All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

You can change the rules since you are the new Property Owner.  But the rules must apply to all tenants or be sued for discrimination.  

I understand where you are coming from, and the Vet has probably been there a long time.  Smoking is probably all he has of enjoyment these days.  

This is a pretty tough call.  One that you have to live with.  No right or wrong answer, just something that needs to be settled.  

So no matter what any of us tell you, it's really got to be up to you and what you feel is right.  What does YOUR gut tell you!

Nancy Neville

Investing in out of state property is suicide UNLESS you are an experienced landlord first and know the score like Elizabeth.

Yes, being a landlord collecting all the dough sounds so enticing. Piece of cake! That's normal for others to think of our Industry this way.

When I would call a repairman to come to my own private home and they see the house I lived in, they asked If I was a doctor or a Lawyer, and I said no, I’m a landlord. And they would say, "You’re just a landlord", so astonished and surprised. "I'd say, yep, I'm just a landlord" and smile to myself, and hear them say, "Wow, I need to check into that", I would smile to myself again and say, "Yea you should". Knowing that they had no clue what it involved. 

Being a landlord entails the following:

*Taking a fixer upper and jumping through 100 loops of the building codes and city ordinances before you can rent it out.

*Getting a C of A (Certificate of Acceptance) and a C of O (Certificate of Occupancy)

*Studying the landlord laws of your State and City Ordinances

*Making sure you are located in a rentable neighborhood.

*Making sure your rents are according to the market value of that neighborhood.

*Making sure your rental properties have great curb appeal

*Making sure you have a legal Rental Lease Agreement

*Deciding whether to have your lease agreement as a month to month or annual

**Making sure you have a legal Application form

*Making sure you have a legal Criteria Qualification Policy

*Doing Credit Checks and how much do you charge

*Learning how to read a credit check report

*Learning how to choose Tenants

*Learning how to keep your tenants long term

*Receiving calls all day and night from tenants or your repair men.  Especially on Christmas Eve or Thanksgiving.  This is when the furnaces always seem to go out. 

*Receiving complaints from tenants

*Solving disputes with your tenants and other tenants of the building. 

*Learning how to advertise a rental and be within the law. Lots of NO NO Words

*Learning to treat this Industry as a business

*Never love your rental houses - they are tools to your Industry- nothing more

*Get it in your head that this is a business of evictions, damages, law suits, fixing up your rentals over and over again

*Train your Tenants (See my article on TENANT PHASE)

*Sit in an eviction court and learn the ropes.

*Never change the locks on a tenant without their permission

*Never ever change the locks on your rentals during an eviction.

The eviction process is a dangerous and emotional time. If you do it your way, it could mean jail time, a law suit against you and possibly your own life. That is why we have a Bailiff that will throw your tenants out and not you!

You will have tenant's that won't move after their lease expires, and yet you have to go to court to have a Judge say, Yep their lease expired, and then say to the Tenant, why haven't you moved and then give them 10 more days to move out.  In the meantime your home has drawn no income for several months due to the tenant not paying rent or moving out. 

These are just a few things you need to know.

There are many exceptions. No scenario is the same in this business.

You need to be firm, but fair. Stick to your lease agreement, but be a good listener.

This is an Industry of people management.

If you don't know all these things, how can you pick a good Property Manager?

Most Property Managers are licensed Brokers. It's the law except for about three states.

I have found that most Brokers don't have a clue what's it like to be a landlord because they never have been one. They buy and sell, but being a landlord is far more involved than just buying and selling. 

Being a landlord means that WE have money invested in our homes, and they cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Yet a Brokers Lease Agreement is geared more towards the Tenants then the landlord  and I find it appalling.

There are some Brokers I have met that are good, only because they do own their own rentals.

Just some tips.

Nancy Neville

You may be interested in this article I wrote:   Media vs. the Landlord

 http://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/4498/blog_posts...

These two things may cause a discrimination law suit against you.

- Applicants must be employed and be able to furnish acceptable proof of the required income.   

       This implies that you will only rent to people who are working and not senior citizens living on Social Security, or anyone else who is on a government assistant and has an income. 

 No more than 4 occupants.

      Check your State Law, but since you have three bedrooms this means that two people per bedroom are allowed.  Therefore, it could be 2 adults and 4 children.  So you cannot stipulate how many people will live in your rentals unless it goes over the limit of people per bedroom per your state law. But never state how many occupants are allowed in your rentals. 

Here is an article that I wrote on AD NO NO WORDS when advertising. (That was on my Real Estate Exam- so don't blame me for the following)  :)  Actually you will have to click on the link below to go to that article.

http://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/4498/blog_posts...

Remember also the more words you use in an Ad the more money its going to cost you.

Also if you want to really get "Wordy" invest in a website and put in the ad your website address and then show picture of the home.  I can't tell you how many times I rented my places due to my webpage.  Wordpress.com has free website and you can have as many as you want.  FREE FREE FREE....

Nancy Neville

Increase the Security Deposit when the next tenant moves in.  

The tenant is staying knowing their rent has increased and that's a good sign.  Making them pay an additional Security Deposit is just begging for them to move.  

Nancy Neville

The reason most properties stay vacant for any length of time is due to their location and curb appeal and of course the tenant pool, but that would fall under the location scenario as well.

You are only hurting yourself by not charging the market rate for your area.  You most likely will get a lot of people calling and stopping by to take a look at the rental, but in the end you are only wasting your own time and money, because most applicants  probably won't qualify.  

Make that home APPEALING!  GREAT CURB APPEAL!  Make the people driving down your neighborhood that are on  the way to see another rental, put on their brakes to stop and see yours!   Make it charming, cute as a button, clean and neat just beckening them to come on in !

