread but I am wondering the same thing and didn't see any responses. 

Anyone else used their screening before? It seems like a reasonable price but not sure how thorough/accurate they are, how long it takes, etc. Any feedback on the screening? 

I suppose a screening company doesn't need to be from the local (Utah in this case) market, but any recommendations on a better service and/or pricing than Rentler?

Hi all:

I have a tenant interested in a property and he is a student with a seasonal/summer job selling for a security company. He says he makes very good money (more than enough to qualify based on annual income), but it all comes in the 3-4 months over the summer. 

Just curious what is the best way to evaluate this? Should I average the seasonal income over 12 months and use that as the monthly income for qualifying? I don't know how well they budget money so I almost feel like this method is somewhat flawed. How else would you do it? Should I do that and then maybe require larger deposit or additional pre-paid rents? Or? 

Any other thoughts/ ideas on how to qualify this income?

 Any progress or updates for us Dawn?

@Bob B.

I am not sure who you are directing you question to, but I might as well chime in with an update. We believe that the main line has a fairly sharp curve/bend in it downstream, and it tends to gather any food particles or anything solid at all tends to collect there over time and then things start slowly backing up. The upstairs tenants were putting a lot of food and whatever else down the drain and it would start to cause problems. 

It does tend to give warning signs and I have trained the tenants what to look for and to let me know immediately. I also had them install a strainer in the sink and told them that absolutely no solid waste of any kind is allowed down the drains. 

I think we have a pretty good handle on it now, but I may just do an annual cleanout on that line to ensure that there are no unexpected issues.  

@George P. I would assume looking at the pictures that you have something similar going on. In most cases an auger/snake has cleared it out, but in one case it had a lot of greasy build up and the snake would go through it and the goo would just close up again after the snake was pulled out, so we had to use a jetter on it that time. That seemed to clear it out really well and we didn't have a problem for over a year after that.

I didn't mean to criticize, my point (and the reasons why) is just that I think his cash flow is currently much higher than you had calculated, but as you say that might not always be the case. If he moved or any number of other circumstances could change the picture dramatically, but he also has a lot of equity to tap if he needed/decided to sell. 

@Quintin Mortensen 

I think it looks great. What flooring did you use? What counter tops did you use, and did you install them yourself?