All Forum Posts by: Pamela Gordon

@Chad Hale, thank you for your feedback it definitely helps.  A few follow up questions...

1.  Do you put the lease in the business name or personal?

2.  How do you vet the company outside of the process I would use for the name personally (criminal, credit and eviction checks)? Never vetted a business before, so just trying to figure out how to do that.

Thanks,
Pam

@Scott Mac the power saw made me laugh and even though I have been doing this for only a short while, people have said the most random stuff to me.  It's mind boggling.  This past weekend a couple came to view one of my vacant properties and the husband mentioned how his current landlord had every reason to evict him and how good he has been to him and just starting blurting out all his other problems, and once he was done rambling on he told me how much of a good tenant he would be.  All I could think to myself was "you can't be serious".  But this is where prescreening would have came in handy, :-).

Ok, so someone just called inquiring about the available unit I have but then stated he wants the lease in his business name to house his 3 employees.  Now that sounds a little strange to me or is that a thing?  I told him I would call him back, but even if the 3 people that he wants to stay there go through the application process and qualify, I'm concerned that random people will be in and out of there all the time, because who's to say that the 3 people stay for the entire year?  I feel like just saying no, but want to know everyone else's experience with this.

How do you responds to something like this?

@John Philip Eugenio I know HELOCs are far and in between these days, but see if your local CU has one and if they have fixed rates. Good luck!

@John Philip Eugenio Last year I got a HELOC from my primary residence, and used it to buy 2 properties. I went to my local credit union, it was a fixed rate, 3.5%. I bought the first property in July 2021 from the HELOC and then refinanced my primary in October, took cash out, paid down the HELOC and used the HELOC again for the property I bought in December. It was a great tool for me at the time, especially since it is a fixed rate.

 I just installed a security system yesterday, simplisafe, since the house is sitting there empty, but now I need to figure out how to do self guided tours, because that sounds like a timesaver for me, also another great option when it comes to viewing a property.

@Kristen Wiltanger do people complain about having to fill out the application and do the credit check beforehand, without even seeing the property? Assuming, hey if that is your standard they have to abide by it or you just move on to the next potential tenant, :-).  Do you find it takes longer to find a tenant, taking this approach?  

Wow, all of these comments have been a tremendous help thank you so much everyone.  @Markis R Kelly do people ever leave stuff behind with self guided tours, meaning bathrooms dirty?  I've heard some strange things. Driving back and forth is a lot, I agree.  With self guided tours how often do you go back to check on the property to make sure it is still clean and tidy?

@Sylwia Leczycka I don't know if Venmo would be the way I would go, even though I never used it for rent payments, but I have used for sending money amongst friends and some other business related transactions but here are some of things I would keep in mind if Venmo is the route you decide.  

1. Tenants can potentially send it to the wrong recipient first time around, and once it's confirmed then there's no getting that money back.  According to the tenant they will see it as they paid rent.  Landlord would see it as rent is late. Potential conflict.

2. Processing times vary with Venmo.  It can potentially take up to 3 business days for the deposit to hit your bank account.  This could also cause the payment to be considered late, even though the Tenant initiated the payment on the due date. Again potential conflict.

3. For businesses Venmo charges 3% processing fee.  Now if you don't declare it as rent payments the fee can be avoided but if Venmo found out then that would be a whole different story in itself. Definitely would not recommend this.

4. Venmo allows for partial payments. So, even though you hope this doesn't happen, but if you are ever in a situation where you're trying to evict a tenant for nonpayment but then they send you as little as a $1, ok a little exaggeration here, but the point is they send you a partial payment, this could automatically put a stop on the eviction process since it would have been considered an accepted payment.  

My advice would be to look into a rent payment platform.  I use https://www.apartments.com/ for one of my properties and https://www.avail.co/ for another one.  I need to consolidate it but haven't done so yet, so far between the 2 I like Avail better.  They are both free and gets the job done, even though for Avail they have a paid option for a little more services, which I opted for and it is only $5 month.  Starting out you can't go wrong with either option.

Good luck!

@Jake Wiley, hhhmm so many things to consider, all good of course.  I just didn't think about the type of clientele might dictate open house vs. 1:1, good info worth noting, thanks.