All Forum Posts by: Mike M.

I wouldn't toss away a golden egg in favor of a potentially slightly larger golden egg. With all the problems tenants can bring, cleanliness is lower on the scale. I'd let it ride till he moves out and do the reno then.

I hope you win.  I'm a landlord, so I feel your pain on this.  It hasn't happened to me yet, but I suspect it's coming, or something like it that causes pain.

Regarding the argument of normal wear and tear, you are going to have to prove the smoking did damage to the unit above normal wear and tear.  This requires a baseline property condition at initial leading that is indisputable.  Do you have that?  How do you counter the argument he'll make that the unit was like that when he rented it?

Smart business decisions aren't always the absolute right ones.  If you can eliminate the stress and anxiety of next week (and those after, if he pursues this) for $250 and focus your attention elsewhere, is it worth considering?

IMO, I'd charge for the towel bars and wall damage, and punt on the smoking if he pushes the issue.  

Best of luck!

I believe he's likely right about the smoking "damage" as being normal wear and tear. If the lease didn't stipulate no smoking, what baseline will you use in front of a judge to determine his smoking resulted in damages above "normal wear and tear"? If you walked the unit ahead of time you likely knew he was a smoker if he was there seven years and you've owned the place for two. Hopefully remediation costs were factored into your purchase price. At the end of the day, $250 is not worth getting sued over. Square up and get him to sign some sort of property possession termination where it is outlined the deposit return numbers are final.

I did a flip recently where we replaced windows, going from single pane aluminum to double pane vinyl. It made a massive change in how "tight" the house felt. If the AC appears to be making a proper temperature exchange, look at doors, windows, and insulation in the attic. Is your outside unit in the afternoon sun? If so, consider a sunshade as a temporary fix. Down here the sun can be a real booger at making things much hotter than ambient. Lastly, add a window unit or two in select locations to appease the tenant. Maybe the whole house can't get to 72, but a room or two can alleviate that "safety" issue.

Todd Aaron welcome to BP. I live in Longview and have done a couple deals around here. There's a meeting group out of Tyler that routinely meets in Lindale but I've been unable to make one to date.

I don't see a big problem. I would verify #2 guy has resigned from Orlando company. I had a dual roommate issue where the second never moved in and the first had to bail after a month. Not fun.

I'd replace the offending item's trap first. But more information would definitely help the diagnosis.

I've had much more traffic dropping the price just below a whole multiple of a hundred. My two are rented at $1295 and $695. Most folks likely think of rent capacity in terms of hundreds, especially at your rent range. A rent of $1225 excludes all who search at the $1200 level despite $1225 likely being in their capacity. You'll get it rented soon.

Gut feels of applicants (although some will disagree) can be as telling as the application information. Did you meet #1 mom and son? What did you think of them? Mom is topped out at $1K/month if she's in her 40s; son appears to have a good start if the $2K is real. At 18, he probably has zero money and will need to live with mom awhile yet anyway. If your gut feel is positive, I'd be OK with #1 with some precautions. Maybe a M2M lease or at least a M2M grace period, higher deposit, perhaps autodraft out of a checking account, if either has one. A good tenant may show up later, but a perfect one never will. Risk can be mitigated, but the only way to eliminate it is to get out of the business. Good luck.

Steel wool works great. Seal up all roof openings, especially where rooflines meet at the eaves. Trim trees and bushes away from the house. After you get everything tight, bait traps with peanut better and prepare for a mass killing. We had a rat in our attic once. After steel wooling his entry, he clawed around for 3 days in the attic. Hunger finally got the best of him and found him with a broken nose later on.