All Forum Posts by: Thomas B.

Is the broken tile inside the shelf area? If so it makes perfect sense as the shelf goes into the wall between studs. If you can not match the tile inside the shelf you may be able to find a complementary or accent tile for the small area. That being said it will cost more than the tenant thinks to do it right. Best of luck!

P.S. It should be the tenants responsibility to cover this but I might split the cost depending on the tenant.

If the tenant paid full rent for the month she only stayed a portion of (2 weeks) you're still not out any rent whether it was occupied or not. If she did not pay rent for the month she only stayed 2 weeks that's another matter and you should have started eviction the first possible day. 

I am missing something here. How are you out the 10 days of lost rent? Did the tenant pay rent for the month the moved out? If yes and the new tenant moved in on the first you're not out any rent. That sounds like a win to me.

I just recently started renting our vacation home through HomeAway and have been very happy with the results. I would recommend reading some of the posts on the HomeAway community page for tips and tricks. Communication is key to making it work well. As for the insurance, I would recommend a policy that allow shorter stays as that will help you fill the unit in the off peak season for less than the cost of a night's rental or so. I am looking at adding ring to our property now to guard against over occupancy issues and CC chargebacks. I also use a Schlage combination deadbolt for the front door so no keys are needed for the guest.

I think you should ask yourself why is a person going to pay higher than market rent for this property? Do the numbers work with market rent? If not what happens after the year is up and the tenant moves out on you? Or worse yet what if the person is "willing to pay above market rent" because they have bad credit (doesn't intend to pay), no verifiable income (can't pay), or a track record for trashing rentals? There are obviously other reasons for someone to pay above market rent that are not negative but there are few and far between. Neither the seller or the agent have to deal with the consequences of placing a poor tenant.

Signed, 

Possible Pessimist

I would say 80% of applicants are horror stories. It is up to you or your "manager" to screen the bad ones out but even at that you are going to have the 2% that are difficult. Once you have the property tenant screening is one of your most important jobs!

Mike F. @Mike F. 1) You have to take back control. Doing so means an about face on much of how you're interacting with this tenant. Stop texting her at once. Use controlling communications not convenient ones. 

Please tell me what you consider controlling communications? I find that text messages, as much as I hate them, provide a written record of conversations where sending a letter gets no response or a phone call that ends up as he said she said if it comes down to that. 

"If she says the dog is aggressive, I'll evict her. If she says the dog is not aggressive, I'll go in the house for the scheduled inspection. Of course I will have someone with me because I am frightened of dogs ... aggressive or not."

She is going to LIE or not respond at all. Then when you go in for the inspection you have a problem on your hands that is a lot more serious than a jerk tenant. You stated earlier the dog "barked/growled at me like he would have me for lunch" what's changed why would you push your luck?  

I would not send her a certified letter asking if her dog was aggressive. She already knows you have a problem with her and you are looking for an excuse to get her out. She will LIE! I would try to get her to admit in a casual text why you "can't" come in to fix X while she is out. If I were going to do anything before talking to a lawyer.