All Forum Posts by: Scott J.

I'm actually just leasing a 10' x 15' room. So it might not be a typical "commercial lease".

First of all, I am a long shot from an expert at commercial leases. But what happened today just seems wrong, I hope it's not industry norm.

I leased an office in January 2013 for 12 months @ $560/mo. The lessor is an international company. I spoke to the front desk today with the goal of renewing my lease at the same terms (they are about 70% vacant), and they informed me of one sentence in my 8 page lease that states if I do not notify them of renewing my lease at least 3 months in advance, I will automatically be renewed at a market rate increase, which is a 22% increase!

So not only does notifying them 3 months in advance seem like a long time, it automatically increases the rent to pretty much a number of their choosing.

I was not notified/reminded of this, although I do admit it was buried in the lease. I've emailed the company asking for them to consider having me renew the lease at the same rate to keep me as a long-term tenant. No response yet.

Any advice on this situation?

I do this and it works great (higher end rentals). My pitch to them is that it keep their rent fair, which they like since rents have been jumping in SoCal.

It takes the guesswork out of raising rents toobecause it goes up exactly according to CPI... no explanation needed, no surprised tenant when rent increases.

This can actually be a very effective, legal approach. Pay the biggest, most tatted up guy you know $50 to knock on the neighbors door and talk to him. Tell him not to lay a finger on him or make threats. Just instruct him to address the neighbor by his name (makes it personal) and say that this needs to stop now.

I know a very successful landlord who used this approach to collect rent when he ended up with professional tenants. They would ignore every notice in the world, but once a gnarly dude was asking for them to pay or get out that they usually left ASAP.

I do all of that, except I don't ask for 3 months bank statements and pay stubs. It's certainly more work for both the landlord and tenant, but it is DEFINITELY worth the extra effort.

Good advice all around. Thanks everyone.

I was at my single family rental last week to sign the tenant's second one-year lease. They've been great--no issues at all. While I was there I asked, "How's everything with the place? Everything working as it should?"

She said, "Yes, pretty much. Although it smells a bit moldy under the kitchen sink." She didn't sound worried at all. But I'm being cautious since mold is such a big buzzword. It's really unlikely, but I want to make sure my bases are covered from future issues, or worse, liability.

So we inspected under the sink. It is just like every other cupboard under the kitchen sink. Not the freshest smell, but not horrible either. But no real visible signs of mold.

How should I address this issue? I'm thinking maybe spraying something under the sink and sending a text to her (so it is in writing). It's sort of a hassle, since the property is 30 minutes away. But I'll do what is reasonable to protect my investment and the tenant.

I own a rental near a very expensive private university in Southern California and have had nothing but great experiences. Mom and Dad always foot the bill, and pay on time every time. Plus the rents are through the roof. My 600 sq.ft. 1bd/1ba rents for $1,150.

It's funny because the vacancy times to avoid are the opposite of regular rentals. You don't want June vacancies and December vacancies are a breeze to fill.

Plus the university has a system where students can be punished (not sure how) academically if noise complaints are filed with the school, so kids don't get too crazy.

So I guess a lot of it depends on the university.

I have, in many ways, a great tenant. They've been renting for 3 years and have never even had a late payment. It's a mid-range property in my area ($1,200/mo.) and I'm really lucky to not have a vacancy for this long.

Although over the last year they've been sending more and more texts to "fix" things. Some are reasonable, which I've promptly addressed. But others fall firmly under the tenant's responsibility.

Please help me respond to this message from last night. I'm not sure if it's best to mention the increasing requests, or simply to say why this one isn't valid.

Their message was that there have been ants in the house, and they would like me to spray, or even TENT (!) the house.

Ants are part of life this time of year, and there isn't an infestation by any means (I worked in their house last week) and live next door.

How should I respond to this request? Whether it's simply stating that is their duty, or addressing my larger concern of them constantly asking me to do little things like this.

Thank you very much.

Brandon: Josh and Jon are right.

I run a small online marketing company that specializes in website design and SEO. I recommend just having one site. If you split up your traffic amongst two sites you will have less visibility in Google. Lower rankings = less traffic. Just have a link to your blog like Jon mentioned.

The only time you would want to split up sites is if you don't want different target markets to see the other's content. For example, you sell widgets to stores for one price and direct to consumers for another.