All Forum Posts by: Tamara R.

My standard lease goes for 1 year, then converts to month to month. I am thinking about adding something in my lease that if another 12 month lease is not signed after the expiration of the first 12 month period, the month to month rate will be higher. Does anyone else do this and include the amount in the first lease the tenant signs? Any suggested wording? Also, how much more should the monthly rate be? All of my rents range from $1500-$1800 a month. I know some people think a month-to month lease is preferable, but I have a pretty good quality tenant pool and screen pretty well so have never had any issues. Any input would be appreciated.

Have any of you ever put together something that you give your tenants to help them "troubleshoot" issues that come up before calling for help?After getting a couple of calls from tenants for things like electrical outlets not working or a leak under the sink, etc., I thought it might be a good idea to put together a document that might tell them how to check out the obvious things. Obviously for the leak under the sink this would be something like "how to turn off the water" until the leak can be taken care of (to minimize damage) rather than asking them to troubleshoot.
If you don't have something like this, what would you include in a document like this if you were going to give it out?

Hi All:
I wanted to provide an update on this since I got a lot of replies and great advice. A realtor friend of mine suggested I not advertise the property for rent until around the first of the year, since there is so little activity around the holidays. That way it would appear to be a "fresh" listing. We ended up taking her advice and completing the work around December 19, then we put out ads on Craigslist, Military by Owner, and the MLS (zillow, trulia, etc.) with lots of pictures of the newly renovated property (turned out looking great) beginning on December 30. We also put out a sign in the yard—though the property is located on a quiet cul-de-sac at the very back of the community and doesn't get too much exposure to traffic. HOA only allows a sign on the property, so we couldn't put them elsewhere in the community. I also put a box on the sign with flyers advertising the property's price and features.

Surprisingly, most of the calls I got were from the sign (even though it was hard to see)—though most of those lost interest when I told them the price. We also decided to do a couple of Open Houses since we live 20 miles away, and for those we put signs up all over the community leading out to the main road (also put news of the open houses on our ads). Sunday between 1-4 turned out to be the best time for the Open Houses. We got lots of interested traffic using this method (more so than our ads), and ended up renting to a young couple who was living in the community with the wife’s parents. If it wasn’t for the Open House signs they never would have known about it.

The couple was interested in staying around for at least 5 years (for the school), so they signed a 5-year lease with built in 3% a year increases in exchange for a lower starting rent. Yes, I know some think anything more than month to month is insane and will scold me, but we felt pretty comfortable with them and their well-to-do parents cosigned and agreed to help them pay part of the rent. I would recommend doing Open Houses as an effective way to market your properties. We also liked that it was “casual,” and it allowed more time really talk to potential tenants in a way that didn’t sound like the Spanish Inquisition. I noticed they were more at ease and more likely to be themselves in this environment, so it allowed us to get to know them and judge their character. And of course we did the regular screening stuff as well. Lease was signed on January 20, so our property didn’t sit around all winter like I feared.

Thanks for all your great advice and suggestions.

Zubair:

I am in your area. Have you looked at properties in Baltimore, MD? About an hour drive from you, but doable. I don't invest there, but a contractor who works on our houses does and he has bought houses for $5K and up. Those are in rough neighborhoods, but you could probably find something in the $40K or less price range in a more desirable neighborhood that needs to be fixed up.

Sorry! I meant "residence"--not resdience.

Hubby and I are in the process of refinancing the loan on our resdience. Appraiser came by yesterday to appraise our house, and she mentioned how extremely busy she was--not with refinances but with new property purchases. I thought that was pretty unusual,especially for this time of the year. Maybe this is a good sign that the economy (or housing market at least) is picking up. Are you noticing a similar trend in your investment areas?

I don't have a ton of experience in this area, but I did just purchase a short sale property with owners still living there. A few weeks before closing, tenants' realtor mentioned she was having a hard time finding them a place to live and asked it they could stay on until they found a place. I didn't have anything in the contract specifying this, but I told her "no," because they would probably never leave. Luckily they found a place and moved out (along with their huge accumulation of stuff) the day before our walk through. I don't know if contract language is necessary, but you can refuse to close until everything (including tenants) is gone and make this very clear when contract is signed.

Michelle:

In my book, I would consider that a good tenant. I also have a tenant that pays 3-5 days late every time, but she always pays the $50 late fee, so I am OK with that.

Just FYI--your military tenant can set up direct debit to you right from his paycheck. We have a military tenant and get paid directly to our account on the 30th before rent is due. That way the "I forgot" excuse is not longer an issue.

Hi All:

I am fairly new to Bigger Pockets, though I have been lurking here for a while soaking in all the information. My husband and I currently have four rental properties and are hoping to purchase more in the future--though to be honest a lot of what I have read here is pretty frightening. To read a lot of the posts here, you would think that most tenants are terrible, and that they are out to destroy your property while remaining as long as they can rent free.

Just wondering what the experience is of the members here. What percentage of the tenants you have had would you classify as "bad?" What percentage left your property with more damage than the security deposit would pay for?

For myself, I would say it has been 50/50. However, when I started being more stringent with screening I have had all very good tenants.

Looking forward to your responses.

Thanks, Ann. As it turns out, I was having that problem with Craigslist and couldn't figure out why the ad wouldn't show up. Appreciate your advice.

Kevin: I posted an ad on rentals.com before and got no response. In the past I have gotten the most inquiries from Hotpads, the MLS and Military by Owner. In fact, I just did a search of the rentals.com site for the area my rental is located in, and the only thing that came up was apartment buildings. Maybe it depends on the area your rentals are located in. I agree with you on the newspapers--I have posted an ad in the Washington Post and got 0 inquiries.

George R.: My husband was the one who agreed to the custom paint colors for the kids bedrooms. Although I probably wouldn't agree to that in the future, it seemed to build some goodwill with the tenants, who had just lost their home in a shortsale. The kids were uprooted from their friends and school and choosing the color of their rooms seemed to help with the transition. Tenants were very greatful to us and have been excellent so far in the 1+ years we have been renting to them.

Thanks to everyone re. their advice and suggestions.