All Forum Posts by: Jeff Takle

I'm in the process right now, actually. very difficult because they've been citing the current lease when the terms serve them, and ignoring it when they don't.

Quick synopsis - doing a lead paint removal program with HUD that imposes rent restrictions so I have to cut their rent by $200/month. To compensate, i need to cut costs and one of those is the free internet access that I include in every rental. My explanation is that I'm losing money on this unit now and have to stop the bleeding.

You can agree with my assessment or not; it's not necessary to analyze their response. Tenants said no. They'd rather have the free Internet than go through the lead paint removal process. They have a 1.5 year old and another baby on the way. So, what I heard from them was:

1) i'd rather surf the Internet than protect my children from a dangerous, known hazard that you are trying to eliminate.

2) I'd rather pay $200 more a month and get "free" internet that costs $50/mo. I'd prefer to go in the hole by $150/mo.

Huh? A lot of this is certainly on me and my personality, but I've never successfully negotiated with a tenant mid-stream. They have nothing at stake in the property, don't really care about its long term viability or whether it goes into foreclosure...they're very short term thinkers and only want all wins in their corner.

Can't recommend it. The time to negotiate, I think, is at turnover or renewal.

Can't resist and just have to chime in...

Brendan and Mike, hi I'm Jeff. i...eh...ALSO run a property management software company in...well...Boston. Go figure.

Had lunch a few weeks ago with Michael Montiero over at Buildium as well. It seems like it would be good press, good education, and good times if we did a get-together. Could video / audio the highlights and provide to BP?

(did I just invite myself to somebody else's dinner?)
:-)

Having done shift work myself and waking up ~4am in the Marines, it IS annoying to have people partying until midnight on a Friday.

But, part of that comes with living in a city near other people and can't be helped. Written policies clarify expectations and reduce the number of ridiculous tenant requests you get as a landlord.

Oh, also forgot. On the landlord noise complaint email address you provide, set an auto-responder that attaches a copy of your noise policy. This generally kills 50% of the problems.

A major part of every conflict is mis-communication...or basically not everyone is on the same page.

If you don't have noise policies written in your lease, now is a great time to write some up. Set quiet hours. Describe exactly what should happen and in what order, for example:

1. First, check to see if the offender is violating our Noise Policy. if so,

2. Please notify the landlord via this email ([email protected]) if you have concerns about noise.

3. At your discretion, I encourage you to contact the police if the offender is violating the noise policy. Without official police transcripts, we as landlord have limited remedy. Please notify your local police office and provide complete information.

4. If these steps are taken, we will contact the offender and attempt to remedy the situation. If no resolution is possible, the offender will be evicted or penalized per their individual lease terms, under the Noise Policy and right of quiet enjoyment.

Write up a 1-page Noise Policy and send it to every one of your tenants. The offender may have no idea they're bothering someone else and most complaining tenants are too chicken to confront offenders themselves.

Put policies in place, make sure everyone has them, and then don't offer to become the babysitter of neighbor disputes.

If it's your first rental, then I strongly recommend managing it yourself for a while. Otherwise, it's hard to know what you should pay for, or whether your should engage, a property management company that will generally take 8%-10% of your revenues.

In addition to finding a good book - Nolo's got great ones, and Jeffrey Taylor's Landlording Guide is fantastic but more comprehensive - I'd also recommend looking at property management software suites.

There are several that are really designed to help new landlords and bridges the gap between "I'm totally new and have no idea what to do" and giving away the majority of your cash flows to a property management company.

BP has a page that shows reviews and gives you some options to consider (my company is one of them, but each on BP's list is good and offers something different).

http://www.biggerpockets.com/online-property-management-software.html

My estimate is that there are now around 100,000 small landlords using this kind of software to get started.

Trying to chime in with a different perspective...

As a big lover of well-trained dogs, I have absolutely NO concerns about a dog that passes the comprehensive behavior training a seeing eye dog gets. There is a much better chance that the tenant will chew something or go to the bathroom on the floor than the dog will.

If the risk is less, there's less reason to attempt to offset with a deposit. And, my understanding is that fair housing wouldn't allow you to charge a fee, even if your state allows pet fees/deposits.

I wouldn't touch that fee/deposit with a 10 foot pole.

Jeff

I stopped giving gifts. You give gifts to friends, not business partners. I stay with and refer business partners not because they gave you a box of chocolates but because they believe in your service. They like having you as a landlord...not as a "friend" but as a landlord.

If you fix maintenance problems quickly, give them payment options they want (credit card, auto recurring payments), you treat them with dignity, and you check in to see that they're getting what they want out of the property, they'll stay. As long as you're charging market rents and not screwing them, that's your business proposition.

It may not seem like much money but $25 * 10 tenants equals one dishwasher you could have replaced...5 screen doors...6 months of water...you get the idea.

I hope I don't sound too cold, but I've never gotten a free $25 box of chocolates from the Ford Motor Company for buying their car...and if I did, it wouldn't make the slightest impact on my next car purchase. Homes and cars are complex purchases that weigh heavy on buyers...they're not influence significantly by a gift card to the grocery store.

You can get Nolo's book "How to Form an LLC" from the library for free. It's clear and walks you through every piece.

If it's a single-member LLC (just you) then you don't need to pay anyone for help since there's no need to worry about the Operating Agreement...it would just be an agreement with yourself.

The only thing worth paying someone else for is the Operating Agreement if there are more than 1 member/manager in order to clarify the roles of partners.

I've started several LLCs myself and have given an LLC workshop at Babson College to MBAs where we started over 20 more LLCs. Once you know the process (or read it in Nolo's book or similar), it's incredibly easy and quick. Here's the link to the next workshop in February 2009 if you're in the Boston area: http://www.babsoneclub.com/events/

Hey, cool site. Neat tool.

I've had rentals in multiple states for years. It comes with headaches, for sure. But, I live in the Boston area and you can't buy a rental that cash flows if it has fewer than about 12 units, which costs $1m+ in this area.

I'm able to buy cheap properties that perform by looking on a wider scope. I self-manage all of them using our system (there are other software platforms as well) and a network of maintenance professionals.

I take an annual trip to all property sites or on extreme exception, e.g. hurricane in 2004 put a tree through the roof of a SFH so i flew down for that. Even with travel expenses (tax deductible) I saved boatloads on mgmt expenses and I enjoy the job as I've created it.