All Forum Posts by: PJ M.

Any fines or fees, per my lease, are considered additional rent and due with the next scheduled payment.  Never use the security deposit to deduct fees or you won't have anything to cover damages.

@Aidan Mulligan

"Judge the person applying in front of you and the animal should be a reflection of that person."

The biggest problem with that statement is that dogs do have inherent traits and personalities.  I love Australian Shepherds.  Those dogs are very stand-offish with new people.  Obviously, from the name, you can tell that they are also herding dogs.  I live in a suburb with no farm animals.  

I've had Aussies that were as friendly as can be.  I've had Aussies that fit the "description" of an Aussie to the T.  Raised in the same house at the same time by the same people.  Who raises it only goes so far and it always doesn't overcome the instinct of the breed.

I remember when we had a kids party and the kids were running around out in the back yard.  My one Aussie, who had the "typical" Australian Shepherd personality, jumped up and began circling the kids.  He was herding them.  This dog never lived on a farm and was raised along with another Aussie from the time they were 8 weeks old in our house.  They were polar opposites.  The other Aussie loved everyone had didn't have a typical "Aussie" personality.

Sometimes all the love and affection doesn't overcome the instinct that an animal has.  As mentioned elsewhere, as a landlord, I'm not willing to take the chance that the dog has overcome its instinct.  It's not worth the risk to me.  My business, for me, is about maximizing profit while mitigating risks.  

“We have heard definitively from experts, and from those directly impacted, that evictions are the leading cause of homelessness in Washington State,”

Maybe it's me being an upstanding landlord but evictions happen from not paying rent.  So if someone can't pay their rent, they get evicted and are homeless.  It seems like that's just a self-sustaining sentence.  They're basically saying "people are homeless because they lost their home".  OK Captain Obvious.

Either way, @Chris Newman is spot on with the comment about 10 days.  If a 10 day delay is going to cause you to lose your business you are cutting things as close as that person you had to evict for non-payment.

@Joaquin Camarasa hit it right on the head.  As soon as I read the first post I thought "ballet, exotic, or somewhere in between"?  

My wife's former profession had her dealing with the Philadelphia ballet dancers on a regular basis.  They generally liked to live in the "hot" area of the city and took part in a lot of the trendy things that were happening.  They're tastes were definitely more "upper class" than mine but it was fun being involved in their social circles for events and when hanging out.  Got to see how a different world lived.

I've known quite a few exotic dancers as well.  They can really run the gamut.  I've known exotic dancers where you would never know what they did if they didn't tell you like @Account Closed

Agree with @Joe Splitrock on this one.  This was a turnover between tenants.  It appears that they aren't happy with the way the unit was turned over.  Maybe it is just me, but the time between teh tenants is when I take care of these small items, like touch up paint, verifying there's no drips in faucets, slow leaks on toilets, etc.  The place gets a quick once over to make sure everything is operations and presentable.  It sounds like you just had a set of tenants move out and another set move in without doing anything.  That's fine if nothing needs to be done.  It sounds like there may have been some things that needed to be done here.  

I agree with @Gregory DeRosso, try and sit there for a while.  The tracks are active, but that's not the biggest concern.  Noise is.  It looks far enough away to not hear the actual train going by, unless it is a high speed one.  Then you might hear it.  My concern would be the train horn.  Is the train near a place where it must blow its horn?  That horn can be heard for a mile or more in a quiet time.  I've got active railroad tracks about 2 miles from my home.  They're freight only tracks and not all that busy.  On a quiet night in the spring when the windows are open I can hear the horn from that train.  I can't imagine what it sounds like to the houses that are 1/4 mile away.  I believe that a train has to blow it's horn when approaching a curve, intersection, or another train.  Luckily the tracks near my house are single tracks, straight run, for freight so the only time the horn blows is for crossing intersections.

You mention that you spoke with the neighbors.  did you ask if they could hear the trains?

The issue with using Venmo is that it specifically says in the terms of service that it is not to be used for payment of goods or services unless you are an approved vendor.

https://help.venmo.com/hc/en-us/articles/217532097-Can-I-use-Venmo-to-buy-or-sell-merchandise-goods-or-services-

As with all things, it won't be a problem....until it is.  Once that one person decides to get over on you, then it is an issue.  I don't know if Venmo would get involved, but technically if a tenant were to go to them and say "the landlord told me to pay this way", Venmo would technically be allowed to reverse the payments since it is not to be used for goods and services (unless you are set up with hem as a business and have the payment button option).

Credit cards are also a big gamble.  Credit card companies are there to protect their customer.  That's the tenant.  When you pay for something via credit card you have the ability to dispute the charges for poor service.  The credit card company then pushes it back to the vendor to prove the charge was valid.  Tell me this.  If a tenant says "I complained for 3 months that the toilet was leaking and the landlord did nothing", how will a landlord prove that false?  Would your payment processor (Paypal - Cozy - Venmo - or any other 3rd party processor) go to bat for you or would they just reverse the charges and pull the cash our of your account?  My guess is that they'd pull the cash out and reverse the charges.  As more and more tenants move to these 3rd party payment processors I believe that you'll start to see more of them getting the reputation of paypal, and more landlords getting stiffed on rents.

Its late for the advice, but replacing the subfloor probably would have been easier and quicker. 

For what you are smelling now, are the walls drywall?  If so, they will wick up any moisture they come in contact with.  They can wick it up 2-3 feet if they remain in contact with liquid.  So if the floors were that bad, they could have wicked up the urine into the drywall a couple of feet.  It wouldn't be a strong odor like something that was soaked, but it could be enough that you get the scent of it and can't figure out exactly where it is coming from.   

@Bill Caraker @Russell Brazil thanks. Anyone want to lend a hand and fill me in on the buyer’s agent/firm for a recently completed sale in Philly?

Does the MLS that is used in Philadelphia show both sides of a Real Estate transaction? I believe it shows the listing agency. After settlement does it get updated to show who represented the buyer in the transaction?