All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

Hello Gary:  Security Bars will not stop a bullet.  Bullets go right through the siding.  We had mostly brick homes, but we did have some houses that just had siding and we spent many times digging out bullets just over the babies crib, in the wall inches from the TV set, and more.  And we had Security Bars.

It is not a law for landlords to have  to put up Security Bars. And it does cost the landlord a few bucks, especially  Security Doors.  Bars on the window is bad enough, but Security Bar Doors cost some money.

I had a lot of single moms (albeit boyfriends living with them), but theft was the problem.  Break Ins.)  But even with Bars on the Windows, thieves always would find  a way in, like in the old fashion Milk shutes.....They would slip a little kid in the milk shuts and they would unlock the doors, so we had to seal shute the milk shuts.  Then they would break the picture windows and get in.  But there is only so much one can do to protect their tenants, and their investment, their homes.  And you know what.  It always ended up that it was of friend of theirs or a family member, that 9 times out 10 was the one who broke in and stole their stuff. 

When we first began to invest in Detroit,  the city wasn't so bad, but all the shootings became really bad towards the end. 

I'd bite the bullet (pun intended) and put them on, if I were you, but check with your insurance people, because some insurance policies won't allow you to have security bars, and those that do, say only on some windows and one door.   And sometimes if you are in a bad area, it's hard to get insurance.  And if you can get it, it will cost you an arm and a leg.  We were paying $10,000 a year to insure our properties in Detroit.  

Just be careful....

Nancy Neville

Not only did a landlord have to face the crime and the theft within the Inner City, but the courts were horrible.  At least 300 evictions done daily.  The line was astronomical.  It was a Zoo, and the City charged you an arm and a leg for any type of ordinance violations that they could possible think of, such as a $3,200.00 fine if your grass in the alley was over 1 1/2 " high.  Am I exaggerating? Nope, had to go to court over just that thing.  fought it and I won.  But what a joke.  

I have written several articles on my life as an Inner City landlord on my blogs.

I'm glad that others have driven by to see for themselves that my stories are not blown out of proportion.  I lived it.  I breathed it.  I handled my own cases, and never lost a case during the 13 years I was a landlord there.  I know every trick of the trade.  Every excuse that a tenant can make.  I've been attacked, and dealt with some pretty tough dudes.  But even the unsinkable Nancy Neville, had to cry uncle! 

Wordpress is Free.  Easy to use, and you can have multiple web sites.  

We invested in Detroit in the 1980's.  It was a time that Detroit Properties were selling pretty cheap, just as it is today. Investors were buying right and left and my husband was buying one property after another.  But, Detroit was still a decent city. Neighborhoods well groomed, safe, and we did pretty well as landlords.  

In 2001 I began to see a change.  More gang violence, thefts, more people moving out to the burbs and the tenant pool getting pretty sketchy.  By 2004 when housing was being offered to anyone who could breathe, we found ourselves with 6 vacancies at a time, but we still were okay, we just had to work harder to keep them filled.  

By 2008 the city was getting more dangerous, break ins now, drive by shooting every day, little children being killed while watching cartoons in their homes, and we were now facing 18 vacancies a year.  By this time you couldn't have a vacancy without thieves breaking in and stealing your furnaces, hot water heaters, copper plumbing, siding off the houses etc.  

We had a work crew that took care of repairs, but soon their vehicles were stolen, their tools as well, and our plumber was beaten and killed.  We no longer could hire anyone who would work for us in Detroit, and my husband and I were growing older and couldn't work on the houses as much as we could before.  

By 2009 we were done!  We sold our properties and were going to invest elsewhere, but our houses that once would have sold for over $100,000 each to $300,000 for our apartments, sold for $5,000 a piece.   We ended up selling it to an investor in Australia, who didn't have a clue how to manage properties in Detroit and therefore, our once nice homes are now destroyed, burned down, abandoned, and an eye sore.  

I had a lot of good tenants, and even though I was faced with a ton of vacancies, I was happy for them that they had found a safe place out of Detroit.  Nobody deserves to live with security bars on every window and door and be afraid of being killed in their homes while relaxing.  Or be afraid to have their children play outside to only be killed by a stray bullet from a disgruntled neighborhood fighting with someone else on the block. 

Sad story, but true!

