All Forum Posts by: Troy Zsofka

@Axel Ragnarsson - 

We own a house in Weare and our tenant lived there with his son and fiance.

Several years ago, the son murdered his father's fiance and then took his own life, in the house. The tenant, who happened to be a really good guy, actually chose to stay in the house but changed his mind a few months later and moved out. 

I was told that I did not have to disclose this to potential tenants; only to buyers when selling. I don't know how accurate that advice was, but I felt obligated to disclose to prospective tenants anyway out of simple principle.

I was surprised to find that, out of 11 showings, only 1 prospective tenant opted out because of the murder/suicide (I personally would have said thanks but no thanks, but apparently I am in the minority).

The tenants to whom I rented just asked me not to tell them which room it happened in. They ended up moving to TN at the end of their lease and I had the same experience when I leased it again. In fact, that time, I don't recall any prospects being bothered by it.

Last weekend, I attended an open house down the road from this property (I usually attend open houses near my holdings to get a better grasp on the values of my properties) and I mentioned it to the listing agent. She said that she has some experience with suicides in properties and feels that it does not adversely affect value. This was a welcome surprise to me. In fact, she went on to say that some people even seek that kind of thing out.

Anyway, this is all anecdotal, so even with my first-hand experience I would be apprehensive when considering purchasing such a property. However, if the price is right, it should mitigate any potential downside at exit, even if that realtor was incorrect and it does in fact slightly affect value.

Happy investing,

Troy

@Steve Y.

I have to respectfully disagree with @Andrew Pfleger for 2 reasons:

1) If you pay the tenant, you learn nothing; whereas, if you pay the attorney, you learn how to properly execute an eviction, and you gain insight into your property manager.

2) I feel strongly that each of us shares a communal duty to society, and that includes holding people accountable when we have the opportunity to do so. This holds true only more so within our smaller community of real estate investors, where we must look out for our common interests. Rewarding this tenant for being a dishonest cheat will only serve to incentivize more of the same behavior at the expense of her future landlords. I'm not looking to sound like I'm pontificating here, but it's your turn to step up and enforce what is right. Regardless, even if you only care to look out for your own interests, my first point above should be sufficient to coincidentally point you in the right direction.

Happy investing,

Troy

@Steve Y. - 

I am not an attorney, so do not take action based on my comments (seek your own legal counsel).

However, I have had several evictions over the years of owning and managing rentals in NH, and things have changed slightly over that time.

If the judge issued a judgement in the tenant's favor, there should have been some indication on it as to the reason. In NH, evictions for non-payment generally depend on whether or not the paperwork was filed correctly, and a judge only has the authority to issue something called a discretionary stay; whereby the tenant can stay for a certain period of time but must make weekly rent payments. If the tenant did not dispute that rent was not paid on time, and did not put rent in escrow pending completion of repairs, the case should not have been dismissed unless your paperwork was not in order. You say that your property manager did everything by the book. Is this because the property manager says so, or because you know for a fact that it was done correctly? Any misstep in the process, regardless of the tenant's actions, automatically results in dismissal. Based on the terminology you used, I'm concerned that your property manager is not aware of the current process. It is absolutely imperative in eviction filings that all of the i's be dotted and t's be crossed. For example, the 7 days may not include the date of service, nor the date court filing. If enough days are not provided in the notice, the case will be automatically dismissed. There are other examples as well.

Starting I believe this year, the Demand for Rent and Eviction Notice changed. The new format is required to be used. It is actually clearer language than the prior format.

I think it makes the most sense to have an attorney do the first one for you. I personally do not utilize legal counsel for eviction filings, but I am well-versed in the process and have never lost one. For the first one, it is worth the added expense to get a proper education. Better to pay an attorney for the education than to pay much more to the school of hard knocks and a professional tenant.

Unless something has changed, you have the option to file in the court jurisdiction where the property is located, OR in the jurisdiction where the landlord is located. So, theoretically, you could try again in the alternate jurisdiction (unless both are the same). However, if there is record of the first attempt, it may not please the court that you are trying a different jurisdiction in an effort to circumvent. Ask the attorney about this.

Good luck, and please post the outcome here so we can all be relieved when you get it done, and also perhaps learn something from your experience.

Again, disclaimer:

The above is not legal advice and you should seek the advice of a local attorney. The information provided is merely the opinion of a non-attorney and should not be relied upon to make any decisions.

Happy investing,

Troy

@Jesse Kozazcki

I think you might be confusing some terminology. I don't think you need to limit yourself to a buyer who is looking to move in.

