All Forum Posts by: Timmi Ryerson

Ok my second post to your situation but I like people who are willing to take a chance and get into a great business, like real estate investing.  You said that you have "lurked" around reading these kinds of posts for awhile before jumping in.  So do not take this as a criticism but one of the topics I see is that when you purchase a property you have the seller give the tenant notice to vacate before you sign the paperwork.  There are several reasons for that.  

1.  You need to do an inspection of the property before you buy.  It is wise to have an experienced contractor look at the foundation, the pluming and heating systems, the electrical system and the general condition of the structure.  

2.While that is being done you can assess the inside and see what the condition of the fixtures and carpets, floors, windows etc.  That way when you sign the paperwork to close you know what you can expect to have to spend to bring the property up to date and make it rentable.

3. Using this criteria you will likely not have too many surprises about any costs that are incurred.  In the way you have done this, when this tenant moves out you may be faced with having to replace carpet or flooring, painting maybe the whole inside, plumbing fixture repair and wall repair.  You could incure thousands in expenses before you can put a tenant in who will honor your lease.

It is very possible that this tenant has been a royal pain for the seller who just did not disclose to you the issues.  Now that the lesson has been learned, hopefully your next purchase will be a better flow for you.  Remember that if you find issues at inspection that need repair, you can negotiate the selling price accordingly.  I also recommend that you use a full service software to manage. It will cost you around $20 per month but it is the interface between you and your tenant that makes you look professional.  All communications can be esigned as well to make them legal and enforceable.  Best of luck to you.

The biggest mistake I see new landlords make is trying to be a friend to their tenant.  You are not their friend.  You should always be polite but this is strictly a business relationship.  They pay you rent and you let them use your property to live in.  No rent out they go.  If I have an issue with late rent, on the 3rd day I send them (through my software that links to their account portal) a 3 day notice to pay or vacate.  If they still do not pay, I file the paperwork for eviction. 

In my lease agreement I explain that if I am required to file for eviction, all costs will be born by the tenant.  That includes the cost of service and filing fees etc.  If they pay rent but it happens again, I give them a 30 day notice to vacate.  In this case, I would include the 30 day notice to vacate with the eviction papers so if they pay rent, they have already been told to move out  Now do NOT back down.  Kick them out!!  and in the mean time, (hopefully you are using software that has easy to use webfyers) advertise for a new tenant.  

You can expect that they will leave the property in poor repair.  So be prepared to do the work by scheduling the people you will need early so you can make the "turn" quickly.  If you can get in to do a preliminary inspection of the condition of the property, do so and take photos.  If there is any destruction by an angry tenant on move out, you will have proof.

 Be sure to use tenant screening for the new applicants.  That should also be easily available in the software you use for managing your property.  Just start with people who show enough income to easily pay your rent every month. (usually about 1/3 of their monthly income)

I use automated rent collection in Smart Property Systems.  It does all of the accounting as well.  Tenants can use credit cards or checking or debit cards to pay.  They love it.

If the place is really dirty you can call the tenant's account manager with section 8 and ask them to get involved.  They will do the inspection and are pretty strict with their tenants if the place is not clean.  If it was me, I would follow the advice of the others and get rid of this tenant.  You seem to want to "parent or take care" of your tenants.  That is a losing personality trait for owners who manage their own properties.  I also recommend that you get a property management company to manage. You will be more profitable when you have people who can treat the tenant management relationship as a business relationship.  If you end up in court over any of this, I agree with Mary Jay.  Your case is not good unless you can show hording or tenant culpability with failing to change the filter which caused the damage. So save the paperwork that you got from the AC company which said that the filter was dirty.  If the roof leak went unreported for a long time causing mold and wall damage you can also get out of any issue there if your lease states that all repairs need to be reported immediately. Otherwise you will be considered a lax landlord for not repairing the roof earlier.  

Ronald Rohde   It does exist.  And it is very inexpensive to use.  Smart Property Systems allows and owner to assign properties to an employee or associate.  It tracks all of the entries that the associate does on the dashboard.  It is automated so saves a lot of time.

If you look up my company, you will see that we have all of this.  The accounting system allows you to keep track of costs like mortgage payments and amortization with insurance and taxes as well as part of the asset management.  I cannot tell you the name of my company because it is considered advertising.  But you don't have to build your own.

I use software that is specifically designed for property management. It tracks just what I need...my expenses in categories for reports and my cams etc.  It is better than anything I have found.

We have this being built into our software for property management....

I use Smart Property Systems to collect rents, automate accounting and basically automate my management process.

Smart Property Systems.  Has all features needed.  Easy to learn and use.  Affordable.  Great tenant portals.