All Forum Posts by: Tim Miller

I see a lot of problems but Maryland had the 2x Rent = Deposit law for some time. The overwhelming majority of LL only charge 1 months rent for deposit. I have a major issue with First in application processing. When we have an opening, we can easily get 5 or 6 applications back in one day. I'm will not take the first one the just barely meets our requirements. I'm going to evaluate all of them at the same time and approve the best one based on our numbers.

No cause evict relocation assistance! WTF! If this becomes law in Maryland, I can guarantee we will require the full 2 months rent for deposit. 

I'm glad you found a possible great tenant on section 8. I do wish you the best with this.

For us, section 8 means it's hard to find that good tenant. But our main issue with this program is the Terms and Conditions that you must agree to. That's where the train comes off the tracks. List of "Never going to happen" below.

Here are a few of the Terms you must agree to: #3 & 4 alone stops us.

Here are just a few items in the Housing Assistance Payments Contract that keeps us from accepting section 8

1. The owner must give the PHA any information on rents charged by owner for other unit.

2. PHA shall not be obligated to pay any late payment if HUD determines that late payment by PHA is beyond the PHA's control.

3. HUD shall have full & free access to contract unit, premises, & all accounts & other records of the owner that are relevant to HAP Contract.

4. The owner must grant such access to computerized or other electronic records & to any computers, facilities & must provide any information or assistance needed to access the records.

5. PHA failure to pay the owner is not a violation of the lease. The owner may not terminate the tenancy for nonpayment.

6. Must give 90 days notice to vacate

As you can see there are a number of reason not to take section 8. We will not allow them full access to any of our computers, smart phones, office and so on.

Zillow.com I would say draws about 60 to 70% of tenants then it's Realtor.com and apartment.com. 

Looking over your ad, it looks great but you are over priced. But I also see there is over 370 available units for 1 & 2 bdrm upto 900 sqft. With this much competition, you have to stand out and your units don't. Don't take that the wrong way, your units look great! But you don't have anything to really make you stand out in this crowed field.

My advise is to go back to Apartment.com, Zillow & Realtor.com and use their maps. Look at the rentals around your place. What's their price, what do they offer, if they are similar in sq ft or bigger then your. You may see that you want to drop you price to match other's or drop $25 to $50 under. Good Luck

Most platforms are not going to be great at everything. They only good at most things. With that in mind, we use an all on one platform for the basic. Collect rent payment, maintenance request and just to monitor payments.

For lease signing we have always used eSign by Adobe, it's well worth the $120 a year cost.

For accounting and taxes, we're not relying on any platform. So Quickbooks is it and we have the software version and don't pay the yearly subscription.

So, use these platforms for what they are good at and fill in where needed.

This isn't an Innago problem, this is a tenant problem. As for Innago continuing to allow your tenant to pay by ACH, that is up to you to stop. As far as I know their is no platform that will stop a tenant from using their services. Not unless they are committing fraud.

As for taking a long time to get paid, that is Innago's policy. Once your tenant has a return payment, they will hold all future payments for 3 days. This is to see if the payment is good or not. It take about 6 months for them to go back to the single day payment. But if your tenant continues to bounce payments, the problem will continue.

It sounds like to need to get rid of this tenant. Good luck.

Welcome to the world of Credit Cards! First thing first, these platforms will never fight these charge-backs, disputes, whatever you want to call them.

You have to understand how credit card companies work and the whole dispute process. Visa has over 900 pages on how they deal with disputes. AmEx has just over 400 pages.

This one is really going to get you, anyone can dispute a credit card charge up to A YEAR after the charge was processed. Except for AmEx, they will only allow up to 6 months.

This is the risk you take when taking credit cards and working with these platforms. This and other reason are why we never allow our tenants to pay their rent with a credit card.

https://usa.visa.com/support/consumer/visa-rules.html

https://www.chargebackgurus.com/blog/visa-chargebacks

You didn't say if the house next door is "Owner" occupied or a "Rental" property like yours. Either way your tenants are unable to "Quite enjoyment" of their home. This is due to "Obnoxious" odors caused by the neighbors.

Owner occupied - talk to them and see if you can find a reasonable solution. If this fails, send them a letter stating they are denying your tenants right to "Quite enjoyment" of their home and you will seek legal action if it not corrected.

Rents - Talk to them and explain as if they were the owners by add the fact that you will contact their landlord if you can't come to a mutual understanding. All else fails, contact the landlord and ask for his/her help. Push comes to shove and you're getting nowhere with the LL, send a letter stating the issue and you have tried to work with them. But they must take action in order for your tenants rights to "Quite enjoyment" of their home. If not you will take legal action against them.

You may want to start looking for a good lawyer, not just for this but for any future issue(s) that may arise. Good Luck.

@Ryan Moody We require the carpets to be steamed clean, it's in our move out rules. Only because we make sure they are steamed clean before any tenant moves in.

My advise is just Google carpet cleaners, you'll find someone offering a $100 3 room deal. Check Stanly Steamers, they usually have some special for $100.