All Forum Posts by: Gerald K.

Rents do go flat or down during recessions when the squeeze is on everywhere - and rents can also go down or flat during housing booms. I remember during the housing boom when it was hard to find good tenants - and those same tenants that did not meet my criteria as a renter could go out and buy houses - in those days when you just needed a pulse to buy a house. Will history repeat itself? Time will tell.

We recently started with eRentPayment and it seems to do everything we need it for. It would be nice if there was a way to add a miscellaneous charge to a tenant for the occasional bills that come up - maybe with a note about what it is for.  @Rick S. do you know yet when you will start the $10/Mo for first 5 transactions and $1 for each thereafter? That would be great for us. Thanks!

Smokers are not a protected class, so yes, you can say "no smoking".  If they are on a month to month agreement, you can normally make changes with a 30 day notice - make sure to check you local landlord tenant Laws to make sure you are following it correctly.

@Evan Higginbotham 

Welcome to BP. Being a contractor should suit you well in fix in flip business. Check out the "Learn" tab up top along the blue border. Lots of free guides, blogs and podcasts. Stay active on the forums, check out some local real estate investment associations in your area, and start making connections. Good luck and much success.

@Brian Tracy A lot of basic repairs need to be seen done only once and are easy to do after that. Some repairs require special tools. Check out YouTube. There are a lot videos there that explain basic repairs.  I imagine there are a lot of investors that started out by doing a lot of their own work to save money. Parts are usually cheap, but labor can be really expensive. Even so, some of the most successful real estate investors have others do the repair work while they focus on finding and negotiating good deals. Working on the business versus working in the business, as the book The E-Myth Revisited points out. Good luck.

@Daniel Heverling 

Welcome to BP. Nice to see another WA state local join the community. There's quite a few of us from the area. Check out the "Learn" tab up top along the blue border. Lots of free guides, blogs, and podcasts. See you around the forums and maybe at one of the meetups.

@Joshua Dorkin  Works good. Clean and seamless. The only thing I noticed is it changes Gerald K. to Gerald for me. Not a big deal. Otherwise, it's fine. Better than displaying the entire last name when you don't want it to. Could just the last name's first letter be displayed for those that would like that or would that open up a can of worms?

Thanks Marcia,

I like how you are in more control of the process. More work but definitely eliminates the problems we sometimes have. Thank you!

@Marcia Maynard Thanks for the response.

 I know what you mean. Every situation is a little different, so circumstances do make things vary from time to time no matter how well you prepare and plan in advance. 

We may end up with some kind of pre-prepared move-in checklist of the significant items we're aware of and provide that to the tenant to update. The eBay type severity is also a good idea. When we receive a checklist that says many stains on the carpet but doesn't indicate where, how severe, how large, or any distinguishing characteristics, it's not very useful.  We may add a statement to our move-in checklist: "please indicate specifics such as location, number, size, color and other distinguishing characteristics. Vague statements such as stains on carpet without those specifics make it impossible to separate from damage after move-in and therefore cannot be used."

Do you find you need to get clarification from the tenants on the what they put on the move-in condition report? If you are there with them it's a lot easier to explain what you want and get the detail on the spot. Obviously, your pre-filled out move-in inspection will eliminate a lot of the work involved for the tenants and limit the number of vague statements on the report.

@Frank Garcia 

Welcome to BP. Nice to see another local join the community. Check out the "Learn" tab up top along the blue border. Lots of free user guides, Podcasts, and Blogs. See you around the forums and maybe at one of the local meetups. Good luck and much success.