Nancy Neville

A Security Deposit goes into "An Other Current Liability Account".  It is money that you must pay back UNLESS the courts say you can keep it.   It is to be used only if the tenant owes you for back rent and/or damages, utilities, etc., and then you have to itemize where the money went to and send it along with a letter to the last known address of the tenant, according to your State Law. (which is the rental unit they just moved from, if they didn't give you a forwarding address.  Each state is different so check your State law regarding the time line of returning a Security Deposit. ) This is crucial because if you don't send the tenant an Itemized list of where their money went to,  in the amount of  time allotted by your state, the tenant can sue you for three times the amount of the Security Deposit!!!) 

Nancy Neville

Ed, everything depends on your contract. This is why it is so very important for both the Property Manager and the Owners to have a clear contract regarding each other's responsibilities.

If it is stated in the contract that the PM must have your permission for any repairs over and above such and such amount, and did not do so in this case, they are responsible!

If your contract states that they must contact you for any repairs over $2,000.00 and this repair was for only $1300 and some change, then they didn't need your permission. However, if you had put your request to them in writing, this time, that you wanted to meet with the Vendor, then this might be evidence for you to at least bring it before a Judge, providing this wasn’t an emergency..

If the job was an emergency that couldn't wait for you to come to the site immediately, then the PM may have had to do what they had to do in order to protect the building, the unit, the tenant and their belongings. They would have acted in your best interest, because they were there actually seeing the problem and the damage it was causing.

Once again, everything depends on the Contract between you and the PM Company, the situation going on at the moment, whether it is an emergency that had to be handled now, or if it was really a blatant disregard of your request.

Nancy Neville

You can purchase locks where you can change the tumbler.  You receive a master key that fits all tumblers, and one key for the tenants that fits just that one specific tumbler.  This makes changing the locks easier when tenants move in and out.  

There is a guy in Tennessee named Ernie (can't remember his last name) who sells them. It sure beats having to carry a bunch of keys around with you if you have a lot of properties.  Just one master key and that's it.  

Nancy Neville

1.If a husband/wife or whatever combination of adults want to rent from me, do BOTH need to be screened separately and both need to submit rental applications?

Answer: Anyone who will be a tenant in the rental home needs to go through the screening process, and both must sign the contract. (I made everyone over the age of 21 who would be living in the rental unit be on the Lease Agreement, sign it and pay am application fee.. As an incentive, if they qualified and I rented to them, I would deduct the application fee from their move in fees.

2.If I take an application fee of 30.00, do I take 30 for the husband and 30 for the wife? I plan to use mysmartmove, so I'm assuming it will charge me 2 times for 2 people.

Answer: You will charge the same application fee for anyone and everyone who applies.

3.If a potential tenant doesn't fill it out in front of you, and takes it home, how do you receive them? Do you have them mail it? Scan and email it?

Answer: They can take it home if they want, but the first person who applies and qualifies gets the home. They will be taking a chance if they don’t fill it out now. They must return the Application with the application fees for the credit checks, and don’t accept checks.

Only accept cash for application fees (Credit checks) If you don’t accept only cash, and they write you a check, they can cancel the check if they don’t qualify and you are stuck paying for their credit check.

4.I would assume it's better (for me) to take an application fee at time of receiving the application, and pay for it on mysmartmove, so that way if I disqualify someone before even getting there, I get to keep it. ALSO, I don't have to wait for a response on the tenant's side to set up an account and agree to allow me to screen?

Your application criteria must include a disclaimer that this is a non-refundable application fee, unless the applicant(S) qualify for the rental and you rent to them. Then it will be refunded in whole. The Criteria must be for everyone and not changed in any way.

5.What if a tenant claims that this is their first time renting, and they have no prior landlords? Do you eliminate them or what else do you use or ask to try to consider them?

You application criteria must include what will qualify them. They must not have any previous evictions. Must be employed for at least one year. Must make at least three times the amount of rent as income. Must have proof of employment. So if these little newbies haven’t rented before, and they meet your requirements, whatever they may be, then I would see no need to not rent to them.

You have to train your tenants anyway, so you might as well start with some fresh youngin(s). (Please see my Blog called “The Tenant Phase)

6.And not that much related to the rental app, but: If I have a tenant that notifies me they are going to be moving out of my house in 30 days, at what point might I be able to put my rental back on the market?

Oh how sweet it is to be this innocent? J If you have a normal move out, and the tenant moves out within the 30 day period, you are one lucky guy. If they “Hold Over”, then they are legally responsible for paying that next month’s rent.