Wholetailing typically means that you are listing the property on the MLS rather than wholesaling it off-market to an investor from your buyers list or network. It doesn't mean that the buyer has to be owner-occ.

Also, it generally means that you are closing on the property yourself and then reselling it, although some investors do list properties on the MLS that they haven't closed on, with the intention of a concurrent closing.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but based on your comment about setting the expectation that it may take a while to find a buyer, I'm thinking that you are looking to assign your interest. First of all, if this is the case, bravo for being transparent with the seller rather than leading them to believe that you are the cash buyer until the last minute. What I don't get is why you think you need to find an owner-occ buyer? If you got the property under contract at a discount, you should be able to assign it to an investor who wants to spruce it up and sell it or hold it as a rental.

Anyway, @Jessica Stevenson already gave you the best advice; which is to go the meeting and talk to buyers and other wholesalers about ways to get it done.

Happy investing,

Troy

This is going to be long, but certainly worth reading if you are considering any of these companies. Reading this may very well save you significant aggravation and money. I was hesitant to put in the time to document my experience, but I ultimately decided that it is our responsibility as members of this community to take the time to share our experiences in order to help each other avoid similar outcomes.

BSFF Gold Coaching: $1,397 on 6.26.18:

Lots of material provided and I thought it was fair for the price. I cannot speak to the actual “coaching” because I did not participate in the conference calls. I basically purchased the program to work through the online training modules as I could find time to do so, a couple hours here and there. I did not have the necessary time to fully dive in to get the most out of the coaching; therefore, I have nothing to complain about regarding the program, and again, the training modules are loaded with information and strategy.

YellowLetters.com: $1,841.92 on 3.28.19:

Series of 6 mail pieces to be sent to a tax delinquency list that my VA had sourced, scrubbed, and formatted. The final list was just under 500 names so I wasn't expecting a huge response. It was intended as a trial run so that we could implement our processes before increasing the list size substantially and spending some real money on direct mail.

4.15.19: James McCoy (with Yellow Letters, BSFF, CallText, who knows) tells me he didn’t get the data list. He then apparently checked his other email folders and found it. 1st mail piece went out 3 weeks after I had paid. I’m glad I followed up; otherwise, who knows how long the ball would have stayed dropped.

The first mail piece landed a few weeks later.

I then got to work with my VA to analyze local markets in order to determine which towns I wanted to focus on, to then purchase a list and greatly increase mail volume.

The plan was to start with around $2K/month (so a list of about 3,000 addresses or so). However, based on how things were going with CallText setup (this is their CRM and call/text/email platform), and the fact that 3 weeks went by after I paid for the mail campaign before they actually initiated the campaign and printed the 1st mailers, I figured I’d wait until the second piece arrived before dropping $12K on another 6-month campaign. I sure am glad I listened to my gut and hesitated.

3+ months went by and no second mail piece.

8.12.19: Emailed James McCoy asking to set up a 10-15 minute call with Michael Quarles. My plan was to address my concerns, gauge their reaction, and remain open to assurances and possibly continue working with CallText and YellowLetters. I don’t expect perfection. However, what I do expect is that a company will admit to and remedy its mistakes, and I also expect to feel that I’m being dealt with honestly and fairly, and that I can rely on the company moving forward.

8.19.19: No response to my email from a week prior. Emailed James again to follow up on the requested call with Michael.

8.20.19: Received email from Yellow Letters stating that the status of my order had changed to “Mailed”.

8.21.19: Still no response from James, other than the Yellow Letters email about status change which, unless incredibly coincidental, is suggestive that he received my email, realized I was aware that no additional mailers had gone out (or realized for the first time himself that no additional mailers had gone out), and then processed the second round. Left a voicemail at BuySellFixFlip requesting a call back. Also tried calling Yellow Letters. Got the voicemail greeting, but then a message saying that the mailbox is full. Bright red flag. Emailed James again asking if I should assume that he has no intention of returning my emails. He got back to me and said “Michael is out this week, but I can help”. Y’okay… I responded that next week would be fine. Followed up again on 8.27 and no response. Tried calling Yellow Letters again on 8.29 and same full voicemail as before. I also sent a message to Michael Quarles on BiggerPockets on 8.29.19. To date I have not received a response. On 9.11.19 I left a message for Michael Quarles (with someone who actually answered the phone at Yellow Letters). Have not received a call back.

