All Forum Posts by: Jeremy Roberts

I had a "Future" tenant walk through one of my apartments with me. She looked everything over and decided she wanted the apartment. She paid $475.00 deposit and $475.00 rent for the month of July. 

I just got notice from her that she does not wan to live in the apartment now. I feel I need to give her the $475.00 of the July rent back but what should I keep of the deposit? What is fair?

So a few months ago I had a local businessman call me up and ask if I had a place to rent. He had just hired a guy out of high school and was helping him get on his feet and get his life straightened out. He assured me he would stay on top of his employee make sure he paid rent, and if he ruined anything in the apartment he would make it right. He "co-signed" on the lease agreement and since he did so I did not charge the tenant a deposit. Today I got a message from the businessman say the kid no longer works for him and if he doesn't pay rent to just kick him out. The kid hasn't been to bad of a tenant has paid rent on time and no major issues thus far. I'm a little worried he doesn't have a job now and who knows what will happen. Any ideas on how to move forward? Should I try and get a safety deposit?

Welcome Jarrad! 

I'm from Lexington and own a couple of 4plexes. 

Welcome to BP!

I would use an independent insurance agent there in Omaha. They will have some great options for your rental properties. 

I currently use North Star Mutual and they are pretty competitive. 

I am an insurance agent here in Lexington, there are not a lot of companies that like to write a good number of rental units. Berkshire Hathaway will write them but sometimes seem a little pricey.

Welcome to BP!

Good luck to you and your wife!

@Dawn Jett

Currently I have to open their front door of the living quarters and they have a garage door opener in there that I can open. For some reason the garage door opener would never program to my vehicles link access to be able to open. 

Also before me they cut a hole from one garage into this garage to gain access. 

So there are a couple of ways to get in but none of them are great options. That is why not having it would make my life much, much easier.

Thanks!

I might be over simplifying things but I thought I would check. As far as the units themselves are you looking to get insurance on those 6 units? If so then you should be able to get a "fire" or "dwelling" policy on them to cover the structures. With those policies you should also be able to add liability coverage to each one of them. Liability coverage is cheap I would suggest $1 million per location. Then I would do like most said $2 Million umbrella on top of those, it can cover over your home, auto's, and rental properties in some cases. If you have it set up on the business it would only be able to cover over your business/rentals. 

Like most said contact an independent agent in your area and they should be able to help you out.

I own a 4-plex that has a 5 car detached garage that I let each tenant have one garage with their lease. I keep one for myself.

When I bought this 4-plex one garage door had an electric garage door opener. Not sure why the previous owner only installed one but there is only one. The kicker on this garage door it is the one door that gives me access to the well, motor, and pump that services the entire 4-plex with water. I do not have an opener to get into the garage and if I need to get in the tenant either has to leave the door open or I have to go into her living unit and use the opener to open the door. Very inconvenient. 

Well the garage door opener bit the bullet and no longer works. I really want to tell the tenant that I am going to remove the opener and not replace it. It was provided to her from the previous owner, I had her sign a new rental agreement that said nothing of the garage door opener. 

Is it okay not to replace it?

WC Insurance varies by state. So you would want to contact either an insurance agent or attorney that handles WC in the state of Florida to be 100% certain.

I would guess though that you would not have to carry WC to hire someone to come on to your property and do any kind of work. 

Now if this person was your employee then you would more than likely need WC Insurance for them.

The previous owner never used contracts or collected damage deposits. So each lease is month-to-month. 

My goal was to introduce myself and leave everything the way it is now. At the beginning of the year have them sign a lease agreement and keep them month-to-month. I probably won't collect a damage deposit at this time. Moving forward that will obviously change.