Being a landlord is all about people management, having a good reputation, (word of mouth, recommendations by your other tenants) says a lot.  No need to lower your rents in order to entice someone to rent from you.

With that said and done, during the winter months, it does help to offer an incentive.  People are already nice and cozy in the home they live in now.  They don't want to move around Thanksgiving or Christmas, but will be looking again the first of the year.  So at this time you could offer a Thanksgiving Special, or a Christmas Special, but never lower your rents below market value.  You only hurt yourself. 

Nancy Neville 

Make sure you screen them and they qualify.  

Them make them put down a non-refundable deposit, that will be applied to the move in fees.  At least $250.  Something that will make them think before changing their minds.  If you make the deposit small, then they may just find another place and never let you know. 

But make sure you do a credit check on them and don't take a check.  Always accept money orders because they can always cancel a check.

You cannot remove someone from the lease unless THEY themselves tell you to.  Nobody has the authority to remove another person from any legal contract unless it is given by the person who signed it.  

The Security Deposit is never returned to anybody until the last person has moved out of the premises.  If that person moved out before the lease expired too bad so sad, they have to wait until everyone is gone, before they can receive their portion of the security deposit, or make arrangements with his roommates to pay him or her now.  But that Security Deposit is never returned until the last person occupying the home is gone!

Even if he or she calls you (the landlord) and asks you to be taken off the lease, you have the option to say no.  They signed a legal contract and are responsible for the entire term of the contract,  therefore you have the right to say, I will remove you from the lease once it expires.

Everyone who signed the lease is responsible for the term of the lease and damages and money owed.  Removing someone from the  lease is actually one less chance of you collecting your money.  They all are responsible.  They all moved in knowing the consequences.   This person is liable until the Contract (Lease Agreement) expires. 

Nancy Neville

Mark, I have to say, that having a rent drop box in the building that you rent out is asking for trouble.  It won't be long before someone finds a way to get inside that little box,  and take all that wonderful money.

Get a Post Office Box and have the tenants send their rents to your Post Office Box.  So many Landlords treat tenants like babies instead of like adults. 

Our homes cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars, and yet we don't expect the tenants to even have the knowledge or the capability, of putting a check in the mail and getting it to us on or before the due date.

A lease agreement is a Contract with a due date.  If tenants don't have their  rent in my office on or before the 1st of the month I send them a Notice to Quit.  During the signing of the lease I go into great detail about how rent should be paid and how and what will happen if the rent is not received in my office at that time.

Time is of the essence when you are a landlord.  You can't even file for an eviction until that Notice has been sent to the tenant that their rent is late.  I explain all this very nicely with the tenants at the signing of the lease.  I tell them that the Notice to Quit will be sent if rent is not in my office on or before the 1st of the month, but don't be offended because it's just a notice.  It doesn't become a legal document unless you (they)  don't pay their rent and I have to file it in a court of law.  But up until that time, it's just a notice.

I tell them what they should expect from me as their landlord, that I will take care of their repairs immediately within 24 hours for emergency and for minor repairs, in the order the work order has been received.  And I tell them what I expect from them.  I build a Landlord/Tenant Relationship.  When we have understanding of what each others roles are, it prevents chaos.  

I choose tenants by doing a credit checks.  I choose tenants who are collectible.  I choose tenants who pay their bills on time.  Therefore, I expect them to pay their rent on time because I felt and feel  they are responsible, and that means they are capable of getting their rent  in the mail in time.  

I refuse to pickup my rents from them, when my time is busy. If I can pay my mortgages, my bills, take care of rentals, go to court to do evictions, paint houses, take care of my work crew, and take care of the finances, then, they certainly are capable of sending me their rent in the mail, plain and simple.

I don't reward tenants for paying their rent on time.  My mortgage company doesn't reward me when I pay my mortgage the day I receive the bill.  

Being a landlord is not like any other business.  No other business trust their investments that cost thousands of dollars to another human being and hope they keep it in as good a condition as they obtained it.  

Not only that, but no other industry, other than doctors are responsible for other people's lives like we are.   We are responsible for the lives of everyone who lives in our homes.  Building Codes, falling down stairs, gas leaks, fires, and are held accountable. 

We have to fight for our rent, go to court to get our money, and wait months to receive a judgment if we are awarded one at all.  And yet, we are looked down  upon by the media, and sometimes even our family and friends.  

How many times have we sacrificed our money and time, and family time, and worked ourselves to the bone, fixing up a house, over and over again, because a tenant destroyed it, and yet we get no sympathy, nor do we want it.  Just some respect.  

Is it too much to ask, that after all this, that our tenants at least get off their butts, walk down to the mail box and send us that check, without us having to pick it up for them or provide a drop box.  

Nancy Neville 

Hello Steve:  Hope you are doing well.  Sounds like you are.

I feel your pain.  I always worried about furnaces going out in the winter time.  I do have a reliable guy, but I believe all your rentals are in Fenton?  So my guy wouldn't do you any good.

I use to "Test" out my guys until I found one that was dependable and stuck with them.  

You may have to do that.  Usually a referral is good from another landlord.  Perhaps your Landlord Association may give you a guy to call.  

But don't advertise for one.  I had over 300 guys apply when I placed an ad.  It was overwhelming!  I was glad when 3 months later the replies started to ease up.

Hope to see you sometime in the future!  Take care.

Nancy

For you I would recommend Premier because of it's Inventory feature. Real Estate Brokers like to put their foreclosures in Inventory, using the build feature to keep track of their expenses and then doing a  COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) when they flip it.

I'm not an expert on Flipping but have worked with some Brokers, so I recommend Premier for you.