All Forum Posts by: Aaron Sims

Have a tenant who gave me his 30 day notice. Lived there for 15 years ... So he told me to keep the $500 deposit because he was going to leave everything in the apartment building which he did. He left the place a wreck. Most likely because we raised he rent. Tenant never gave me a forwarding address so I can send him a letter stating why we are keeping the deposit. What the next step?

Question 2

The tenant sister lives downstairs and were sharing the 2 car garage . The tenant left stuff in his garage aswell.. The sister ask if she could grab some stuff from his side which I allowed. Now that I have a new tenant moving in.. The sister tells me after 2 weeks of her brother moving out that there's some items that were on his side of garage that she wanted bit I through all the stuff out after she moved some items over to her side of garage. Now she's upset. What's my next move?

Hi -- Let me start with the back ground before I get to my question. I just recently purchased an investment property. Shortly after taking possession of the building, I increased the rents. I gave them the required 60 day notice because the increase was more than 10%, and we are currently 30 days into the 60 days.

One of the tenants has making waves since I took over the building. He has been complaining a lot, he constantly points out all the areas where the building hasn't been well maintained and he even went down to the city to see if everything was in order with the permits in regard to a roof I just had replaced. The rent increase only frustrated him more.

Over the past week, we had landscapers working on the yard -- we had all the sprinklers dug up and replaced, they leveled the lawn and then matched seeds to the current grass to help the lawn regenerate. As the final step, yesterday we had a layer of compost put down and then surrounded the areas of the yard affected with yellow caution tape to keep people from walking on it, until it gets established.

Now for the question -- Today, I went by the building to take care of a few things. The tenant in question sees me and we start talking. He says he is planning to move out in 30 days and that he considered this conversation his notice. Then he continued on to say that tomorrow he is planning to drive a truck onto the lawn in order to facilitate his move. I told him given the new sprinklers, and all the other work just completed on the yard, that I didn't want him to do that. He said, "tough, i'm going to do it anyway." The conversation continues, but we were making no head way and I said I would call the cops and he said he didn't care, he was going to drive the truck onto the yard. So I called the cops. The cops said there wasn't a whole lot they can do other than try to talk to him, which they graciously did. They came back and said he's being a bit of a jerk. The police said if he were to drive the truck onto the property, then you can sue him for any damages he does to the new landscaping.

My question is -- where do I go from here? I thought I would draft a letter documenting what happened today with the verbal 30 day notice, as well as our discussion and my directive to him not to drive a truck onto the property. Then continue to say that if he chooses to do so, that we will deduct any damages from his security deposit (which isn't very big) and if the costs exceed that, then we will consider further legal action (i.e. small claims count to recoup costs). I'm starting to get concerned that he might damage the inside of the unit as well.

Please let me know if have any other suggestions or ideas about how to best proceed. Should we be doing something different?

one week? What if I need to change out valves for the water system and have to turn the water off to connect the valves. Should I write them a letter stating the water will be temporally off for a couple of hours?

I have a four plex and I want to start Landscaping and changing out the sprinklers. How much notice do I have to give the tenants?

I'm thinking about switching Insurance Companies and I've hear Costco have great rates for home owners, umbrella policies and rental insurance.Do any know anything about Costco insurance?

Thanks Will! That's what I'm planning on doing for her. I'm think $1300 is the right number. So wish me luck.

Thanks for your response Dawn. You make great points but her 1 bedroom apartment is the best unit. It's clean spotless and in great shape with no repairs needed. So unfortunately I think talking would be a great idea.. But it make since to raise rent to market even if I lose her which I don't want to do.

I just purchase a 4 unit apartment building with no rent control. Here's the problem I'm having the rental market is really strong here in California. Rents for a 1bedroom is going for $1500. I have a tenant who's been there since 1979 and she's only paying $635 a month. How much can we raise rent?

Let me give you a bit of information as I would really welcome your peoples opinion on what order we should tackle the improvements. I will also add that the property is in the San Francisco Bay Area, where rental market is very strong.

1. Roof is in poor condition. We've had a few roofers out and all have said that if we choose to repair, we will likely have to repair again in a year. $20K is the cost for a new roof, which we had not planned for such a big investment upfront, but will tackle if needed. In one of the units, you can see water leaks, so likely this has to be tackled.

2. Windows -- the building has poor quality aluminum windows. The property is close to train tracks, so some higher quality, sound minimizing windows will really help the rentablity of the property.

3. All 4 units haven't been updated since the building was first built. Kitchens, bathrooms, flooring are all in need of updating. We've looked at comparable rental units and most are not updated, so updates are not required by the market, but will allow us to charge higher rents if we choose to do this.

4. Garage doors -- there are two 2 car garages (instead of carport), so each unit has 1 space. It is currently used for storage, not parking. The doors are all in pretty bad shape.

5. Everything else -- as we make various updates over the next few years, we would like to update the electrical and plumbing (unless other landlords think that's $$ poorly spent). We would also like to do some landscaping to make the property look better maintained than it's current state.

I would love your take on how to prioritize this list balancing the need to not invest too much $$ now, but balancing what will give us an ROI on our improvement. Are we considering upgrades that are not expected by renters (i.e. upgraded electrical, etc.).

Let me give you a bit more information as I would really welcome your opinions (or others) on what order we should tackle the improvements. I will also add that the property is in the San Francisco Bay Area, where rental market is very strong. 1. Roof is in poor condition. We've had a few roofers out and all have said that if we choose to repair, we will likely have to repair again in a year. $20K is the cost for a new roof, which we had not planned for such a big investment upfront, but will tackle if needed. In one of the units, you can see water leaks, so likely this has to be tackled. 2. Windows -- the building has poor quality aluminum windows. The property is close to train tracks, so some higher quality, sound minimizing windows will really help the rentablity of the property. 3. All 4 units haven't been updated since the building was first built. Kitchens, bathrooms, flooring are all in need of updating. We've looked at comparable rental units and most are not updated, so updates are not required by the market, but will allow us to charge higher rents if we choose to do this. 4. Garage doors -- there are two 2 car garages (instead of carport), so each unit has 1 space. It is currently used for storage, not parking. The doors are all in pretty bad shape. 5. Everything else -- as we make various updates over the next few years, we would like to update the electrical and plumbing (unless other landlords think that's $$ poorly spent). We would also like to do some landscaping to make the property look better maintained than it's current state. I would love your take on how to prioritize this list balancing the need to not invest too much $$ now, but balancing what will give us an ROI on our improvement. Are we considering upgrades that are not expected by renters (i.e. upgraded electrical, etc.).