All Forum Posts by: Monica Morff

Thank you! That is true.. if we give in once, I know she will continually ask. We told her we will be sticking with the original move-out date and she has since asked again to which we didn’t respond. Now she is late on rent though so I guess this changes things. I’m not really sure what to do next. 

 Thank you for the advice! This is what we did and she did not respond when I stated that we would be sticking to the terms of the original agreement so I thought that was a good thing. Now yesterday she texted multiple times demanding to know why she has to leave and the other tenant in the duplex did not get a notice. I didn’t reply to this. She then asked again for the end of March because she doesn’t have anywhere to go. I haven’t responded, but now she hasn’t paid rent this month and it is officially late today when she has never been late with rent so I know this is her intentionally not paying. What now? Send a reminder that her rent is late? Start the eviction process? Wait a few days? 

@Scott M. That is true that her emotions are hers and I guess anything I say at this point isn't going to help any. Thank you for the template of what to say! I may use some of that. 

Wow, it sounds like you dodged a bullet with that potential tenant! 

I did choose to ignore her request for money and the issues with taking her landscaping things. I feel like I probably need to give her an answer to asking for an additional month and I want to say no. Should I just respond that we need to stick to the terms of the original notice? 

@Amy A. thank you for the response! I didn’t want to give false information so I didn’t respond to the last message asking why she is the only one being asked to leave. Now she just asked if we could wait an additional month… I don’t know what to say. I don’t want to make her angry, but I really just want to be done. We gave her two months to move out and she asked for three. Would you concede to this or hold to the terms of the original non-renewal notice? 
Also, I forgot to mention that the other tenant notified us that our non-renewal tenant has been smoking in her unit which is something I don’t want going on any longer than necessary. It is a violation of her lease, but the other tenant said she is genuinely afraid of this woman and doesn’t want us to say anything about the smoking because she would know who told us. The whole situation is kind of a mess.  

@Bruce Woodruff Yes, exactly! That is why we wanted to be vague. But then, how do I respond to her asking directly why the other tenant didn’t get one? She’s very direct and abrasive so I figured she would ask the other tenant, I just don’t know how to say “it’s none of your business” in a way that will not make her even more angry. The other tenant has since texted us saying that she can hear the tenant we sent a non-renewal to throwing things in her unit. Yikes. 

I’m writing here regarding wording for a tenant. We have a tenant who has generally paid on time, but she lives in a duplex and is rude, aggressive, and disruptive to us as well as the other tenant. The other tenant started looking to move because of her and we made the decision to non-renew as she is on month-to-month because we would rather lose the rude tenant than the good one. 

Well, she got the notice today and has started asking why, etc. We are in a state that doesn’t require a reason so we just said that we were considering going a different direction with the property but we appreciate her time with us as a tenant. Well, she apparently went and asked the other tenant if she got the same non-renewal notice to which the other tenant told her that she did not. Now, the aggressive tenant is asking us why we did not non-renew the other tenant as well. Obviously, this is none of her business, but I have no idea what to say! Any tips? 

She is also asking for money to pay for the landscaping she did (that she did not ask permission for) because she cannot dig up her flowers and get her landscaping timber in the winter. Ridiculous.  

Anyway, any help or tips from others who have been there is appreciated! 

@Mason Hjelmeland 

Well, some people like properties by the college and rent my the room, but I really prefer houses further into town. Mine in Saint Cloud are around 25th to 35th avenue. I wouldn’t go into Waite park, personally. And if you’re able, Sauk Rapids is fantastic! They only do inspections (and the fees that come with that) every three years instead of every year and they don’t have a fee to change a residential property to an investment like Saint Cloud does. Sauk Rapids is a nicer area with less oversight. 

We have been investing in at cloud since 2016 and have had pretty good luck!

We update our units first thing whenever we buy a property and charge higher rents which tend to get us better renters. Our single families there rent for 1450-1600. The best advice I can give you is to come up with criteria and put in the work to screen your tenants. The only bad tenant we’ve had was one when we were still learning how to be landlords and made an exception to our criteria- don’t do that. It’s better to have a unit empty for an extra couple of weeks than to have a tenant that doesn’t pay/makes a mess/etc. let me know if you have any other questions! 

Edited to add: we buy properties there for $110k-$130k to make sure we have a healthy profit margin and tenants always pay for their own heat/electricity. 

Hi Cameron,

I am an investor in the Saint Cloud area and this property seems like a good deal, especially considering the potential to finish the basement and create another unit. Your insurance cost does seem high, we typically pay around $100 per month for each rental because the insurance is for the house only, no personal property. Maybe your cost is a little higher though because you are planning on living in it. 

You likely could put less down because you are planning on owner-occupying, but it sounds like your loan is already in the works. Personally, as you state it and based on the pictures and information on the property, I would go for it. I typically look for $500 per month cash flow, but thats about where this property would be if you had cheaper insurance/charged $800 for second unit. I don't know how many bedrooms the second unit has, but I have a one bedroom basement unit in Saint Cloud that rents for $700 so that seems reasonable. 

Good Luck on the deal!

I'm not sure what the market/financing options in North Carolina are like, but when I started, we qualified for a zero down first time homebuyer program and had the seller pay the majority of our closing costs which resulted in us only paying $1800 out of pocket for our first property. Do you know what you are trying to get into in terms of either flipping, rentals, etc.?

My best advice is that it cant hurt to reach out to a realtor and a lender if buying a property is what you're looking to do to see what you could qualify for.