All Forum Posts by: Shaun C.

In my state I am limited to one and a half months rent as a deposit. This situation isn't really unique. Let them move out and then send a demand letter to all parties on the lease (co signers included) say you are owed this, you have x number of days to pay. If they don't pay take them to court, it should be pretty easy unless you've violated your state's laws.

I write into my lease that the tenant will pay a $250 cleaning fee upon exit, as well as having the carpets professionally cleaned. I tell the tenant at lease signing that I will not charge this fee as long as the unit is left in immaculate condition and carpets are cleaned. I have yet to have to clean a single time at turnover. If I have to clean, it's in the lease that they are paying it, so I don't have to worry about going to court over it. Win win.

$1.40 - $1.75/sf for 8 ft walls in Metro Detroit.

I live in half a duplex and back bill my tenants for their share of utilities. I have it in my lease that we go over at move in that covers the process, the portions, and how that will change when I move out. I currently upload pdfs to google drive and put the links into a google spreadsheet that I then share with the tenants so they have proof of the bills and they add the amount to their next months rent in a separate check.

Why do you think you can pay your rent late each month without penalty? Why do you think you can not pay December rent until April? I have to be honest, I have a clause in my lease that states if you are late three or more times it gives me the right to evict, and I would have a loooonnnngggg time ago. I also have it in there that if you accrue any late charges or fees, your next months rent check covers those first, which would then make you late for this month if you didn't pay them in full.

The truth is that your landlord is sick of your games and wants a new tenant. Pay up or move.

You really need to look up, read, and understand your local state laws as it varies state to state. You should do that asap as once you are beyond a certain point, there's no looking back and you could be on the hook for 2x or 3x damages.

I'm confused. Why would a tenant using their own appliances be a problem? I would love for tenants to tell me that they would like to pay for wear and tear and repair expenses instead of me.

Try visiting your local college's school of design and posting some info about your job opportunity in the architecture department. If I had came across this while in school I would have gone for it.

At some underlying level, I know that I got into RE for the simple reason OF proving people wrong. I'm sure that could be said about any path I would have chose. I will say this. Within two months I will be handed a check for close to $200k on a property that EVERYONE said to stay away from. Friends, family, local RE agents that 'sold over 2,000 properties', that own half the town, etc; all told us 'as your friends' to stay away from the one place.

Now we have passerby's telling us how lovely the place looks. How much nicer it is. 'How did you see the potential in what was here before? It's beautiful!'

My point is that the ones saying don't do it can have their opinion, and you can have yours. We had 20 people telling us not to, but pretty soon we're going to have 200,000 reasons why we should have.

What would you rather have? If you believe in your plan then do it.