All Forum Posts by: Bruce L.

Yeah, i second Kurt's suggestions regarding interviewing couple property management companies, and properties managers. 

Our first experience with that was very position in 2006, we ran into the question whether we would want to hire a PM to manage our townhouse or doing it ourselves. We met up at our townhouse, had a 1~2 hours conversation, that lady practically taught us everything we needed to know to do it ourself! She told us if we would want to hire her, great; if not, that's totally fine with her too. We ended up managing it ourselves.

We also had bad experiences with other PM, mostly the bigger firms with hundreds if not thousands of properties in their portfolio, that's when the quality goes down and you feel that you are paying all these monthly fee for no service.

Good luck!

hm... i don't know the answer, but if you can say it's "mother nature", then why would the tenants pay for it?

The pros is you get more exposure, and you get referral from other realtor who may have better connections and/or find you better or more potential clients.

I always use craiglist, then postlet, trulia, sublet, etc. All these are free service and usually just these are good enough for me.

However, recently we were having a hard time looking for tenant for this townhouse in Seattle. There were tons of people coming to view, but for some reason nobody is moving forward.

then we posted on MLS, then bingo! we found our tenants via a realtor. We do give up 10%, but that's minimal.

@Kathleen Wilcox  he's about 5-6 years in

oh, he can't really refiance the fact the property is so under water, and he doesn't want to put more money into the house. So, with the interest only mortgage, and the rent breaking even, he's kinna stuck for couple more years if nothing change. 

Or, maybe he can increase rent, but we are looking for a solution for him to get un-stuck.

my friend has a rental that's way under water, According to Zillow it's worth about 160k, while he owes the bank 230k. i know Zillow is not the more accurate source, but 70k is pretty significant.

the house is rented out, he's breaking even after rent, tax, insurance and mortgage. He's on a 10 year interest only loan with 3.99%.

What's his best exit options? Pros and cons
is short sale or foreclosure available to him? both himself and his wife works full time job.
he'd need to show hardship for short sale, right? and for foreclosure, that will trash his credit for years.

What about other options?

thanks in advance.

@Steve Babiak
can you explain why was it the wrong action? or you mean they should've shut the water first thing, then take the video?

@Elizabeth Colegrove  yeah, i think that are at that point now. even with the two quotes from their contractor, we are working to get our contractor to go check again, may need to pull out the carpet and check the floor or somethign. Because when we were there on tuesday, I didn't feel the carpet was wet, and i put my face right there, literally inches away and didn't smell anything.

@Elizabeth Colegrove

yeah, it can be seen from the downstairs' ceiling, and they took a video of it too where water was coming out from the ceiling.

We didn't want to simply say no if it's a real issue. We just want to learn if it's a normal issue that we need to address and fix, or it's paranoid that needs to get every corner clean and fixed and replaced.
about the lease, I will need to review it again

@Lynn McGeein  

there's this tricky part. she first contacted us last week notifying the leak, but was that really the first leak? only she knows. Because if it's a one time leak and the it's fixed, the AC and heat would have dry out the carpet/board/ceiling/floor, correct? I am not a handy person so I have no idea. Or the drywall and floor can rotten in a matter of couple days? which doesn't make sense to me as there are moisture and leak at my home and as long as we found and fix it, it's fine.

 We actually went there first time to check, contractor swapped the parts the second morning, then we went again the third time to look at the carpet. At that point, the leaking supposedly fixed, she's thinking that the wet carpet and smell was from the original leak. the first question I asked at the time was if the leak was still happening, if the issue is getting worse?

@Leo M. 
Thanks for the good tip, we probably need to revise the lease and make sure we have the addendum covering the contractor part.

We really don't want to think the tenants are trouble maker, because they are really nice and friendly. But sometimes people would want and demands stuff that's not necessary.

Hi all,

We are having issue with our tenant and not sure how to deal with her. Late last week, she contacted us and stating that the upstairs toilet is leaking, through the floor and the bottom floor ceiling. 

On Monday, we brought our contractor with us and went to check it out. What happened is the parts in the tank was either broken, stopped working or wore out and it would get stuck. So when they flush and let go quickly, it may get stuck and water would keep on filling the bowl and eventually overflow.

We had our contractor replace the part and the issue was supposedly fixed. However, we did ask the question, even though water keep on coming from the tank, it shouldn't overflow the toilet bowl. Then I think she kind of hinted that the toilet was kind of clogged. 

On Tuesday, she contacted us again stating that because of the leak, the carpet upstairs has smell and it became bad. We went again after work and check it out with our contractor, and we all didn't smell anything, nor we feel wetness on the carpet; however, she disagreed.

Yesterday, she sent us email stating that carpet smell is getting worse and found two company to check and quoted how much to 'fix'. They said their equipment measured a lot of moisture under the carpet, in the floor and ceiling. the cheaper quote was 1700 to pull up the carpet, clean up the mold (if any). And the more expensive quote stating that all the carpet, floor, and ceiling needs to be replaced, I don't even want to know the price!

we had a lengthy conversation with our contractor tonight and discussed if the 'fix' is necessary. As far as we know, if the leak was only couple days, we can jsut let it dry and there shouldn't be any problem. Or, if the leak was happening for a LONG time, then it may get into the wood then we may have the problem. 

Long story short (sorry, it's getting too long), we feel that the tenant just wants something happen, something to be fixed, even the three of us didn't smell anything the other night, but she disagreed and probably think there's moisture and mold under the carpet.

So, if the tenant caused the clog, or not, how do we prove it?

If they caused the clog, which caused the flooding and damages to the carpet/floor/ceiling, how do we approach this and prove this?

when is it landlord's responsibility? and when is it tenants'?

if she wants something to be checked, or fixed, or replaced, what and when is it necessary, and when is it not?

sorry for the long story, I need advice 

thanks in advance

changing the combo every single time is one way to mitigate risk, but what if the 'potential tenant' has bad intention the first visit and totally stripe the property?

At first I thought the key box is a good idea, the more I think about it, the more scenario I can think of.