All Forum Posts by: Walt Dockery

My tenant rented sight unseen. She already lived in the general area but was out of town for work, she knew the area and most importantly knew she wanted the school district (in the case of my rental school district is one of the biggest selling points). 

She had a close family friend come over and look, who facetimed her and walked through the house. The friend seemed to be knowledgeable about real estate and asked a lot of questions and loved the house. 

I had one other prospect who wasn't local who looked online and called me. Interestingly out of ~30 or so leads the two who weren't local seemed to be two of the more put together and seemed to know exactly what they wanted. Feel them out on the phone and ideally they have a friend or family nearby who can look.  

There was just a thread on this, the general consensus was they are pretty worthless, and this echoes my own experience where like you a realtor bought it. 

Generally speaking, insurance is not worth it for smaller items. Furthermore when something breaks I want to call my own people and have the repair done my way.  I have no interest in dealing with a home warranty company and take the repair people they use esp for something relatively minor which is pretty much all they cover. 

I don't understand the question. Did the seller not give you a key at closing?  If so (that's weird) ask a tenant to copy theirs. 

It's always a good to change the locks when you buy a property as you don't know who has keys to it. But if you want the current tenants to move out, I'd wait and change the locks after so you don't have to do it twice. 

NYC is the standard on how landlords should operate?  I've heard countless horror stories from renters in NYC about how landlords operate up there, that landlords can get away with it I imagine is largely due to immoral government overreach distorting the free market. No thanks. 

I would chalk it up as a learning experience and not list w/ an agent not pay a commission to a tenants agent in the future. There is an inherent conflict of interest IMO - the agents are motivated to find 'a' tenant, they have little to no motivation to screen for a good tenant. 

this is a potential renter correct?  Unless desperate I would say sorry, this is the lease I use can agree to it or I'll rent to someone else. 

If it's that material to you offer $1200 less than you otherwise would. 

The damage itself is fairly normal for a large dog.  To me the bigger issue is they didn't get approval for the dog.  I agree I'd get them refinished and have them pay for it. 

Might want to try one of the financing category forums?

Had one at my first house (came with it), as others have said they aren't worth much and for the most part don't cover anything big.  One example I was given was if there's a plumbing leak, the home warranty will pay to fix the pipe but not the water damage.  What they do cover, they still charge a fee for a service call and send their choice of service/repair technician whereas I would prefer to use my own people or someone recommended by someone I trust, not just whoever has the contract with the warranty company. 

As a general rule, I only insure things where there would be catastrophic financial loss in the event something happened (ie homeowners insurance for major fire or hurricane damage or a lawsuit) and I generally carry high deductibles.  Insurance for small stuff, like a broken dishwasher, isn't worth it IMO unless it's free or nearly free. Insurance companies make money, they charge premiums greater than the expected payout, I strongly prefer to carry a large reserve fund and cover small-medium repairs out of pocket.