All Forum Posts by: Rich Schmidt

It depends on what you mean by "historic building." In my town, we have some houses on the state and federal historic homes registry (including my own home, which includes 2 apartments upstairs)... and these registries don't have any restrictions attached. We could totally update our house if we wanted to, in any way that we wanted to.

But certain other "historic" designations have preservation language attached to them, and the law can prevent you from doing certain things to the property.

So it really depends on what situation you're in, exactly.

Congrats! And thanks for sharing your story!

I'm curious if you're setting aside any money for capital expenditures that will arise in the future: new roof, furnace, driveway, floors, windows, etc. I see that you have "vacancy and maintenance" listed, but the dollar figure appears to be too low to include capex. So I'm curious...

I self-manage because I only have 5 units, and they're all ridiculously close by:

- Two are apartments in my house.

- Two are single-family houses basically across the street from my house.

- One is a single-family house about 6 blocks from my house.

It just wouldn't make sense for me to hand over management to a company. 

Biggest problems?

- The time it takes to find good tenants when turnover happens. It's usually fairly quick, but it takes time on my part.

- Finding a handyman/contractor who's reliable and available and good when needed. Issues don't arise often, but when they do, I'm sometimes left scrambling. (Unless it's a plumbing issue. I have a good plumber.)

It may come down to how your word your rejection. Perhaps you could shift the blame to your policies, that they won't let you rent to them, even if you wanted to. "I'm so sorry, but the background check turned up some things that our policy won't allow. I'm not allowed to rent to you after all." Something like that?

Otherwise, there may be ways for you to make it work, if you wanted to. For example, require them to pay rent with a cashier's check or money order, no personal checks. 

Clint, I hope you'll share that story (and any others you might have about applicants) over on the Tenant Applicants thread: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/52/topics/737...

We all need a good laugh now and then! Lets us know we're not alone! :)

Forgive me if I'm missing the obvious, but I can't tell from this photo what the problem is...? Is one of the batteries in backwards or something?

I didn't take anything personally. Not sure what gave you that impression. (We have rented to college kids these past few years, but it's simpler for us because they are one-bedroom apartments in our own house. Just signed leases with two new student tenants last month.) 

The person using personal examples has been you, talking about your college-age son and how you'd have your lawyer talking to the landlord if they tried to enforce the (fairly standard) lease terms in case of damage caused by your son's roommates or guests. The part about random troublemakers was to point out that both you and your college-age son are adults. If you wouldn't do it, it's reasonable to expect him not to do it... and his roommates. There's responsibility attached to signing a lease with roommates (and to cosigning for a child). No sense in calling a lawyer to try to wiggle out of it.

Just curious... anyone know what happened to this guy? This article is several years old now, and Google isn't finding me many follow-ups. The most recent it found me was a 2016 court case against the newspaper for publishing these articles... 

Do you let random troublemakers into your home? I doubt it. College students are adults. They're responsible for keeping the apartments or houses they rent in good condition, and they're responsible for guests they allow onto the property. They're also responsible for selecting good roommates, if they're in a roommate situation. And without the (standard) lease clause that they're jointly and severally liable, each roommate would simply claim the other one did it, and they both might have a shot at avoiding responsibility.

It's a serious matter to cosign a lease with someone. Your lawyer can sit down and discuss the matter with the landlord, but these kinds of terms are enforceable.

 I think everyone else has adequately answered already. Thanks!