A 30 day notice must be given for a FULL MONTHS NOTICE. If they moved in on November 1st and want to move out on January 1, 2015, then they must give you their 30 day notice no later than November 31st. If they gave you a notice that they were moving on December 1st, then that is not a full months’ notice. It must be a full month’s rental notice.

The same notice you would need to give them if you wanted to not renew their lease agreement. You would give them a full months’ notice (30 days)

Can I show it to new potential tenants in the last 30 days of the old tenants' stay?

Yes, but it’s tough sometimes to do this. Causes a lot of problems. The rental unit is a mess, and trust me, people can’t see beyond the mess when they are looking to rent a house or buy one. And, the tenant may not move out when they are supposed to.

You can advertise it, have interested parties be put on a waiting list for it, but I never showed my homes unless the house was empty and ready to show. But, some landlords do. But you need to call and give the tenant at least a 24 hour notice. Or whatever your state law requires.

As a newbie, familiarize yourself with the City ordinances of where your properties are located. Sit in some landlord/tenant court hearings, you will learn a lot! Study the landlord/tenant laws of your state.

Good luck to you.

Nancy Neville

This may have been discussed before, but if not I thought I'd bring this up to you investors who keep asking about buying properties in Detroit. 

As a Landlord in the City of Detroit (now retired) who owned 40 properties there, I can tell you that it's not a place to invest, UNLESS it is on the Water Front! (And there are some areas that are ok, but for how long?)   However, if I were you, I'd buy all those all broken down house, just for the land.    Land is always profitable!  I have several friends who have done this.  But they don't need a return on their investment at the present.  They can afford to wait.    

You can buy properties in Detroit for a dollar, and those that sell for over a dollar are really very cheap.    Buy the property, tear down the house and keep the land.  Detroit won't always be down trodden.  And land will always appreciate.  Detroit will some day come back.  The water front is already a great place.  We just need to do something about the inner city parts. 

The only problem is that Detroit has the highest property taxes in the entire United States, I'm told.  We paid over $36,000.00 a year during my landing career there.   Averaging out to about $3,000 per property.  Apartments entailed $4,000.00 and each unit was taxed.  Duplexes, another $1,000 more than our single family homes.   Plus you would have to keep the lawn well groomed according to City Ordinances so you wouldn't get tickets, etc. 

But, it's a thought.  Just be careful when you go there to do your drive by's.  I have many stories I could tell you but it's already been said and done many times before.  

If I were to invest again in Detroit, I would purchase the land.  But, alas, I am growing old and the old bones just can't keep up with you young whipper snappers.  Plus health issues with hubby,  so my time has passed, but not yours!

Good luck to you on your adventures.  

Nancy Neville

Hello Sarah

Your tenants most likely will move out no matter what you do from this point forward.  Once you denied their request you are "done" in their eyes.  If they did stay, you would be a "wimp" in their eyes and be subjected to further control.  I'm not being mean here, I've been through all this many times before.  

Life is simple when you stick to your lease agreement.  It is a legal contract, after all.  Your tenants are obligated to stay the term of the lease.  It is nice of them to try to find another tenant for you, but the bottom line is....that Tenant must be approved by you!  They must go through the qualification criteria just like anyone else.  

Also, everything depends on the State you are in and the Judge you have, because with landlording there aren't too many laws pertaining to all the "stuff" we have to face.  So the Judge has to rely on his own opinion, if the law doesn't prevail.  If the Judge believes that the Tenant they chose was suitable enough for you to accept, they might not award you the rest of the rent that is owed.   So, yes, you are left with "What do I do, winter is coming and the Holidays too, oh no?"

But if you don't stick to your contract with this tenant, they may stop paying you rent anyway.  And then you've got a disgruntle tenant on your hands that can turn out to be mean, nasty, and bad news! And you can't rent it out now because they are still there, but not paying their rent!!!!

I would take the chance and stay firm.  And advertise a Holiday special with discounted rent when you're ready to rent it out again.    I have rented places out in the winter during holidays, but it took a little longer.  But then I would temp them with some sweet goodies, like one months free rent, plus a free TV with DVD player (that I purchased for under $100) to anyone who qualifies  and I rent it to.  Spending a little money and giving a months free rent during this time of the year is better then losing several months rent until Spring.  

Don't forget...you can write off the TV as a gift to your tenants as an expense account- Advertising Special....

Good luck.  

Nancy Neville, Certified QuickBooks Pro Advisor