All Forum Posts by: Raghavendra Jakkani

I have a single family house available for rent. I upgraded to premium listing on Zillow rentals. It was all good and my house was showing up top in the list.

Today on the same street two more houses came up for rental now. So now on the same street there are 3 houses available for rental. When I search for rentals as a user and not as a landlord the search result shows as apartments with 3 units and when I click it then it brings up all 3 houses and says which unit the user want to go to.

I paid for this premium listing and want my listing to be separated out. I sent an email to zillow. There is no phone number where I can reach a human. Please help.

When a tenant signs a lease after 15th of the month should they pay the rent amount for the remaining days in the month or remaining days in the month + next month? So the total amount that should be paid will be 

rent for remaining days in month + security deposit

OR

rent for remaining days in month + next month + deposit - I don't know when would this situation arise.

For my very first rental property the very first application I got had income which is 4.7 times rent. rent is $2550 and income $12k out of which $3kis child support.  Credit history is excellent. No criminal or eviction record. Even if I go by 3X applicant meets the rental criteria. 

1. I am here for experts opinion to find out what you guys think? Is there anything that I need to consider given this information?

2. Do I need to ask for screening of every one living or only persons signing the lease? The number of occupants listed in application is 3

Rental screening is through Zillow Rental Manager. 

The loan officer came back and said that the sq ft was approximation and the appraiser doesn't want to change the sq ft or redo the appraisal. The builder is also surprised that the sq ft came out that high. The builder believes that the appraiser never actually did the measurement. I went and took the measurements and they are off by 1 ft to 2 ft and location of various rooms in the appraisal report is all wrong. 

Now my question is I don't want to end up paying property taxes for the Sq footage that doesn't exist. So I want the correct sq ft that builder mentioned to be on the county website. How do I make sure of that?

I am new investor and have one investment property. Its a single family house in dallas. I want to put it out for rent and bit nervous about the process. I want to give it a try to find a tenant myself. I have few questions about the process. I apologize ahead for the long post.

1. After posting on the zillow, do I show the property to only those tenants whose credit/criminal and other background checks out? or show the property to interested tenants and ask them to apply if they meet the criteria?

2. Does anyone has a checklist that they can share to talk to potential tenant before asking them to apply?

My list includes - last 2 years employment history and current employment [2 paystubs], criminal checks, eviction checks, No Pets, No smoking, tenant pays utilities, maintains landscape, no subleasing, bring own washer & dryer, 1 month security deposit and transfer of utilities before moving in, rental insurance, all occupants will be on lease, notice period of 2 months for termination, tenant references, No cosigners, no painting walls, late fee notice, any hoa fines should be paid by tenant, inspection of property at 3, 9 and 12 months.

Please let me know if I am missing anything.

3. Any other clues or observations to make to understand if the tenant is good?

4. Does zillow do all the required background checks for tenant screening or should I also look for any additional options?

5. If the tenant has a support animal, how to verify the validity of it?

6. If the prospective tenant has a realtor/agent, do I need to pay them?

Is it not true that when you lease your property to an LLC and have the LLC manage tenants, you create a legal barrier between yourself and the property’s operations. This means that if anything goes wrong with the property—like a tenant getting injured or a lawsuit related to the rental activities—the LLC, not you personally, would be the one held responsible.

This is my first investment house. I am closing a new house in 2 weeks. When I want to rent out this house, I am thinking of leasing it to an LLC which will have both me and my wife as members and that LLC will be leasing it out to the tenants. The mortgage loan is only on my wife's name. The lease agreement between my wife and LLC will have a clause saying subleasing is allowed and no permission will be required from landlord. Is there anything else that I should add to this agreement?

This is my first investment house. I am closing it in next 2 weeks. The sq ft mentioned by the builder was 2050 but the appraisal came back with 2233 sq ft. I questioned the mortgage company if this is valid as the difference is a lot. But my question is if this is correct, what should I put the sq ft of the house when I put it out for rental? 2050 or 2233? I don't know if the builder will communicate to the county that its 2050  sq ft house and if I put it as 2233 sq ft, some renters might think I am misleading them.