All Forum Posts by: Nicholas Morgan

May have an opportunity to buy an off market house from an older gentleman. He mentioned his house has a reverse mortgage on it.

I don't know much at all about a reverse mortgage.

• who owns the house now? Him or the bank?

• is it possible to buy a house that has a reverse mortgage?

• what complications or watch outs do I need to know about when potentially buying a house with reverse mortgage?

• also, if someone is able to provide a quick synopsis of how a reverse mortgage works, that'd be awesome!

Thanks!

Nicholas

 I agree, as long as the documents are valid (I assume they are), then pet rent will be dropped moving forward. Will not increase rent at this time. 

I have a non-refundable pet deposit that was in addition to a regular security deposit. I do not plan on returning this since it is clearly non-refundable. Even if the pet died on day 1 of move-in, they would not receive pet deposit back. This applies also to them becoming ESAs. At least that's how I see it. 

Hi Everyone. 

There's a young man in the neighborhood where I have a multifamily property who runs a small lawncare business on the side. He doesn't have business insurance. Have you ever had a neighborhood highschool/college kid mow your lawns or do you steer clear of that? I'm thinking the proper answer is to not have any contractor (including lawncare) work onsite without business insurance, but wanted to get some thoughts. Thanks! 

Finally, I wanted to share the letter I received. It's signed by a LCSW. Doesn't seem to be a prescription. I'm sure PetScreening will take care of determining validity, but I thought I'd post just in case someone wanted to weigh in. 

 Thanks for the additional info! Just to clarify, on the pet fee. There is a $25/mo fee for their cat. And they have a large Labrador dog. 65lbs or so. Typically I would only charge $25/dog. But for dogs >50lb, I charge $50/mo.  

So their cat ($25) + large dog ($50) yields the $75/mo.  They were happy with that because base rent + pet fees was still $75 cheaper than where they had been renting. (I'm not under renting house, they moved from a nicer neighborhood/large home to be closer to work). Just wanted to clarify. 

Thanks everyone for the input. I especially like the idea mentioned from @Nathan Gesnerand @Greg M. where you charge for the ability to have a pet regardless if the pet dies, becomes ESA, etc. I will be adopting this verbiage for future leases to mitigate such an issue moving forward. 

I will setup a PetScreening account and use that for verification and future pet applications. Thanks for the advice! 

Thanks for the info. I should have specified that they have provided a document from a licensed clinical social worker stating the animals are considered ESAs. They also attached a document from the USA Service Dog registration with registration numbers for their animals. Seems they have the proper documentation, though I have not done any work to verify the documents. 

As for charging a higher security deposit, I collected at the time of lease signing a non-refundable pet deposit of $250 in addition to the normal 1 month rent security deposit. Would you advise to charge a second pet deposit at the time of lease update? 

Hello everyone, 

I have tenants who moved into a property back in November 2020 and signed a lease through April 2022. They had two pets and they have signed as part of the lease a section discussing an additional $75/mo in pet rent as well as signed an additional pet addendum. 

I received notice this evening that they have gotten their pets registered as emotional support animals now. 

Do I need to immediately cease the monthly pet rent charge although we have a signed pet rent agreement in place before they became emotional support animals? Since we're changing the lease now, should I inform them we'll need to sign a new lease or amendment that removes the pet rent? If I sign a new lease, can I (should I?) up the house rent to compensate for the lack of pet rent?

I'm certain this is just a ploy to save $75/mo. Which I understand. Want to proceed fairly and most importantly proper in terms of the law. 

Looking for your advice. 

Thanks! 

Thanks Aaron for the advice. Having discussed with some local investors, I believe that our area is non-payment of rent so the landlord may be able to evict them fairly easily. 

At this time, I've extended the unit availability date for my current residence to Dec 1st. My assumption is this will be enough time to allow the eviction process to take place. What are your thoughts on this? Is 12/1 enough time or should I just take down the listing all together? 

Thanks,

Nicholas 

Hi Everyone, your advice is appreciated. Let me preface this with I do not own this property, but am under contract to purchase to house-hack so an empty unit is mandatory. 

Tenants signed a lease termination and vacate by Sept 30th agreement. Tenants had 6 weeks to find new residence. September was given rent free by landlord as a parting gift of sorts. It's now 10/5 and tenants refuse to vacate. Eviction process has started and hearing scheduled for 10/27. We were scheduled to close on 10/15 and this will now push the closing date as I had my purchase agreement contingent on a clean, vacant unit. I informed the landlord of the cash for keys tactic and the tenants refused this offer ($500 cash). 

Any other recommended course of action? I am unaware of the current eviction process status as it relates to COVID (I know for a time evictions were not happening/slow). 

I have my current residence listed for rent and will have to delay any move-in date for that as I am unsure when I will be able to move into this new property now.