All Forum Posts by: Sean McKee

@Jason F. I'm able to get $60 in Cicero for an outside spot.  For a garage I'd charge $100 separately if it wasn't included already in the rent.

@Caleb Johnson I couldn't agree more! Being a landlord sucks. LITERALLY everyone blames you for anything and everything that goes wrong.  At best your viewed as a necessary evil. It definitely gets you down until the 1st of the month swings around and then you suddenly remember why you went down this path in the first place.  It's a cost of doing business, not everything you do in life was meant to be pleasurable.  

@Eric James I couldn't agree more. They know it will take months for it to get before the supreme court. This will buy them the time they need. I think we need a definitive answer from the Supreme Court that can hopefully end this back and forward argument. I sincerely hope they pick the pace up with distributing rental assistance.

@John Underwood The name is Landlord Credit Bureau . As of right now they only report to Equifax.  Your tenants have the option to opt in. If they don't opt in it won't report their payments. However if they pay late, you can activate it and will open a trade line with Equifax. From that point on their payments will be reported. They will send out emails on your behalf.  They are relatively new, founded in 2012. There are still situations in which collections agencies will be better suited(ie. they won't let you report damages). I think Experian also had a program that allows credit reporting, but I have not researched it.  I wish I had a better understanding of both credit reporting and collection agencies before I had an issue.

Hello BP!

  The CDC stated that July 31st was the last extension of the moratorium and many states had already moved in that direction. I personally thought that this was a once an a lifetime event and the end was finally near. 

Then the announcement of yet another extension of the CDC eviction ban came last night. It's more "targeted" this time, and aims to protect renters in areas hit hardest by the delta variant. I've now started to doubt myself that this is truly the end.  We might not ever see another outright ban on evictions again, but what other restrictions of property rights might be enacted in the future during times of economic stress? This in my opinion is no longer about COVID. While COVID is certainly a serious health issue, many people have adapted and moved on. This is a deeper rooted issue regarding housing affordability and history of resentment towards landlords/housing providers that started long before COVID.  This isn't going away in the next few years. 

 Over the past year and half I have learned that I need other tools to encourage good behavior besides the threat of eviction.  I now subscribe to a credit reporting site that will allow me to report late payments.  As long as you screened right, most tenants complied with the terms of their lease despite the national and local moratoriums.  For those that choose not to, I now have one more tool that I can use to point them in the right direction.

Due to all the events that have happened are you positioning yourself differently going forward? Are you increasing your criteria? Looing at different markets or investment strategies?

@Izzy Zeigler as you already now know Chicago requires you allow them to break lease with a reasonable sublet. Since you have plenty of time I'd just let them out of it and find a new tenant.  It's better than getting a text after you inquire about the rent and they reply "I don't live there anymore".

@John Warren, @Jason Albasha, @Brie Schmidt- Do you know if this is in the new Cook County RTLO? I don't recall seeing it. 

@Jayden Hamilton don't let the tenant get to you because you are young.  I was a little older than you are now when I got my first property. This is your property and your rules (obviously ones that are fair housing and local laws compliant). If they are disrespecting you and violating the terms of the lease, terminate it. The mortarium is ending soon in Illinois and they won't be able to hide behind it anymore.  I've been there with the whole youth thing and the disrespect usually ends once they know you mean business and you will enforce your lease.

I agree with getting a property manager if you don't want to deal with the tenants and potentially selling if you need to find properties that will cash flow better . There's always going to be stress and tenants will always get to you at times, but try not to let it overwhelm you.  Your way ahead of a lot of people your age.

@Jason Albasha, @Alejandro Calixto, @John Warren  it definitely seems like move in fees might increase your cashflow. However personally, I like giving a people a chance to get their money back. 

The additional security deposit (double the normal), I would do during the winter months when demand shrinks.  Before COVID I gave some people who were borderline a chance. It mostly worked out, but I had an instance in which someone did more damage than a normal security deposit would cover.  The additional security deposit prevented me from losing money. But those days are long gone, I won't take the additional risk on tenants due to the new laws and the moratoriums put in place. I'll see how move in fees work out my building in Chicago. I'm in the class C market and even my best tenants who pay on time, are very clean, somehow still manage to break stuff. 

But, I agree that tenant screening will eliminate the need for full security deposits, especially as you move out of class C rental market. 

@Jason Albasha I agree with security deposits only doing so much and it won't protect you against severe losses. But I prefer the incentives it gives tenants to be careful in their units and to comply with the rules. I'm using move in fees in Chicago still, we will see what happens in the broader Cook County. It very well could turn into a situation where I move from security deposits to move in fees for all units.

@Neil Martin some of this will depend on your own personal levels of comfort. You can spend too little time educating yourself or too much. I think I spent the 6 to 8 months before buying my first property. I read all the books I could find, attending seminars, talking with people, and eventually searching/viewing properties on the MLS. You want to make sure you have a solid foundation so you don't make irreversible mistakes, but you also don't want to fall into the paralysis by analysis trap. So I wouldn't spend more than a year before finally making a move.