All Forum Posts by: PJ M.

@Sharad Reddy   Generally, with rentals, possession is considered over when the keys are returned.  It may sound simplistic, but it's the tenant's job to ensure that the keys are returned, not the landlord's job to come get the keys.  May sound like the same thing but the responsibility falls to the tenant and that's an important distinction.

Does the rental place have an office? If so then that's where you should have dropped the keys off?  Everything in your posting so far seems to be that you were acting as if the responsibility was on the landlord to collect "We were done Mar 2 and sent them an email, if they would like to get the keys ( 2 reminders in fact on Mar 2 and Mar 3)" and "I was not asked to drop off the keys".  You don't need to be asked, any more than you need to be asked to pay a credit card bill to the company.  As with bill paying, with key return, the responsibility falls to you.  Make sure the payment is received on time....and make sure the keys (and thus possession of the unit) are returned on time.  

If they have an office you should have been in there the day you moved out to give them back the keys. 

No residential landlord may evict or fail to renew a lease, whether it is a written or an oral lease without good cause. ... This bulletin outlines the good cause grounds for an eviction of a tenant from residential rental properties in New Jersey, pursuant to the Anti-Eviction Act, as set forth in N.J.S.A. 2A:18-61.1.

Here are the requirements the state has for "evictions".  I put it in quotes because NJ requires that you renew the lease so they use the term "eviction" liberally

https://www.nj.gov/dca/divisions/codes/publications/pdf_lti/grnds_for_evicti_bulltin.pdf

While I don't agree with the idea that a landlord or PM is the one to attempt to end racial harassment from one tenant on another, I think the PM really dropped the ball here.  There was an obvious violation of quiet enjoyment, and after the police were involved and the individual arrested for harassment, I'd think the PM had grounds to move forward with getting them out.  If this was a dispute over a parking spot or a "you looked at me wrong" thing I'd say yeah, wait it out.  When one tenant is actively going after another and gets arrested for it you've got a serious problem and need to act.

For single property you might be in overkill mode.  I se Quicken home and business and make each property a project.  Income and expenses go against the "project".  To see how an individual property is doing I just run a report on that project.

If you go the police-first route all the tenants need to do is show they established residency.  If they are in the place and have a piece of mail or if they were smart and changed their address on their ID to your place, prepare for the legal battle.  You are on the defensive trying to convince the police that you are in the right .  Being this is California, the land of tenant's rights, you should prepare yourself for the police to mark it a "civil matter" and move on.

@Thomas S. has the right idea with going in when they are gone.  Watch for them to leave and when the place is empty re-secure it.  When they come back act like you had no idea anyone moved in as you are the owner and had the last tenant's legally removed and have been working on permits for the addition and such...conveniently have your paperwork available for the police to see...and say you came by, saw the place wasn't secured, and just secured your property like any good citizen would.  Make the trespasser go on the defensive and have to convince the police that they belong there.  

The old rule of thumb is that you make money when you buy.  You could potentially make more money if you buy during a market downturn, but is that really worthwhile?  Only you can answer that for yourself.  

If a deal makes sense and is profitable at $100k, would waiting to see if you can get a similar deal at $90k make sense?  There are 2 ways to look at that.  One way is to be gung ho and say you make an extra $10k because you bypassed the $100k deal and waited for a market downturn.   Another way to look at it is that you lost all the profit on the $100k deal because you didn't do it and wasted 6/9/12/24 months waiting for a market downturn.

I've used C. Kelley Roofing for my roofing needs.  

I have a couple rentals in NE Philly.  When a patch could be done I was told it could be patched but a replacement would be needed in a few years.  When a replacement was needed they were honest with me.  Joe is a straight shooter and tells you like it is.  Over the years I've used them a few times on different properties.

@Justin Jarboe I'm not sure if you are permitted to do this but in our SFH we used to include water up to $30.00 per month. That was back when some landlords included water with the rental and some charged. It was a decent middle ground and allowed us to fall in line with those who provided it but help prevent overuse of the water.

Nowadays the water is kept in the landlords name but the area as moved to making the tenants cover the full cost so that's how we handle it too.

Umbrella policies usually require that you have a minimum coverage on your other assets.  Are you sure you weren't/aren't under insured?

The reason for the minimum coverage is to prevent someone from utilizing the umbrella as their "main" insurance by getting minimums on their other policies.  So, personal umbrella policies also cover you when you are driving your car.  You can't get a state minimum car insurance policy for like $300 per year and then get a $1mm umbrella policy for $300.  The umbrella policy will require, at least from my experience, at least $300/$500k/$300k limits on your auto insurance to qualify for the umbrella policy.  Same thing for landlord/homeowners policies.  You can't get the absolute minimum coverage and utilize the $1mm of coverage from the umbrella.  The umbrella will require that you have a minimum amount of coverage on those policies.

Shop your quote around to make sure that you're getting an accurate quote.  If everyone is coming back requiring you increase your coverage on the other policies, you may want to take a step back to evaluate if you are properly insured.

Others can correct me if I am wrong, but if you get a LOC and draw on it, that draw will count against your DTI as you have taken on more debt.