On 10.2.19 (today) I tried calling Yellow Letters again, but received a recording that the number I dialed “is not permitted”, whatever that means. Maybe they blocked me. I also tried several times with my cell phone, and the call was immediately disconnected.

CallText: $1,188 to date ($99/month):

I subscribed to this CRM prior to sending any mailers because I wanted to get it set up to an extent prior to having to utilize it. I didn't mind paying the $99/month while my VA worked on getting it ready, because I figured that was a worthwhile investment; rather than risk losing potential prospects by not having a CRM ready to go (I get and appreciate the whole "imperfect action" thing, but I like to be at least somewhat prepared before launching something that requires significant capital outlay). They offer a service where they will actually set up the follow-up campaigns for you, for a fee of $2,500 if I remember correctly. I did consider this, but I chose to hand it to my VA because I felt that setting everything up from scratch would cause her to become very familiar with its capabilities and the possibilities of the software. Man am I glad I didn't throw $2,500 at that (again, I'm not 100% certain if I remember the price correctly; could have been $1,500).

My VA is very savvy when it comes to CRM and data management, but she had difficulty with ongoing glitches in the system, routinely canceled Q&A training calls (sometimes without even being notified that the trainings were not going on as scheduled), and a customer service team that would oftentimes not follow through with expectations they had set. They generally tried to return correspondence and spend time helping, but we got the impression that they were short-staffed and spread too thin (this is merely an inference, not a concrete observation). It was also indicated to my VA on more than one occasion that they routinely focus more effort on launching new features than on working out the kinks that already exist within the program. As an example of some of the difficulties, once my VA was able to get the automated email feature to work (after much frustration), they then kept coming even after she had cancelled the campaign and even removed the test email from the contacts. This is especially concerning since, once a certain number of emails per month is exceeded, additional charges start to accrue. The idea that once you have "cancelled" automated follow ups, they may still occur and accrue charges on your account, is very troubling.

Of course, the ultimate failure of any CRM is that if the mailers for which I paid are not being sent, there are no prospects to capture and manage with the CRM anyway…

Now, it’s important to understand that I am not concluding anything about Michael Quarles’ integrity. In fact, the main reason I chose his program was that he repeatedly espouses moral and ethical business practices on his podcast. One thing that bothers me about many wholesalers is that they advertise that they buy houses for cash when in fact they have no intention of doing anything other than assigning the contract. If unable to assign, they use a so-called “weasel-out clause” in their contract to back out. I find this to be disingenuous and unethical. Michael has said many times on his podcast that you should not put a house under contract if you have no means of fulfilling your commitment to the seller, and if you are unable to assign it, you should have a plan to complete the purchase. I agree. He also requires in his contract that the property must appraise significantly higher than the contract price, and the contract also discloses that he intends to make a huge profit. It is this level of honesty and transparency that drew me to his program in the first place. I don’t believe that one should have to mislead people in order to make a profit from doing business with them. From what I understood from listening to his podcast, Michael felt the same way.

So, I am not passing judgment on Michael's ethics or integrity. The fact that I did not receive what I paid for could very well be a result of incompetence rather than dishonesty. Perhaps Michael's staff simply dropped the ball, over and over. I know firsthand how difficult it can be to find quality employees, having had my share of them over the years. However, at the end of the day, when I pay for a product or a service and I don't receive it, the result is the same, and the underlying reason is largely irrelevant. Full voicemail systems, difficulty getting emails returned, a mailer going out 3 months late but coincidentally a day after I sent a second email following up… read into it what you will, but it doesn't really matter because, either way, I can't rely on a company that operates in this manner, intentionally or not. $4,426.92 spent so far between Michael's 3 companies, plus hundreds more on my VA's time, plus a fair amount of my own time. Perhaps my expectations are too high, but I feel that $4,426.92 should at least buy me a call back for a 10-15 minute conversation. Guess not…

I am initiating a dispute for the charges for the mailers, as well as the CallText subscription; which I have cancelled. I am not going to dispute the charge for the coaching because I got what I was expecting when I purchased it. I do wish I could recoup the money that I spent through my VA sourcing the tax-delinquency list (which everyone knows is time-sensitive) and setting up and troubleshooting CallText, but that is lost.

The bottom line is that I did not receive what I paid for from Yellow Letters, and my VA conveyed to me in great detail that CallText simply does not do what it claims, has serious functional issues, and has inadequate support. Furthermore, my endeavor to resolve this issue directly with Michael Quarles and his companies was met routinely and overtly with the decision to ignore my attempts to make contact.

