All Forum Posts by: Paul Ronto

@Eugene Kemp I hear what you are saying. What I would recommend then is when you get a lead, do some simple phone screening with the potential tenant before you ever show the property. This is a quick and easy way to weed people out that don't meet your criteria without anyone having to fill out paperwork. Then if you move on to a showing and they are still interested you can send them the formal application link which will integrate with the screening reporting. You don't have to charge anyone a penny that's not both cleared by you or actually interested in your property.  

I think most people have access. I could be wrong on this, but with almost all phones having web access these days, even if they don't have a computer at home, they may have access on their phone, or have access to a computer at work or at the library. I know it could be a barrier for a small number of people but it's not a huge one, you could bring your laptop and meet them at a coffee shop if needed, in my mind, it's still better than a paper app. 

@Katherine S.  as for your question, I use it to screen every prospect I see. There is a ton of value in the answers people provide in their application. I customize my application a little as well per property to make sure I am getting the right people in each unique unit. I also am collecting rent online, it's is a game changer to me, it's limiting the number of excuses tenants can make for being late, and it's allowing me to account for funds more easily since it's all recorded and maintained in one place rather than checks coming in from different tenants at different times. No chance of losing a check ever again!

You could try an ozone generator/bomb. They take like 6-10 hours for a 2000swft house and you should be out of the property, but they have worked wonders for me in the past, totally wiped out smells and odors. You can either buy a unit or larger areas have companies that will come provide the service for you. It's kind of like fumigating your whole house with ozone. 

Maybe it's as simple as the form of payment. I've had tenants that were always late and I've heard every excuse, but moving them to online payments gave them no more excuses, there was no stamp to find anymore, no more "closed banks" and so on. It honestly helped. 

This may not be the solution to your problem, but it may help if it's one less thing for them to worry about,  like finding their checkbook, instead all they have to do is go online and pay. 

It's worth a shot, setting up online payments is pretty simple, and if it doesn't help, no skin off your back, but if it does it's a win!

Let me know if you have any questions on how I set up mine, feel free to direct message me I'm happy to help if I can. 

@Eugene Kemp Just wanted to reach out and let you know you can do your application process online through TT and when you are ready, if the tenant passes your criteria, you can request access to their screening reports and they won't have to fill out the second application. Takes one step out of the process and makes things easy both on you and the prospective tenants. You can customize the online application too to adjust to your needs should you want to ask a few additional questions that are not normally covered. Hope that makes your landlording even easier! 

My advice is set up an LLC right away. You want to be protected in the case of a legal situation. Even if you have to go to court over a 20$ item and are found personally liable to pay that judgment, your credit will get hit and your ability to buy more investment property will be hindered because of that small judgment against you, I believe for 7 years... The LLC protects you personally from these small claims and bigger ones.

My suggestion is to have a tax attorney/CPA set up a new LLC for each property you buy. Create one parent LLC that manages all the child LLCs. Have an independent LLC for each property so they are all isolated from the others. If something happens at property 1, you don't want the assets from property 2-10 to be in jeopardy.

LLCs are easy to set up and cheap, 200-500$ depending on the complexity and who you have prepare them. You can even probably do this yourself online for cheaper, but I have a lawyer do mine so they are filed correctly. You can set this up after you close on the property and quit-claim the house into the LLC after closing, but also make sure your loan doesn't have a "due on sale" clause making your loan come due because you transferred the property. Most don't anymore since you are personally liable for the mortgage note, it's not solely tied to the property but check first.

Feel free to reach out directly if you have any more specific questions on this. Good luck!

No problem. Feel free to reach out if you have other questions. 

@Rousner E. I'd be hesitant to be honest if I was in your shoes. Like Nicole said, there are a lot of laws that regulate property management itself but also surrounding the act of tenant screening and who you rent to. If you just think you're doing them a favor or looking to make a quick buck on the site neither of those will probably happen. You'll be dealing with tenant issues at odd times and on weekends possibly, so ask yourself if you're up for that if you are doing this as a "favor" and what your time is worth. 

Also, there's a possibility of getting entangled in a legal issue at some point from issues like evictions to owner/tenant disuptes to fair housing issues, so if you are going to take this on, again like Nicole mentioned, be sure you are aware of all the laws surrounding rental property. 

If you got all that down though, I can be fruitful, but profits disappear quickly when things end up in court. 

I live and run my landlording in a college town, so needless to say there are tons of renters. So many in fact that when I post a sign in the yard and push listings to the listing sites I get blown up on email and calls. I've adopted the open house idea to my rentals to save me a lot of time and headaches. Everyone that calls I tell I can't show it at this time, but there will be an open house this Saturday for example from 1-3pm. I even put this information on my online listing info. Then anyone seriously interested will make the time to come to the open house. I hand out links to my online application there and within 2 hours I usually have a solid pool to pick from. The days of running over to the rental every time someone calls are long gone. 

If I don't get enough interest or find a good match I'll hold another one at another time, this time maybe on a Wednesday night to catch people that couldn't come to the first one. 2 or 3 2-hour open houses is way better than 15, 30-minute showings in my opinion. 

If you have any other questions feel free to reach out directly, happy to give my 2-cents. 

You can word this section however you want, but ya it sounds like this clause is saying you are not responsible. I put in my leases that if the appliances stop working because of age or routine use I will fix or replace, but if there are signs of abuse it will be the tenant's responsibility. It just depends on how much risk you are willing to assume.  

Other things to remember to include are usually a lead based paint disclosure, possibly a radon or mold disclosure, and if your city or state has an occupancy limits law be sure to include that. 

If you are renting to military personnel there's a military clause you can add in case they are deployed or stationed somewhere far away during the term of your lease. 

Obviously, at move in get a condition report signed, and I would create a move in doc with all the important numbers like fire, police, utilities to change into their name, your contact info, info on how to pay rent, directions to where the main water and gas shutoff are and so forth. Something they can put on the fridge for quick access. 

If you want a few more tips ever feel free to reach out to me directly.