All Forum Posts by: Peter Mason

Thanks Ethel that's good to know.  I gues my lawyer put it that way and in the lease to simplify the whole thing. I never looked up Florida law about it, just took the lawyers word on it.  Heck that's why I paid her.

Originally posted by @Ethel Weaver:

@Peter Mason,

Why would you need to return the interest to the tenant at the end of the lease.  I am new and trying to understand what the correct process is.

The deposit that you are holding for the duration of the lease is still the tenants money. That means a interest earned from that deposit is also the tenants money.

Originally posted by @Al Wilson:

We wouldn't think about using a form that our attorney hasn't blessed. Good luck.

Tell me about it! I wouldn't either but some people have more cojones than I do, hence all the warnings and disclaimers.

Here's the link to the lease. I hope I did it right...

https://www.biggerpockets.com/files/user/Paxel/fil...

Originally posted by @Nicholas Armstrong:

 @Peter Mason 

Great to know, Thanks for the wisdom!

I would like to know the answer to what @AUDREY DESOUZA asked, Peter.

Could you give us an idea of some things you missed?

Hey yeah sorry for the late reply, busy with the whole Thanksgiving thing.

Well I uploaded a blank copy of the lease to the site but since I am new I am not sure if I can add a link to the forum to make it easier for you guys to find it. The name of it is FLease2010. Any tips on doing that would be appreciated.

Anyway, there was a lot to learn from it. I'll try to remember the things that stuck out. I don't use it anymore because I have a PM now and they use their own lease.

My attorney created the lease that would not only cover me but also allow her to more easily defend me or fight for me in a court of law should the need arise.

Things that stuck out for me at the time:

-initial on every page on top of signing full signatures in a couple places. I was told to go over each page with the tenant discussing highlights and then having them initial right away. (I of course gave them a copy before this with enough time to read over it first)

-exact instructions for acceptable rent payments and late fees

-where the deposit was going to be held. This is also where I found out that deposits should be held in a non interest bearing account.

-what was required by me (responsibilities) and what was required of them.

-What I was NOT liable for

-repairs I was not required to make (this is a good one!)

If you can find it, you will see a lot in there. Hopefully you can get the idea. Feel free to use it if you like but just remember (***DISCLAIMER***) this was a lease that was made 5 years ago and may not be up to date with current Florida laws and certainly not with laws of other states.

Starting off can be really daunting believe me I know. If there is any more that I can help you with feel free to let me know. We all have to start somewhere!

When starting out I used to make my own downloaded from certain sites and tweaked to my liking and research. Bad idea! For $200 I got a RE attorney to draft a perfect one that included covering all the laws and caveats necessary to cover my a$$. And wow was I missing a lot. That $200 not only gave me a solid lease but it was a priceless learning experience from the lawyer about the multiple laws in Florida. I also found out through her that there was a law firm in town that did pro-Bono work for tenants who felt they were wronged and usually won!

This may seem like common sense to most but it wasn't to me when starting out and commonly overlooked... Make sure whatever account you use to hold the deposits is a non-interest bearing account. If it isn't then you will need to return whatever of the deposit back to the tenant at the end of the lease plus whatever interest it made. Not that it'll be a lot but it is more of a pain in the butt to do.

Agree with most posts. Starting out I used Angies List since I was new to the area too. Found a good handyman Found good plumber Found good HVAC (get on an HVAC maintenance program for discounts) With all try to get one that has better after hours fees since that's when problems always happen! ****ALWAYS REMEMBER THIS FOR ANYTHING YOU DO: YOU CAN ALWAYS GET THINGS DONE CHEAP, FAST OR GOOD. PICK TWO, BECAUSE YOU WILL NEVER GET ALL THREE. On top of the above make sure your unit(s) have smoke alarms, commercial (re-certification capable) fire extinguisher, carbon monoxide detector if needed, and SHOW your tenants where to shut off the water supply. These things are very important for peace of mind, legality issues, and moral responsibility. You could self manage many more doing this. Good luck!

Welcome! I am living in Gainesville now and have some properties and experience with the area. Let me know if you have any questions maybe I can help. I know the SW side of town pretty well. Gainesville is a great place to get started in this business! 

Glad you are using your head to analyze the property through inspections and calculations. That's a lot of damage for a purchase even if the numbers appear good. A new investment property comes with enough stresses if it's in decent shape. This one seems to have much more wrong. If you are estimating 20k in repairs, I would actually increase that by 50% at this point until more is looked at like the termite damage etc. Plus a big thing for me is the age of the house. Built in the 40's, if you are gonna hold onto this for a while you need to think ahead about its age in say 20 years. At that point it'll be almost 100 years old...then what will you have to fix.

My Grandmother would give her tenants 1/2 off Dec. rent if they paid on time every month. The tenants loved it and actually paid the rent on time. Of course my grandmother could do that because she had no debt.