All Forum Posts by: Stephanie Hardy

Thank you everyone for your help! I think I know what to do now! I appreciate all the advice!

@Scott P. 

"If the tenant's aren't speaking to each other and one isn't cooperating and the lease indicates the deposit came from both of them even though the cashier's check did not, let us know and I can give you a story or two about that situation and which may be helpful."

That is basically my situation. I don't think they are to the point of not speaking, but I know the male is wanting to try to get half back of the deposit. They both signed the lease, but the cashier's check has just the female's name on the memo. Their lease is up, so they are now month-to-month and we were going to renew the lease and found all this out.

@Jason D. @Theresa Harris The male is trying to see if he can get half back. I figured if we needed to give it back (after inspection, of course), then we would make it out to both? I was thinking if she could prove it was hers, maybe coming from her personal checking account, then we could roll it over to the renewal. Also figured since her name is in the memo that they could go to small claims court and figure it out themselves?

Our tenants signed a lease together and it time to renew their lease, but they are breaking up. The female wants to continue living in the home and renew her lease. The problem arises with the security deposit. It was paid via a cashier's check and the memo has the female's name only on it. We are not sure if we should refund the security deposit to both their names and have the female do a new security deposit or keep it as part of the lease until she moves out. If she is renewing the lease, though, wouldn't that be sort of a new lease and we should return the deposit if one leaves and isn't on the lease anymore? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

I have been trying to research online property management companies to fit my needs:

1) Accept online payments in the form of ACH. I don't care to take credit/debit cards. However, I need it to be able to accept the payments into multiple bank accounts since I have a different account for each property for our Series LLC. This is my deal breaker if it is not offered - I need to be able to have multiple bank accounts to receive payments.

2) Track expenses on my rental home

3) I only have 3 homes right now, not planning on having more than 10, so something that has low fees is best, doesn't have to be free.

4) Track tenants and leases

5) Track work orders (would be nice, but not required) 

erentpayments.com seems to be my best option. It does multiple bank accounts, but the accounting/expense stuff seems pretty basic and slightly confusing.

TenantCloud I can have up to 5 bank accounts (for free, at least). I think I can have more if I pay for it. Not sure if they or erentpayments accounting/bookkeeping is better or not.

Cozy does multiple bank accounts, but doesn't let you track expenses. 

Buildium is nice, but more pricey than what I am wanting to pay at $45/m, plus payment charges and I'm not sure if they can do more than one bank account.

Rentec doesn't do multiple bank accounts.

I also just found landlordtracks.com which does allow multiple bank accounts for receiving rent and everything else I am looking for. Seems actually maybe comparable to Buildium, but only $15/m for 10 units. Anyone use them? They have a trial I might try out.

I would appreciate any feedback or recommendations anyone has on this subject. I haven't been able to find much for what I need. I know I'm not the only one that does banking with multiple accounts, so I am hoping to find a software that can do that. I appreciate any help you can give. Thank you!

@Mitchell J. I would say opt for the 30 year loan. It locks you into the low payment, but anything extra you put towards the mortgage goes towards principle. Get a 30 year payment which will be much lower, but pay the payment that a 15 year loan would give you (roughly a 50% higher payment difference). In that case, say you lose your job or don't have a tenant for a while, you have the lower payment to fall back on, just in case things go south. The 15 year loan may have a lower interest rate, but it wouldn't be an astronomical difference. Plus, as @Patti Robertson said, if you want to acquire a lot of rentals with mortgages, it is best to keep your debt to income ratio the lowest you can by having the lowest payments possible.

@Jim Shepard Exactly my thoughts. I think 15 year loans get slightly less interest rates (about .5%), but the payment is still much higher vs the 30 year loan.

Also, if you google "15 vs 30 year mortgage" a lot of articles come up with information on how to decide between the two.

Out of those two zip codes, 89015 is the better choice, but it really depends on what part of those zip codes you are wanting to be in. Around boulder highway will be a little rougher than the more east you go, but I am not sure how well a rental would do way east. I am not completely familiar with the crime in those zip codes, though, so not too sure. I know as you are on boulder highway, heading a bit more north from there, it starts to get a little scarier...there are pockets out that way of good and bad - not so cut and dry.

@Vamshi Ananth Also, Trulia gives a decent map of the crime in the area that you could check out. I've found it to be helpful.

@Vamshi Ananth That doesn't really give much info to go off of. First off, it is very hard to find homes without HOAs in the Vegas valley. Second, most places that have duplexes are not in good parts of town. Summerlin really is probably low in crime in most parts of the town, same goes for most of Henderson, except when you start getting into the very east/northeast parts of it. In Las Vegas, you are pretty safe south of the strip and the west/southwest areas. Areas by Freemont St are the worst part of town as well as the upper east side (but that part is more North Las Vegas).

I am doubtful you will be able to find a duplex without an HOA in a low crime area...looking at the MLS (my husband is an agent), all the duplexes for sale are in the high crime part of town...your best luck would be to look for a duplex by UNLV. The crime is better in comparison (not great, but better) and renting would be to students, most likely.

We have a SFH 5bd, 3 ba with pool home in Las Vegas. We have a gold company (NewCastle Gold) wanting to rent our house for a year, at least. From their website, it seems they've been in business since at least 2013 and have 2 other projects going on at other places, so not brand new. There will be between 3-6 of the same people in the house at most times and they are willing to pay a year of rent up front since we've been hesitant about the situation. The company would be the ones paying the rent, not the tenants. I still want to do background criminal checks, but they don't want credit reports ran, which I figure isn't really needed anyways since the individuals aren't paying the rent.

Would you rent to them? What red flags should we look for? How would you change the lease from a single family to a company?

This is our 2nd rental home and 2nd tenant to ever rent to, so we are still pretty new to the game. Thanks for any advice given.