It is my hope that this first-hand account of my experiences will be of benefit to anyone considering working with Michael’s companies, as well as to Michael and his team so that they can take action to improve. Of course, while I am not forming conclusions regarding Michael’s ethics and integrity, their blatant choice to ignore almost 2 months of my attempts at contact is rather suggestive in regards to their intentions, priorities, and character.

Happy investing,

Troy

@Joshua Tessier - 

John Zinck at The Lumber Barn in Bradford has a great line of cabinets called Contractor's Choice Foundations, and they'll deliver them to Manchester. There are other retailers in NH that have them as well, and my first kitchen with these cabinets was from East Coast Lumber, but I price shopped on subsequent orders and John's price was the best. I've done a bunch of kitchens with them to date.

It's easy to find well-priced cabinets, and these are no exception. However, not all cabinets are constructed equally (obviously), and these meet the basics (in my opinion) of a quality cabinet:

1) The boxes are plywood, NOT particle board.

2) The door rails and stiles, the drawer faces, and the fillers are solid wood (birch, maple, there may be other options), NOT veneer.

3) The rails and stiles are mortised, NOT mitered and stapled. This is the correct joinery if you want it to hold up.

4) The drawer boxes are dovetailed, NOT shiplap and screwed together. Again, this is the correct joinery.

5) They are soft-close. This is more of a necessity for rental properties. I have a long-term tenant (over 10 years) and replaced their kitchen last year because it wasn't replaced when we purchased the house and was falling apart. He told me that the soft close doors are really cool because the Grandma in the house can no longer slam them when she's mad at the kids. I was like "she used to do what?". It takes all kinds...

I spent years using RTA (ready to assemble) cabinets made in China. The price was great, but the quality not so much. They haven't held up as well as I would like in my rentals, and replacing cabinets and countertops is not something that I want to do more than once in a 5-10, or even 15 year hold. 

The ones from John are more expensive, but not that much, and once you factor in the time it takes to assemble the RTA's (whether it's your time, an employee's, or a contractor's), the vast majority of those savings are out the window anyway.

Man, as I'm typing this I feel like it kinda sounds salesy; I think because I just finished reading a bunch of promotional copy from a web hosting company I'm considering. Anyway, I don't work at Lumber Barn or the cabinet manufacturer, I just think their cabinets rock from a value for cost perspective.

Happy investing,

Troy

I'd be interested in a meetup as well.

The Keene area likely has a lot of investors who are underserved by other REIA opportunities, but the Upper Valley area (Claremont), with Lebanon close by, may as well. Pushing too far west might reduce attendance as you get closer to more rural areas.

I definitely recommend a location with a bar, because networking and cocktails have been paired successfully since the dawn of business itself.

@Imran Ahmed

As far as 35 Turnpike, there are others on BP who have more experience in small multi's.

I don't touch them, especially that old and in that type of location, for the specific reasons of tenant quality and turnover. I've had good long-term tenants because I'm doing single families that are renovated nicely; which allows me to hand-pick the best tenants. I also employ a rigorous and comprehensive screening process.

Scroll up and you'll see some comments from Ann Bellamy about the area. She is very experienced in small multi's.

I also don't see rents on the listing, so it's impossible to perform any meaningful initial financial analysis. If you can get the annual rents, divide by 2 to get a decent estimate of NOI, then divide by the purchase price to get Cap Rate (actually, add the cost to cure any must-do deferred maintenance to the purchase price first so that you're total investment is factored into the Cap Rate calc). If it still looks good, get an actual T-12 to really nail down NOI (proven through tax returns if you choose to move forward, of course). I wouldn't buy a 5 unit in that type of market at this point of the cycle unless I could get north of a 12-Cap on amount invested. Even then, unless the renovations would increase rents and value beyond that, I wouldn't touch it. Of course I wouldn't touch it anyway because it's a 5-unit. Furthermore I wouldn't touch it because I'm no longer considering doing business in Jaffrey. Oh, also, search online for rental comps to make sure the rents are reasonable and you're not inheriting above market rents that would suggest extra low tenant quality (desperate tenants to whom no one will rent will pay inflated rents just to get into a place).

