All Forum Posts by: Bill Bell

sounds great!  I will definitely try to attend.

Thanks for the advice.  Indeed, I will hold SD until property vacated fully and proper reviews, etc completed.  Though a new question.  Say, both decide to vacate at same time.... who do you payout the SD to?  Perhaps it would need to go to a legal arbiter?   

However, in this specific case, she is planning to stay with continued rent pmts.  Thus, will simply hold SD and maintain accordingly while lease active.  From his perspective, he would need to work it out with her, perhaps via their legal council.

One of my properties has a common law couple with a recent domestic violence incident and criminal charges including Domestic Violence Protection Order (DVPO).  The male apparently has a history and it sounds like he will likely be in jail for a while.  Female has DVPO in place and male access to the property is with Sheriff Deputy only to obtain personal belongings.  The question has been raised on the Security Deposit payout.  He wants his portion, while she believes he should have nothing.  I am not sure the legal side regarding SD; however, my understanding is that it applies to the property only.  If there is criminal activity, he is evicted; however, i am receiving conflicting information on how to handle the SD.  Usually, tenants must simply work among themselves to allocate funds, and as landlord, I simply handle full payout.  However, in this scenario, obviously not a simple distribution.   

My current plan is to draft an acceptance letter they must both sign with dollar value agreement for each to cover; however, her attorney notes that likely given DVPO, he forfeits that amount.  

Any advice/experience with an issue such as this?

thx!

Indeed, the long term rental demand is strong and the rental rates (which are often much higher then average) are part of the equation.  Though, this can be a double edged sword as income levels, though seasonally decent do not really support high rental rates unless the offering is group based allowing individuals to share a house with each supporting their own income stream.  Actually one or even two wage earner salaries in the area can be difficult to meet rental rate demand due to seasonality of employment and/or a general service economy which typically average lower overall annual income levels.  Thus, even for myself, the most successful rental leases usually are associated with group housing where the shared expenses allow for easier accommodation.  Though, of course with group housing, there can be pitfalls introduced simply by the instability of uncommitted folks living together.

All in all, the demand is high here, rental rates are advertised "high" though finding the right tenant fit can be a challenge especially if the income stream is locally based and tied to seasonality.

Often, when I do a showing for one of my vacant properties, I usually ask prospects what they have seen thus far in their local rental search.  Quite often they report many "dumps" and thus was wondering if in the landlording business (especially small timers like myself or perhaps even larger mgmt groups) many focus on the bare minimum for a rental offering?  Interestingly, in my area, which is a summer beach resort, there are abundantly more high quality weekly mega vacation rental properties (primarily idle 8 months out of the year) as compared to standard SF 3/4 BR year-round or even summer monthly rental properties.  Thus, demand is quite high for longer term rentals as the local year round population grows, and/or people moved from being homeowners to renters per recent economic changes over the past few years.  However, supply for these longer term rentals is thin.  Thus, perhaps the reason for the reports of "dumps" is due to lack of supply given demand, and leverage of this ratio?  I speak to many seasonal small business owners in the area as well, and they often report difficulty in obtaining seasonal staff primarily due to available housing in the area.  Ironically, many of the past seasonal housing offerings have been demoed and replaced with the large weekly rentals.  

Thus, on scenario where year around housing appears thin while demand is high, drivers such as higher rental rates or lower quality standards, it comes back to those discussions with prospects and what they experience in their local rental search.  Not so much questions in this thread, but rather thoughts/discussion.

Indeed, if a tenant provides any PII info, just be sure anything like account numbers, SSN, or other identity data is obfuscated before you as landlord will accept it.  Otherwise, as a data holder, via landlord business, you now become responsible for PII data which can open risk to identify theft liability or other issues related to handling PII sensitive data.

I don't know... handling bank statements of tenant prospects as a landlord can open some unwanted doors.  Once u begin acquiring bank statements and/or other Personally Identifiable Information (PII), it can open issues which may come back to haunt (if hit by a savvy tenant prospect).  I guess as long as the statements show only the person's name and history with no identifying bank account info, you may be ok.  However, i understand the reservation for tenant prospects to simply provide their bank statements to a landlord.  Likely best to use a third party screening service as compared to handling income review yourself.  

I run my properties at hard expenses (mortgage/taxes/insurance) + 20% maintenance.  From that point, i can mark up for profit margin, though for me recently, large capital expenses dug deep into the margin, thus will take a few years to recoup.  All in all though, the hard base + 20% is pretty standard to cover the costs of running the property, and hopefully keep u above water if large capital expenses hit like a new roof, appliances, etc...

I do not run under an LLC, though do use umbrella insurance to cover any large liability risk. Indeed, a must is to set up separate bank account for handling rental income/expenses.

Pets can bring in "pet rent" premiums!  Though as others noted, kids, gender, etc... is off the table for rental advertising.  Of course, with all applications, your choice for "best fit" is what is final.

Two houses, two new HAVC systems - check

one house, new roof - check

one apt:  drywall, bathroom remodel, and other $1k+ "refresh" efforts - check

Even though the monthly cash flow is fairly strong over monthly costs (mortgage, taxes, insurance), i am getting killed by big maintenance expenses.  Fortunately, I have coverage for now, but what about next year, year after that, etc...?!  There seems to be plenty more to be done to keep the properties rentable at a decently high quality standard; however, is it a losing battle?