All Forum Posts by: Roman S.

Just saw Brendon posted something similar, but better :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CLa0UJCn3w

Given that its a matter of time before some or all of us will experience a late/missed rent, I wanted to go over the best strategy for dealing with tenants, that is reasonable, flexible, and allows for optimal rent collection. Yes, I think the government is putting the most of the financial burden on landlords. I am not looking for advice about having more reserves, or making better investments, just looking for great ideas on how to go about this rather delicate yet sensitive process of negotiating rent payments, while people are not getting paid. 

Before I reached out to my PM, here are my initial thoughts:

Reach out to tenant ahead of time and encourage them to apply for unemployment immediately if they quality and/or let the PM know that they are experiencing hardship due to COVID-19. (All this is best to do through PM)

When tenant communicates hardship or missed rent date, show some due empathy and reassure them that we are in this together. Wave any late fees and ask if they can at least make a partial payment (say 50%) and the rest can be deferred for up to 3 months interest free. Otherwise, just defer the rent payment for 1-3 months (we probably want to do it 1 month at a time) and communicate to tenant that we will work out a payment plan with them once this is all over.

Three months later (or whatever) we touch base with the tenant. If they are getting paid, we try to work out a payment plan that is still interest free. In some cases I may even be able to wave 20%-30% of the accrued payment, as long as tenant commits and is comfortable with a payment plan.

If tenant is unable or unwilling to pay or negotiate, proceed with eviction and collect payments via collection agencies.

@Jacob Sampson as I understand umbrella is another layer on top of GL, though I don't have a GL, just looking for an umbrella as an individual who owns multiple rentals.

Hello, I used to have umbrella with GEICO that was pretty affordable, but once I purchased over 4 properties, they refused to carry my insurance and referred me to their sister company RLI. This company charged me a bit over $500 for 6 SFH rentals, but now that I have 7 rentals and 1 primary, they are trying to charge me over $800 a year for a 2 mill coverage, which seems pretty steep. Could anyone recommend a more affordable umbrella company that supports 4+ properties in CA TX IN TN?

Thanks for all your thoughts guys. When this tenant moved in, she did ask for my permission to convert a small area of the backyard into a garden, which I agreed to assuming the city is ok with it, and it was. Then a year later it sort of balloon out of proportion. On one hand, this is an indicator that she will stay here a long time (she actually offered to buy the place, though I am not interested). On the other, it sounds like I need to a) make sure that any garage modifications are done up to code, and b) make sure they carry a good amount of renters insurance. I will also ask my PM to see if anything electrical in the garage looks suspicious and if he thinks I need to get electrical to check it out.

Thank you for all the overwhelming responses :) 

Enjoyed last year and will likely attend again in Feb! Just wanted to check in on the agenda for this one?

Hello fellow landlords. I have a tenant in TN that has been gradually building a pretty extensive garden in the backyard (property has a huge backyard) and transformed the garage into the green house, where they grow lots of starter plants. They seem to be pretty professional about it, in terms of cleanliness, organization and safety, but you never know. They are also an exemplary tenant without a single complaint or work request. But I am wondering if my insurance would cover if they accidentally damage or burn part of the house (due to the extra wiring and lights in the garage)? This is not exactly running a business (because they sell these elsewhere) but they are using the premises to run business activities... Safeco's independent agent wasn't sure (she's still investigating), but I am wondering if anyone here had a similar experience and how they went about making sure they are properly protected? 

My other concern is related to the extensive changes they are making to the property. PM asked them to slow down, but at this point I doubt my 1k deposit would cover the cost of changing everything back to how it was in the backyard and garage. Should I increase the deposit/rent? Currently, the rent is right around average for the area. Any thoughts or advise is greatly appreciated. 

Just wanted to +1 what Samuel wrote above. They no longer reply to my emails, and I often question their competency, honesty and transparency. My problem is that one of my properties is in New Castle and another is in Indianapolis, which makes it super hard to find a good PM that would take on both properties. 

They sold me a home that has "developed roots" in the sewer system just a couple of month after I purchased the property. They claim that they scoped the property about 3 month before and it was all good, which is hard to believe. They did pay for adding a sewer clean-out, but I will still have to deal with a huge bill of replacing the main at some point. 

I finally found a great PM, that manages properties along the I-65 Nashville corridor including Murfreesboro. They charge a standard % fee and do NOT ever charge any markup fees on maintenance. For out of state investor, I am impressed with their transparency and professionalism. https://www.gemstonesolutions.net