As far as dealing with Jaffrey, the building inspector is horrendous at following through with what he says he's going to do. He would say that he may want something, but has to check the code, and that he'll email his decision once he researches it, and then not email me, even after I've followed up. This happened multiple times. It took several weeks after the finish inspection to get a final list of his demands (which ended up being almost insignificant), and only came after I sent him a final email with a pointed account, with dates, of my attempts to remind him to get it to me. His voicemail recording this spring referenced that the date was last October and he'd be out of the office today. Setting up a date-specific voicemail greeting and then not changing it for 6 months is a window into how this guy operates overall. All-in-all, even though there were no code-related issues with the renovation except for a couple receptacles that tested faults and were then fixed, his disorganization and discourtesy made things much more difficult than necessary. He also likes to walk around making judgmental grunting noises but then not say what he's looking at, or bring something up that is clearly neither a code violation nor even the slightest concern, and then out of the grace of his highness, inform you that he's going to let it slide.

As far as the tax collector, a little while after closing, I received a water bill for over $1,000 with interest. I was perplexed since I had just had the water turned on, and was informed that the outstanding charges went back years, and the interest had continued to accrue over that time. Naturally, I asked why it hadn't been included on the settlement statement to be paid current by the seller. She told me that my title attorney had called to ask about any pending tax liens, but did not specifically ask about water, and he didn't find it on title because they don't place an actual lien on the property (you know, a lien, the accepted process by which government entities as well as private companies make it known that they are owed an amount so that title doesn't transfer without it being settled). When I asked why she hadn't told him about the water bill when he called about the taxes, she said that he didn't tell her the property was being sold, so she had no way of knowing, and that he, again, didn't ask specifically about water (of course, I'm not sure why a title attorney would be calling to ask about pending tax liens if the property wasn't being sold...) To my title attorney's credit, even though it was clear who was at fault, he took responsibility and paid me for the water charges because he hadn't asked about the water specifically because the listing agent had erroneously listed it as private well. However, since I value him as a strategic member of my team, I told him I would still do what I could to have it reduced, and then reimburse him any amount that I was able to recover. I asked the tax collector what my options were, since it was clearly an oversight and I had done nothing to accrue the charges. She said that I could file an abatement request for the next select meeting. She was very pleasant and offered to help in any way she could, including sending me the abatement form and submitting it on my behalf for consideration at the meeting. I filled out the form, sent it back to her, and asked if I should attend the meeting personally. She abruptly said no, that the abatement application would stand as my request, and that she would submit it personally and see what she could do to get it approved, or at least the interest (which was substantial after all of the years that had gone by before I even owned the property). A few weeks later, I received a notice in the mail that my request had been denied. No explanation, just a denial. Curious, I looked up the meeting minutes to see what reasons, if any, had been determined. To my surprise, it was the only item on the docket that had no notes of discussion whatsoever, just a line item referencing my abatement request and DENIED in bold print. Still curious, I called the selectmen's office and spoke with a very nice and helpful lady who, also surprised that neither the letter nor the minutes contained any information other than the denial, put me on hold and pulled the internal notes used to generate the minutes. From them, she was able to explain that the tax collector (yes, the one who had represented herself as on my side and urged me not to attend the meeting), had presented the abatement request, along with her personal recommendation to the board that it be denied. Not sure on her motive to convince me that she was on my side only to then represent the opposite of my interests. Perhaps she realized she had dropped the ball immensely and wanted to prevent me from making too much of a stink, so she created a situation in which she could retain control. I don't know, I'm just speculating. What I do know is that to manipulate someone by telling them you will represent their interests, and then to not only fail to do so but to do the exact opposite, is textbook dishonesty and deceit. Interestingly enough, I recently received a water bill for that property for $5.66, even though it was sold. So, looks like even though they included the water proration on the ALTA this time, they still managed to screw it up.

I realize that many people will look down upon my decision to share negative comments about others, since we seem to live in a world where exposing wrong-doing is somehow considered wrong in itself. However, I feel it my duty as a member of the investor community to take the time to warn others of experiences like this, even though I stand to gain nothing from doing so. At the end of the day, this experience only cost me time, no actual money, but I believe strongly that incompetence and dishonesty should be called out at every turn; especially when involving public service employees.

Happy investing,

Troy

@Imran Ahmed - 

I re-leased that property in October 2016 at $1,450 per month shortly after this thread was started.

About a year and a half later, the tenant expressed interest in purchasing it, and we closed in August 2018.

We sell a house or two to tenants each year, and we discount them by 5% (what we would pay in listing commissions) and 2 months rent (what we would expect to have for vacancy while it is listed and sold) since we don't incur these costs when a tenant purchases the house. They get a great deal and we walk away with more or less the same as we would if we listed it on the MLS vacant, and we don't have to repaint or make minor repairs since they're already living there. Furthermore, if it falls through, we still have a tenant in place paying rent.

