All Forum Posts by: Scott Ficek

Love the idea. I believe that the other critical reason to use it is to keep you from being swayed by how the candidate looks, acts or talks.

Every landlord get's swayed by a smooth talking sob story at one time in their career, only to regret it later!

Great suggestions. Thanks for the plain talk. I love those subtle changes that I can make to my process to improve my ratio. Especially like the 2 year lease as it would reduce my workload.

I have had a rash of evictions lately for non-payment and it has caused me to look introspectively at what I am doing or not doing when screening these tenants, that may result in me allowing bad tenants to slip through my screening process.

Although I own lots of investment property, I wonder if I can't see the forest through the trees. I am looking for some practical advice.

Background: Most of my properties are 2-4 unit buildings in Minneapolis. I own in many parts of the city, but have 95% of my evictions in the lower income (but not bullets flying) areas. I do full credit, criminal, and rental history checks through an agency.

Here are some questions (please tell me the way you really do it and not the pie in the sky hard-*** landlord canned reply):
[list] Do you have an income to rent ratio the tenant must pass? If so, what is the ratio?
Do you allow any evictions or collections on their record? If so, how old does it have to be for your to excuse it?
If it was 2 weeks before your apartment was vacant, would you (Or do you) lower your standards instead of losing a month's rent?
Have you also found some correlation between your bad tenants and something on their background check?
To stay honest with yourself and your rules, do you use a point system for each applicant?
Do you have buildings or units that you are willing to lower your standards on because they are more difficult to fill or some other reason?[/list:u]

Thanks in advance.

I don't get it. What's in it for him?

Did you flag it in Craig's list as spam?

Are you trying to get into the wholesaling part of the business and are therefore looking for buyer/investors? Or are you a real estate agent?

Here is a great eBook that I bought on the subject of BPOs.

http://www.nicoleocean.com/

Whenever I get in this situation, I do just like the CSI guys on TV. I take lots of pictures and/or video of the property and situation. Then I have everything documents so when they come back and say there was a 52" plasma TV there, you can show the judge your pictures and he sees the 13" black & white!

Most states have a waiting period. In Minnesota it is 60 days (during which I have to store everything). After that, you are clear to sell or toss.

Beachbum-
Thanks for the reply. Just for clairification:

When you say "cultured marble surround", you are NOT talking about a tile surround, but those surrounds you see in hotels?

I love VCT. I put it in bathrooms and kitchens. Are you referring to the commercial-grade one foot squares from Armstrong that you trowel on glue to put down (not self-stick)? If so, what type of buffer are you talking about? The one the janitor used in the hallways back in high school?

I saw a other "discussion" between two old timers on BP and it got me thinking.....When some of us do renovations, we put in the toughest most durable products we can find, expecting they will stand up to the tenants. Others, put in the cheapest and expect that it is disposable.

When you rehab an apartment, are you using tile or vinyl on the bath and kitchen floors?

If the place has hardwood floors, do you refinish them or put carpet in?

Lastly, do you tile the tub/shower surround or use a fiberglass insert?

Thecostalinn-
I agree with all the above.

Post what your management company is charging you. Sounds like they need a kick in the *** to get your places rented or get their *** kicked because they are not good at managing the tenants!

Any chance to raise the rents or lower your expenses on any of these buildings? Are the rents at market? Can you move to Section 8 to get more? Are you paying heat and/or electricity? Any chance to move that expense to the tenants? Also, check your water bills. A dripping faucet can add $50/month per unit. Call the water company and ask them what the average per person and run the numbers from there.

Side note: I kept asking the tenant if they were having a problem with their toilet running on as the water bill was so high. She claimed it was working fine (she was a paranoid druggy that rarely answered the door). Finally I evicted her and I replace the toilet during the renovation ($100). New tenant moved in and I noticed my water bill dropped by $200 per month! Like the other guys, this was my slumlord building that I cleaned up.