All Forum Posts by: Emily Powell

@Caleb Heimsoth it's in the lease between the PM and the tenant.  If it helps, the least opens with the following language:

The parties to this lease are: the owner of the Property, Landord,:

Real Property Management Preferred (as agent for the owner)

and Tenant(s) : John Smith

BP Hivemind.  My PM has the following language in tenant leases.  They, however, keep the monthly fee of $25 per month.  Based on the below language, would you agree that they should be keeping this $?  Clearly, I don't, but looking for your opinions.  

"1. On or before the date Tenant moves into the Property, Tenant will pay Landlord a pet deposit of $150 per pet. The pet deposit is an increase in the security deposit in the lease and is made part of the security deposit for all purposes. This increase in the security deposit is not refundable before the lease ends, even if the pet is removed. Any refund of the security deposit, including this increase, is governed by the terms of the lease.

2. Tenant will, upon execution of this agreement, pay landlord $150 Pet fee per pet as a one-time, non-refundable payment, pay landlord $25 per pet monthly, non-refundable Pet Fee."

When I asked about their logic for keeping the $, this is what I got: "We collect the fee, but you would be reimbursed the money we collected for the fee if the pet damages exceed the pet deposit. For Example if the pet damages the carpet and we have to replace it, we will give the amount we collected back."

Thoughts?

@Ted Woolley Do you know anything more specific about the differences, by chance?  Thanks for the heads up.

@Bukka Levy Thanks very much for the info.  I'll pass along your response and anything you may hear back from your guy. Much appreciated! 

A friend of mine is looking into building a tiny home somewhere in Sonoma County and/or Mendocino County (Petaluma, Cotati, West County, Fort Bragg, Westport) areas.   He has found that there are issues with putting a tiny home on a piece of land that doesn't already have a building on it.  Anyone in the BP world have experience with such a project who might have advice/guidance on this type of scenario? TIA

If you're not able to get a mortgage yourself, you might want to consider finding a business partner who has good credit and W2 income to apply for the loan.  Splitting the profits with someone like that might put you in a better position than putting of the investment entirely for another 18 months until your credit is back on track.  Just another idea if you're not able to do it yourself.  

It's not the camera that matters, it's the lens and the lighting, as @Michael Greenberg says.  You want a wide angle lens.  That combined with great lighting will make all the difference in the world.  

I'm going to side with @Ericka G. here.  If you don't need the cash, hang on to it.  You stand to gain significant $ by waiting it out for at least a few more years, all the while your tenant is paying down your loan.  While I am no NYC market trend expert, I can't imagine the buildings going up in the boroughs will impact your value.  Your place is in a fantastic neighborhood where there will always be demand.  Sure, people are moving out to the boroughs, but demand for Manhattan will always be high...especially because there is nowhere else to build but up.  I know from personal experience, as my entire [co-op] building was bought out by a developer last year.  I never would have left had that not happened.  All the more reason I want you to keep your place.  :)

@Andrew Olmstead I am not opposed to turnkey as a whole, I just happened to have had a less than stellar experience with one particular provider, and one which I believe they have worked to improve for future clients.  I think if you have the time and resources to invest on your own, you should do that.  But if you don't, then I support purchasing turnkey, especially if it means the difference between investing or not.  

@Vince Scolari if you look hard enough, you'll find the discussion from when I was in the midst of the worst of it.  Fair warning, it's not pretty.  I was upset, very upset.  My biggest complaint was that the provider put a section 8 tenant in my house without my permission.  There were a lot of accounting issues and it took way too long to get me my rent $.  Communication was terrible for a long time.  They have since implemented measures to improve communication and accounting, but I still have my issues with them, I just deal with it.  I could have switched PM companies, but I've been too lazy, to be quite honest.

To answer your question about selling, the purchase price was above market and in this particular city, appreciation is pretty minimal (which is expected in these markets).  So it's just now creeping up to what I purchased it for.