All Forum Posts by: Nam Trang

@Lee L. In general if a government agency needs your info they will contact you directly or send a form to have you fill out and fax to them. They don't, shouldn't. If a tenant suggests that they are acting as a go between, id be very suspicious, and wouldn't give the forms back.

I used Consumer Reports as my primary source of info, along with reviews from retail sites like Home Depot, Lowe's and Sears.

Unfortunately we also get tire kickers pretty regularly. Application fees help weed some of this out, but not all of it. I know some areas don't allow app fees, so just make sure you are still following your local regulations.

I have also noticed that higher app fees get more serious candidates, but it doesn't necessarily weed out all of the weirdos. The last leasing that I did we had 5 applications and only 1 qualified based on our minimum income, background and employment requirements.

You may also want to call the City to see if there are code violations that can be sent to the HOA for them to take action with in 30 days. A code enforcement person should be able to tell you some options over the phone.

I agree with the comment above, check the HOA rules. Homeowners must know that an Association cannot enforce a rule that does not exist in its governing documents. Therefore, upon receiving a notice of violation, homeowners should read the association's Declaration to determine if the rule the association claims to be violated is valid.

Currently going through a scenario where my tenant hasn’t paid the last 2 months. His lease ended yesterday but I gave him notice 30 days prior to his lease ending that I will not be renewing. I’ve already contacted a lawyer regarding this, but essentially if he doesn’t leave when I go check today, I can officially serve him an eviction notice due to lease hold over. We aren’t evicting for nonpayment, so my eviction would still be legal. You need to give him a 30 day notice that you are ending the month to month lease agreement immediately.

Are you on section 8? If so didnt they do an inspection prior to you moving in? Also for mold why have you not called code enforcement if your not getting anywhere with your landloard. Also save all communications and show them to code enforcement and hold them for a possible law suit if the mold is toxic.

The MLS can have good info depending on area. In my experience it tends to be used more for higher priced rentals, but there are landlords and property management companies that use it for all their rentals.

I have a brand-new duplex with five beds each side just a couple blocks from the university, and when I wasn't able to fill one side for the following 12-month period, I decided to rent the rooms individually. It was much easier to fill that way than with a group of five who were willing to sign together. I charged slightly more in rent (probably not enough more). I definitely recommend that you charge a flat rate for utilities, or just advertise it as part of the rent.

In the future, I'm going to rent my 5-bedroom units to groups when possible. Setting up utilities, especially TV and internet, is a pain, and sometimes the tech support won't help your tenants when they call, even if you put their names on the account.

For me, renting by rooms is an acceptable last resort when I can't fill my units with groups.

We had three or four leases that were coming up for renewal during this Covid window and had planned moderate increases for them but given everything that was going on we thought it better not to implement the small increases if it generated a chance of turnover, which quite frankly we did not want to deal with during the height of Covid.