In this case, I dropped another $500 for misc. minor repairs. So, we started at a list price of $195K, dropped the 5%, 2 months rent, and $500 to arrive at a purchase price of $181,850 net of seller concessions, and our final capital gain (including depreciation recapture) was just under $120K; which we deferred until 2026 through reinvestment in a QOZ. Overall it was a good investment with annual cash flows between $7K and $10K and a solid forced equity through renovation as well as appreciation during the hold period. We didn't use leverage, so we had about $80K in cash tied up for the better part of 6 years (minus cash flows), but we realized an average annual return on investment of over 32%, and an IRR of 25%.

I purchased another in Jaffrey right around the corner from that one last year and flipped it. We realized a gain of around $35K. The main difference between the two being timing, since we paid much more for it than we would have back in 2011 when we bought the other; so our only source of spread was through renovation (no significant appreciation). It also needed significantly more work, and the septic, plumbing, heating, and electrical drove up the renovation costs by an additional $30K themselves. It was an online auction that got bid up between me and one other investor, so I knew the profit was going to be tighter when I worked out my max bid, but with less inventory and more investor appetite, I knew that a $30-40K profit on a flip in that price range was to be expected. It's not 2009-2012 anymore. 

Metrically, we realized very similar internal rates of returns with both of these projects. However, we made significantly more money on the first, and we enjoyed that IRR over 6 years of passive investment; so it was a much better investment in regards to total performance.

While both investments were profitable, I will never invest in Jaffrey NH again. The experience on the second project was unacceptable from a municipal governance perspective. The current building inspector is a beacon of unprofessionalism and disorganization, and the tax collector is straight-up dishonest and deceitful. Integrity is important to me, and regardless of how good of a deal might be brought to my attention in Jaffrey, I will not be purchasing and renovating another one of their distressed properties in the future. That said, I think that the market in the area is strong given it's vicinity to the MA border; so I would absolutely consider investments in neighboring towns.

Happy investing,

Troy

@Eric Monkewicz -

@Clifford Paul offers solid advice that it is better to charge something non-refundable. However, in NH it would be wiser to add to the monthly rent rather than charge an upfront fee.

@Matt Lefebvre is correct that the security deposit may not exceed 1 month's rent.

But can you charge a pet deposit if you have your heart set on it? Sure, you can charge a pet deposit. You can also charge a mailbox deposit, an appliance deposit, heck you can even charge a lightbulb deposit if it floats your boat. Charge as many as you like; just make sure that they don't total more than 1 month's rent. However, it's most practical to charge 1 month's rent as security without limiting it by specifying what it covers. It can be used to offset any debts owed to landlord by tenant stemming from the tenancy. There is no advantage whatsoever to earmarking a security deposit.

For pets, we charge $25/month per pet. We increase the rent by that amount from lease commencement. We do not call it pet rent, and we do not remove it if the pet dies, moves out, or subsequently becomes a service animal or emotional support animal. We explain that it does not cover damages caused by the pet, and that the security deposit will be withheld for such damages. For example, if the rent is $1,275 and they have a dog and a cat, we explain that we will rent to them and accept their pets at a rental rate of $1,325. Keeps it simple down the line. 

We do not allow cats that have not been fixed, and we do not allow cats that go outdoors in the more populated areas where fleas may exist, because it is our understanding that NH makes it extremely difficult to charge a tenant for insect infestations that they caused, even though our lease states that they will be responsible for the expense of remediation of any infestations that occur during their tenancy.

We require the following for dogs:

1) No dogs under 1 year old. (There are very few things in this world that I like more than puppies, but they tend to eat houses.)

2) All dogs under 3 years old must get a certificate of completion for basic obedience training (puppy school) within 6 months of move-in. (The kind of person who is going to raise the kind of dog that you want living in your property is not going to have a problem with this).

3) Tenant must carry $500K coverage per occurrence for the liability portion of their renters insurance, and must name landlord as "additional insured". (Tenants without dogs carry $300K liability coverage. The difference in annual premium is negligible.)

4) Tenant may not obtain additional pets without the approval and written consent of landlord. (Naturally, if they obtain additional pets of which we approve, rent goes up another $25).

This has worked well for us, and the additional rent that we collect from the $25/pet amounts to several thousand dollars per year.

Oh yeah, by the way: The above is not legal advice and you should seek the advice of a local attorney. The information provided is merely the opinion of a non-attorney and should not be relied upon to make any decisions.

Happy investing,

Troy