All Forum Posts by: Stephen T.

I did this two years ago. Helped me out of a jam where I had a renter ready to start in Feb and the deal fell thru last minute. Here's my advice based on an 'n' of 1: - in my case, Insurance company agreed to pay 33% over asking price. I was at a lower price point so ymmv ($1200 ask - got $1600) Don't be afraid negotiate. You're helping them out. In the end, it was the extra $$ that made this all worthwhile. - your tenant may never have rented before (or it's been a while). In my case, at the end of their lease when I wanted to show the property to prospective long term tenants, the tenant gave me all kinds of grief about 'invading her privacy' and 'disrupting her life' even though I told her at the beginning of the lease that this was our procedure and I made every attempt to 1) give 48 hr lead times, when typically I would only give 24, and 2) blocked/scheduled showings for 1 day per week and 1 weekend day away from dinner time/church times, etc. maybe this was just the person I was dealing with though... - vet the tenant exactly as you would for a normal tenant. Don't compromise on any of your acceptance policies just because it looks like easy money. They are still living in your home. In my case, the 3 month lease was extended to a 4th month. It turned out my ins co renter was a complete slob - mostly because she left the home to her older children and was never there herself. and then became borderline hostile toward the end. I overlooked some warning signs. Was VERY glad this person didn't end up a long term tenant. Overall, I'd do it again, in the exact situations already mentioned above by other posters. Good luck!

Thanks all - a little late getting back to this post...

All in all, this situation has been pretty close to perfect for me - I'm so glad we did it. They will have stayed for 4 months as of the end of June - just got notice a few weeks ago for late June move out. I didn't hear a peep from the tenants after the first couple of days after move in. And the rent checks arrived early from the placement company!

The placement company was great to work with - always friendly and responsive.

So far so good in terms of finding renters, now that we're into the summer months - quite a few showings and the first application just hit last night, so now we're back into this craziness... The good news here is that the property, even though a little messy with clothes, suitcases, unmade beds etc. appears to have been well kept so showing it while occupied isn't hurting me.

The only (minor) difficulty has been wanting to show the property now that the tenant has given notice. I posted another topic the other day about "reasonable notice" since I was curious about peoples' experience. As you can imagine, they are not used to renting and saw my desire to show the property while they were still in it as intrusive and frequent. I didn't think one showing during a weeknight and one showing on the weekend was too frequent... (stayed for less than an hour each time) - although I get their point on it being intrusive . At one point, it did get so far that I had to politely remind the tenant to review the lease to see what they agreed to - thankfully it hasn't escalated further. Just something to look out for with this type of tenant.

I might post back if there's any problems with the move out, but overall I'm really glad I took people's advice here to jump on this opportunity. Thanks so much to those who responded above and to the BP community!!

I'm located in PA and I understand that the law here doesn't specifically define the term 'reasonable times' regarding entry into a tenant-occupied property (eg, with 24 hours notice to show to prospective tenants or for inspection/non-emergency repairs/maintenance. I'm interested in how other landlords define this term both in PA and elsewhere where no legal definition exists, and whether anyone has specific guidelines they follow, with specific emphasis on whether you enter during weekend hours if you have a regular 'day job' that's not RE investing. I think between 9 and 4 pm on Saturday and 1-4 on Sunday is reasonable. Do others agree?

I know this is an old post, but can you share how things ended up for you?

As always, thanks for the advice

Update: looks like this is going to happen. They are FedExing me a check for the security deposit and first months rent and lease term begins Monday!

@Jon Klaus and @BJ McKellar Yes - I failed to mention that they offered 33% over my asking rent. This is great, since 33% extra over the three month term will make up for the month of vacancy in Feb! My unit is not furnished, though - so they'll be furnishing through a rental company. Is this what you've seen or do some companies pay more for furnished units? How much?

Thought I'd share some learning from the process so far:

Right off the bat - ask to see their payment agreement so you/your attorney can review for any issues. In my case there were two problems that took a little time to work through:

1) They had a clause which stated that all exterminations for bug infestation were my responsibility during the lease and any loss of rental furniture/housewares provided for the tenant resulting from infestation would be covered by me. In my lease I provide the house infestation free and state that after the first two weeks extermination costs are the tenant's responsibility. I had to get the placement company to update agreement to be compatible with my lease.

2) They also asked me to provide a list of which appliances are included in my unit, but on the agreement they noted the appliances I listed as included and maintained in the unit. I only provide maintenance for the stove/range and fridge. I supply dishwasher, and washer/dryer in as-is condition, so needed to update accordingly.

Also, you might get a renter who is not used to being a tenant - first she didn't want to come out of pocket for our application fees (in this case 4 adults x $30 per = $120), so I ended up having to pay out of pocket and get reimbursed - had to do this at risk, since if I denied them there would be no reimbursement coming. It was also a struggle to get her to agree to the credit/background check, so we wasted a few days going back and forth. She didn't think I needed to do it since the ins company was paying, but I needed to show her it was credit AND background/criminal combined. She was then concerned that the credit check was going to lower her credit score - had to tell her that mysmartmove won't do that (nice perk of using it, I guess - will remember to tell future prospective tenants). She also got concerned about required lead paint disclosures and needed to talk through that.

Finally, I got stuck with having to run the lease thru 03 Jun due to some of the delays noted above, so there's a possibility I may lose rent for part of June if I can't find someone who wants a partial month.

Thankfully it will be around peak time as noted by @Duncan Taylor so maybe this won't end up being an issue.

I'll post back if I learn any other good stuff from this process.

Thanks all for the responses!

Right Duncan Taylor !! :) Just seemed a bit too good to be true...

We got a call from a big name insurance company who was trying to place a tenant who was displaced by a fire. The company guarantees rent for 3 months and they will do month to month thereafter if their home is still being repaired. I'm supposed to screen them as if they were regular tenant. Anyone ever heard of this or done this? This is my first rental property. Any particular questions you'd ask?

Hi

I talked to a potential applicant whose husband is paid hourly.

What documentation would you ask for from a potential renter who is paid hourly? (eg 1 month of recent paystubs, longer?) Or would you treat this applicant more like they were self-employed an ask for a copy of last year's tax return?

Also on the verification side, do you ask any different questions when calling employers who are paid hourly?

I guess it depends on what their job is to some extent, but I'm concerned that anyone can provide me a pay stub with a good week or two of income that might seem to over-inflate the actual income over a longer period.

Thanks in advance for your help

Update/conclusion:

Glad to report that in the end it was relatively painless. We had our RE agent contact seller's agent. Seller's agent explained situation to seller and she sent us a check in the mail. Issue solved.

Thanks again to all who pitched in to help.